Transformers is an American film franchise produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Michael Bay and based on the toys created by Hasbro and Takara Tomy. The series is distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, and United International Pictures. The first film, Transformers, was released in 2007 and the second and latest film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, in 2009, with a third film announced for July 1, 2011.

Film series

Transformers (2007)

Transformers is the first film in the franchise. In Transformers, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers that his new car is actually an alien robot (Mark Ryan) from the planet Cybertron. He and his crush Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) find out upon meeting the Transforming warriors of Cybertron—the Autobots led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), that the evil Decepticon leader Megatron (Hugo Weaving) is after the legendary AllSpark which is on Earth along with him. A battle takes place in Mission City between the Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron is defeated by Sam as he releases the AllSpark power into his chest. In the end credits, the Decepticon Starscream (Charlie Adler) is seen flying off into space, suggesting that the battle has just begun.^[1] The film was released on July 4, 2007.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the second film in the franchise. After the events in Transformers, Megatron is resurrected by the Constructicons and he attempts to obtain some symbols implanted by the AllSpark into Sam Witwicky's brain, while Sam intends to go to college and have a normal life. The film was released on June 24, 2009. It will be re-released in IMAX 3-D as a double feature with the previous film.

Transformers 3 (2011)

Transformers 3 is the working title for the third movie in the series, scheduled for release on July 1, 2011. The possibility has been evaluated that the third film will be made in 3-D.

Reception

Reviews of the first film were "generally favorable". Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 57% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based on 206 reviews, with a 68% rating from selected "notable" critics. At the website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 61, based on 35 reviews. IGN's Todd Gilchrist called it Michael Bay's best film, and "one of the few instances where it's OK to enjoy something for being smart and dumb at the same time, mostly because it's undeniably also a whole lot of fun". The Advertiser's Sean Fewster found the visual effects so seamless that "you may come to believe the studio somehow engineered artificial intelligence". The Denver Posts Lisa Kennedy praised the depiction of the robots as having "a believably rendered scale and intimacy", and ABC presenter Margaret Pomeranz was surprised "that a complete newcomer to the Transformers phenomenon like myself became involved in the fate of these mega-machines". Ain't It Cool News' Drew McWeeny felt most of the cast grounded the story, and that "it has a real sense of wonder, one of the things that’s missing from so much of the big CGI lightshows released these days". Author Peter David found it ludicrous fun, and said that "[Bay] manages to hold on to his audience's suspension of disbelief long enough for us to segue into some truly spectacular battle scenes".^{[citation needed]}

The sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received negative to mixed reviews, based on 223 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an average 20% overall approval rating. The film had a similar reaction among the 34 critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critic", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, where it received a 18% approval rating. In contrast to the views of critics, audiences appear to have responded better, with exit surveys estimating that 91% of moviegoers consider it to be as good, or better, than the 2007 film. CinemaScore polls reported that on a scale of A+ to F, the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was "B+". According to the Washington Post, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Bay's worst-reviewed film, faring even lower than Pearl Harbor. Ray Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter commented in his review that "for the uninitiated, it's loud, tedious, and at 147 minutes, way too long."^{[citation needed]}

Cast and characters

List indicator(s)

• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.

Humans

• Bernie Mac cameoed in Transformers as Bobby Bolivia, a used car dealer who sells Bumblebee to Sam.
• Peter Jacobson cameoed in Transformers as Mr. Hosney, a humorless teacher in Sam's High School.
• Rainn Wilson cameoed in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Sam's astronomy teacher.
• Matthew Marsden played the role of Graham, a NEST soldier in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Transformers

Autobots

Decepticons

Reception

Both films have grossed total over $1.5 billion, but as of September 23, 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has grossed $831,737,662 totaling with 2007's Transformers making reaching the $1.540 billion mark for both films.

Box office performance

Critical reaction

References

External links

• Transformers Movie Official site
• Transformers film series at AllMovie