Michael Bay’s prime directive: Seeing ‘Transformers’
Above: Michael Bay's 2007 film "Transformers" will screen at two area theaters on Thursday. (Photo/Paramount Pictures)
Every week, it seems, the self-described “entertainment content provider” called Fathom Events offers up something anniversary-oriented to watch.
Some films are true classics, such as Bob Fosse’s 1972 Oscar-winning film “Cabaret.” The film, which took home eight Academy Awards, will celebrate its 50th anniversary with repeat screenings on Sunday and the following Wednesday.
Others? Not so classic.
Good example: Michael Bay’s film “Transformers,” the first in what became a series – all based on a Hasbro toy franchise – will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a screening on Thursday.
“Transformers” will play at 3 and 7 p.m. at two Regal Cinemas theaters: NorthTown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium.
Directed by Bay, whose appetite for grand CGI visualizations mirrors the eating habits of the great white shark in “Jaws,” the film stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, with secondary roles going to Josh Duhamel, Jon Voight, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson
Though my favorite characters are played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White, who play the parents of LaBeouf’s character … the teenager who befriends the alien title, shape-shcnging characters and who holds the future of the Earth in his hands.
To be honest, I think “Transformers” – this first film in the series – is not just the best of the lot but is among the best films in Bay’s career. Many critics, though, don’t agree – the film earning barely a 58 percent Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.
Bob Mondello wrote for National Public Radio, “For the bot-neutral rest of us, two-and-a-half hours of mostly incoherent special effects may be a bit much.”
Andres Gronvall of the Chicago Reader described the film as “Not a movie, just one gigantic commercial for Hasbro.”
About the best thing written about “Transformers” came from Dallas Morning News critic Tom Maurstad. “This,” he wrote, “is a movie to see on the big screen.”
Which you’ll have the opportunity to do, Thursday at 3 and 7 p.m.
Happy anniversary.
