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[92] Ain't It Cool News 's 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 light shows released these days". [93]
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". [94] Roger Ebert gave the film a
positive review, giving it 3 stars out of a possible 4, writing: "It's goofy
fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only
to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset." [95]
Response to the human storylines was mixed. The Hollywood Reporter 's Kirk
Honeycutt liked "how a teen plotline gets tied in to the end of the world",
[96] while Empire 's Ian Nathan praised Shia LaBeouf as "a smart, natural
comedian, [who] levels the bluntness of this toy story with an ironic
bluster". [97] Ain't It Cool News founder Harry Knowles felt Bay's style
conflicted with Spielberg's, arguing the military story only served as a
distraction from Sam. [98] James Berardinelli hated the film as he did not
connect with the characters in-between the action, which he found tedious.
[99] Los Angeles Times ' Kenneth Turan found the humans "oddly lifeless, doing
little besides marking time until those big toys fill the screen", [100] while
ComingSoon.net's Joshua Starnes felt the Transformers were "completely
believable, right up to the moment they open their mouths to talk, when they
revert to bad cartoon characters". [101] Daily Herald 's Matt Arado was
annoyed that "the Transformers [are] little more than supporting players", and
felt the middle act was sluggish. [102] CNN 's Tom Charity questioned the idea
of a film based on a toy, and felt it would "buzz its youthful demographic
[...] but leave the rest of us wondering if Hollywood could possibly aim
lower". [103] General [ edit ] Transformers fans were initially divided over
the film due to the radical redesigns of many characters, although the casting
of Peter Cullen was warmly received. [35] USA Today summarized the views of
critics and audiences saying "there is general raving about the mechanical
heroes and general grumbling about the excessive screen time given to some of
the human characters played by Shia LaBeouf, Anthony Anderson, Tyrese Gibson
and Jon Voight. Optimus Prime, the leader of the good-guy Autobots, doesn't
appear until midway through the film." [104] Transformers comic book writer
Simon Furman and Beast Wars script consultant Benson Yee both considered the
film to be spectacular fun, although Furman also argued that there were too
many human storylines. [105] Yee felt that being the first in a series, the
film had to establish much of the fictional universe and therefore did not
have time to focus on the Decepticons. [106] Audiences polled by CinemaScore
gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. With audiences
under 18 the score rises to "A+", and the film was most popular with children
and parents, including older women, and attracted many African American and
Latino viewers. [107] The film created a greater awareness of the franchise
and drew in many new fans. [108] Transformers ' box office success led to the
active development of films based on Voltron and Robotech , [109] as well as a
Knight Rider remake. [110] When filming the sequel, Bay was told by soldiers
the film helped their children understand what their work was like, and that
many had christened their Buffalos – the vehicle used for Bonecrusher – after
various Transformer characters. [111] After the film's 2009 sequel was titled
Revenge of the Fallen , screenwriter Orci was asked if this film would be
retitled, just as Star Wars was titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope when
re-released. He doubted the possibility, but said if it was retitled, he would
call it Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye . [112] Accolades [ edit ] Award
Category Recipient Result 80th Academy Awards [113] Best Sound Editing Ethan
Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins Nominated Best Sound Mixing Kevin O'Connell ,
Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin Nominated Best Visual Effects Scott Benza
, Russell Earl , Scott Farrar and John Frazier Nominated 2007 MTV Movie Awards
[114] Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet Won 2008 MTV Movie Awards Best
Movie Won 2008 Kids' Choice Awards [115] Favorite Movie Nominated 2007 Kuala
Lumpur International Film Festival [116] Best Special Effects (Jury Merit
Award) Won Hollywood Film Festival [117] Visual Effects Supervisor of the Year
Scott Farrar Won 6th Visual Effects Society Awards [118] Outstanding Visual
Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture Scott Farrar, Shari
Hanson, Russell Earl, Scott Benza Won Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
Desert Highway Sequence – Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Shawn Kelly, Michael
Jamieson Won Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action
Motion Picture Optimus Prime – Rick O'Connor, Doug Sutton, Keiji Yamaguchi,
Jeff White Nominated Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion
Picture Dave Fogler, Ron Woodall, Alex Jaeger, Brain Gernand Won BMI Awards
[119] BMI Film Music Award Steve Jablonsky Won 28th Golden Raspberry Awards
[120] Worst Supporting Actor Jon Voight (also for Bratz: The Movie , September
Dawn and National Treasure: Book of Secrets ) Nominated 34th Saturn Awards
[121] Best Science Fiction Film Transformers Nominated Best Special Effects
Scott Benza, Russell Earl, Scott Farrar and John Frazier Won Entertainment
Weekly named Bumblebee as their seventh favorite computer generated character,
[122] while The Times listed Optimus Prime 's depiction as the thirtieth best
film robot, citing his coolness and dangerousness. [123] Future [ edit ] Main
articles: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen , Transformers: Dark of the Moon
, Transformers: Age of Extinction , Transformers: The Last Knight , Bumblebee
(film) , and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts The second film, Revenge of the
Fallen was released June 24, 2009. The third film, Dark of the Moon was
released June 29, 2011. The fourth film, Age of Extinction was released June
27, 2014, and the fifth film titled The Last Knight was released on June 21,
2017. Revenge of the Fallen , Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction were
financial successes, while The Last Knight failed at the box office . The
sequels have received mostly negative reviews. The sixth film Bumblebee was
released on December 21, 2018 to positive reviews. It is the highest-rated
film in the Transformers series. The seventh film Rise of the Beasts was
released on June 9, 2023 to mixed reviews. [124] References [ edit ] ^
"Transformers (2007) - Financial Information" . The Numbers . Archived from
the original on November 23, 2018 . Retrieved April 20, 2021 . ^ "
Transformers " . British Board of Film Classification . Archived from the
original on January 22, 2023 . Retrieved May 11, 2022 . ^ Bob Tourtellotte
(July 1, 2007). " "Transformers" film yields big bang on fewer bucks" .
Reuters . Archived from the original on January 22, 2023 . Retrieved August
19, 2010 . But the producers of "Transformers", Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian
Bryce, say they have spent only $150 million on "Transformers", and they
reckon they got a bargain. ^ a b ALEX CHADWICK; KIM MASTERS (April 30, 2007).
" 'Spider-Man 3': Why So Expensive?" . NPR . Archived from the original on May
18, 2016 . Retrieved April 29, 2020 . ^ a b c " Transformers " . Box Office