One has to feel for Megan Fox. The 21-year-old former model's thrill at landing her first major role has given way to the realisation that she's just a supporting player to the real stars: giant robots. 'You have the human element of the film, so people can relate,' she says. 'But I'd never say I feel like the star.'
What's more, after director and executive producer Michael Bay took pains to point out that his budget of US$145 million was minor compared with the US$300 million spent on competing summer blockbusters such as Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, it's clear that only a small proportion of that has gone on star-level salaries when special effects are so pricey.
Bay does have a reputation for catapulting actors into the big time: he claims Nicolas Cage (The Rock) and Owen Wilson (Armageddon) among his successes. Nevertheless, star-spotters will be disappointed with Transformers. With the exception of Jon Voight in a supporting role, Transformers is a no-name movie. Unless you count the robots, that is.
The Transformers were originally a series of action robot toys that could transform themselves into vehicles, produced by US toy- maker Hasbro in 1984. The line was launched with a theme song and a Marvel comic. An animated feature film appeared two years later. A whole range of upgraded and updated robots followed. The Transformers have generated a cult - they're the most successful series of action figures after the Star Wars line.
Bay adapted the robots for the big screen, generating apoplexy among die-hard Transformers fans. The computer system in the film's art department was hacked into 39,000 times, and Bay says he even received death threats over the Web. Hasbro isn't complaining. The company website is flogging 'deluxe preview figures' of all the robots that appear in the movie in the run-up to the film's opening.
'You haven't seen robots like this,' says Bay, noting that the chief of the good-guy robots, Optimus Prime, has 10,000 moving parts. 'I've thought more about robots than any other man on Earth.'