Transformers 2007

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The most surprising thing about Michael Bay's much-anticipated, blockbuster-bound Transformers is how funny the movie is. I don't mean funny in an unintentional, Pearl Harbor kind of way. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I challenge you to name another movie about an alien robot come to save the world while disguised as a yellow Camaro. Isn't it just an intergalactic Herbie the Love Bug? Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: In Bay's world, which is more about metal than people, every action sequence must be edited like a cinematic seizure and every extreme-telephoto image must be jammed headlong into the next. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Not a movie, just one gigantic commercial for Hasbro. Read more

Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: The welcome mat is out for Michael Bay's cheerfully dopey saga inspired by the popular shape-shifting toys from the '80s. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: An unexpectedly witty and exciting movie quick on its feet. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Great special effects + Shia LaBeouf - flimsy story = lotsa fun. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: No one should be expecting much from Michael Bay except fast pacing and decently choreographed explosions. With Transformers, he doesn't even make it that far. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: You'll find yourself rooting for computer-generated robots that magically transform into cars, trucks and fighter planes. It's selling the movie short to say the special effects are amazing -- they are out of this world. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The effects are put to brilliant use. ...Bay even allows the humans their humanness, too -- elsewhere, John Turturro and Anthony Anderson are very funny in smallish parts, and [Julie] White steals the movie. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Though he has a way with CGI toys and action set pieces, director Bay does not have a noticeable gift for making human beings come to life. Transformers' multiple earthling story lines are tedious and oddly lifeless. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: In this tricked-out retake on the much-loved contraptions, director Michael Bay brings his usual chest-thumping, combustive bombast, but he also brings some clever pacing and a genuinely snappy wit. It is not all stupid and not all loud. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: The illusion is shattered whenever the 'bots start talking or the action stops. Bay tries to gloss over the infantile plot, but it would take a lighter, wittier touch to square the movie's pedestrian script. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: What keeps Transformers watchable is LaBeouf and the computerized effects, which are often startling. When Sam's Camaro muscles up into the Bumblebee bot, it's like watching every boy's fantasy of his first pair of wheels. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The film's hurtling visuals and snappy pace (even at two-plus hours) allow many a postmodernist to escape overreaching tendencies. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Transformers may be the most spectacularly stupid film ever made, and with modern-day Hollywood being what it is, that's quite a feat. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Bay, at heart, isn't a fantasist; he's a literal-minded maestro of demolition. But then, that serves Transformers well during its climax, a spectacular clash of the heavy metal titans, and a primal reminder of why boys love their toys. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: An unexpected summer surprise. Not only is it full of way-cool machinery, epic robot fights and mind-dazzling effects, it also has more than its quotient of actual wit and fun. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: This is a movie to see on the big screen. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Thank god the Transformers speak primarily in proper nouns--if they hadn't shouted "Optimus! Megatron!" every time they struck a blow, I'd have no idea what was happening. Read more

Luke Y. Thompson, L.A. Weekly: Above all, Transformers is the biggest-budget kaiju movie of all time...one of those Godzilla Versus Other Monster-Suit Guys Trashing Mini-Tokyo flicks. Only with robots Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: As a movie, Transformers is mostly muscle car, but it has enough of a brain under its hood to know how, and when, to be funny. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Bay's movie is the grandest proof so far that, when it comes to movie characterization, flesh and blood have had their chance. From here on, it's up to metal and plastic. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A dizzying summer adventure, Transformers is a film to worship for its set pieces and chastise for its inscrutable storytelling. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: For the bot-neutral rest of us, two-and-a-half hours of mostly incoherent special effects may be a bit much. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There is so much action packed into every second of Transformers that by the time it's over, you may be tempted to go outside and give the box office another 10 bucks. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: An uneven, overlong and at times overbearing flick. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A movie of epically assaultive noise and nonsense. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: With Transformers, director Michael Bay has once again claimed the year's top honors for loud, stupid filmmaking. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: We knew it would be dumb. But we had no idea it would be so much dumb fun. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: While Bay succeeds in creating a seamless mix of computer-generated effects with live-action, the real treat of his film is the flesh-and-blood LaBeouf. He is LaBomb. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The action sequences are so turgid it's sometimes hard to tell which 'bot is doing what, but with Bay steadily hurling fireworks you won't really pause much to think about that, or about how truly inane the story is. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For Transformers fans, I suppose this is a dream motion picture. For everyone else, it's a nightmare. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's goofy fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Transformers is way better than anyone could have expected from Michael Bay, the director who gave us Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The whole movie has a lightness of tone, an affection for its own cheesiness. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Taken for what it is, a crowd-rousing summer blockbuster inspired by a children's mechanical toy, Michael Bay's Transformers is some kind of mess...terpiece. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The visual effects are marvellous, [and] the acting is better than it needs to be in a film of this nature. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Divorced from reality, even movie reality, Transformers becomes an action film in traction. Its relentless product placement makes it seem like a 2hr. 22min. General Motors commercial. And the film has just enough collisions to be a crashing bore. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though it's at least 20 minutes too long and uneven dramatically, the acting is sharp, and it features some of the most spectacular action and effects sequences of any movie of its kind. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: If it's true that there's an 8-year-old boy inside every man, Transformers is just the ticket to bring the kid out. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Transformers has some of the best action sequences you'll see all summer. Read more