Weekend Movie Forecast: The Hurt Locker Vs. Transformers

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is open and will be screening for much of the summer, but that won't stop geeks from killing each other to get tickets this weekend. We survived an IMAX screening on Monday night (barely) and have to say [spoiler alert!] that Michael Bay's latest opus did not fill us with dispiriting, soul-crushing sadness. The action scenes are exciting, the special effects are stunning, the crotch jokes are abundant, and Megan Fox is Maxim hot. Which is to say, it's just about perfect for the 13-year-olds for whom it's made, while also appealing to all the Gen Xrs still savoring their permanently arrested development. (Two guys in their late 20s were literally on the edge of their seats next to us during the screening.) Also, Bay gave Brooklyn's John Turturro a bigger role in this one, and he mercifully provides the movie's sole human touch.

Most critics are derisive, but again, this is obviously a puerile-minded movie made for adolescents and ought to be evaluated on those terms. Adults should keep that in mind or just go see The Hurt Locker. But it's worth noting that there is a bit of controversy brewing over two of the film's Autobot characters, Skids and Mudflap, which the Playlist accurately describes as "the modern Al Jolson, jive-talking 'black robots' that have faces resembling monkeys, gold cap teeth and are illiterate minstrel, bumbling fools." Bay defends the characters thus: "We're just putting more personality in. I don't know if it's stereotypes — they are robots, by the way... Listen, you’re going to have your naysayers on anything. It’s like is everything going to be melba toast?" Not on Bay's watch!