In theaters

TRANSFORMERS, directed by Michael Bay, written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, 144 minutes, rated PG-13.

So here’s a surprise. The summer’s first blockbuster action film worthy of its hype has nothing to do with pirates, living free or dying hard, Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four. Instead, it comes down to Michael Bay’s “Transformers,” a movie that clocks in at nearly 2 1/2 hours but which nevertheless greases by without ever feeling as long.

Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci based their script on Hasbro’s popular action figures, the ensuing cartoon series and the 1986 animated movie. With Bay at the helm, what they have created is a sleek addition to a movie season that too often has felt as if it needed a transformation itself.

What “Transformers” highlights are some of the best special effects of the year – any year – with Bay impressively ramping up the action and paying reasonable attention to the characters in ways that suggest he wants to own this summer.

So far – at least in this genre – he does.

The film stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a genial nerd whose humor and likability are as key to this movie’s success as are the Transformers themselves. Currently leading the charge as Hollywood’s most promising young actor, LaBeouf (“Disturbia”) suggests in this movie that there’s good reason to get excited for the upcoming “Indiana Jones” movie, in which he co-stars.

What he possesses is the ability to be believable within the wholly unbelievable, which in today’s far-reaching sci-fi movies is about as necessary a skill as one can have.

Here, the actor navigates a plot that finds Earth under attack by the Decepticons, huge robots in search of the Allspark, a giant cube that, if found, will allow these beasts the devastating powers of evil they seek. Working against them are the Autobots, who also are seeking the Allspark but who instead want to use its power for good.

Since neither the Decepticons nor the Autobots know where the Allspark is located on Earth, all hell is unleashed in their effort to find it, with Sam eventually learning through his unlikely relationship with the Autobots (he purchased an old Camaro that happens to be the Autobot Bumblebee) that he alone has the key to its discovery.

For romantic interest, the movie offers up Mikaela (Megan Fox), who has a hot bod and a crooked past. For a subplot, Bay sends us to Qatar, where the Decepticons first attack while U.S. soldiers (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson among them) work to fend them off. Also onboard is Anthony Anderson as a computer junkie, John Voight as the blustering secretary of defense and John Turturro as a secret agent who knows where the Allspark is held – and where the killer robot Megatron is kept frozen on ice, as well.

Naturally, the stars of the show are the Transformers themselves, whose incorporation into the film’s real-life surroundings is as seamless a feat as you could imagine. Watching them go through their gear-grinding motions of change – whether it’s into the new Camaro, a semi, a fighter plane or a Pontiac Solstice – initially seems so chaotic, you question whether the transformation makes physical sense. But since there’s no tricking this crowd, what you notice, the closer you watch, is that every wheel, every brake light, every part finds its place to create something towering, robotic and new.

Incredibly, it all just fits together, not unlike the movie itself.

Grade: B+

On DVD

MISS CONGENIALITY, MISS CONGENIALITY 2 (Double Feature)

Warner continues its double-feature series this week with a pair of Sandra Bullock movies, “Miss Congeniality” and “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous,” two comedies that cater to the sequins and tiara set, though with decidedly mixed results.

In the first film, Bullock’s Gracie Hart is a graceless, unkempt, ill-mannered FBI agent who goes undercover at the Miss United States pageant when word gets out that a madman plans to blow up the festivities in a decidedly noncongenial fashion.

Throughout, Bullock leans hard on her gifts for physical comedy while those around her – Michael Caine as a fussy pageant consultant, Candice Bergen as the pageant’s organizer, William Shatner as the pageant’s syrupy host – get laughs from the film’s witty script, much of which pokes fun at an easy target: beauty pageant contestants.

And yet the jokes in “Miss Congeniality” aren’t cruel. Instead, they’re surprisingly gentle. It’s as if the movie not only wanted to understand these women, most of whom live to raise their manicured middle fingers to feminism, but also to like them very much.

With Benjamin Bratt in a nice performance as Gracie’s macho colleague, “Miss Congeniality” tosses in its share of beauty pageant cliches, but it’s nevertheless enjoyable, a film that’s at its best when it swirls around Gracie’s funny transformation from tomboy to glamour queen.

“Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous,” on the other hand, doesn’t live up to its title. “Armed with a Few Laughs” would come closer to the mark. “Amputated by a Weak Script” would nail it.

This time out, Bergen, Bratt and Caine are missing, which sounds like a mistake because it is a mistake. Still, there is Shatner, who is in rare form here, and also there is Regina King as Gracie’s FBI nemesis, Sam Fuller, a brooding woman with a nasty left hook who brings to the movie the edge it needs, particularly in Bergen’s absence.

Though the plot is seriously misguided, Bullock is Bullock and that’s almost enough. Along with King, she’s working hard here, pressing against the ongoing mediocrity to create a worthwhile diversion for her fans. They’ll appreciate the effort.

“Congeniality,” Grade: B; “Congeniality 2,” Grade: C+

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.