'Transformers' hit London

A look at some early footage from one of the biggest films of the year.

Mar 30 2007

Just got back from a sneak peak at Michael Bay's new 'Transformers' movie, and bar a few reservations, I was pretty impressed with what I saw.

The screening kicked off at London's Odeon West End cinema with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura giving us the usual spiel about the footage being raw, the robots not fully rendered and the score being temporary.

He then told us that we were being treated to four clips, two that focused on the military element in the film, and two that are humour based (which immediately got me worried as I don't ever remember Bay doing comedy…not intentionally anyway).

The room then went dark, the screen light, and we were transported to a military plane in Qatar, with all the usual Bay trimmings (ie lashings of sun-drenched slo-mo action) correct and present. After some none-too-clever banter between the soldiers, an unidentified aircraft interrupts the action, and we were then treated to all manner of carnage, with a bloody big 'bots laying waste to jeeps, tanks and planes. The clip was clearly from the start of the film and the action suitably explosive, providing a fitting introduction to the dastardly Decepticons.

Next up was a spot of light relief in the shape of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) showing up at a lakeside party and then taking the object of his affections Mikaela (Megan Fox) for a drive. Not terribly exciting, but the scene did suggest that LaBeouf might not be too annoying as the young lead.

More light relief followed as Sam takes some robots back to his house to help him look for a pair of glasses (though why I don't know). This scene provided us with our first look at Optimus Prime, and mighty impressive he was too. The face was a little creepy and I struggled to understand a word he said, but the scene gave you a real sense of the leader of the Autobot's size and power. John Turturro also showed as a government agent from the mysterious Sector 7, while there were also a couple of good masturbation gags.

Finally, we were back in the desert, with Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and the rest of the troops fighting a giant scorpion-bot (sorry – it's been years since I watched the cartoon so can't remember half the robot names). Problem was, once the novelty of actually seeing planes, trucks and cars transform had worn off, I was a little bored by the action of this scene, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the film. That said, if screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have created characters we care about and Bay manages to pull the action, drama and comedy together, such a scene may seem very different in context.

Whatever the case, 'Transformers' is certainly shaping up to be one of the most spectacular films of the summer; we'll just have to wait until July 27 to find out if it's any good.

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