The Transformers | DVD Review

The Mid-80s was a golden age for cartoon violence. Afterschool afternoons were filled with G.I. Joe’s endless war against Cobra and Optimus Prime’s battle against the Energon-thirsty Megatron in The Transfomers. For all the boys who skimmed through their homework and sat patiently through Gem and the Holograms to get their giant robot fix, the idea of a big budget, live-action Transformers film sent our minds reeling.

Bay had a lot to live up to. Not only did the original series have a passionate and dedicated fan base, but the animated feature film released theatrically in 1986, that wasn’t afraid to kill off longstanding main characters including Prime within the films first half hour, is revered as a benchmark for the franchise.

Reaction to producer Steven Spielberg’s appointment of Michael bay as the film’s director was mixed at best. The reaction to leaked concept art showing radical changes in the new designs of the robots, was not. The backlash was instantaneous and brutal with chat rooms and talkbacks screaming (well… typing everything in CAPS) “DAMN YOU MICHAEL BAY”, “FLAMES ON OPTIMUS = NIPPLES ON THE BATSUIT!” and “TINO!: Transformers In Name Only. “

Expectations were expectedly low. This is, until Bay released the first trailer for the film showing the scale of the robots, snippets of transformations (with a very important nod to the original transformation sounds from the animated series), Bay’s trademark ‘SPLOSIONS, and an incredible clip of Optimus Prime taking on Bone Crusher in the middle of a busy freeway, scattering a flaming bus in the process. Suddenly the criticism lightened and hope was renewed.
The film looked huge, action packed and, most importantly to fans, serious. The second most consistent complaint regarding films made from pre-existing fringe-genre properties like Tranformers, is that the material is not taken seriously. The number one complaint being faithfulness to the original iteration. By the time the film hit theaters, Bay had delivered on neither of these. The story of an extra-terrestrial, warring species of organic robots divided by those who change into cars and those who change into planes, fighting over the existence of the human race and the earth’s natural resources, became a story about a boy and his first car that just so happens to be a robot from outer space.

The humans got most of the screen time and the only Transformer who’s character got somewhat fleshed out was Optimus Prime. There were dogs peeing on robots and robots peeing (lubricating) on government special agents. The climactic battle scene was so frenetic and the over-designed and mostly grayish-silvery robots – barley indistinguishable from one another, made it hard for the audience to make heads or tails of what who was winning and who was being torn in two.

The faithful fans were not happy. But that didn’t matter. The film is big, loud, dumb entertainment and it was a huge success raking in enough receipts to earn the record for the biggest opening week for a NON-sequel with $152.5 million. It also became the fastest selling DVD of 2007. Bay pulled a neat trick on everyone. He updated an old idea for a new toy buying generation, whilst keeping enough elements of the original to peak the curiosity of the existing fan base. And he got the all to buy tickets. You might not agree with it, but it works. And that’s probably the best mindset for seeing any Michael Bay film. It might be ridiculous and silly and frustrating… but it works. And it’s got ‘SPLOSIONS!!!!


Disc 1:

This is the type of film that Blu-Ray was made for. The image quality is crisp and detailed without the jarring, Stepfordwife-ish “realism” of some HD. Though a lot of the films high-contrast scenes come across as a little too dark. But the sound is where this disk really shines. The beautifully mixed and lush, uncompressed 5.1 surround sound is a marvel and plays a huge role in the film entertainment value.

Directors Commentary:
Michael Bay’s passion for the physical-technical aspect of filmmaking is really on display in his commentary (and throughout the special features) as well as his healthy ego. Equal parts anecdotal and informative it does offer a few interesting tidbits such as his feelings toward the fan reaction to designs, pushing ILM to go father and not wanting to shoot in Canada. If this is the last feature that you check out you will notice some material recycled from other extras, but that is to be expected when you are given so much additional bang for your buck.

Transformers Heads-up Display:
The HUD is a feature similar to what was seen on the first Spider-man DVD a few years ago with MTV inspired text pop-ups backed by lower thirds appearing sporadically during the film that give provide information or background story about something that is going on on-screen. The Blu-ray version of this takes it a huge step further by including picture-in-picture video of interviews with various production heads and actors giving referential anecdotes about the current scene, behind-the-scenes clips from the filming of the scene and even pre-prod animatics showing the early stages of the effects and action layouts. This is a really entertaining and informative feature providing an incredible wealth of knowledge, but be prepared to read quickly as the text boxes come and go a rapid pace. The only real issue with this feature us that the picture-in-picture videos, cutting out the film’s audio to make the clips audible, suffers from bad sound mixing as the volume drops dramatically. You’ll find yourself riding the volume buttons on your remote each time they start and stop, but this is a minor annoyance.

BD Live:
This is probably the least useful or interesting extra on the disc and comes off as more than just a little gimmicky. The BD Live feature allows you to download a alternate menu themes (Bumblebee, Optimus and Megatron) and onscreen displays that give you video game inspired “health meters” for each Transformer that diminish as they get beaten up in the film and needless, though occasionally humorous, back-story on characters like the East Indian phone operator with 10 seconds of screen time. At times it’s cute and funny, but other times you’ll have the sense that the tongue is planted so firmly in cheek that it may break the skin.

Disc 2:

The second disc offers a real comprehensive look at just about every aspect involved in the making of this film divided smartly into three chaptered sections.

Our World:
Focuses mostly on the areas of production dealing with the actors. Including the casting decisions, interviews with the actors, In-studio recording, behind the scenes footage and stunts. This is typical special feature fare and if you’ve already watched the film with the HUD turned on then you’ll notice a fair amount of recycling. This may have been better served if more time was spent on Peter Cullen and getting feedback from him on how he felt about the evolution of Optimus Prime (who was killed off early in the 1986 animated theatrical) from his beginnings in the 80’s to what he has become under Michael Bay.

Their War:
Is the more interesting of the sections, dealing mainly with the logistics of executing huge scale practical effects and being able to marry that with what will be generated by computer later on.

There’s also a detailed account of Michael Bay’s relationship with the U.S. military and his ability to get unheard of access to previously classified vehicles (The F-22 fighter jet was essentially revealed to the public through this movie) and restricted locations (The Pentagon).

Also included in this section is an explanation of the reasoning behind the decision on the much maligned character designs. What’s refreshing about this is that they basically, an unapologetically, come right out and say that GMC offered the best deal and that’s what they went with.

More Than Meets the Eye:
There is a script-to-screen breakdown of the Scorpinok attack scene. This is a scene that Bay, when he saw the animatic, decided was “definitely going in the trailer”. They cover in detail the process from the design of the robot and how it would function in the real world – to the practical effects use on set that could have seriously injured the actors (which Bay seems to find amusing) to the final compositing.

Also included under this heading is the hidden gem of the special features. A scored, and lightly choreographed, montage of the concept work for the film. Concept art is usually a throw in when it comes to DVD extras, but this was actually quite beautiful done. If the final film looked as good as the art work, it would have been a huge hit.

After you’ve made it through the hours of special features you’ll find yourself with a whole new respect for Bay. Whether you’re a fan of his films or not there is absolutely no doubt that this man direct action like nobody else. The scale of this film is enormous and some of the effects put his cast and crew, including him, in peril, but he at no point ever shows a dent in his confidence. He’s brash, bold, arrogant, and gives the actors no quarter, but he is also competent, intelligent, knowledgeable and gets what he wants on screen. If he ever gets his hands on a really good script, he’s going to make an amazing film someday.

Bay pulled a neat trick on everyone. He updated an old idea for a new toy buying generation, whilst keeping enough elements of the original to peak the curiosity of the existing fan base. And he got the all to buy tickets.

You might not agree with it, but it works. And that’s probably the best mindset for seeing any Michael Bay film.

It might be ridiculous and silly and frustrating… but it works.

And it’s got ‘SPLOSIONS!!!!

Movie rating – 2.5

Disc Rating – 4.5