Transformers (2007) Review

Time: 143 Minutes
Age Rating: contains medium level violence
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
Tyrese Gibson as Sgt. Robert Epps
Josh Duhamel as Capt. William Lennox
Anthony Anderson as Glen Whitmann
Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes
Rachael Taylor as Maggie Madsen
John Turturro as Agt. Seymour Simmons
Jon Voight as John Keller
Director: Michael Bay

The fate of humanity is at stake when two races of robots, the good Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, bring their war to Earth. The robots have the ability to change into different mechanical objects as they seek the key to ultimate power. Only a human youth, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) can save the world from total destruction.

It’s been ages since I’ve seen the Transformers movies, I’ve only watched up to the third movie in addition to watching Bumblebee back in 2018. I remember enjoying Bay’s Transformers movies when I was younger, but I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about them now. They have a reputation of being mindless large scale action flicks, however the first movie is still somewhat well received, and so I decided to check it out again. It was pretty much what I expected it to be, overlong and full of flaws, but nonetheless pretty entertaining.

The writing of the first Transformers movies is a very mixed bag. The plot itself is passable, but the actual script has its issues. It takes a while for the movie to really pick up with the Transformers, it starts with Shia LaBeouf and him eventually realising that he has a car that’s not just a car. It doesn’t really do much to keep you genuinely interested. Even when Shia meets up with Optimus Prime it doesn’t really grab your interest. It certainly doesn’t help that Transformers is a very long movie at 2 hours and 20 minutes long. It’s really the third act where it excels, as Bay does what Bay does best with all the action. However the movie shouldn’t need to be just an action filled one to be good. For such a straight forward plot, there is just too much going on in the movie. The comedy is also very hit or miss but it at least works better than in the later movies (from what I remember). At least the racial stereotypes are kept to a minimum of 1 in this movie. I’ll say this much, if some of the plot elements in this movie bothers you, definitely don’t check out the other Bay Transformers movies.

The human characters are widely regarded as the worst aspect of these movies. While there are bits about the actual Transformers that don’t work well, the movies would’ve benefited with them being the focus instead. I know that Shia LaBeouf gets a bad rap in these 3 movies but he’s actually alright in this movie at least. Despite how you many feel about his performances in his 3 film appearances, he’s definitely putting everything he can into his role. Megan Fox is also given a bad rap in her Transformers appearances but she isn’t that bad, she’s really not given much to work with, so it’s not really on her either. The romance that LaBeouf and Fox feels really forced and no matter how hard the two of them try, you just don’t buy it. Some of the random comedic side characters don’t really have much point, most of them are meant for comedy. The parents of Shia’s character for one are among the more annoying. John Turturro is also in this movie and is alright. He’s perfectly fine in the movie but I really have no idea why Jon Voight is in this movie, they probably could’ve cast anyone in the role.

You can really feel that Michael Bay directed this movie, for better or for worse. The cinematography has a saturated look to it, there are many dramatic scenes of military giving some really important dialogue, slow motion shots of the American flag and helicopters flying, it’s all here. The action of this movie is generally good, the CGI effects do look a little iffy now, but given the movie is over a decade old, you can cut it some slack. Back in 2007, we hadn’t really seen anything like this before, with a bunch of action involving giant robots. Yes, a lot of the action is over the top, but it’s not necessarily overwhelming.

Yes, Transformers is a silly action movie, but there’s a lot of fun to be had with it. Even though I’m not a fan of the Transformers, I feel like they could be better than just an explosion filled action movie. Still, I had some enjoyment with it. Even if many of Bay’s more annoying clichés and style aspects make their appearance here, it is not as bad as it is in his other movies. If you haven’t seen any of the Transformers movies, it’s at least worth checking out the first one.

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Love, Simon (2018) Review

Time: 110 Minutes
Age Rating: Offensive language & sexual references
Cast:
Nick Robinson as Simon Spier
Josh Duhamel as Jack Spier
Jennifer Garner as Emily Spier
Katherine Langford as Leah Burke
Alexandra Shipp as Abby Suso
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Nick Eisner
Keiynan Lonsdale as Abraham “Bram” Greenfeld
Miles Heizer as Cal Price
Logan Miller as Martin Addison
Director: Greg Berlanti

Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), it’s a little more complicated. He hasn’t told his family or friends that he’s gay, and he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing.

Love, Simon is a movie I’ve been meaning to get around to seeing. While it is yet another teen romantic comedy, I had been hearing some good things about it, and plus it was pretty significant with it being the first major studio movie to focus on a teen gay romance. Love, Simon definitely lived up to all the hype and is worth watching by everyone.

Love, Simon does follow similar beats to other teen romances movies and doesn’t offer up a ton of twists, surprises or anything like that, but it’s a very well written movie and was pretty good for what it is. It’s emotional, funny, and really all of it works. Yes it can be cheesy but honestly, none of it bothered me that much and usually when things in movies get cheesy or corny it can get on my nerves. Not even the clichés in this movie bothered me. Love, Simon just worked so well as a feel good movie that I was on board with it from start to finish.

I’ve only seen Nick Robinson in Jurassic World and The 5th Wave and his performances in those weren’t all that good but here he really gets to show off his talent here in the lead role of Simon. He’s likable, easy to follow as the protagonist and stole every scene he was in, all in all it was a great performance. Robinson more than showed off his talents here and I hope that he gets more great work and roles like this in the future. His friends played by Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and others were also good and worked together really well. The parents played by Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner also added quite a bit to the movie, even if they weren’t in it a ton. Really everyone’s performances were really good and added to the movie in some way, shape or form.

Love, Simon was directed reasonably well by Greg Berlanti, it’s definitely directed like a typical teen movie, especially with all the music choices, but it was still directed at an adequate level. The editing and all of that really worked for the movie.

Love, Simon for the most part doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but it is successfully entertaining, funny and heartfelt, and achieved what it set out to do. I’ve noticed that there was a little bit of backlash against this movie because although it was a movie focussing on gay characters, it was really a cheesy romantic comedy that in itself wasn’t anything particularly special, or really anything overly complex and didn’t necessarily have nothing new to say. No, it’s not a movie like Moonlight, Carol, or any other academy award worthy movie focussing on gay characters, and it doesn’t reach a level anywhere close to them, but it wasn’t trying to. And at the same time though, it actually still is kind of special. It really should be acknowledged for what it did, it’s the first film by a major Hollywood studio to focus on a gay teenage romance, and that in itself is an achievement. If you despise the whole teen romantic comedy genre, this movie probably won’t change your mind, but I think no matter what you feel about the movie, it is still worth celebrating. Love, Simon is a great coming of age story for today’s generation.