★★★★★★★☆☆☆
  One thing that is supposed to set me apart from other sites that review movies, is that I don't have an agenda.  I don't have the connections that a lot of other sites have, I don't get to interview the directors, or cast.  I'm just a guy given a voice by the internet that maybe ten people read.    That being said, I can say that I liked Transformers, and I also liked the Transformers 2 IMAX version.  No, these are not movies that I watch over and over again. There were multiple eye rolling moments in the second film, especially some of the horrific attempts at comedy, but they were fun, summer popcorn action movies.  We are now at Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which should be the last Michael Bay Transformers film, and I am here to tell you, it is BY FAR the best of the series.
  The tone of this film is a lot different than the previous two.  For the first time in the series it feels as if it's a no win situation. Things are bad, very bad.  There is a lot of deception in this film, a lot of "backstabbing" but once all of the pieces fall into place, the last hour of this film is packed with some of the most incredible visuals that you have ever seen. 

   Dark of the Moon was filmed fully in 3d, using technology, and cameras (and crew) used in Avatar, and even some advice thrown in from James Cameron on using it.  While the action is fast and furious, it seems to be a beat slower, allowing the scenes to flow a lot better, and while I did not see the 3d version, I'm sure that extra beat allows the 3d to look crisp instead of just a blur.

  We start off, with the typical Transformers prologue recounting the war for Cybertron, letting us in on the real reason for the "space race" with the USSR, and boom we are in the present time and off and running. Sam Witwicky is out of college and struggling to find a job. Optimus Prime and the autobots are still working with the US Military (NEST) and looking and waiting for Decepticons. There is a LOT more going on here but, I don't want to ruin it.

 I am trying to remain spoiler free for this review, because there is actually a plot to this Transformers film, wth some twists and turns and I don't want to ruin these important moments of the film before its released.

  What I will say is this, the sense of danger is real in this film. The stakes are raised, and the Decepticons are for once, Decepticons. What i mean by that is they are actually scary for once. You feel that there is actually some consequence in this film. Something missing from the first 2.  The invasion of Chicago (seen in the trailers) is truly something to see, and that alone is worth seeing this movie. 

  Some of the unwanted comedy breaks are still there.  And I understand they are there for you to catch your breath before the next major set piece, but some of it is just SO bad, that it pulls you right out of the world of the film, which to me is the biggest mistake you can make in a movie. Ken Jeong, and John Malkovich's scenes are more awkward than funny, the autobot comic relief, while not NEARLY as bad as the twins from Revenge of the Fallen is still pretty bad (but not as bad as you would think from the tv ads.   Kevin Dunn, and Julie White are both back as Sam's parents, but their screen time is much less than before, thank goodness.  Frances McDormand  is good in her role as National Intelligence Director.  The Humans again in this film just fail to be interesting to me.  I said in my Super 8 review, when you want to create the feeling of danger, and doom, it really only works if you truely care about the characters, and still in this film, other than Sam, I don't really have any connection to the human characters.  Sam's scenes with Bumblebee are more moving than any scene he has with Carly. John Turturro returns as Agent Simmons (this is the second film in a row he's been in for me) Again his screen time is cut, but I still find his character here unfunny and a total waste of his talent. Patrick Dempsey though is pretty good in his role as Carly's boss, Dylan. He really ramps up the sleaze here.  Shia Labeouf is better in this film than the previous two, and takes a step toward heroic versus just being the human connection to the Autobots, still though, the only human character worth caring about. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is just terrible in this film. I never thought I'd find myself missing Megan Fox (although Bay does take a shot at her, that's not so subtle).  I could go on for paragraphs about how terrible she is, but I think you get the picture.  She's just bad.

  On the Robot front, Leonard Nimoy is fantastic as Sentinel Prime.  There are even some Star Trek references that will get a grin out of some of us geeks. And of course Peter Cullen is amazing as Optimus Prime, as he has been for most of my life.  Starscream is still mired in the background, but Shockwave makes his way to the front in spectacular fashion in this film.  Megatron is back, somewhat disfigured from the end of the previous movie, while exiled at first, he decides to get involved later in the film.  As I said before, there are twists and turns in this movie, and the ones involving the bots are by far the best, and a couple moments got a nice emotional response from me.  I have to be vague because I don't want to spoil these moments I'd like you to be able to experience them as I did.

  The battle scenes are amazing, and much better than the previous 2 films.  Vibrant and full of life, and as i said a beat slower than the action sequences of the previous films, which allows you to follow the action better than before.  The Decepticons have some truly awesome/scary moments and Optimus Prime FINALLY is the Optimus we remember when the battle scenes take place.  These are by far the best scenes this character has had in the entire series.

  The film does have its issues, the stupid humor nearly throws the entire movie off track in Act Two, but thing's regroup, and the last hour is just flat out incredible jaw dropping all out human/robot war that would make a Terminator movie jealous.  I can't go on enough about the last hour of the film. The visuals are some of the most incredible I've ever seen, the battles are amazing, Optimus Prime is finally the warrior that he's supposed to be.

  Who will like this?  Pretty much anyone that has any connection to the cartoon while growing up, fans of action movies/explosions/visual candy 


  Who will not like it?  Transformer purists.  There is plenty of transformer lore in this film, however its very heavily edited and jumbled, and a lot of liberty has been taken with some events/characters.

  I'm going to give this a 7/10.  It could have been a lot better, but Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is just terrible, and the comedy spots just pulled me right out of the story. Overall though it's a lot of fun, and visually amazing.  A running time of just over 2.5 hours makes you feel a little exhausted by the end, especially the pacing of that last hour.



Enjoy!

Labels: 2011, New Release