Based on the long-standing toy and TV series line, Transformers brings a race of living robots to Earth in search of an ancient artifact known as the Allspark. The two Transformer factions are the Autobots and the malevolent Decepticons. The movie starts off by following a high school student named Sam Witwicky (Shai LaBeouf, who does another excellent job I might add), who is out to buy his first car in order to impress some girls. Sam ends up buying an old yellow Camaro who, as it turns out, is an Autobot named Bumblebee. It turns out Bumblebee's presence isn't all that coincidental because the Autobots seem to believe Sam knows the location of the Allspark.
Sam's life turns upside down when the Decepticons decide Sam is also a person of interest and the two groups attempt to get his information at all costs. Along the way, Sam picks up local hottie, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) and runs into a government group led by Agent Simmons (John Turturro).
Many of the fan's favorite Transformers appear in this movie. These robots include Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, Megatron, Starscream, Devastator, Bone Crusher, Blackout and Skorponok. Also, as explained in one of the featurettes, since the creators could never really get a convincing on-screen version of Soundwave, they created a similar character in Frenzy.
When I saw this movie in theaters, I was fully expecting it to ruin one of my most cherished childhood memories. I have to say, I was never so happy to be proven wrong. I think one of the biggest reasons why the movie was such as success was because, at its heart, it is a movie about a boy's first car and girlfriend. It just happens to have large alien robots in it. Quite frankly, if the DVD (or HD DVD in this case) didn't have any special features, and it was just the movie, then I would say it's a must buy, so with the amount of features present in this package, how can you say no?
If there is one thing this Two-Disc Special Edition has, its features. The various documentaries are broken up into three categories, Our World, Their War and More Than Meets The Eye. Our World features the culture that has grown around Transformers, the origins of the franchise as well as what the actors went through in order to prepare for the movie. Their War is a focus on the Transformers themselves. Who are the Autobots, who are the Decepticons, what did Michael Bay and the creators go through in order to choose the vehicles they did. One of the interesting aspects of this section is the Transformers Tech Inspection feature. This is a close-up examination of various parts of several Transformers. I didn't see this feature on Geck0's DVD version of the movie, so this, as well as the obvious visual benefits, might be what makes you choose HD DVD over standard DVD.
The third section, More Than Meets the Eye, has a featurette about the creation of the Skorponok desert scene as well as the movie trailers and concept art.
One of my biggest beefs about the movies that have been coming out in high definition lately (both HD DVD and Blu-ray) has been the fact that most movies just don't need to be in high def. I mean, come on, A Mighty Heart is a good movie, but I don't really need the extra visual quality. Transformers, on the other hand, is one of those films that greatly benefit from high definition. The visual effects are grander than the DVD version, and it really made me feel like I was back in the DLP-powered movie theater.
Transformers is a great movie that does its fans a lot of service and even helps new viewers becomes fans themselves. The Two-Disc Special Edition package has a ton of features that any viewer will be glad to see, and of course, the visual quality of the HD DVD makes this a better purchase than the normal DVD version. If you already have an HD DVD player, then pick this movie up. Heck, it might even be worth buying a player.
