Transformers

I saw the movie Transformers on DVD this weekend (or at any rate, the first half of it). A few thoughts:

1. The geek gets the girl. He wins her attention even before it turns out his "new" car is a Transformer. I'm a sucker for this storyline, even though it never happens in real life. Much more realistic was that, until he gives her a ride home, she had no idea that they had been in the same classes since grade school.

2. The combat sequences. These are just what we would expect from Michael Bay. I'm not an expert on military operations, but this movie's portrayal feels realistic. From the special ops team in the desert, to NSA's signal analysts, to the National Command Authority: these folks are portrayed as courageous, resourceful, and dedicated . . . just like we would expect them to be in the face of a Decepticon-magnitude threat.

This compares favorably to 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Here, the military appears incompetent and self-important, and serve only to get in the way of the heroes.