DVD review (region 1)
Directed by Michael Bay
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Jon Voight
Release date Out now

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) becomes caught up in the battle between two robot clans – the Autobots and the Decepticons…

It seems almost pointless to criticise Transformers for turning out to be exactly the movie that you know it’s going to be. After all, if you give Michael Bay 150 million dollars to make a film based on toy robots, you sure as hell aren't going to get a subtle indie drama. And so we get a movie that is both dumb and incomprehensible at the same time; a movie packed with Bay’s trademarks of swirling camerawork and characters basked in orange light; a movie over-flowing with special effects, product placement and ear-bleeding levels of noise.

Even reduced to a TV screen, Transformers contains some of the best special effects ever put to film, and it’s a good example of how close CGI has come to photo-realism over the years. In a step up from the stop motion of Robot Jox, you’ll believe that giant robots can walk, talk and fight – and for this amount of money, you’d hope so too. Yet, at nearly two-and-a-half hours (143 minutes for a movie about giant robots!) the special effects become almost deadening after a while, just as with this summer’s other bloated blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Thank heavens, then, for Shia LaBeouf, whose easygoing charm and unlikely hero status gives the movie a human element that goes beyond the simplistic script. Megan Fox plays what is probably the world’s most unlikely expert in car mechanics, but she still makes an impression as the tough, smart love interest in cut-off shorts. Elsewhere, John Turturro’s bumbling CIA agent is pitched just a little too cartoonish to really be amusing, while a grouchy Jon Voight is unapologetically in it for the filthy lucre in the paper-thin role of the secretary of defence.

Still, in keeping with Transformers' aim of being the BIGGEST movie ever made, the DVD is overflowing with extras (at least in the region 1 two-disc edition). The commentary from Bay and the plethora of ‘making of’ featurettes predictably tend to focus on the special effects above anything else. They're not exactly filled with intelligent insight, but again, what were you expecting? Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 6/10
A super-size Big Mac meal of a movie that’s fun while it lasts, but leaves you feeling ever-so-slightly queasy afterwards.

Click here for details of the official Transformers comic.