Once upon a time, within the memory of those still living, if a film was successful, it inspired toys and games without number. Now, apparently, it is the other way around.
"Transformers," the new movie by director Michael Bay, is based not on a novel or play or screenwriter's inspiration but on a line of Hasbro toys that have been hot tickets for young boys for more than 20 years and were the basis of several animated TV series and an animated feature. If you're one of the people whose reverence for those toys is next door to a religion, you already know that. If you aren't, there isn't enormous reason to care.
Paradoxically, the problem with "Transformers" is not with those much-beloved playthings, walking Erector Sets whose defining characteristic is the ability to change from robots to cars and other machines and then back again -- hence the name "Autobots" for some of them.
Advancement in computer-generated technology -- the "Transformers" press material says that the film would not have been possible as recently as three years ago -- means that watching these enormous NBEs (Non Biological Extraterrestrials) both come to life and metamorphose is everything fans could hope for. If this film were a lot shorter -- it clocks in at an inflated two hours, 23 minutes -- and kept its focus on the toys, it would be hard to argue with.
Fearing, however, that even enormous wonder toys can't just tromp around on the screen forever, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have concocted a narrative to go with the robots. The problem is not only that there is way too much of it but also that it isn't very good.
Some of the back story is a given. Transformers, as any small boy can tell you, come with built-in conflicts in morality. The Autobots -- Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide and maximum leader Optimus Prime -- are the good guys, while the Decepticons, led by bad-as-he-wants-to-be Megatron, want to acquire power first, ask questions never.
Working with John Rogers, with whom they share a story credit, screenwriters Orci & Kurtzman have come up with an acceptable sci-fi frame. Having fought each other for eons on their home planet, the Autobots and Decepticons transfer their battle to planet Earth, where an enormous object called the Cube, or AllSpark, the source of all Transformer life, has improbably ended up.
