Deep in space, an intergalactic civil war has been fought for thousands of years between the Autobots and evil Decepticons over the source of their power, the Cube. This all-powerful Cube has been hidden on Earth for hundreds of years and the alien robots are coming to get it back.
Unknown to him, Sam Witwicky owns the only known map of the Cube's location - a pair of glasses that belonged to his great-great-grandfather, an explorer that stumbled across the frozen leader of the Decepticons (Megatron) while exploring the arctic circle. When he accidently initiated some of Megatron's systems, a code was imprinted on his glasses. Now, both the Autobots and the Decepticons are trying to track Sam down in order to find the Cube.
It's a good fun action movie; clearly a Michael Bay movie although that's not necessarily a bad thing. The plot, although fairly straightforward, nonetheless has many threads that all need tying up; hence the long run-time. The visual effects, while very well done, are presented in such a way that it's actually quite difficult to tell what's happening at times; especially in the later fights between some of the robots - there are lots of tight shots of the action, which makes it tricky to ascertain which metal bits belong to which giant robot. Lots of the sound effects reference the original cartoon series too, which is a nice touch.
The acting is pretty good overall; Megan Fox puts in one of the worst performances in the movie, but I guess her acting chops aren't the reason she was there. As in the sequel, John Turturro's Agent Simmons steals the show, consistantly getting the funniest lines.
As big budget actioners go, it's very well done. Just don't expect a cerebral experience.
My rating: 7.2 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.4 / 10
Running time: 144 mins
IMDB link
