Visual FX aside, Transformers is by no means a good film, but anything so relentlessly (and in this case, clumsily) attuned to the mainstream is bound to have some interesting things to say about the culture it’s been engineered to appeal to.
In the hands of a more gifted director, the cut and paste characterization, the ham-fisted slapstick, the soul destroying summer blockbuster box ticking might have gone largely unnoticed, perhaps a sam raimi could have even made it enjoyable. Such is the paucity of michael bay’s vision that all these processes are writ large on the screen constantly reminding you of commercial and idealogical forces at work shaping and directing the narrative.
I say ideological because this is a film heavy with pernicious product placement not just by corporate america, but most jarringly by the US military. At one time (maybe even a few years ago) or, once again in the hands of a more talented director, this mindless propaganda would have been barely noticeable. As it is slo-mo helicopters land in desert bases where arab children wait to embrace the returning warriors, keffiyeh‘d men join the americans in the defence of their land from outside attackers, a brave and valiant fight against great odds.
All of which makes you wonder who’s agenda these plot devices are choosing to serve? What price to the film-maker for the access to so much hardware and, more importantly, what price to the audience ?
Scariest of all (or what should be scary to the people who write the checks-to the military script advisers or whatever they call themselves) is that in a movie about 40ft transforming robotic aliens it is the idea of a competent, powerful, respected American Military that is hardest to swallow.
You couldn’t even make it up.