Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third and final entry into Micheal Bay’s Transformer series. I think it’s fair to say that Bay tried to make up for any issues that fans had in the Revenge of the Fallen. Not to say that I walked out of the movie with new reservations.
The movie is well put together this time, which makes it a far cry the the last entry in the series. Bay knew the last movie was less than par and made up for it with Dark of the Moon. The movie wastes no time re-familiarizing you with Sam, who is now an average person. His time spent working with the US Government as a liaison between them and the Autobots is over and has snagged himself another oddly hot love interest named Carly played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. I must say here that after seeing Shia in two film with Megan Fox, now seeing him with Rosie, it’s more believable to see giant fighting robots more than seeing these two as a couple. Sam is on the task of becoming normal and finding a job. Of course in the middle of all this happening the Decepticons are plotting their return.
The first part of the movie seems to be filled with a lot of humor. It’s kind of the same line of humor from the second film, but not to the extreme it was delivered in Revenge. To be honest, Shia LaBeouf is in my opinion pretty funny in the first part of the film and really that’s all the first part needed. The added presence of Ken Jeong is just too much and feels really out of place in the franchise. Although, unlike Sam’s parents in this movie his character does have a plot point. Sam’s parents do nothing for the story more than place one liners in and provide comedy relief in a section of the movie that doesn’t need anymore funny. The first hour or so of the movie moves sluggish and it seems like it takes this time to start rolling. One thing is certain though, when it starts it does not let up till the credits roll.
After the Decepticons start the “invasion” things start to get pretty interesting. You get all the things you come for. Mindless action, great CG and some of the best action scenes you’ll find in a movie all summer. I didn’t really have any complaints about the second half of the movie. Most of my complaints for this movie come from character choices made and dialog. There seems to be a couple of times in the movie that Optimus as well as the Autobots morals are compromised just to provide a “Badass Moment”. There is a part in the movie where Optimus is pretty much standing on the remnants of a human just to say that the Autobots let humans die so they could be respected. This does not fit with what the Autobots do. In ever other carnation of Transformers the Autobots would never just let humans die. I hate that character as well as principal are sacrificed for cool moments.
Bay really pulled out all the stops this time as far as having a line-up of robots that everyone wants. Lots of names are present that made me happy to see involved in the movie. Of course you have all the standards like Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Megatron, Starscream and a host of others. Also this time around you get Soundwave, Laserbeak, Sentinal Prime, Shockwave and Dino. There is no lack of fan fair here and while most people will appreciate it, I’m sure some of you crazy Gen 1 fans are going to hate it regardless. Even though the end of the movie is some what abrupt, it’s not as quick as Revenge ended and after watching the final scenes in the movie you can come out with a little bit of closure.
This movie does the things it needs to do. It provides great Summer movie action and is going to sale tons of toys to kids. The problem is that kids probably shouldn’t watch this movie. The writing enables for all of the PG-13 word to be used except the one allotted F***, which is almost said early on. The violence is a bit more than the previous two movies and the movie has an overall darker tone to it that bleeds through the whole time you watch it. It feel like a very adult movie marketed towards a different audience.
All in all Transformers: Dark of the Moon is in my opinion a great end to the trilogy and gives fans and haters a like a little bit of closure, which doesn’t happen a lot in movies these days. It’s worth the price of admission. Facts are facts though. If you hated the first two movies, this one isn’t going to change your mind. If you where a fan of the first two then this will most likely be your favorite out the three. The movie delivers all you would expect from it and won’t let most people down.
