Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Review
Three movies in and we just can’t seem to get enough of fighting, transforming robots. Director Michael Bay (‘Pearl Harbor’ & ‘Bad Boys’), famous for his knack of big explosions and action sequences, used this unique skill to his advantage when he successfully adapted the ‘Transformers’ toy line into the 2007 film that started it all. Michael Bay is the perfect person to adapt a ridiculously absurd premise into an entertaining and action-packed trilogy. The film series started off great with the original ‘Transformers’, but went downhill with the sequel, ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’. The sequel tried to go bigger, which it did, but the villains were terrible, the story made barely any sense, and it just didn’t work. C’mon, even Michael Bay and Shia LeBoeuf have admitted ROTF sucked! Thankfully Michael Bay realized his mistakes and fixed his wrongs; ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ pulls back on the stupid humor and nonsensical nonsense from ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ and improves on the story and action sequences.
In ‘Dark of the Moon’, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) has graduated from college, yet he’s unable to find a job even after saving the world twice. Since Megan Fox left the series, Sam has a new girlfriend this time, Carly Spencer, portrayed by Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Since ‘Revenge of the Fallen’, the Autobots have been working with the humans in battle and secret missions. It’s been a while since Sam had spent any time with his beloved Bumblebee, but he soon reunites with all of the bots when a major discovery is made.
Autobot leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) finds out that a ship from Cybertron, the transformers’ home planet, had crash-landed on the Moon decades ago, and that the Space Race was actually initiated to examine wreckage. The ship, called The Ark, holds a weapon that could have saved Cybertron and ended the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. This discovery ultimately leads to the film’s long-as-hell final confrontation between the Decepticons and the Autobots on Earth. Unlike the first two ‘Transformers’ films in which the third acts are 30-minute long battles between the bots, ‘Dark of the Moon’ has an hour-long final confrontation! This lengthy sequence requires little storytelling or actual dialogue, and instead focuses on action after action after action. The weird part is I didn’t mind any of this at all.
It was okay for this third installment in the ‘Transformers’ film series to focus more on action instead of plot because it’s way too entertaining to really give a care. This may seem like a double-standard given my hate of ‘Revenge of the Fallen’, but there’s a difference between the second and third films. ROTF really pushed the absurdity button as much as possible with its ridiculous plot, lame villain, and lots of dumb and low-level humor. Honestly, ‘Dark of the Moon’ is a way better “revenge of the fallen” than ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ ever was. The plot for this third installment is more straightforward and simple than the second film’s messy one. The jokes here are better, and the bad guys are more threatening.
‘Dark of the Moon’ is the first film in the trilogy to feature heavy losses of life at the hands of the Decepticons. There are sequences where crowds of people are extinguished and killed. However, the most interesting killing sequences are the assassinations of certain human characters by the Decepticons; the part where one of the new Transformers turns into a robotic doll-of-sorts in order to infiltrate a household and assassinate a person is pretty horrific.
Other than new Transformers, a slew of new human characters are also introduced in this film. The fantastic John Malkovich (‘Being John Malkovich’) is actually in the film, and he portrays Bruce Brazos, Sam’s boss. Malkovich’s character has an unusual affection for the color yellow, and he has some humorous moments, but the role is ultimately useless as he disappears with no explanation by the middle of the film. Ken Jeong (‘The Hangover’ & ‘Community’) once again portrays an over-the-top Asian, though it doesn’t prevent him from being funny. Patrick Dempsey (‘Grey’s Anatomy’) is Dylan Gould, Carly Spencer’s douchey boss with a more important role to the film than initially suggested. Academy-Award winner Frances McDormand portrays yet another jerk of a government official in Charlotte Mearing, Director of the CIA.
‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ is a great ending to the Michael Bay-directed trilogy. The action sequences in this film are better than ever, with the breath-taking “fly suit” scene, the toppling tower scene, and the sequence involving Bumblebee catching Sam in mid-air and transforming into his vehicle mode with Sam inside. The emotion is heightened due to the fact that more is at stake in this film, including the heavy casualties. When a certain ‘Transformers’ character who’d been in all three films gets killed in ‘Dark of the Moon’, I actually cared, unlike when the character Jazz died in the first film. Though this third film is a major improvement from the second, it doesn’t match the quality of the first installment. The first ‘Transformers’ film had more character development and a more straightforward storyline with less plot holes. The transforming sequences of the Transformers used to be awe-inspiring and exciting to watch, but three films into the series and this freshness has been lost.
Three and a half out of four Kents.
Extra Notes:
Megan Fox’s character from the first two films, Mikaela, is mentioned a few times in ‘Dark of the Moon’. Though the new female lead, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, does a good enough job in this film, I still can’t help but miss Megan Fox. I’m not saying that Fox or Whiteley are great actresses. In fact, Whiteley is a bad one (this is her first acting role), but she does a swell enough job in the film to where I didn’t mind her being a bad actress. I miss Megan Fox’s character because she was so involved in the previous two I got attached to her character and Shia LeBeouf’s character being together. They said “I love you” to one another in the second film, so how the heck is Megan Fox going to be missing form this third one? Haha.
The final confrontation at Chicago is pretty much Michael Bay’s masterpiece.
The 3D in ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ is truly impressive, and it’s the best since James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ from 2009. I won’t say that the 3D adds to the experience or makes the movie any better, because it doesn’t. But if you’re willing to spend the extra money for 3D, it’s worth it. Director Michael Bay put a lot of effort into making the 3D in this film amazing, and he succeeds. In fact, Bay has put a lot of effort into making sure audiences see the film in 3D, like when he emailed movie theatres to brighten up the projectors to make the picture quality clearer (with the shades of the 3D glasses).
The events and revelations in ‘Dark of the Moon’ kind of make the first two ‘Transformers’ film irrelevant if you think about it. {Spoiler Alert} According to certain characters in this film, Optimus Prime needs to be alive for something important and crucial to the Decepticons’ plans to work. If that’s so, then why in the hell did they try so hard to kill Optimus in the previous film (and at one point, they succeeded)? And if Megatron was part of the plan in this third film, why the heck did he need the AllSpark in the first film, and why did he help The Fallen in the second? Honestly, the timing of ‘Dark of the Moon’ doesn’t fit at all with regards to the previous films.
