Transmorphers

Transmorphers
Transmorphers DVD cover
Directed by	Leigh Scott
Produced by	David Michael Latt
Written by	Leigh Scott
Starring	Matthew Wolf Griff Furst Eliza Swenson Amy Weber Shaley Scott
Music by	Victoria Mazze Chris Ridenhour Divine Madness, The
Cinematography	Steven Parker
Editing by	Leigh Scott Kristen Quintrall
Distributed by	The Asylum
Release dates	June 26, 2007 (2007-06-26)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Transmorphers is a science fiction alien invasion film released direct-to-DVD on June 26, 2007. It was written and directed by Leigh Scott and produced by David Michael Latt and The Asylum. Transmorphers was developed as a mockbuster, intending to capitalize on Michael Bay's Transformers.

The film was followed by a 2009 prequel titled Transmorphers: Fall of Man.

Plot

In 2009, a race of aliens piloting giant robots have conquered Earth and forced humanity to live underground. They have done this by altering the environment, causing constant rainfall and darkness. 300 years later, after many generations of living underground, a small group of human rebels plan to finally take back their world from the mechanical invaders. They soon learn however that the aliens do not pilot the robots, but are the robots.

A patrol, led by Blackthorn (Thomas Downey), is sent out to capture one of the robots, a Z-bot, so its operating ability can be studied. The patrol is suddenly ambushed by several robots, with some being able to reconfigure themselves, revealing different weapon systems. These units, the 'transmorphers', ambush humans by appearing as mundane features of the terrain, even fooling detection systems. The robots use "brain scans" to read the minds of humans to know their battle plans.

After Blackthorn's patrol is destroyed by the machines the leader of the human resistance group, General Van Ryberg (Eliza Swenson), argues with fellow officers of the Military and Science Guilds about how to fight the war. Van Ryberg decides to reinstate a disgraced soldier named Warren Mitchell (Matthew Wolf), who was court-martialed along with his right-hand man, Itchy (Griff Furst), and cryogenically frozen for insubordination. They had killed their unit officer five years earlier. Mitchell is glad to be reinstated, but learns that his former lover, Karina Nadir (Amy Weber), a fighter pilot, is now married to General Van Ryberg.

Mitchell assembles a small military patrol while Xandria Lux (Shaley Scott) is sent out to capture a Z-bot, intact, so its fuel cells can be studied. They hope to shut the machines down by contaminating the fuel cell and placing it in a large radio tower which supposedly controls the machines.

Mitchell and his group ambush and destroy a group of patrol machines, and succeed in capturing one. During the battle, Karina and another female soldier named Blair (Sarah Hall) become stuck behind enemy lines right near the radio tower.

Bringing the Z-bot back to their underground city, Mitchell realizes that the fuel cell has an implanted tracking device that leads the machines to the humans underground city. Van Ryberg takes over as the field commander in a last-ditch effort to defeat the robots, and to rescue her wife.

Mitchell then surprisingly learns from resident scientist Dr. Voloslov Alextzavich (Michael Tower), that he himself is an android constructed by Dr. Alextzavich, with human feelings and understandings. Mitchell realizes that he must get the Z-bot's fuel cell to the radio tower and implant it in the control computer in order to shut the robots down.

Supported by an aerial strike force led by Lux, Mitchell's team make it to the radio tower where they are able to rescue Karina and Blair. The group breaks into the building, but the anti-human counter-measures make all of them sick and they cannot make it to the main control room. The situation becomes more complicated when the tower reveals itself to be a giant robot.

Meanwhile, General Van Ryberg and her own soldiers reach one of the terraforming stations and attempt to take it offline and hold off a massive army of robots attacking the underground city. Lux then arrives with her fighter squadron to bomb the attacking robots.

Back at the radio station, Mitchell, using his android abilities, sacrifices himself and takes the tower out, buying enough time for the rest of his team to escape. Once the tower is destroyed the robots all over the world shut down. With the battle won, Karina and Van Ryberg are reunited and the surviving humans see the sun shine through the clouds for the first time in centuries.

Cast

• Matthew Wolf as Mitchell
• Griff Furst as Itchy
• Eliza Swenson as General Van Ryberg
• Amy Weber as Nadir
• Monique La Barr as Reitcha
• Shaley Scott as Lux
• Jeff Denton as McGuire
• Thomas Downey as Blackthorn
• Leigh Scott as General Sabir
• Colin Dunlap as Bear

Release

Initial copies of the DVD released in the United States contained out of sync audio in the 5.1 surround track and missing special effects and sound effects. Subsequent reissues of the North American and British DVD were corrected.

Reception

David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com stated that "even the most dedicated Bad Movie fans will have difficulty slogging through this one".^[1] However, there was one positive review: Felix Vasquez Jr. from Cinema Crazed said, "Transmorphers is worth your time. And no, Asylum didn't pay me to say that."^[2]

Mike Hermann of the Houston Chronicle called this "the most elaborate and bodacious straight to DVD movie of the year" and goes on to say "[I] can't remember another director and set of actors doing such an awful film." According to Keith Phipps of AV Club: "While my curiosity was definitely satisfied, and while it warms the heart that The Asylum is out there finding ways to exploit the public’s desire to see cheap versions of what they’ve seen elsewhere, Transmorphers was actually pretty dull."^[3]

Prequel/Sequel

A sequel was released that acts as a prequel entitled, Transmorphers: Fall of Man.

See also

• Transmorphers: Fall of Man, the 2009 prequel starring Shane Van Dyke
• Transformers, the 2007 blockbuster of which Transmorphers is a mockbuster

References

External links

• Transmorphers at The Asylum
• Transmorphers at the Internet Movie Database
• Transmorphers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Transmorphers at allmovie
• Audio Interview With Director on the Your Video Store Shelf Podcast