Transformers: Dark of the Moon
There are always going to be some fans of any film property that will instantly rip apart whatever version of a character is put on screen by a director because it’s not the way they pictured it in their own mind. As a child of the 80’s, I grew up on cartoons like ThunderCats, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe and Transformers. Yes, I enjoyed them as a child, but looking back on them now, these were not works of art or incredibly deep stories. There was a basic premise of good versus evil, and sometimes an occasional twist where a character would switch sides, and that was about as complex as it got. All that to say, I’m not really someone who’s ever gone into a Transformers film before with a deep conviction for how the characters were to be portrayed or how intricate the story needed to be. What I look for in those films is a back and forth battle between good and evil on a grand scale, an immediate threat that must be stopped, and for that little kid inside of me to be reminded what made these characters so fun to watch all those years ago. Well with TF: DOTM(I’m not spelling it out the whole review), Michael Bay succeeded in those ways.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the way Bay threads his robot tales. There’s always the discovery of some MacGuffin(All Spark, Matrix of Leadership) in the beginning part of each film, and the search for that drives the majority of the film’s plot and each subsequent battle between Autobots and Decepticons is normally to wrestle control of such device. Nothing real new to be found in DOTM regarding that, however the stakes seem to be raised in this entry in the series, and for once it seems like the threat actually matters. Whether or not Bay steps away from the franchise after this remains to be seen, but if this is indeed his last robot-battle spectacular, then he’s leaving with a good mark on the characters, and a definite step up from the bad taste that Revenge of the Fallen left in the mouths of many viewers.
Shia is indeed back as Sam, and Megan Fox is nowhere to be seen. It appears that Bay found someone just as capable of fitting into form-fitting blue jeans and running across streets amid explosions in the Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Honestly, I never missed Fox during this, and ultimately Rosie does an acceptable job of being the love interest and occasionally shows more personality that Fox did in the last 2 films combined. Many of the other mainstays returned as well(Tyrese, Duhamel), some as annoying as ever, like John Turturro’s ex-agent Simmons. Newer cast members seem kind of shoe-horned in, like Frances McDormand and John Malkovich, whose roles don’t really matter much to the plot and feel like Bay had budget to burn and just hired big name actors for throw away parts.
Really though, no one goes to these flicks for the human actors, so on to what really works…the action. Bay has definitely grown in this sense as he’s gone from a bunch of undetectable gun-metal colored characters punching each other in the original to truly impressive 3D onslaughts in DOTM. Speaking of which, the 3D in this is easily the most impressive I’ve seen since Avatar, and that’s saying something. I am not on the bandwagon that every film should be seen in 3D, but I would think it a poor choice to skip seeing this one without the goofy black glasses, as you can tell this is the kind of movie it’s made for. The first part of the film is really exposition to move the story from point A to B, and while it’s mildly entertaining, the latter part of the film is just absolutely engaging from a fan of the cartoons. The battles mean something, characters actually suffer, and for once you can tell who’s fighting who on screen, and that alone is a big relief. The destruction of Chicago is played out like an end of the world scenario with the Autobots going up against what seem to be unstoppable odds, and Optimus and gang are now the underdogs in the fight and you can’t help but root for them in spite of being overcome in number.
No, this film is not groundbreaking in the sense that it stopped being about big explosions and robots and moved on to quoting poetry in the park, however it is easily the most entertaining of the 3 films Bay has put out, and at the end of the day, it’s a lot of fun and that’s what some movies are missing. I’m sure if you hated Shia in these films and didn’t like Bay’s direction, you probably won’t find anything more in this to change your mind. I can bet though that if you enjoyed the first film, but felt let down by the 2nd, that you will feel pleasantly surprised that DOTM is the big bad robot battle we all hoped it could be.
Bottom Line: Aside from a couple irritating human characters, Bay delivers the best in his Transformers series with stunning 3D visuals and dynamic action pieces