It’s been three days since I saw Michael Bay’s Transformers and I’m still in shock over how much I loved it. Having never been a fan of the product / show / merchandise, I only had a passing familiarity with Optimus Prime and Decepticons and what have you. And yet by the end of the film, the line “More than meets the eye,” may end up giving you goose bumps.

The story isn’t terribly complex but it’s well constructed. Both the Autobots (the good guys!) and the Decepticons (the bad guys!) are looking for the All-Spark, a mysterious cube that unfortunately for the human race, crash-landed on Earth. A group of Marines led by Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson have to start kicking ass when the Decepticons start tearing up the Middle East as they attempt to hack our computers for information about the location of the All-Spark. But meanwhile, on the other side of the world, is Sam Witwicky (played with sharp humor and enormous charm by Shia LeBeouf; his performance here actually has me excited for Indiana Jones 4 which previously might as well been Indiana Jones and the Desired Paycheck) who desperately wants a new car so he can impress the hottest chick in school, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox looking more like a supermodel than a high-schooler but she’s got a solid character). Little does he know that his car is actually a robot in disguise. Naturally, as more information becomes available to us Earthlings and the Transformers get closer to discovering the All-Spark, things get gradually more intense. But the film never loses its energy, its humor, or its tone.

People can rag on Michael Bay all they like for making loud, explosive action films, but few can make an action flick as well as Bay. In fact, he tends to go astray whenever he reaches for something more, like history and romance in Pearl Harbor or social-commentary sci-fi with The Island. But never has Bay been more suited to a product than with Transformers. For a man who can have his explosions make explosions, having giant robots beat the shit out of each other while wrecking the landscape is no challenge for Bay but rather an opportunity to do his best work yet. When you get that sweet new home entertainment center, this is the film you’ll want to use to show it off.

In a sea of summer disappointments, Transformers is a crowd-pleaser that actually pleases, satisfied, arouses, and then makes you want more. Sure, it can be a little dumb at times but its heart is in exactly the right place and with every character, both human and robot, receiving at least some development and personality, it manages to be more than just eye/ear-candy. I wasn’t expecting much from this film, but Transformers is definitely more than meets the eye.