Movie Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
- Details
- Category: New Series and Movie Reviews
- Published: Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:13
- Written by Lupe Haas
Does it really matter what critics or fans say? Audiences go to Transformers movies for the spectacle and that's what they can expect again the third time around with a much closer view in 3D.
The Transformers movies have never been known for its quality scripts but the one thing you can count on is the massive special effects and fighting giant robots. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is definitely a big improvement over the last installment's mess of a movie. The story is much simpler and the action much cleaner. However, you'll get a sense of deja vu with scenes that look similar to the previous movies such as Shia running away from the Decepticons with his leading lady in tow, played this time by Victoria Secret model turned actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and the Michael Bay low angled slow motion shots of the proud soldiers walking toward greatness.
The story isn't much different either. The Decepticons conspire to dominate the world once again and the Autobots must come to the rescue. The U.S. government AGAIN has kept a highly-classified secret from the alien robots all these years that will coming back to haunt them. The 1969 U.S. manned-mission to the Moon was not for humans to set foot on the dark side of the moon but a disguise to investigate a spacecraft crash of unknown origin. NASA didn't lose transmission during the lunar landing but conspired to hide the truth from the world about findings of an alien ship. The astronauts brought back items from the crash site which would become a lethal weapon in modern day. Sound familiar?
Beginning with the first Transformers, Michael Bay and his special effects team gave audiences jaw-dropping and real-life fight scenes between the Autobots and Decepticons. DARK OF THE MOON doesn't disappoint in that aspect. While I'm not a fan of 3D movies, watching the third film in this format will certainly enhance your viewing pleasure. The action is clearer and feels a lot closer with the added third-dimension.
While most action scenes are replicas of previous movies, one action scene stood out as super cool. And it didn't involve any of the Autobots or Decepticons. Josh Duhamel and his soldiers skydive into the battle zone with winged-suits, flying through the air between buildings at great speeds with alien ships shooting at them. The sequence proved impressive and the best scene from the whole movie. It was good old-fashioned action scenes with humans and not CGI-generated beings.
Decepticon alien spaceshifts are introduced in this third outing as they destroy the city but the similarities in design to the ships in the Matrix movies gave it an air of familiarity.
Megan Fox's absense is also explained at Fox's expense with jokes delivered by Sam's annoying pet robots which involved the word "bitch". The low blow seemed in poor taste and we didn't get a better option with the new babe. There is no doubt Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is gorgeous but those pouty lips and chiseled-jaw bones was like watching a walking billboard for Victoria Secret. And how does someone like that hold a regular job and date a joe schmoe like Sam in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON? Megan Fox seemed a little more obtainable than the super model. It's obvious Bay loves pouty lipped-actresses with no regard for acting ability. His main objective is to objectify them as eye-candy for the boys. Of course, he couldn't resist shooting Rosie in her undies. Those Victoria Secret underwear?
Other newbies to Transformers 3 include Grey Anatomy's Patrick Demsey who takes a turn as a McDouch rather than McDreamy. While not a steller performance because of the cheesy dialogue, it was nice seeing another side of his tv persona. Leonard Nimoy voicing an Autobot was another highlight from the third Transformers.
Setting aside the many faults of TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, the movie-going audiences can expect lots of eye candy with the action scenes, a sexy new starlet, and new toys in the transformers world --every boys dream.