Robots in disguise

When I heard in 2006 that Steven Spielberg would produce a live-action adaptation of the "Transformers" cartoons, I felt like I had won the lottery. When I heard a while later that Michael Bay would direct it, I wanted to give my ticket back.\nI'll admit to owning most of Bay's catalog on DVD for the hell of it, but this time he was messing with my childhood. Several months and hundreds of millions of dollars later, I'm pretty sure he made the best "Transformers" movie that could have been made, despite cramming in some of his usual excesses.\nThe plot, concerning a life-giving cube called the Allspark and the two warring factions of alien shape-shifting robots who seek it, is standard action-movie stuff. The cast, including Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox, a wild-eyed John Turturro and a self-deprecating Jon Voight, know not to take the material too seriously and mostly hit the right notes. I wish Bay hadn't chosen to portray the Decepticon called Frenzy (the little one who turns into a CD player and a cell phone) with such Jar-Jar-esque silliness, though.\nThe stars of the show here, though, are the robots (a.k.a., the Industrial Light & Magic effects team). "Transformers" marks the third collaboration between Bay and ILM, the first being the disastrous but pretty "Pearl Harbor" and the second being the underwhelming but pretty "The Island." This time, I can say without hesitation that "Transformers" is some of ILM's best work in its 26-year on-screen history, and while we're at it, go ahead and give the sound technicians their Oscars. Very few films give me that itch to spend the thousands of dollars required to upgrade to in-home HD and Dolby Surround, but this one does.\nA single-disc version is out there, but the two-disc special edition is worth the extra cash. Bay offers up some dry commentary on the first disc, and the second disc is all about peeling back the layers of flash and scratching the surface of all of our "How did they do that?" questions. There's also some material explaining the "Transformers" universe to the uninitiated, a.k.a., those among you who didn't spend countless hours of your childhood watching Hasbro videotapes and playing with Optimus Prime and Megatron action figures.\n"Transformers" is the perfect popcorn fare because of its combination of eye-popping visual effects and ear-jarring sound work, along with subtle smarts not usually found in Bay movies. Still, don't pop it in the player expecting anything more than some guilt-free laughs, a couple of gorgeous girls and some well-choreographed robo-carnage.