Movie Review - Transformers 3 : Dark of the Moon (spoilers)

[griffin]

Transformers 3
Dark of the Moon

Release date 29th June 2011

SPOILERS (seriously, if you haven't seen it yet, why are you looking at a review topic about it?)

Synopsis

A long time ago, Sentinel Prime left Cybertron in the Ark, which crashed on our moon in 1963. NASA saw it and the moon landing was to get a look at their 'first contact'.
Present day, the Autobots learn of this, and fly to the Moon (on a rocket built by the Wreckers) to inspect the wreckage. They find Sentinel Prime, who was the leader before Optimus, and bring him back to Earth to awaken him.
Ever since the time of the Ark's crash on the Moon, Humans have been willingly working for the Decepticons, to make sure that events relating to the cargo and the passenger (Sentinel) occur the way the Decepticons intended.
Soon after Sentinel is resurrected with Optimus' matrix, he turns on the Autobots, announcing that he already had an alliance with Megatron from before he left Cybertron. His act of betrayal ends up killing Ironhide (and Mudflap & Skids in the original script/comic).
Sentinel opens up a spacebridge portal to the moon, where there is an army of Decepticons buried, waiting (from where?).
They invade the Earth and take hold of Chicago.
As Sentinel prepares to create a spacebridge big enough to bring Cybertron next to Earth (for the humans to rebuild as slaves), the Autobots attack to prevent it.
Just as Cybertron is passing through the portal, the Spacebridge is destroyed, causing Cybertron to collapse in on itself into complete obliteration.
Optimus fights Sentinel, and is about to be killed when Megatron intervenes to knock down Sentinel (thanks to Carly stroking his ego at being someone else's slave in the new order).
Optimus kills Megatron, and then Sentinel, and the movie pretty much just ends right there.


Characters

Autobots:
-Optimus Prime (lives)
-Bumblebee (lives)
-Ironhide (killed by Sentinel Prime)
-Ratchet (lives)
-Sideswipe (lives)
-Mirage/Dino (lives - was killed in the comic instead of Wheeljack) (not even called Mirage in credits)
-Wheeljack/Que (killed by Soundwave) (actually called Wheeljack in credits)
-Sentinel Prime (killed by Optimus Prime)
-Wheelie (lives)
-Brains (lives)
-Topspin (lives)
-Roadbuster (lives)
-Leadfoot (lives)
(Skids & Mudflap - both filmed and included in original script/comic to die with Ironhide, but not included in final version of Movie)

Decepticons:
-Megatron (killed by Optimus Prime)
-Starscream (killed by Sam)
-Soundwave (killed by Bumblebee)
-Laserbeak (killed by Sam)
-Shockwave (killed by Optimus Prime)
-Driller (destroyed by Optimus Prime)
-Barricade (killed by humans)
-Dreads x3 (killed by Ironhide, Sideswipe & Mirage)
-Igor (lives)
(army of troops)

Main Humans:
-Sam
-Carly
-Lennox
-Epps
-National Security Director
-Sam's boss & co-workers
-Carly's boss
-Simmons


Your thoughts & comments here...

[Tropisetron]

Awesome!! Must watch in 3D!

Lots of unexpected surprises!

Discuss further in days to come!

[Firestorm]

That was so cool, just got home from a midnight showing, way better than ROTF, i'll delve deeper into my thoughts later

[Alexicon]

Loved it!

3D was excellent! TF3 had more emotion. I didn't wan it to finish.
The opening scene was amazing! Kinda gave me a Star Wars 3 opener feel (maybe it's just me)

best scenes dreads vs autobots
And autobots vs Sentinal.

Rosie did an excellent job.

I totally recommend you watch it in 3D. I'm not a fan of 3D, but man! It's good!

[Paul Agnew]

As with everyone else so far, got back from the midnight screening and loved it utterly. Yes it borrowed elements from The Ultimate Doom and Megatron's Master Plan, but that's part of the overall charm. Wish it went for another 2 1/2 hours.

Michael Bay, please don't leave the franchise. Though if you are, then you have made the perfect send-off. 12 out of 10 from me.

[Lord_Zed]

Well I need a day to think about it, but intial reaction seems to be that it was good possibly even damn good (For a TF movie anyway), although is it because ROTF lowered my expectations?

I shall post a more detailed review of what I liked and didn't like later in the day.

As with everyone else so far, got back from the midnight screening and loved it utterly. Yes it borrowed elements from The Ultimate Doom and Megatron's Master Plan, but that's part of the overall charm. Wish it went for another 2 1/2 hours.

Michael Bay, please don't leave the franchise. Though if you are, then you have made the perfect send-off. 12 out of 10 from me.

Yeah this does look like Michael Bays last TF movie, seeing as how it ties up the TF story pretty much, if and when they do do a sequel they'll have to pick up from scratch a bit. So perhaps this is good and bad, perhaps I'm bothered that this movie may actually have been good enough to have a sequel despite leaving no threads to pick up on, unlike ROTF which you didn't really care about the sequel despite there being threads left to pick up on.

Am I making any sense, or is it too early in the morning.

[STL]

I'm going to run counter to the suprising stream of positivity here. This movie was the worst of the three. Special effects / scale? Excellent. Action sequences, some cool moments, but overall just random robots or humans running around. Apart from that, I've seen chuck on the sidewalk better than this.

The acting from Carly was terrible. The opening scene set the tone of the stupidity of the character (and the movie). Her boss becomes a very one dimensional figure and goes very quickly downhill from there.

The dialogue? I'm sorry, I'm an amateur writer at best, but this was worst than fanfic. Think the chief woman / former CIA Agent. Her lines felt so forced.

That's not to say there weren't a couple of interesting things. The angle on Sentinel Prime was very interesting and I did not see it coming at all from having the toy and whatnot. What did piss me off was Sentinel Prime all of a sudden turning his back on Optimus. If he wanted to beat Optimus up and kill Autobots, why pass back the matrix of leadership? Again, it tarnishes what is a nice touch and makes it so undefiably stupid.

Mum and dad? Less than funny this time, maybe snuck in one or two one liners but useless noise.

The human bad guys were retarded to. Seriously, who would take those guys as threats or even consider them to be real? They're just caricatures, no character work at all.

Starscream blind? That was stupid. Prime being suspended helplessly and NO ONE targetting him? More stupid.

Wheeljack? Thank god someone killed him. F--- was he annoying.

Megatron getting a pep-talk from a human? WTF? Didn't he have a whole master plan? He just wanted to be retarded and go along with Sentinel?

Oh and one handed Optimus easily dispatches Megatron? Okay, great fight / fatality sequence - but that easy? Come on.

Wheelie and his little friend were quite funny. I did not mind them at all. Probably one of the few positives from the movie.

Ironhide dying did not bother me. I think it raised the stacks (as it should in the final instalment).

Big point of disappointment is they did try something quite strong thematically with Sentinel here. However the connection between him and Optimus are quite significant here. I would've loved it to be taken it further Because that's the concept of war there, what happens with combatants, different sides have different objectves? Unfortunately, it was only very superficially addressed.

Oh and who is the Red Autobot Car in the movie (not hatchback)

And Ratchet's clearly a sh!t doctor. Three movie's and BB's still speechless.

Lack of characterisation? Really hurts this movie. Even more so when they poorly execute other characters that did develop as characters like the ice queen Fed, Sentinel going bad, Shockwave. Hell Laserbeak had more personality than Shockwave.

Sam going job hunting did not bother me. I did mind tho his whole character growth angle of "I'm more than messegner". Stupid, stupid. If they explored it from how does someone move back into normal life, that would've been great.

People clapped at the end of the movie here. I really didn't understand that. Stupid

As a fan, I'd be slightly more generous b/c some of the cool action scenes and Optimus really gets to shine. Bumblebee has an awesome fight sequence, very kinetic. The struggle for Cybertron and what it means is great.

If I had to sum it up, childish, cheap, and cringeworthy. Yes, it was a Michael Bay movie and I expected it to be average, but Bay outdid himself and delivered a movie even worse than the second one.

Congratulations, Mr. Bay.

[Lord_Zed]

Loved it!
Rosie did an excellent job.
good!

I was surprised by how much I didn't hate her, yeah some of her lines were not entirely convincing, and there were still gratuitous shots, but she didn't give of the same porn star vibe that miss Fox did.

[Iacon's Demise]

In a word: Brutal

Why ? I'm talking Awesome Brutal. It's transformers on the big screen man...

Some of the kills rival that of Mortal Kombat. I liked it but to each their own. I seriously SERIOUSLY think that some movie makers need a die hard fans input. Take Spiderman 3 for example....

[MeisterROB75]

Hi all. I rarely post on here but like all of you I'm an avid TF fan. So, after just seeing DOTM at the melb central midnight screening I thought I'd start this thread for those of us who need to vent their slight dissapointment or near psychotic rage over the F@$%^D UP MESS THAT IS DOTM!!!

Now, I didn't want to listen those naysayers out there (and certainly didn't want to be one of them) who I've told myself were just Bay haters or wouldn't allow themselves to appreciate a fantastical SFX extravaganza such as what I figured DOTM would be. I was willing to look past those Bay staples: the lingering shots of the bimbo (especially annoying for gayformers like myself!), the lack of character development, the poor narrative, the lame humour (which I actually don't mind, I must say!) and just enjoy the show. But, as a fan of TF from way back, I'm afraid I can't appreciate this film for being just that when it involves such an inconsistent and incongruous narrative and the character assasination of our beloved bots and cons. For example, Rosie Huntington-Bimbo chides Megs like he's a snotty little kid and he doesn't crush her like the bimbo bug that she is? C'MON!! Sentinel is already a Rosenbauer when he's been on the moon for 50 years? And my heart just about shot out through my ass when I learned the Dino was Dino and Q was Q. EEERGGHHHH!!! It was pretty down hill from there for me.

Those are just minor examples as I don't want to include 'spoilers' for those who haven't seen it yet and may read this. IMO, at the end of the day, DOTM does suffer from the same inadequacies as ROTF did.

I'm sure many of you will enjoy this for just what it is - a SFX blockbuster and as that it is fine. Your enjoyment can only be facilitated by not having to sit between constantly fidgetting, commentating, popcorn feed masticiating mammals and a lack of concern for how TF is interpreted by Bay.

One positive: laserbeak was pretty cool.

Hope you can enjoy DOTM more than I did!