Transformers (HD DVD)

Paramount | 143 minutes | 2007 | PG-13 | Directed by: Michael Bay |
HD DVD reviewed by: Matt Brighton

I have to give Michael Bay credit, when most all new movies are remakes, sequels, and old television series turned to the big screen comic books; along comes "Transformers". Granted, the toys did eventually have a comic book after the cartoon series, but it's at least somewhat of a departure from the typical summer matinee films. I personally remember "Transformers" from way back in my childhood. I collected them, watched the TV show and even the first movie, an animated version narrated by the one and only Orson Wells. The Transformers have made a comeback over the past few years and a friend and fellow former co-worker of mine actually has (or at least had) one of the largest collections of the toys. All the pop-culture references aside, how does one create a two hour movie based on a toy? Then again, how does one create a ninety minute movie based on a five minute SNL sketch? More importantly, "Transformers" wasn't just an excuse to show off the latest in CGI but provided a great avenue for one of Hollywood's young rising stars – Shia LaBeouf. LaBeouf also starred in this Spring's hit "Disturbia" and is currently filming next summer's sure-fire hit, "Indiana Jones 4".

The plot of "Transformers" is essentially told in the opening credits. Allow me to summarize. The planet of Cybertron was once home to the Autobots and Decepticons. Eventually, the two races fought and some fled to Earth. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, who also voiced the original television series) vowed to never hurt humans and are viewed as the good guys. The Decepticons, led by Megatron, are simply out to overtake Earth and will do anything and everything to make the dream a reality. We have Sam (Shia LaBeouf), a semi-cool high school student who's saving up for a car. Little does he know that the car he eventually chooses is actually a robot in disguise (sorry, had to throw in yet another pop-culture reference). He quickly learns that a pair of his relatives' glasses are the key to what the Autobots and Decepticons are looking for. He and Mikalea (Megan Fox) must throw caution to the wind, side with 50 foot robots all to avoid having the world taken over by the Decepticons. Can they do it?

Let's face it, there's not a whole lot of plot going on here but it's all about the fun. There's something intriguing about a Camaro that turns into a robot or a Porsche that talks like a rapper, isn't there? The glue that really makes the whole film work is LaBeouf. He's got the energy, timing and the acting ability to make pretty much any film just a bit better. Yes, this movie was engineered for the summer marketplace and Michael Bay isn't exactly a stranger to these types of films ("The Rock", "Armageddon" and "Bad Boys" come to mind). That and the film was exective produced under the watchful eye of Stephen Spielberg. Add it all up and you've got a surefire formula for success. The movie might be a bit too much for the younger audiences as there are some fairly crude references thrown in, but its pure mindless fun and a leap forward in special effects.

"Transformers" comes to HD DVD in a brilliant-looking 2.35:1 HD VC-1 transfer. I really can't imagine seeing a movie like this in a narrow scope and the wider screen gives us that much more reason to appreciate the new HD formats and how good they really look on screen. The image itself is nearly perfect, with no pixilation evident, no artifacting and flesh tones seemed warm and natural (though actress Megan Fox does seem a bit sun-drenched at times, but it could just be her). Naturally a big part of the movie are the special effects and they look amazing. I wouldn't have thought that the actual robots would look as good as they do, but it seems that with HD you can see every detail in the robots. Colors are bright and vivid and though some of the movie is a bit dark, the transfer holds up very well. For a new release, "Transformers" gives the viewer exactly what they were asking for.

Paramount has gone to putting some pretty good soundtracks on their catalog titles, but for some reason only a Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack is found on this HD release. One of the initial drawbacks of the HD DVD format (and strength of the Blu-Ray format) was the issue of space. HD can only contain 30 GB of space and as such, the TrueHD and uncompressed PCM audio that is so widely sought out also takes up a lot of space. Now there are dual-layered HD DVD's on the way, in fact the first is "Island Fever 4" but that review won't be covered here for obvious reasons. All that aside, we do get a fairly robust Dolby Digital Plus track that sounds pretty darn good. As one might imagine, there are plenty of surround special effects that fill the room with an ambiance throughout and dialogue is very clean as well. The voice of Optimus Prime simply resonates throughout most all speakers and is a true example of how good even dialogue can sound. The battle scenes all sound amazing and though the lack of a TrueHD track is somewhat disappointing, it's not like we're getting a mono track here as this track does deliver on all levels.

When Paramount stopped their support of the Blu-Ray format, it was (and as of this writing, still is) big news. "Transformers" is without a doubt the biggest title to come out of the Paramount studio since that announcement, so we'll see how that might affect the long-running war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD. That's right, if you want to see this film in HD, you've got to have an HD DVD player. This is also one of the first HD DVD's to contain two discs, but it's a trend that will surely continue. The first disc contains a few supplements, namely the commentary track by director Michael Bay. Bay's tracks are kind of hit and miss, but his track here is fairly interesting and he does remain quite chatty for nearly all the film. There's also an interactive track that contains tidbits and facts about the movie along with some video clips from the movie (Warner calls this "In-Movie Experience" but Paramount hasn't branded it as such). The remainder of the supplements are on the second disc so that's where we head next.

Disc two contains a lot of featurettes that give us the history and background of the Transformers as well as the expected interviews with cast and crew. We have two sections: "Our World" and "Their War", both of which contain different features. "Our World" starts off with "The Story Sparks" which gives us a look at the Transformers from Hasbro's perspective, complete with some vintage commercials to boot. Man do they look dated! We then head to "Human Allies" which gives us a look at the characters in the movie as with "I Fight Giant Robots" taking a look at Michael Bay's commitment to excellence and ensuring that the fighting was consistent with the Army. "Battleground" also tackles this subject as well, though in a more technical manner. We then move on to "Their War" which mainly looks at the robots of the movie. Starting off is "Rise of the Robots" as we see which robots got picked to be in the movie (bear in mind, there were hundreds of actual Transformers) and how they made the cut. The more CGI nature of the movie takes over with "Autobots Roll Out" and "Decepticons Strike" as we see how the effects were done and how the various lighting and rendering brought these toys to life. Lastly we have "From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack" which dissects the actual desert scene and gives us the low down on how it was done. Now there are several interactive features that do rely on a connection to the internet to be active. I personally couldn't ever connect via my HD DVD player so I can't really comment on how interactive these features are. One drawback of HD DVD is that it requires a physical connection to the internet and can't rely on Wifi, like the PS3 player. That's something that the future models of HD DVD (pending it survives the war) might want to look into.