Transformers 3

After their disastrous second outing, few people had faith in the third part, but Dark of the Moon rights a lot of the narrative faults and feels like the sequel the first film deserved.

A despondent Sam finds himself out of the limelight as the Decepticon threat appears to have lessened, Mikaela and Bumblebee have left him and he struggles to find a job and direction in life. But when Optimus Prime learns that humanity had found a vital Autobot ship crashed on the Moon, he rescues Sentinel Prime from the wreck, just when the Decepticons return with a plan to restore their homeworld of Cybertron.

Watching Dark of the Moon feels like an endurance test by the time it finishes, this is due to a ridiculously drawn out battle set in Chicago for the climax. While it makes up for Revenge of the Fallen's terribly underwhelming finale, it does become a blur of insignificance after a while because there's simply too much happening! But if there is one thing done right this time is a correct use of characters. A lot of the ludicrous padding and fluff from RotF is completely missing; our human characters are involved but not excessively (ie. Sam's parents hardly feature at all!) and let's say this film provides us with humans who aren't noble and just. There's a lot more of the Transformers too (you would hope so) and it feels like they have a lot more respect shown to them now. Decepticons genuinely appear threatening and the Autobots are shown to have personalities again, continuing from the first film's groundwork (a scene with a silent, brooding Optimus-in-truck-mode is a favourite). The action is off the rails too. More in keeping with the original film we see them transform during battles.

There are some deeply unsettling scenes too. The setup involves assassinations against humans who knew about the mission to the Moon, executed by Decepticon Laserbeak (great to see him too), one where he infiltrates a family's house by pretending to be a friendly Autobot playing with their daughter. Woah, woah! RotF was too cheesy, but this is really dark all of a sudden!

As a fan of the Transformer characters, this film sees a lot of deaths. Some are most unforgivable. We haven't seen this many prominent robot deaths since the slaughter that was the 1986 Transformers: The Movie! The only other gripe I mostly have about this film asides deaths and a bloated finale is Carly, Sam's new love interest (the forgettable Rosie-Huntington Whitely) who is given things to do thanks to the plot, but is far less notable than Fox's Mikaela (I cannot believe I just wrote that) but I do believe the film would be stronger without a love interest. But it is Michael Bay, we need a girl for those slow-mo shots.

It is a vast, vast improvement and a faithful sequel to the 2007 film. It is too long, and it does make some unforgivable decisions regarding Transformer characters, so it feels less perfect in those regards. It is still a fun film though.

In order to coincide with a fourth Transformers coming out in the next few months, I'll be reviewing this third entry of the successful film series. I liked the first Transformers despite it's cheesy dialog in some parts and while there were some awkward moments and very bad dialog, I still liked Revenge of the Fallen. Then, when I saw the whole thing in theaters back at 2011, I thought, this wasn't so bad after all. It later turned out to be a good ride, but while I do think it's a bit of an improvement over the previous film, it's nowhere near as good as the first.

First, there are some good things that saved the film for me. The music score from Steve Jablonsky has improved and has an epic tone to it. The story is a lot more decent than the previous film with a much better second and third halves; the action sequences are solid especially the collapsing building scene which took my very breath away. The scenery is great and the special effects are as top-notch as ever. The acting is good, too. While John Turturo, Franches McDormand, and John Malkovich aren't given much to do, they did fine with the material. Patrick Dempsey did OK as the villain, but he's a bit underwhelming. Rosie Hunter Whiteley is a bit bland, but not exactly terrible as the new girlfriend for Sam Witwicky. While Shia LeBeouf isn't as charismatic as he was in the first film, he does have the same charm he brought to the film series so far. The Autobots and Decepticons are great to see again and the voice actors are solid especially Leonard Nimoy as Sentinal Prime, who is a very good villain for the movie much Megatron.

Then, there are the bad things that I would point out. First, the script. While the second and third halves are a lot better, the first half is pretty boring. It seems to be lacking in it's action and it wasn't exciting. Second, the ending is way too similar to the first Transformers (what? with the auto-bots and decepticons fight against each other while bringing destruction to the city and such?) The pacing is also very sluggish it would almost put you to sleep. Third and mostly the final problem is the dialog. There are some humorous bits that might get the audience a chuckle, but there are other parts that are just so inane it would give you a headache.

Overall, Transformers: DOTM isn't nearly as good as the first, but despite the flaws that I just stated, I think this is a great sequel in an overall solid franchise. I may not be a fan of Michael Bay and such, but while I do not like the Bad Boys films, Pearl Harbor, and others, I think that this and the other films are a lot better and it deserves a recommendation to those who haven't seen it.

It's 'Bayhem' time again - and this time around demolition king Michael Bay presents his trademark 'Six-C's' in glorious 3D! In case you don't know, the six 'Cs' are: chases, clashes, crashes, combustions, carnage and cleavage. Spread over a bottom-numbing two-and-a-half hours, "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" can also induce mental and metal fatigue, especially with the clanging robots smashing one another - and the whole exercise making little sense.

Technologically, however, "Dark Of The Moon" is Bay's best work so far - and action fans looking to be awed by scenes of massive mayhem and destruction in 3D should be satisfied. Story-wise, this one is better than "Revenge Of The Fallen", but not as fun and emotionally-connecting as the first.

The film opens with a flashback to the Sixties Apollo landing mission where history is rewritten (by Ehren Kruger) to incorporate the cover-up of an alien spaceship crashing on the moon. That spaceship, of course, is one of the remains of the epic battles between the Autobots and the Decepticons, and its 'discovery' sparks off another war that threatens to destroy planet Earth. Or at least the face of Chicago as we know it.

On the human level, we find that Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has traded in his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) for a newer model (a Victoria Secret one, to be exact) in the shape of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly). Sam is being offered a job by Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich) but we soon learn that Carly's boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey) may be up to no good. Then, when the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons hots up, Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) of the elite Government squad NEST are summarily called into action.

We get lulled into believing that there may somehow be an intelligent plot coming from the conspiracy of the NASA lunar-landing cover-up which also involves the Russian space program and Chernobyl. These turn out to be just an exercise in 'historical name-dropping' to spur our interest before we get to the demolition derby created by the Transformers. Indeed, some of the robots seem to emote better that the live cast. Cybertron leader Sentinel Prime, for example, is even designed to look like Leonard Nimoy (who provides its voice), complete with stuff that looks like beard. Again, the problems of the previous installments recur - like the confusion between the good and bad robots in the clashes.

Unlike the first two movies, there are no more gags about the shock of humans interacting with the mechanical 'bots. Bay, however, insists on some comic sequences and he has hired Ken Jeong to do his in-your-face shtick as Jerry Wang. John Turturro reprises his role as former FBI agent Simmons but this time around, Turturro finds it fit to clown around with his role. The most striking inclusion to the cast is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's love interest. However, with limited acting talent, she provides only eye-candy and beside her, Megan Fox would look like an Oscar-caliber actress.

Like the first "Transformers", this one is also a live-action cartoon on a grand scale. Scenes of Chicago buildings being toppled and destroyed can be as spectacular and brain-numbing as those of September 11; and the wing-suit flying sequences are breath-taking. Indeed, these are what most of Michael Bay's fans pay for and they will not be disappointed. The only problem for me is that Bay prolongs and repeats the robotic clash sequences to the point of being self-indulgent. Technically brilliant and visually arresting, "Dark Of The Moon" lacks heart and soul. (limchangmoh.blogspot.com)

After the box office success and almost critically panned Transformers film that was REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, that was released in 2009, Paramount Pictures announced that they would be releasing future films in the Transformers saga.

The third film was titled DARK OF THE MOON and the film was released in the summer movie season of 2011. The film was the last film to have Shia LaBeouf in the film as Sam Witwicky and the end of the original trilogy of films.

The film is set three years after the events of the 2009 film, with the Autobots, during the collaboration with the NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers) military force, discovering a hidden alien technology in possession of humans, which had been found by Apollo 11 on the years earlier. However, the Decepticons unveil a plan use the technology to enslave humanity in order to restore Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers.

The story was a really good story and it took inspiration from a novel called Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, written by Alan Dean Foster. The novel was a prequel to the 2007 film, TRANSFORMERS. Due to the critically panned REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, the Twins were cut out of "Dark of the Moon".

The acting is just amazing, but can get dreadful. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky one last time and he does a great job. Megan Fox was originally signed on to play Mikaela Banes in the third film, and Patrick Dempsey's character Dylan Gould was to be the employer of Fox's character, but she was fired, instead Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley plays Carly Spencer and she does a great job.

She is not as good as Fox but considering the shoes that she had to fill, she could have been a hell of a lot worse. Josh Duhamel, Kevin Dunn, Julie White and the rest of the cast are great in their performances, especially Tyrese Gibson, who was also in another 2011 film, Fast Five, which I previously reviewed.

The CGI is amazing and the action is so fantastic in this film and the best part is at the end of the film, and it was so long but I enjoyed it and the film is 154 minute long feature film.

The music by Steve Jablonsky is fantastic and much more cool and amazing was Linkin Park's song at the end of this movie.

Overall, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is not the best Transformers film, but it could have been worse.

8/10.

Transformers Dark of the Moon being the third movie of the Transformers series you wouldn't think it would be as good as the first two, well it is. In this movie Megan Fox is no longer to be seen but we are gifted with a beautiful Rosie Huntington-Whiteley playing along side Shia LaBeouf. This movie added some serious effects to it with the robots. just like the first two it combines an action/love/comedy attribute. The action scenes in this movie are without a doubt awesome. The effects they used are amazing and to sort of let you catch up with whats happening they use slow motion to let you see things that are going on. I like how they've taken something that has actually happened like the moon landing and have put there own twist on what actually was happening. this was a very good movie and would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing robots you played with as kid come to life.