Thanks for checking out our Tranformers Dark of the Moon Review
Genre: Action Sci-fi
Directed by: Michael Bay
Staring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Alan Tudyk
Released: July 1st, 2011
THE GENERAL IDEA
The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers’ final battle.
THE GOOD
The bots are all great. Even the annoying Wheelie and whatever his new buddy is named. They are brief, but effective. A little campy to make the kiddies smile, but they actually serve a purpose. The Autobots are great and there is enough exposure to these characters to actually care who they are. A point is clearly made to reintroduce them so you know who is who. I didn’t really care for Q (Wheeljack)’s very humanized Einstien-esque head (with hair), but they all serve their purpose and each get a moment to shine. The parents are in this but very minor. And I count this as a very good thing.
This brings me to the real purpose of this film. The action and visuals. I saw this in 3D and I found it rather effective, again without obvious “in-your-face” thrusting images. It was an effective use of the technique, but not “required” to enjoy this movie.
The visuals worked really well. Normally I am not a fan of slow-mo action shots, but with the overly complicated bot-forms in tight combat, there was just enough of it to punctuate the action and impacting moments. The action was impressive and a lot of fun.
The biggest part that outweighs all other things in this movie is that they REALLY made this a more serious film for the most part. The final battle is very impressive and I cannot stress this more…. PEOPLE DIE. Characters die. I wont say who or how, but characters you know bite it and its hard to see it happen. There are scenes during the Decepticon invasion where they are gunning down fleeing fleshlings, bystanders get slaughtered. Its not graphic, but very obvious. They are not pretending this city is empty when the fight goes down, and the Autobots don’t save them all.
And the Autobots share. When human military forces attempt to take on these bots, they can stand their own (and for the most part still fail) because they have advanced tech. This makes sense.
Lastly, I know people are waiting to see how Rosie Huntington-Whiteley fares. They replaced a hot girl who isn’t an actress with a hot girl who isn’t an actress. No loss there. They don’t spend much time at all introducing how and why Carly is with Sam, and its done very well. They are already in the relationship at the very first frame of the movie. No time wasted on a pointless romance, but still deals with Sam’s feelings for her in a way that works with the movie. Yes, Rosie is insanely hot, and a better female side character than Fox ever was. Sam is more mature now, and she is a much better counterpart to him in the film. (That and in the G1 animated series he ends up with Carly anyways)
THE BAD
There is a number of supporting cast in this film that I just had NO USE for. John Malkovich is typically a home run in everything he is in, but in this he plays an incoherantly overstated attempt at comic relief that just doesn’t work. Disappointing. Another crappy supporting character Ken Jeong -who is the same exaggerated awkward type he always is – is brief but ineffective. And lastly, Agent Simmons is back and really doesn’t need to be. AT ALL. His character delievers a plot point that could easily have been covered by any other character at all. Pointless.
I just wish at one point in this franchise they would give a definitive set of rules about their alternative modes. What they are able to transform into should have been defined. Some bots seem to be able to change into anything, and those things seem pointess when you see their bot forms. Most of the bots look like they are made up of parts of the vehicle they change into, but others don’t look like anything. The tranformations are so convoluted that I just can’t be fascinated.
Little nitpicks… I did like that Soundwave was not just a satellite in space, and not that I wanted him to be a Sony Walkman, but I wasn’t really impressed with what he does transform into. And Laserbeak looked awesome, but I was disappointed that he speaks.
Michael Bay still manages to get in his trademark explosions, which goes with the genre of the film, but he also gets a chance to insert his waving Us flag. I guess it wouldn’t be a Bay film without one.
OVERALL
The movie is a big shift in gears (pun intended) to a more serious combat film with a real world threat level. This is my favourite of the three films for this reason alone. Less hokey stuff (but its still there a bit) and a LOT more heart.
The film does run a little long, but its pretty clear that this is the end. Bay has hinted that he will not return to these films and I believe it.
If so, this is an effective finale.
I give Transformers Dark of the Moon a 7 out of 10
I gave it 6/10. Though the movie has impressive CGI but the story is always not good enough. Shia & Rosie, they just run everywhere with no role in the movie. The ending is disappointed.
What really ruined it for me was Shia laboufs over acting, never noticed how bad he was in previous two installments, probly too busy staring at Megan Fox.
Witwicky deserves better
I saw this mess with a false sense of ‘hope,’ although I should’ve known better. Sadly, 1/10 is the best I could give this flick. Maybe one day someone will do this franchise some justice on the big screen, but that’s HIGHLY doubtful.
Psst… Here’s a little secret.
These days Hasbro makes upwards of 80% of their annual revenue off the sale of intellectual property. Physical toy and game sales don’t turn much profit anymore (especially as their production costs have increased), but the sale of their ‘brands’ has proved highly lucrative and requires fairly low costs (a staff of attorneys, basically). So Hasbro makes its fortune licensing movie rights and things like McDonald’s Monopoly game, Clue-themed lottery tickets, and stuff like that.
Transformers is Hasbro’s golden goose. They’ll keep making these movies as long as they can turn a profit.
Getting more off topic: I’m always surprised how poorly Hasbro has managed their ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ intellectual property, which could be just as lucrative as Transformers if handled correctly. They need to get D&D into the hands of a talented director and put a big budget behind it. Harry Potter, LotR, PotC and now Game of Thrones have all shown that fantasy is hot.
Thank Marlon Wayans for that one dude. (d&d issue)
After watching the movie my head still feels like I have been getting flash banged by god for almost three hours. German is my mother tongue, but I had the great luck to get into a IMAX original version here in Vienna. That was just awesome. Since I love english movies… I still cannot get enough from Optimus voice. I’m not sure if this is just because I am not a native english speaker… but whenever I hear his voice it just gives me the chills. No matter what he says, If he tells the audience that he wants to go to the bathroom, it is just epic for me.
The movie at all… jeah I would give it a 7/10 as well. But overall I think it is better to think about the movie as three acts.
1. The Introduction, war on Cybertron and the Moon Race. The first 15 Minutes are in my opinion by far the greatest scenes of the movie and the best piece of cinema I have seen this year. the 3D effect, Optimus voice and the whole dramatic atmosphere, the score, it really got me.
2. The long part, which is imho a collection of bits that do not really fit together due to bad storytelling. Some scenes are awesome (I love Malkovich though he has no meaning for the story, the highway chase was incredible, and the scene with Sentinel and Optimus in Africa (no matter how they got there)). But overall this was the weakest part of the movie
3. The Final Battle of Chicaco. This was the greatest Special Effect and CGI show I have ever wittnessed. And I still want to know how they made the non-cgi shots in the collapsing skyscraper…
Overall… I will never forget the introduction of this movie. It was just great. And many scenes from the final for which I am really happy to having seen them in IMAX.
But yes. If Bay could have put the story together better he would have made a greater movie. And I have to disagree with Rodney regarding the Transformers characters. In my opinion the introduction of the characters was just too brief, and they did by far not get enough dialogue to really care who they are. I would have loved to see more interaction between Sideswipe, Ironhide, Ratchett and co, plus more screentime for Megatron (I really love his Warlord outfit).
I gave it 7/10. Though the movie has impressive CGI but the story is always not good enough. Shia & Rosie, they just run everywhere with no role in the movie. The ending is disappointed.
Saw it last night, pretty decent overall but still had those “gimme a break” moments from the 2nd film. Malkovich was a waste and so was both Tuturro (again!) and mrs. Cohen Bros.
at least they left out the Latino guy.
Action at end was AWESOME but I had to wait almost 2 hours to get there.
Girl had waaay too many lines and after all the battle action her heels stayed on and intact! Lame.
6 out of 10 is spot on BUT they shoulda showed Prime straping on the Jets in a OMG moment………..lost opportunity IMO
Wow a 7 out of 10 is way too high for that movie, I was constantly looking at my watch wondering when it was going to end, listen the fight scenes were great, but I had to wait until the last 45 minutes for the film to actually pick up??
I couldn’t care less about Sam and his stupid life, Ms. Victoris Secret Model Rosie was just more eye candy, you have 3 Academy Award winning actors and they all acted like idiots, and don’t even get me started on Ken Jeung’s character (bloody annoying), and I could have sworn Michael Bay had learned from his mistakes on Revenge of the Fallen, really?? because you still had annoying little robots,the annoying family, etc, and a storyline which starts off pretty interesting then just goes all over the place.
You know a movie is dragging when you take your kids to see it and they are getting restless in their seats and asking “Where are the Robots??” I would rate this movie a 4.5 out of 10, there was so much potential, but really you can take that movie and trim about 45 minutes to an hour of useless drama out of it, thank god I went to an afternoon matinee; but Transformers: Dark of the Moon is making a shit load of money, so even if Bay doesn’t decide to come back, there’s sure to be another sequel, no thanks guys I’ve had enough!!!
I will admit i loved this one best in the series!!! Action and Story….lets us not forget the very unexpected twist with Patrick Dempsey it was nice to see the Decepticons using humans as well…
I thought Dempsey was a crappy casting choice..
He got more lines than Malkovitch and Tuturro put together…Bullcrap..
what the blonde girl made Megatron do at the end oof the movie is BY FAR the worst villain decision of any movie in Hollywood history.
Besides the time the terrorist in True Lies climbed a 500 foot crane chasing a girl when he had a helicopter and then tried to fight arnold schwarzenegger on top of an f-16 HE was piloting.
If anyone else is in NYC and can get to the IMAX in Lincoln Center do yourself a favor and make that place your theater of choice. Optimus Prime was life-size. A LOT.
Worth every penny.
The doomed look in Bumblebees eyes. That really got to me.
Tried to see it on 07/03/2011 and both theatres were sold out till 12:30 AM….it was 5 o clock!
Fuck You Micheal Bay!
Just foolin, will try again tomorrow when everyone else goes back to work.
A 10 year old might give it 7 out of 10.
I’m a grown up.
I’d give the movie a 5/10 just for the last hour of the film. The CGI is impressive and the action was fun. If it wasn’t for that last hour of entertaining mayhem I’d be forced to lower my rating to a 3 or 4.
Too long, needless caricatures…er characters, frat boy humor, and numerous glaring plot holes nearly ruined it for me. I can’t subscribe to the “check your brain at the door” mentality. And you really need to do that. If you can do it, then good for you, you’ll have a real hoot of a time!
Like I said though, the CGI is impressive and virtually seamless.
you probably give it a 10/10 if christopher nolan or james cameron directed the same movie. it sounds like you just dont like michael bay
That’s an asinine statement. If James Cameron or Chris Nolan directed the movie exactly the same way my score wouldn’t change. It would still be too long, superfluous characters, etc. Just because some people worship the ground those guys walk on doesn’t mean everyone does. They’re fine storytellers, but not without fault.
Michael Bay has made some movies that I like. Sadly, this is not one of them.
The Rock is by far his greatist film in my opinion.
this movie was amazing. especially in 3D. im not a big fan of 3D but decided to see it in 3d due to the many good reviews. i would watch it again.
i loved it! loved it! loved it! i know what i am going in to watch. i loved the previous two. yes, fallen was flawed, but it still was good. but part 3 was just insanely awesome. i saw it in imax 3D and it blew my mind. i had a great time at the movies. bay delivered. i got what i wanted out of this movie. 10 out of 10.
I still think the fight in the woods in ROTF is the best optimus prime’s show of a true warrior. He is downright badass.
I gotta say I loved it, maybe not as much as the first film but close. IK was skeptical of Rosie’s part but they did a nice job of tying her into the story and such. I missed Megan as well but Rosie was a nice surprise.
It wasnt a perfect film but you can tell they really tried on this one, I will be seeing it again on the big screen.
Im getting real tired of the human aspect of these movies. Mainly the fact that autobots success seems to hinder greatly on the human (US military) invovlement. Im tired of seeing a small platoon of human soldiers take down multiple decepticons and this movie seemed to be worst about it for these reasons
1) Shia LeBeef single handidly kills Starscream…Starscream!(with basicaly his bare hand too!)
2)Soundwave gets completely beat down by Bumblebee! (Did Bumblebee ever fight anyone before these movies came out?)
3)Shockwave is all but destroyed by small group of human…because of a parachute over the eyes?!…Shockwave! (He is so much gone that by time optimus gets there, it just takes one punch to end.)
4) So glad the epic final fight of Megatron and Optimus has them both in critical condition, but yet is over in less than 2 seconds…awesome
All it wasnt bad, but I was dissapointed for the reasons listed above. Seems like Bay was wanting to make sure that everyone was dead so whoever picked up after him would have a hard time making sequel.
I’d say 7 out of 10 stars. Better than “Revenge of the Fallen”, 3/4ths good as the first. All the while, we all thought Shockwave was going to be the main villain . We had no hint whatsoever in the press releases that Sentinel Prime was going to turn traitor. That was a nice touch, Michael Bay. I hope they’ll continue making another one, perhaps featuring the other Transformers such as Omega Supreme(wished they made that NASA Space Shuttle transform ) , Ultra Magnus and the Dinobots. Perhaps they’ll introduce Galvatron as the main baddie next. I know Galvatron is Megatron’s next evolutionary form, but maybe they’ll invent a totally new bad guy just named “Galvatron”.
A seven is definitely one of the kindest scores I’ve seen yet.
I didn’t hate this movie. The first one is still by far the best. If for no other reason the first one has the least cheap comedy efforts.
The end 45 minutes of this movie is really amazing. Worth the price of admission right there.
Well I do agree with some things, mainly about the action and the more focus on the bots. But I actually preferred Megan Fox over Rosie Huntington as far it comes to looks. I actually kind of laughed when her lips filled up half of Sam’s face when the smooched. I loved Sentinel Prime’s voice and it brought back memories of my childhood. The action was solid and everyone seemed to have a good dynamic. I enjoyed Alan Tyuck’s role in the film but that is mainly because I have a biased opinion of him thanks to Firefly and Serenity. Some things that I didn’t like were that 1. Optimus is never one to beg for mercy, he does not fear death and embraces it. 2. Megatron bows before NO ONE! I will say that Malkovich’s and Jeong’s parts could’ve gone away and it would still be fine but I still think that Jeong is funny.