Blu-ray Review Transformers [Two Disc Special Edition]

Transformers looks fabulous on Blu-ray, but that doesn't mean everyone will be enraptured by the story. For the first five minutes of Transformers viewers are treated to an assault of sound and visual effects usually reserved for movies hoping to be summer blockbusters. Since Transformers was originally released on July 3, 2007, director/producer Michael Bay and producers Steven Spielberg and Brian Goldner understood that audiences at that time of the year aren't usually looking for deeply affecting plots.

All the special effects make it seem as though Michael Bay (Armageddon, Bad Boys, and Miami Vice) was the perfect choice to helm this project. Never one for subtlety, Bay seems to live by the credo: the more bombastic the better. The film's final 45 minutes lend credence to that notion, with what is basically an endless battle between the good Autobots and the evil Decepticons. The special effects are marvelous and I found myself repeatedly wondering, how did they do that? Never once did I feel invested in who won or lost.

if you grew up a fan of the Transformers action figures and animated TV series, you might enjoy the entire film. Otherwise, this rather long special effects bonanza (clocking in at a punishing 144 minutes), will likely test your patience. Here's the story in a nutshell: The Transformers are robots (in disguise) from a distant planet that can morph into assorted vehicles. Optimus Prime leads the Autobots, and is opposed by Megatron's Decepticons. We are told their conflict has destroyed the Transformers' native world. Now the battle has shifted to Earth.

Despite major emphasis on the robots, Bay and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, did find the time to create some fairly bland human heroes for the robots to deal with. Shia LaBeouf plays the geeky Sam Witwicky, who stumbles upon the Autobot Bumblebee when his father, Ron (Kevin Dunn), purchases a beat-up Camaro in a used-car lot. Sam initially uses the car to impress airheaded Mikaela (Megan Fox), but eventually drags her into the conflict once Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots reveal their ultimate goal.

Much like Bay's 2001 film Pearl Harbor, Transformers feels like it takes forever to really get rolling. Every detail, no matter how small, gets covered. After the robots touch down near a Middle Eastern military base, Bay trudges through a series of rights-of-passage scenes that halt any sense of momentum the film might have had.

With any big special effects film, the audience is supposed to allow for a certain level of improbability. As a long time film fan, I not only expect it, I regularly enjoy it. However, there is a line where artistic improbability becomes stupidity and Michael Bay crossed it with Transformers. Optimus Prime tells Sam the Transformers learn to speak by absorbing the Internet, yet a villain frozen for decades speaks perfect English when thawed. After the cube is discovered, Air Force officials -- led by Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson -- decide to hide the device in the middle of a populated city! Come on now, I couldn't buy that even for the sake of the story.

Despite the flaws in the film itself, as I stated earlier, the Blu-ray is quite impressive. Using an MGEG-4/AVC codec and a dual-layer BD50, the video engineers maintain the film's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and its somewhat dark, oversaturated hues. What we end up with is a crisp picture, free of grain. The colors are bright, rich and life-like.

The Transformers Blu-ray is armed with a a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. The bass is loud and pumping The sound in general, has a level of clarity I have yet to hear on many Blu-ray sets. I suspect Transformers is poised to become one of those discs film geeks use to show off their home systems.

The quantity of extras remains the same on the two-disc Blu-ray set as on the two-disc standard-definition and two-disc HD DVD editions. Disc one includes the feature film; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. Disc one also includes an audio commentary by director Michael Bay, who will never be accused of needing an ego boost. Most of his comments revolve around what a great job he did on the film.

For Profile 2.0 Blu-ray players there is "BD-Live" for further on-line features like an "Intelligence Mode," "GPS Locator," "Profiler," and "Menubots" and"Transformers H.U.D.," a "Heads Up Display" that is a picture-in-picture feature with various pieces of pop-up trivia about the film as well as shots of the filmmakers discussing various scenes as the scenes are playing out.

Disc two includes a number of other bonus items in high definition, duplicating the second disc in the HD DVD set. It's divided into three categories: "Our World," "Their War," and "More Than Meets the Eye." In "Our World" we find "The Story Sparks" (HD), "Human Allies" (HD), "I Fight Giant Robots" (HD), and "Battleground" (HD), segments that one can play separately or all at once. Together, they total roughly forty-nine minutes and provide information on the origins of the movie, the actors, the military background, and the special effects in the battle scenes.

In "Their War" we find "Rise of the Robots" (HD), "Autobots Roll Out" (HD), "Decepticons Strike" (HD), and "Inside the AllSpark" (HD), about sixty-five minutes total, covering the background of the toys and cartoons and the special effects of the cars and such. In this section we also find "Transformers Tech Inspector," where we can look at each of the autobots up close in an interactive mode.

Then, in "More Than Meets the Eye" we have a nine-minute segment called "From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack" (HD) and, better, a series of beautiful concept art (HD). Also on disc two, we find trailers--two theatrical trailers and a teaser trailer, all in HD.

All in all, Transformers is a loud special effects laden affair. The folks at ILM deserve high praised for all their work. If you were not a fan of the original toys or the animated series, you might feel like the story drags a bit, as the plot takes a second, maybe third seat, to the explosions and eye popping effects.