Transformers: Dark of the Moon

My expectations were not high for this movie. I had already seen “Pirates” crash & burn this year and my guess was that “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” would also fail to impress me. While it wasn’t the greatest movie I have seen this year, it was better than “Revenge of the Fallen”. “Dark of the Moon” has flaws but it was still fun to watch. Those who are hardcore fans of Michael Bay will love this movie. I liked the action that this film contained. The best part of the story was the twists that brought excitement and drama to the experience.

I was quite impressed by the opening sequence of events in the 1960’s. The replication of Pres. Kennedy's likeness can be compared to that in “Forrest Gump” or “JFK”. It was quite well done, as was Pres. Nixon’s appearance. “Dark of the Moon” starts out similar to the other films but by the end of the movie, there is a lack of resolution in terms of Sam’ story. In the first film, Sam gets the girl and the car he always wanted by the end of the movie. In “Dark of the Moon”, Sam’s ambitions in life are not as well met by the time we get to the conclusion. In “Revenge of the Fallen”, it was Sam’s relationship with Mikaela that had problems but that was resolved by the end of that movie. Sam can’t find a job that he deserves in the third film but by the end, he still hasn’t got that. His parents needed a scene at the end of the movie also. The story twists in “Dark of the Moon” are great and they work because of casting. A similar tactic was done effectively with Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney on “Night at the Museum”. Leonard Nimoy voices Sentinel Prime & Patrick Dempsey plays Dylan Gould and these actors are normally good guys to their audiences. When Sentinel betrays Optimus and kills Ironhide, it is quite a dramatic surprise. The scene where Gould reveals his true nature is also quite a shock thanks to Dempsey’s acting in that scene. After Gould tortures Sam and frightens Carly, we want Sam to get revenge more than anything. I was wondering how Sam was going to warn Optimus that he was being forced by the Decepticons to get knowledge of any secret plans from him. I didn’t even catch the “no human will ever know” line that Sam says. That turned out to be a subtle warning to Optimus that Decepticons will know. That was some good storytelling as was the surprise survival of the Autobots. I am bothered by an inconsistency in the trilogy however. The trap that was laid for the Autobots seems to have been planned decades ago by the Decepticons. This would render the schemes of Megatron in the other movies as less important. Why try to get The Cube or the Matrix of Leadership when they had this other plot all along? The climax was great. The wingsuit sequence in 3D was very cool. I do have some problems with the climax however. I felt that Sam’s final revenge on Gould was too easy. I was expecting a little more drama or surprise when it came to that moment because we needed it. After all the stuff that Gould did to Sam and Carly, he needed to go out in a much more satisfying manner than what ended up happening. The same goes for the destruction of the Master Pillar. It seemed that the closer our heroes got to it, the easier their battles became. Also as mentioned, the last few scenes did not wrap up the movie as well as those for the first or even the second film. In “Revenge of the Fallen”, we have a final moment on the aircraft carrier but there is no equivalent scene in “Dark of the Moon”.

I enjoyed other actors who showed up in this movie. The cameo of Buzz Aldrin was pretty awesome. John Malkovich added some great comedy. I feel that Megan Fox would have made the film better but not because of her looks. When it comes to sequels or prequels, I love continuity. Without Fox, things just aren’t the same. I am glad the characters of Lennox and Epps are reprised. The military atmosphere that they bring is important in all the Transformers movies. The actors playing the Russians are familiar to me from other movies and so that was nice. I like “Dark of the Moon” better than the second film because this movie had a simpler plot. “Revenge of the Fallen” also incorporated a few too many characters from the Transformers lexicon where as this third film had less of that. The focus was not on expansion of the characters and relationships but rather on the story and action. I didn't think "Dark of the Moon" would win any of its three technical Oscar nominations and I was right. "Hugo" was clearly the superior.

Something that is hard for me to get used to is the pace of any Transformers movie. There is a lot of over-talking and the tempo of most scenes is a little too fast for my taste. There may be a some mistakes in this movie but at least the trilogy ends on a good note like the “Ocean’s” Trilogy. I was in Chicago while this movie was being filmed and so that was fun to think about while watching this film. The story had some entertaining twists unlike the second film. While some franchises have trouble ending themselves, I am glad that Bay knows when enough is enough...or does he?

3.5 Stars