It does a great job of setting up what's going on in the Transformers universe. You don't have to be a geek to get that. You basically have two groups of robots who are scouring the galaxy for a big cube that is the source of all life on Cybertron, their home world. The cube, called the Allspark, fell to Earth some time in the past. Now that it has been found the Autobots (good guys) and the Decepticons (bad guys) will square off to fight. The Decepticons leader, Megatron, want to use the Allspark's power to create more robots in order to help his rule over Cybertron. Optimus Prime and the Autobots want to stop Megatron and if necessary they'll destroy the cube to do it. Key to finding the massive cube is a boy named Sam Witwicky.

So that's about enough of that. What we have here is a good old fashioned action movie. It's LOUD. There are a lot of explosions, quite a bit of weapons fire, military heroes, flashy cars, secret government conspiracies, and Michael Bay as a director. I like Bay. I'm not ashamed of that. I've seen and enjoyed The Rock, Armageddon, this, and part of Bad Boys II which, while not the entirety of his output, is significant. So I knew what to expect and he did not fail. Some of that expectation included cuts that were quicker than they needed to be, shallow characters, and a certain degree of corn. Fortunately I think he's learning to temper his editorial skillz so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. As for the last two, since this is a movie based on a cartoon for children made solely to sell toys, I think we can cut the man some slack.

There was some solid joy to be had here. Seeing the first transform and how he handled the occasional need for a pilot in what should be an empty vehicle unleashed the twelve year old in me. The perfection of the chase between Bumblebee and Blockade, the scene where the Warthogs were hammering on Skorpenok, Autobots hiding sheepishly from the Witwickies, the Witwickies themselves, all of these were exactly what they needed to be. John Turturro as an agent from Sector 7 (think Men in Black) is awesome. Shai LaBeouf does more with what he's given than most other actors probably could have. That boy has a future, mark my words. Back just a moment to the parents, Kevin Dunn and Julie White in their turns as Ron and Judy are what every movie parent should be. So that's the good, or part of it.

It wasn't a perfect movie, not even a perfect Tranformers movie (though such a thing only exists in the fanboy's head). The government hackers could have easily been cut from the movie almost in their entirety. I would have liked to see more interplay between Megatron and Starscream, more from the Decepticons in general would have been good. In large part it suffered from the same symptoms that first movies often do. Based on my feeling after having walked out of the one, the amount of money it will make, and an entry on IMDB, I can state with some certainty that we'll see a T2. Hopefully Bay will bring the noise on the next one, cranking it up just a notch and giving us more Megatron love (he'll be there, rest assured). The pee jokes and the out of character "hip" dialog were just a little grating as was the Hispanic soldier. These blemishes though, were really just that, minor flaws.

Some folks want to make this movie into a political statement, which I find truly bizarre. There is very little depth here. This, boys and girls, is a kiddy pool of a movie; shallow, refreshing on a summer's day, maybe just a bit frustrating in its simplicity if you want to dive into something full bore. Even its message, if message there is, that human beings have a capacity for courage and that there is more to them than meets the eye, is as empty as cotton candy. It's not an excuse. Yes movies should often be more than that. If you're looking for a solid meal, something that you can chew over, then skip this and go see Knocked Up. If you want to be a kid again for a couple of hours, or if you are in fact a kid, then buy all means "Autobots roll out!"