more than meets the eye?
So the BF and I finally got around to watching Transformers this weekend. You'll have to bear with me, because I realize that:1. I'm about nine months late for any sort of critical discussion of the film, and
2. Transformers is, at its soulless, CGI heart, an inane action flick that doesn't deserve any sort of critical discussion.
That said, I liked the movie more than I thought I would, but not for any of the obvious reasons. The effects were definitely eye-popping; I'm bummed I didn't get to experience them in a theater.
I agree with the consensus that the human story lines were stupid and they overshadowed the robots.
There were holes in the plot you could drive a semi through. In fact, the semi drove through those holes, transformed into a giant robot, did a quick 180 and body-slammed a Decepticon disguised as a dump truck. That four-second sequence alone cost $30 million to make, but the movie grossed $700 million worldwide, so who am I to argue?
Anyway. I found the movie fascinating because I saw it as one long (and often clunky) metaphor for America's failed energy policy — specifically, our dependence on foreign oil.
Again, bear with me. Spoilers ahead, as if you care.
The opening scene plants us in the Middle East, with Qatar functioning as a stand-in for Iraq. Here we see a fuck-load of U.S. military personnel caught off guard and slaughtered by a Decepticon that looks like a friendly jet. "What's the U.S. doing in Qatar?" you might ask. Good question. Protecting the oil! Why else is America ever in the Middle East?
Americans are oblivious to the bloodshed that happens over oil fields half a world away, as we see in the next few scenes with hottie Shia LaBeouf singularly focused on buying a car and banging chicks. He's a typical, self-involved suburbanite who's willing to auction off his family history for the sake of owning a vehicle, which says plenty. But our love affair with the automobile turns out to have consequences. After Shia acquires the dream car, he discovers that maybe the car owns him. He loses control of his life once a Camaro comes into the picture, which is almost always the case.
Enter the Autobots, who explain how their home planet of Cybertron was ripped apart in a war over the All Spark. Hello, spark—as in oil! The All-Spark now resides on Earth hidden in the Cube (yeah, who writes this shit?), which, as it turns out, the U.S. government has hidden in Hoover Dam.
The rest of the film follows the Decepticons and Autobots duking it out over the Cube while the U.S. military tries feebly to help. I saw this as a commentary on the global battle for fossil fuels and the way America gets entangled in foreign wars because of our oil dependency.
Notably, the climatic final battle happens in L.A., surely a poster child for car culture gone way wrong and the gross excesses of America writ large. The urban battlefield itself felt like a nod to the Iraq War, with innocent civilians caught up in the carnage and enemy fighters that could easily be confused with friends.
In the end, the All Spark gets used up (like our fossil fuels!) and the Autobots are left on Earth. Shia gets the girl and the car. Sadly, I'm not so sure that real life is going to have such a happy ending.
Happy Earth Day!
