'Transformers' colors don't run?

Early word on Transformers has it that the film may sit well with those of us on the political right.

From Variety:

“…Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers in Qatar have been attacked by a helicopter that transforms itself into one nasty robot, destroying everything in its path while an offshoot downloads top-secret files from the computers. Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voight, doing a Southern version of Donald Rumsfeld) calls an emergency conference to analyze the data ("This is way too smart for the Iranians"), but one of the small robots has already hacked into Air Force One's computer…"

Jon Voight has been outspoken in his support for the War on Terror, so it's no surprise he'd be in a film that apparently is very sympathetic to the military.

It's also a Michael Bay film. So what if he has a reputation as a raving tyrant on set? Bay's company took part in a panel discussion at the Liberty Film Festival a couple years ago. I couldn't make that session, but I'm glad to hear that the rumors about Hollywood's biggest action director being on our side may be true.

"…More than any of Bay's earlier blockbusters, including "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon," "Transformers" has an oddly Reagan-era feel, at times resembling an Air Force recruitment commercial. Soldiers, led by Capt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sgt. Epps (Tyrese Gibson), are as much heroes as [protagonist] Sam, fighting to rid the world not only of authoritarian regimes -- there's frequent speculation that Russia or China is involved, proving the Cold War hasn't ended -- but also secret government programs. Ethnic stereotypes abound, and there's a none-too-subtle jab at the Spanish-as-an-equal-language lobby. "Freedom is the right of all sentient human beings," intones Optimus, sounding more appropriately President Bush circa 2007.”

The last time this kind of buzz surrounded a movie, we were talking about 300. And we all know how that one did.
And if the buzz is accurate, expect this one to rule the box office uncontested when the final receipts are tallied for '07. Then again, Bay's woefully underrated "The Island" flopped not long ago. Granted, liberal critics uniformly damned that pro-life pic with abysmal reviews it did not deserve, and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Avoid the lines. Get your tickets now.

(Thanks to Mike Rinaldi for the heads-up on this one!)