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Transformers is a 2007 live action film based on the Transformers franchise. It stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox as teenagers Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, who become embroiled in the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Sam has the map to the Allspark, which grants the bearer power over mechanical life. The film also stars Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight and John Turturro, as well as Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron. Cullen, who voiced Optimus in the 1980s cartoon, returned by fan demand.

Transformers 2007 OST
Before It’s Too Late by Goo-Goo Dolls

Producers Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto developed the film, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote the script, all aiming for a realistic interpretation of the characters. Michael Bay was convinced by executive producer Steven Spielberg to direct the film despite not being a fan of the series, to make his first family film. His direction led to a new intricate design aesthetic for the computer generated Transformers. Armed with an enormous marketing campaign including comics, toys and tie-in deals, Transformers premiered on June 12, 2007 and opened in the United States on July 2, 2007.

Plot

The Autobots and Decepticons were embroiled in a war that led to the destruction of their home planet Cybertron. The survivors scattered throughout the universe seeking the Allspark, an immensely powerful, life-giving device which was lost to them. Discovering the Allspark is on Earth, the Decepticons have come to Earth, and in Qatar, the Decepticon Blackout attacks a United States military base in an attempt to hack into the military’s computer defense network. In suburban America, high-school student Sam Witwicky tries to sell the exploring equipment of his great-great-grandfather Captain Archibald Witwicky on eBay to raise money for a new car. Sam is unaware that Archibald Witwicky’s glasses contain an etching of the coordinates to the location of the Allspark. The etchings were made when Captain Witwicky accidentally encountered the frozen body of Decepticon leader Megatron buried under the ice in the Arctic Circle. Aware of Sam’s ancestry, Autobot Bumblebee has been assigned to guard Sam and poses as a 1976 Chevrolet Camaro. Sam’s father buys the car, and after helping Sam woo Mikaela Banes, Bumblebee drives away to send out a homing signal to the rest of the Autobots. Sam sees this and reports it to the police who think he’s on drugs.

Scorponok chases a small group of survivors from the base, including Cpt William Lennox and USAF TSgt Epps, who narrowly escape. They call the Pentagon for help, and aircraft fire wounds Scorponok, who burrows in the sand and is not seen again.
As the Pentagon brings together the world’s best code breakers, linguists and computer experts attempt to find out who is tried to hack into their network in Qatar, the small Decepticon Frenzy transforms from a boombox, infiltrates Air Force One and successfully hacks into the defense network. The Decepticons, revealed to be seeking clues to the location of the Allspark, come across documents mentioning Captain Witwicky’s expedition, the location of Megatron, and Sam’s eBay auction. As a result, the Decepticons target Sam.

Bumblebee returns to Sam’s home, which causes Sam to take off on his mother’s pink bike terrified. Sam runs into Mikaela, which causes her to draw some conclusions, so she follows Sam just to be safe. Sam is able to lose bumblebee in a parking garage. Unfortunately he runs into Barricade. Running from Barricade he runs into Mikaela. Together they find Bumblebee. Bumblebee soon finds himself defending Sam and Mikaela from an attack by Barricade. As the two robots fight each other, Frenzy attacks Sam, only to be decapitated with an electric saw by Mikaela. Still alive, Frenzy disguises his head as Mikaela’s mobile phone and slips into her bag. Driving away to meet the rest of the Autobots after the fight, Mikaela criticizes Bumblebee’s old Camaro form. Bumblebee proceeds to modify himself into the 2008 preproduction version of the Camaro. The other Autobots arrive on Earth, and after taking the forms of other Earth vehicles, their leader, Optimus Prime, explains to Sam their mission to stop the Decepticons from taking the Allspark. The Autobots want to use the Allspark to return Cybertron to its former glory, while the Decepticons hope to raise an army of robots with its power, and subjugate the inhabitants of Earth. Prime explains how the glasses, which Sam inherited from his great-great-grandfather, are vital to locating the Allspark. They return to Sam’s home and Sam passes the glasses on to Prime. However, Sam and Mikaela, along with Bumblebee, are subsequently captured by the top-secret government agency, Sector 7. Optimus Prime is forced to abandon Bumblebee as a casualty of war to avoid harming any humans.

Sam, Mikaela, Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight), the surviving members of the special ops unit, and 2 experts who cracked the Decepticons’ signal, Glen Whitman and Maggie Madsen, are brought to the Sector 7 headquarters under the Hoover Dam. They learn that Megatron, still frozen and dubbed by Sector 7 as NBE-1 (Non-Biological Extraterrestrial), and the Allspark have been held by the agency for many decades. Frenzy escapes from Mikaela’s bag, and uses the power of the Allspark to regenerate his body and notify the Decepticons of its location. Decepticon second-in-command Starscream attacks the Sector 7 headquarters, while Frenzy hacks into the computer system to start the thawing and reactivation of Megatron. Sam convinces Sector 7 to release Bumblebee to save them from the Decepticons, and they leave with the Allspark. En route to an extraction point in a nearby city, the other Autobots join them to provide an escort. In the run, Bonecrusher pursues them and Optimus Prime is temporarily separated from the convoy to deal with the Decepticon. Prime destroys Bonecrusher with his energy axe.

The Decepticons confront the Autobots in Mission City and the ensuing battle results in Sam being responsible for keeping the Allspark out of Decepticon hands. With the help of the military, the Autobots keep the Decepticons at bay. During the final showdown between Megatron and Optimus Prime, the Allspark is destroyed when Sam inserts it into Megatron’s chest, overwhelming him with its power and killing Megatron in the process. The Autobots choose to remain on Earth as its guardians. After the destruction of the Allspark, they can no longer recreate their homeworld, and Optimus Prime sends a message calling out for any surviving Autobots scattered across the galaxy to find them. Bumblebee is repaired and decides to stay with Sam. The Navy dumps the bodies of the defeated Decepticons into the Laurentian Abyss but in the final scene of the movie, Starscream is shown to be alive and flying out to space.

Cast

Humans

• Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky: An offbeat seventeen-year old, Sam gets his first car, which turns out to be Bumblebee. Sam unwittingly becomes the center of the Autobot-Decepticon war, and discovers his responsibility as the unlikely savior of humanity.

• Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes: Sam’s love interest. Her father was a “grease monkey” and she has inherited some of his skills.

• Josh Duhamel as Cpt William Lennox: leader of a U.S. Army Special Ops team in Qatar, who manages to escape the destruction caused by Blackout. He has a wife and child back home.

• Tyrese Gibson as TSgt Epps: An Air Force Combat Controller who teams up with Lennox to escape Blackout and Scorponok.

• John Turturro as Simmons: Head of Sector 7, a secret government group that has been holding and studying the Allspark and the still-frozen Megatron. Simmons is leading a team tracking down Bumblebee.

• Jon Voight as John Keller: The United States Secretary of Defense.

• Rachael Taylor as Maggie Madsen, an expert in signal detection and decoding assisting the Department of Defense.

• Anthony Anderson as Glenn: A computer hacker and friend of Maggie, who assists in deciphering the Cybertronian language.

• Bernie Mac as Bobby Bolivia: The car dealer who unknowingly sells the Autobot, Bumblebee (as an early model Camaro), to Sam.

LaBeouf, Fox, Duhamel, Gibson and Anderson were fans of the Transformers. Michael Bay hired LaBeouf as he could improvise many jokes, with a charisma that reminded Bay of the young Tom Hanks. LaBeouf worked out five days a week for three months and gained 25 pounds of muscle to prepare for the role, but realized during shooting that his role required agility rather than strength. Duhamel and Gibson spent three days in boot camp, and Gibson also spent time with combat controller Ray Bollinger to make his dialogue sound natural.

Autobots

• Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime (Peterbilt truck): The powerful, wise leader of the Autobots, Prime comes to protect humanity from the evil Decepticons.

• Mark Ryan as the voice of Bumblebee (Second/Fifth generation Chevrolet Camaro): Bumblebee is an honest and friendly soldier who befriends humanity, namely Sam, in his efforts to find the Allspark. He has difficulty speaking after he was attacked by Barricade and communicates using sound bytes from radio broadcasts.

• Darius McCrary as the voice of Jazz (Pontiac Solstice): The smallest and feistiest of the Autobots, Jazz is Optimus’ second-in-command and one of his best warriors, talented at learning new cultures.

• Jess Harnell as the voice of Ironhide (GMC Topkick pick-up truck): A tough, weathered soldier, he is the Autobots’ weapons specialist and is always the first in battle. Ironhide is one of Optimus’ oldest friends, but has a grittier outlook on life.

• Robert Foxworth as the voice of Ratchet (Search & Rescue Hummer H2): The medic and scientist, Ratchet has a strong sense of duty to protect life.

Don Murphy decided after discussions with fans on his website that they wanted the surviving voices from the 1980s cartoon, but Michael Bay had them audition first, as he feared their aged voices would be noticeable. Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, was announced to be reprising his role at the July 2006 San Diego Comic-Con. He described reprising the role as easy as “slipping into an old pair of very comfortable shoes that you haven’t worn for a while”, and was grateful to the fans for wanting him back. His vocal performance consisted of much improvisation with Bay and bringing a sense of humor to Prime, as well as portraying his traditional heroism.

Cullen also read for Ironhide, another character he originally voiced, during his first audition, portraying a conversation between Optimus and Ironhide. Mark Ryan acted as a stand in during filming for the Transformers, giving actors someone to react to, both physically where appropriate and providing dialogue, and ad-libbed lines for many characters during post-production before being cast as Bumblebee. Bumblebee mostly communicates with his radio due to his crushed voicebox, and the writers considered using dialogue from various Paramount films, including the line “I feel the need for speed!” from Top Gun.

Decepticons

• Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron (Cybertronian “jet”): The missing Decepticon leader held frozen by Sector 7, Megatron desires power over the Allspark and hates organic lifeforms.

• Charlie Adler as the voice of Starscream (F-22 Raptor): Megatron’s second-in-command. Megatron and Starscream do not get along well.

• Jess Harnell as the voice of Barricade (Saleen-modified Ford Mustang police car) : The Decepticon hunter who masquerades in society as a symbol of the law.

• Reno Wilson as the voice of Frenzy (GPX 2-speaker CD player, mobile phone): The smallest of the Decepticons, Frenzy attaches to Barricade. His main purpose is spying on humans, but he is still a ferocious fighter, shooting blades disguised as CDs from his chest.

• Jimmie Wood as the voice of Bonecrusher (Buffalo H Mine-Protected vehicle): A Decepticon warrior who hates all others. He is only subservient to Megatron, whom he fears.

• Blackout (MH-53 Pave Low): The largest Decepticon, Blackout is fiercely loyal to Megatron and can fire electromagnetic pulses, making Decepticon attacks easier.

• Scorponok (mechanical scorpion): He has a symbiotic relationship with Blackout, hiding within him until he is commanded to kill.

• Devastator (Modified M1 Abrams): A moody and armed piece of battle fodder. The movie toys all name him Brawl.

Hugo Weaving, whose voice was used for facial animation tests, signed on to voice Megatron in March 2007. TV series voice actor Frank Welker auditioned, but was rejected as his voice was too light for the beastly depiction of Megatron. Bay also felt it would be wrong to ask Welker to change his classic voice. Welker was hired to voice Megatron in the video game adaptation.

Production

Development

In 2002, Hasbro began developing its properties into films. Producer Don Murphy was looking to adapt G.I. Joe, but when the Iraq War broke out, Hasbro suggested Transformers instead. Tom DeSanto joined the project as he was a big fan of the characters, and the two producers decided to explore why Transformers exist. They met with comic book writer Simon Furman and researched the Generation 1 cartoon and comics, deciding to focus on the Creation Matrix. DeSanto chose a human point-of-view in his treatment to engage the audience in various storylines as Murphy wanted to the film to reflect the real possibilities and consequences of “robots in disguise”, like a disaster film. The treatment featured Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, Prowl, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, Skywarp and Shockwave to be the characters.

After they were rejected by many studio executives who did not grow up with Transformers, DeSanto met with Mike DeLuca in 2004, who arranged a meeting with Steven Spielberg in 2004. A fan of the comics and toys, Spielberg signed on as executive producer, and John Rogers was hired as screenwriter in November. His script featured four Transformers on each side, and had the Ark spaceship. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, big fans of the cartoon, were hired in February to start over. Spielberg pitched it as being about “a boy and his car”, which appealed to them as adulthood, responsibility and sexuality is “all the things that a car represents in [the United States].” Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream were always included in the script, but Sam and Mikaela were the focus of the first script, and the Transformers had no dialogue. This was changed in the next draft, as the writers felt that even if the executive’s fear of it being ridiculous was founded, having them not speak would betray the fanbase. Inspired by Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Bumblebee was kept mute to stress his friendship with Sam as going beyond words.

Michael Bay, who had wanted to make a family film, was asked to direct, but he thought of it as a “stupid toy movie”. Nonetheless, Spielberg’s premise of “a boy and his car” made him curious, and visiting Hasbro made him gain a new respect for the mythology. In addition, he was enticed by ideas like an 85 mile-per-hour fight scene, and the comedy caused by Transformers interfering with everyday life. The tone was decided as a cross between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Seven Samurai. Bay also wanted it to feel intense and realistic, and the writers agreed to make everything feel logical, setting aside the previous contradictory continuities in the franchise. Bay admitted not being a fan before allowed him to tell the story naturally, and make it appeal to other non-fans. Orci cut the Ark as he wondered why “aliens who moonlight as vehicles need other vehicles to travel”, and Arcee was cut as they had little time to explain robotic gender. They expanded the military storylines, basing the soldiers on G.I. Joe characters, and added more Decepticons to increase the sense of threat. Prowl was removed as they loved the notion of an evil police car.
Design

Designs began in June 2005, with Hasbro heavily collaborating on the live action interpretations of their characters. In keeping with Michael Bay’s desire to make Transformers realistic, the robots were made to look more intricate and therefore three-dimensional, and being an alien invasion film, they were made to look less human. Morphing in transformations was restricted, unlike the cartoon or comic books, so every character stays the same size, thus explaining why they choose their particular Earth forms. Optimus Prime’s original cab over truck form was rejected as it would make him only 23 feet tall, so Bay decided to use the Peterbilt, the largest truck avaliable. Bay also added flame artwork to make Prime distinctive, and had his faceplate made retractable to emote more. Don Murphy wanted to retain Bumblebee’s Volkswagen Beetle form, but Bay rejected it to avoid comparisons with Herbie the Love Bug. Bay went for the Chevrolet Camaro as he felt the car had a friendliness befitting Bumblebee, and as a result the other Autobots also became GM-owned vehicle lines, saving $3 million with product placement. Ratchet’s alternate mode was changed from an ambulance to a Search & Rescue vehicle on Hasbro’s advice.

In contrast to Optimus’ faithful design, Megatron’s alternate mode was changed from a Walther P38 pistol to an alien jet to avoid morphing, while his face was made more hideous and menacing. The numerous animatic tests conducted also made Bay realize Starscream would require bird-like legs to perform his feats throughout the story. Bay admitted most of the Decepticons had their appearances chosen before their characterization as Hasbro needed to get started on the toys. Blackout was being considered as Soundwave, but Hasbro wanted to have a music player for the character. Don Murphy felt this role belittled Soundwave, and had him renamed Soundbyte, and finally Frenzy, Soundwave’s minion. The official names were confirmed in August 2006, although Bay himself was not fully aware of these official names, and this led to Brawl being referred to as Devastator, his on-set name. During post-production, fans expressed concern over Megatron’s head design, so a last-minute tweak was done to satisfy them.

Filming

To save money, Michael Bay planned a shooting schedule of 83 days, and kept up the pace of production by doing more camera set-ups per day than usual. Bay had the support of the United States military, who supplied aircraft and vehicles for the alternate modes of the Decepticons, as well as F-117’s, C-130 cargo planes, the C-17, and two CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, out of three in the United States Air Force inventory. Such co-operation with the military led Transformers to be the first film shot at The Pentagon since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

A pre-shoot took place on April 19, 2006, before principal photography began on April 22 at Holloman Air Force Base. The Holloman shoot also included White Sands Missile Range. On June 9, filming was onsite at the Hoover Dam, making them the first film crew to shoot there since 9/11. The crew then based themselves at Hughes Aircraft in Playa Vista, including six weeks of filming the climactic battle in Los Angeles. Production wrapped on September 24, although second unit shooting continued in the Arctic and Detroit, where it finally finished on October 5.

Effects

Work on the film animatics began in April 2005, with Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg throwing in many ideas for action sequences. Bay preferred to shoot his fourteen action sequences on set to keep the budget under $150 million. Three versions of each car were created by General Motors in anticipation that some of them would crash, and stunt drivers wore black balaclavas to make them appear sentient. Bay used his animatics to help the actors envision the Transformers, as well as a 17 foot tall Bumblebee model by FXPerts, a Frenzy puppet by KNB, Scorponok’s damaged tail, Optimus’ head with motion capture points, and Megatron’s frozen legs. The physical props only amount to 12 out of 600 effects shots.

Industrial Light & Magic began a six-month process of creating transformations in the computer in 2005, looking at every inch of the vehicles and making sure none of the car pieces conflicted during the simulations. Due to the intricate designs of the Transformers, even the simplest notion of turning a wrist requires seventeen visible pieces, while each of Ironhide’s guns is made of ten thousand parts. Such detail required thirty-eight hours to render each frame of animation, which meant ILM had to increase their processing facilities.[54] In addition, there was the texture maps for the characters, and lighting simulations based on set photographs to make the robots fit in more with the live action environment.

Numerous simulations were programmed into the robots, so the animators could just focus on animating the particular areas needed for a convincing performance. Ultimately, the complex mechanics make the characters feel dynamic and quick like a human, rather than a lumbering beast, with even the eyes modeled to resemble human eye movement. Bay instructed the animators to look at martial arts films to inform the characters’ movements, and they also looked at actor Liam Neeson’s performances to inspire the animation of Optimus Prime. Bumblebee’s behavior was based on Michael J. Fox’s performance in Back to the Future.

Music

Transformers: The Album
Composer Steve Jablonsky, who collaborated with Bay on The Island, scored music for the teaser trailer long before actual work on the film. Scoring took place in April 2007 at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City. The score comprised six major themes over 90 minutes of score, including the teaser music. Tom DeSanto wanted to work in an orchestral version of the TV series song, but the band Mute Math performed a cover version instead. Mute Math were fans of Transformers as children, and were approached as their style suited the sound of the robots in the film. It only appears on the album.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer was released on the Internet on June 29, 2006, depicting a Transformer attacking the Beagle 2 mission. A second trailer was released on December 20, breaking Spider-Man 3’s record for the number of internet hits. A third trailer was released online on Yahoo’s movie website on May 17, 2007. Another trailer was attached with Shrek the Third. Bay originally intended that “[The audience] never really get a good look at the robots until the release”, but by the third trailer he had abandoned this idea. The Sector 7 viral marketing web site featured several videos recording supposed evidence of Transformers on Earth. These featured cameos by Generation 1 Transformers, including scenes of Grimlock destroying a construction site, as well as scenes of Kickback and Laserbeak (who is shown as a Memory Stick ) being video taped by people accidentally, and a security video showing a robot resembling Generation 1 Bumblebee transforming in a parking garage.

Hasbro made deals with 200 companies across 70 countries to promote the film. Their toy line for the film was created over two months over late 2005/early 2006, collaborating heavily with the filmmakers. A pair of preview toys, Protoform Optimus Prime and Starscream, were released in the U.S.A. on May 1, 2007, before the first wave of figures were released on June 2. Characters that do not appear in the film are also featured in the film’s style, including Air Raid, Arcee, Clocker, Elita One, Hardtop, Longarm, Signal Flare, Skyblast, Strongarm, Swindle and Wreckage. The toys feature “Automorph Technology” in which moving parts of the toy allow other parts to shift automatically. Before the film’s U.S. release, General Motors put the vehicles used for Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jazz and Ratchet on display at the Detroit River Walk Festival. Michael Bay was also highly involved in the film’s promotion: he directed tie-in commercials for GM, Burger King and PepsiCo.

Release

Initially, fans were divided over the film due to the radical redesigns of many characters. Michael Bay even received death threats. Nonetheless, the film began to draw in many new fans to the franchise. Before its release, Transformers was voted “Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet” at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. The 2007 BotCon saw its attendance rise from 2,200 to nearly 8,000.

Transformers had its worldwide premiere at Sydney on June 12, 2007. It premiered at Sitges during the annual Film Festival on June 20, 2007 and in Taormina the following day. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 27 via digital satellite feed, and at Rhode Island on June 28. The Rhode Island premiere was a freely available event offering fans to buy tickets for $75 to benefit four charities: the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the Autism Project of Rhode Island, the Adoption Rhode Island, and the Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

The film was released in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Philippines on June 28. It was released in the United States and Canada on July 2 and will be released in the United Kingdom on July 27. The U.S. release date of July 4, 2007 was announced at the Comic-Con International in July 2005, before being pushed forward to July 3 with 8pm screenings on July 2, similar to what was done with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Box office performance

When released in overseas markets on June 28, 2007, Transformers made $29.5 million in its first weekend, topping the box office in ten countries while also earning the biggest four-day opening in Singapore yet, accumulating $1.7 million there. The 8pm screenings on July 2, 2007 in the United States earned $8.8 million, and in its first day of general release it grossed $27.4 million, a record for Tuesday box office attendance, and the twentieth biggest opening day. The film has made $36 million domestically, and grossed $72 million overall.

Critical reception

Transformers was met with mixed reviews from film critics, receiving a 59% “rotten” from 135 critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and a Metacritic score of 61 out of 100 (generally favorable) from 31 reviews. IGN’s Todd Gilchrist found it Michael Bay’s best film to date, and “one of the few instances where it’s OK to enjoy something for being smart and dumb at the same time, mostly because it’s undeniably also a whole lot of fun.”The Advertiser’s Sean Fewster found the visual effects so seamless that “you may come to believe the studio somehow engineered artifical intelligence”, and The Denver Post’s Lisa Kennedy praised the depiction of the robots as having “a believably rendered scale and intimacy.” ABC presenter Margaret Pomeranz was surprised “that a complete newcomer to the Transformers phenomenon like myself became involved in the fate of these mega-machines”, and Roger Ebert found them “delightful creatures… their movements are ingenious.” Empire’s Ian Nathan welcomed the comic touches, and praised Shia LaBeouf as “a smart, natural comedian, (who) levels the bluntness of this toy story with an ironic bluster.” Ain’t It Cool News’s Drew McWeeny also felt most of the cast grounded the story, lending it a sense of wonder, and that “it’s certainly the best sci-fi action movie in a while. It’s outrageous, but it has a real sense of wonder, one of the things that’s missing from so much of the big CGI lightshows released these days.”

However, many found the script a mere tie-in to the action sequences. The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt took exception, praising “how a teen plot line gets tied in to the end of the world.”Dark Horizons’s Garth Franklins liked its simplicity because “Bay and scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci understand that people are simply here to see giant robots thrash the hell out of both each other and metropolitan surroundings.” Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles felt the film was a conflict of Bay and Steven Spielberg’s styles, with the military storylines distracting from Sam. Newsarama’s Ryan McLelland enjoyed the action but admitted “when they try to move along the movie with the human characters you just say to yourself, ‘Where’s Optimus Prime? Where’s Starscream? Let’s get some big honkin’ robots!’” Daily Herald’s Matt Arado was highly critical that “the Transformers [are] little more than supporting players”, and Los Angeles Times’s Kenneth Turan found the humans “tedious and oddly lifeless, doing little besides marking time until those big toys fill the screen.” James Berardinelli hated the film as he did not connect with the characters in-between the action, which he found tedious, while Comingsoon.net’s Joshua Stames felt the Transformers were “completely believable, right up to the moment they open their mouths to talk, when they revert to bad cartoon characters.”CNN’s Tom Charity questioned the idea of a film based on a toy, and felt it would “buzz its youthful demographic… but leave the rest of us wondering if Hollywood could possibly aim lower.”

Sequels

On May 30, 2007, Dreamworks green lit two sequels to Transformers, and Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Peter Cullen signed on to return. Producer Tom DeSanto has envisioned a storyline introducing the Dinobots, the Constructicons, and Soundwave. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman may not return, as “Star Trek… is taking up kind of all of our time.” Michael Bay has not signed on, “trying to keep some leverage for the negotiations”, but already has ideas, including an aircraft carrier character.

Production Stills

Source: Wikipedia.com

All Photos are owned by Dreamworks