"Transformers" and Michael Bay make a near-perfect pairings of material and filmmaker. After all, who better to make a movie about shape-changing, battling robots than a director whose works have frequently resembled video games and music videos?

Surprisingly, Bay actually subdues his usual, attention-deficit style for this sometimes rewarding, science-fiction action thriller, which is based on the popular '80s toy line (and accompanying Saturday-morning cartoon series).

Believe it or not, that includes the biggest action sequences in this highly anticipated blockbuster. And there are some doozies here.

The film's biggest problems are story-related, including some dumb, low-brow humor.

The title characters are sentient robots from outer space. There are good-guy robots (Autobots) and bad-guy robots (Decepticons).

Both have arrived on Earth to find the missing "All-Source," a gigantic, technologically advanced cube that has considerable powers. It's a race against time, as the Autobots try to find it before the Decepticons do — and before the latter group turns Earth into its new base.

Most of Earth is caught in the middle of their warring, including U.S. Army soldiers who encounter a lethal Decepticon in Qatar. The killer robot is trying to access a U.S. government data base that may reveal the location of the "All-Source."

Meanwhile, teenager Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has unwittingly aided the Autobots. His new car turns out to be one of the shape-changing heroes, and Sam also possesses artifacts that may lead to the hidden cube.

Three screenwriters are credited with the jumbled story, which tries to sandwich in the Transformers' origins with a teen romance (between LaBeouf and Megan Fox), as well as commenting on current U.S. politics.

Consequently, it takes quite awhile to get to the robot-vs.-robot battles. When they finally happen, the film is pretty fun — although a bit about an Autobot "relieving" itself on a human is just embarrassing.

It also helps that the film features the extremely likable LaBeouf. He's a good lead and will appeal to the movie's obvious target demographic.

"Transformers" is rated PG-13 for strong scenes of action violence (robot battles, warfare, vehicular and explosive mayhem), vulgar sexual humor and references (as well as some robot scatological humor), scattered profanity, and brief drug references. Running time: 144 minutes.

---

E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com