If you grew up watching robots in disguise tear each other apart on Saturday morning TV, Transformers will be like 'œChristmas, Easter, and Fourth of July all rolled into one,' said Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News. For the rest of us, it's 144 tedious minutes of relentless Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Transformers is the first live-action movie inspired by the popular action figures first produced by Hasbro in the 1980s, which morphed from robots into anything from guns to planes. Teen hero Sam (Shia LaBeouf) encounters the Transformers when he gets his first car, a Camaro with a mind of its own. It's Bumblebee, an Autobot Transformer, who helps Sam save the world from the evil Decepticon Transformers'”and get the hot girl (Megan Fox). Throw in a few references to E.T. and Gremlins and a $150 million budget, and you have a sequel-ready summer blockbuster. It may be time to forgive director Michael Bay for such previous big-budget clunkers as Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II, said Lisa Rose in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. 'œSure, his movies are loud and astoundingly vapid, but he's one of the few Hollywood directors who can deliver CG action that doesn't look synthetic.' The special effects orgy is so 'œprimordially thrilling,' said Nick Chordas in the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch, that you forget it's 'œlittle more than a big-budget commercial.'
Rating: PG-13
