Even though the first attempt to make a theatrical feature film (in animated form) based on Hasbro’s popular Transformers toy line resulted in a big box office bust back in 1986, the property remained too valuable over the years to resist trying again. By 2007, visual effects technology had evolved and improved to the point that it would be possible for a live-action movie to convincingly depict giant transforming robots interacting with real people. When none other than legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg signed on as producer, the project was a guaranteed blockbuster in the making. Unfortunately, because he had too many other irons in the fire at that time (or just a lack of interest in doing it), Spielberg decided not to direct this one himself. The man he hand-picked for the job would prove to be a divisive choice.
On the one hand, Michael Bay is a very successful filmmaker in his own right who’d directed several major blockbusters of his own without needing any help from Spielberg. On the other, most of his movies are very dumb and not well liked among discerning moviegoers who prefer their entertainment be at least somewhat competently written. Thankfully, discerning moviegoers were not the target audience for a live-action Transformers movie. Bay’s film was a massive hit that spawned a string of sequels still going on today. However, over time, even the most forgiving of Transformers fans would develop very mixed feelings over the so-called “Bayverse” movies.
| Title: | Transformers |
| Year of Release: | 2007 |
| Director: | Michael Bay |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
I’ll admit up front that my own view of all the Transformers movies is colored by a heavy amount of bias. Growing up in the 1980s, I was a Transformers fan when Megatron was still a realistic-looking handgun you could pick up in the toy aisle of any Ames or K-Mart department store. I watched the Transformers cartoon during its original airings on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, and saw the animated film in the theater. I read the Marvel comic book and collected the toys at least through the Headmasters era. In short, I was a Generation 1 fan before anyone needed to coin that term, because there hadn’t been any other generations yet.
As such, I’ve never much cared for what Michael Bay did with Transformers. I didn’t hate his movies; I just didn’t especially like them. Aside from a couple of nods here and there (such as Peter Cullen from the ’80s cartoon continuing to voice Autobot leader Optimus Prime), Bay’s Transformers films don’t bear much resemblance to anything in G1. Most of the characters are barely recognizable, either by appearance or personality. The stories in all of them are typical Michael Bay incoherent drivel, nonsensically plotted and overflowing with obnoxious lowbrow humor.
Nevertheless, I’ve felt compelled to watch and buy them on Blu-ray – in SteelBook case editions, no less, since that’s the kind of collector I am. Even so, until now, one viewing each was all I bothered to give any of them, and I was content to leave it at that. Recently, however, one of my sons has become a huge Transformers fan, which is largely my doing for introducing him to the G1 cartoon. He tore through that, and several later animated series even I haven’t watched. For the live-action movies, I started him out by jumping directly to the (post-Bay) Bumblebee spinoff, which he liked. But he’s been begging to watch the Bayverse films with me. So here I am, going through them again. It’s been long enough since my last attempt that I was curious if my feelings about any of them might change.
In most respects, the complaints I had about Bay’s first Transformers movie when I watched it in 2007 still hold true today. The film is big, loud, and extremely stupid. Aside from Optimus Prime, the robot characters look and act nothing like their G1 counterparts, and are all such ugly piles of random scrap metal they’re next to impossible to tell apart from one another.
Moreover, the movie really ought to be called Humans and Transformers. The Autobots and Decepticons are reduced to supporting roles in their own film, while the plot mostly focuses on the antics of bumbling dumbass teenager Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), his absurdly hot girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox), dipshit government agent asshole Agent Simmons (John Turturro humiliating himself in the worst performance of his career), and a bunch of Army bros led by Josh Duhamel as a character whose name I’ll be damned if I can remember despite just watching the movie.
On that mark, Bay’s military fetishism is in full force here. As five-story-tall alien robots with massive laser cannons smash and crash and blast the hell out of each other, tiny fleshbags who ought to stay out of the way keep rushing in underfoot to shoot itty bitty bullets that ping harmlessly off their armor. Yet somehow, of course, the Autobots prove ineffectual at stopping the Decepticons (and cause just as much damage and destruction in trying), while you can bet your ass the combined might of the U.S. Armed Forced will turn the tide and save the day. HOO-RAH!!!
Meanwhile, Optimus Prime and pretty much all the Autobots (except Bumblebee, who isn’t allowed to talk for some really stupid and pointless narrative contrivance) are portrayed as total dicks for no reason at all. Even Bumblebee has his moments of being a jerk.
The screenplay by the infernal team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman is painfully dumb in more ways than I can catalog. The most galling of its idiocies is the repeated insistence of having gigantic towering robots tromp around in the middle of very populated cities and suburban areas, and yet literally nobody ever notices them! And at the end, after the alien robots have flattened an entire major metropolis, we’re told the government’s going to cover the whole thing up and sweep it under the rug.
In writing all this out, I recognize that it must sound like I loathe this movie. I don’t. I found it passably entertaining on my first watch a decade and a half ago, and may have softened even more on it over time. If nothing else (and, honestly, there really is nothing else), Michael Bay is a master of conjuring cinematic spectacle on an overwhelming scale. His action scenes, as confoundingly shot and edited as they may be, are genuinely exciting and impressive in scope. The visual effects, most by Industrial Light and Magic with some by Digital Domain, are fantastic and haven’t aged a bit. Never in one shot do we question that these impossible alien robots exist in the same physical space as real people, and interact with the environment. You’d almost swear that Bay must have leveled a real city for verisimilitude. How the film could have lost the Best Visual Effects Oscar to The Golden Compass, which looks very cartoony and dated in comparison, is frankly a travesty.
Like everything Bay makes, Transformers is at least half an hour too long and sometimes feels like it’ll never end. All the same, the director certainly provides plenty of bang (and boom and pow and then some) for the buck.
Ultimately, I need to make peace with the fact that these Transformers movies were not made for G1 fans like me who care about the original characters or storyline. Michael Bay was already in college by 1984 and no doubt believed himself too old to play with toys or watch cartoons when the first Transformers figures hit retail. By taking this job, Bay’s movie reflects his own interests (both then and now): fast cars, hyper-sexualized teenage girls wearing slutty outfits, and lots of shit blowing up real big and loud. To that end, it’s a huge success.
The movie resonated with audiences in 2007, and is still generally regarded as the best of the Bayverse Transformers, even among those who have otherwise burned out on Michael Bay in the meantime. My son enjoyed the hell out of it. He hooted and hollered at the destruction-porn spectacle, laughed at all the juvenile comic relief, and is eager to watch more. I can’t begrudge him for liking a movie aimed closer to his level more than I do. I’m curious to see how he handles the sequels.
The Blu-ray
During the High-Def Format War of the early 2000s, Paramount released Transformers initially as an HD DVD exclusive in late 2007. When the format war ended and HD DVD threw in the towel a few months later, the studio issued a comparable Blu-ray in 2008. Both releases were Special Editions that came with the movie on one disc and a second disc of supplements. I owned the HD DVD for a while, but traded it out for a Blu-ray in a SteelBook case in 2012. (Mine was imported from the UK, but an identical copy hit U.S. shores about a year later.)
In the meantime, the movie has also been released on 4K Ultra HD. Personally, I’m not enough of a fan that I feel a need to upgrade beyond the Blu-ray. I’ve spent enough money on Transformers already.
As it turns out, the Blu-ray holds up just fine for the most part. The 2.40:1 image is pretty sharp and slick. Bay shot this one on 35mm film and some scenes are quite grainy, but that’s a deliberate stylistic decision. The production utilized a 2K Digital Intermediate and some mild DNR, edginess, and other digital tweaking are apparent at times, but nothing too severe. I fully expect that the 4K edition was upconverted from this source and that those limitations are baked-in to the DI.
The director’s style features very hot contrast and boosted colors (with lots of teal and orange). Those could probably benefit from HDR and Wide Color Gamut on the 4K format. The standard Blu-ray has some minor black crush and white clipping – but, again, nothing that compels me to want to replace this copy.
It should go without saying that Michael Bay likes his movies loud. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack throbs with bass right from the opening Paramount and DreamWorks logos. The entire film is filled with aggressive surround activity as bullets and rockets zip through the soundstage from every direction. Explosions pack quite a wallop and deep bass sweeps will shake your room if your subwoofer can handle them. As the filmmaking industry has increasingly moved toward timid audio with flattened dynamic range in recent years, a slam-bang track like this is tons of fun.
Unfortunately, the SteelBook only contained the first disc of the original Special Edition set. Bonus features are limited to an audio commentary by Michael Bay, pop-up “Transformers H.U.D.” text trivia, and a BD-Live link that no longer works. The other making-of documentaries, featurettes, trailers, and whatnot were excluded from the copy I own.
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The Video File Blog 
The HD DVD also had ‘exclusive web links’ (haha) that were online for far longer than you’d expect of a dead format (they still worked last time I checked, in 2014). I have two copies (why not), one Belgian – $25, full price – and one American that cost me $1 when the format was dead. ‘Transformers’ was probably the highest selling and most produced HD DVD – you still see copies everywhere. SFX do indeed hold up impressively for a movie that’s old enough to drive (well, in the US at least).
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Prolly be a good idea to excise the term “slutty outfits” and replace with “revealing outfits” especially in 2023.
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