Release Date:
10/16/2007
Michael Bay's second-best movie to date (The Rock will always have a special place in our heart) lived up to the hype, and continues to rock on HD DVD. (Or regular DVD for noobs.) Before "purists" get upset over the humor and sometimes goofy tone of the movie, remember that Transformers was a marketing ploy for Hasbro to sell toys, and if they took it too seriously it would have been weird. Unlike blockbusters like Jurassic Park and Independence Day, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox do the impossible and prove human performances can upstage massive and groundbreaking effects. The only drawback is the running time—and this is true of every Bay film. Two and a half hours is too damn long. He could have easily trimmed at least 45 minutes and kept us wanting more. At least on HD DVD it looks better than it did in the theater and the slow parts don't seem as painful. Plus, there are some cool in-depth HD features and a second disc that fulfills all our nerd wishes by showing us how they made our favorite childhood toys cool once again.
(Technical note: We watched this on our Xbox HD add-on and experienced lots of glitches. The picture would intermittently become digitized like a corrupted video. This isn't the first time we've had this problem with a HD DVD, and we're hoping it's our player and not a production issue with the disc. Regardless, it was annoying as hell; if the outcome is interesting we'll let you know.)
(Technical note: We watched this on our Xbox HD add-on and experienced lots of glitches. The picture would intermittently become digitized like a corrupted video. This isn't the first time we've had this problem with a HD DVD, and we're hoping it's our player and not a production issue with the disc. Regardless, it was annoying as hell; if the outcome is interesting we'll let you know.)