Transformers....

Rock the house. No, really, I say that admitting to burning an effigy of Michael Bay after Armageddon came out. A truly horrible movie that I heard was pitched as "Dirty Dozen go to space." And Ben Affleck...is a bad actor. Get over him. Ew. But Transformers is amazing in many different ways. Actually, it's also not very good in certain ways. But there's something compelling about the movie that transcends all the nationalistic images of efficient armed forces (I've never seen planes in the air in response to emergency as fast) and goofy over-the-shoulder shots of gooey-eyed adolescents lusting after each other. The main thing that makes this so enjoyable are the Transformers themselves. In any good sci-fi movie, which this is, that places technology--and usually alien, completely unknown to human technology--at such a central position in the narrative, the movie succeeds in drawing you in to the plight of the machines. And I don't mean the silly evocation of pathos in a dying robot's eye-lights. I mean we're drawn into the relationship between man and machine, the interaction of organic and inorganic, the tete-a-tete dance between two very different kinds of life. And I say this knowing that the main mechanism by which this works is to make these machines as human as possible.These robots talk. They walk upright. They are shaped humanoid. But the thing that separates the machines from the men is that they preserve a kind of above-the-fold heroism usually reserved for gods, monsters and evil geniuses. The good robots, of course, have the will to preserve a long-forgotten way of life. The bad robots possess a will to power to colonize and destroy in the process. Here is where the central struggle takes place--over the battlefield of noble intentions. The good robots are protectors, recognizing the humanity of humans, whom they choose to defend. The good robots take the shape of popular cars and trucks (in the movie, all GMC products, I think), and this is interesting because they are aligned with capitalism, with the American Dream, with buying shit to make yourself feel good. An interesting move. The bad robots are saddled with the ambitions of empire-making. There is a sense that they can't help themselves, that they are compelled by inner demons (tiny robotic demons, no doubt) to take over worlds and appropriate the technology for their own good.

(Of course, the interesting thing here is when one considers the United States' own not-so-subtle gestures toward empire and how that dovetails with the negative connotation built into robots, stormtroopers, and other evil colonizing forces in the movie universe. It's kind of an elaborate game of reverse psychology--viewers are convinced that the spectacle of movie colonization must be much worse than reality.)

Anyway, the bad robots talk in lower octaves. They have single-minded motivations of retaining an object that promises a huge payoff of more conquering. Also interesting are the shapes these "evil" robots take. They take the shape of a police car, a tank, a multi-purpose army truck called "bonecrusher" and a super fast jet. It's interesting that these are the shapes the bad guys choose to take, especially considering that throughout the movie, the armed forces, the FBI, the government and the police, to a lesser extent, are positioned as highly efficient and effective organs of national defense.

Ok, that's enough intellectualizing. Don't see the movie for plot. Don't see the movie for good acting (though the teenage lead is quite good). It's a fun ride and has all the things a blockbuster should have: big explosions, cursory plot, romantic entanglements, dropped characters, a simple battle between good and evil.

Oh la la. I can't wait to see Live Free or Die Harder. Boom.