Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Director: Michael Bay
Year: 2011
Country: USA

I know I said I probably wouldn't see this, but I ended up watching it anyway. To tell the truth, the film wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it wasn't good either. What I regret te most is not watching but rather paying the overpriced 3D tickets (thanks to my little brother, but I don't really blame him, this type of stuff and in 3D appeal to younger children) for a film that paying a normal ticket was expensive anyway.

While the plot of the film is very uneven and hard to really explain, I'll try my best to do it. At least it has a more concise and solid plot than Revenge of the Fallen. Anyway, after number 2 the Decepticons haven't been seen in quite some time, and the Autobots now help the humans to work their own conflicts. Sam Witwicky, recently graduated from college and in a new relationship with yet another super hot girl, is currently looking for a job, and his girlfriend's boss sends a recommendation to a company for hiring him. But when the Decepticons attack Sam in his new job, he discovers an ultra secret that ha been guarded by the humans since 1969 that would play a major role in the war of the Transformers. That's basically it, but you have to understand that, as in the second one, things start moving and by the end we get something much different than from what we started.

Well, I have to say that I was (at some level) impressed with this film. I was expecting something worse than what was the first two films, but we actually got something much better than the second one at least. Again, I'm not really saying its good, just better than what I was expecting.
Anyway, for the acting part we get some average to lousy acting. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky just like he always does, but his character has been tired down and now he isn't the same we've seen throughout the whole series. He might have matured, but he isn't any bettter than what he already was. As always, the good performance is delivered by John Turturo. Unfortunately, much like with Sam Witwicky, his character has been tired down and, frankly, overused that he ins't funny nor clever to watch anymore, so his good performance is practiclly wasted. Sam's parents are like always the unnecessary and annoying part of the film, especially Sam's mom, and we get incredibly ridiculous scenes when the world was coming to an end. Rosie Huntington-Whitely does a better job than Megan Fox did, but her empty and flat character doesn't really help her. Her performance isn't awful, but she still isn't convincing enough. Patrick Dempsey, who plays the human villain, did an ok job, but his one sided, two dimensional and silly character wasn't good either.

The film's biggest flaw is its script, as always. The script has dozens of plot holes, just like Revenge of the Fallen. We also get some very stupid things happening all along, and some very very unbelivable stuff too. For example, Carly (Rosie Huntington) goes through an almost apocalypse, and in the final scene she doesn't have a single scratch, her white dress is as clean as it was before it all started, and her high heels permitted her run and escape all those robots and near death situations. Ridiculous. Her character had no purpose in the movie whatsoever, other than just being eye candy for the male audience. And while many people can argue she was the motivation for Shia LaBeouf's character, the climax would have gone down exactly the same way without her. Other characters had no purpose either, just like Sam's parents who weren't needed in the film at all, or the two little Autobots who were just adding the "comic-relief", but they ended just being annoying, though one can argue that at the end they served their purpose. Also, how many times can the bad guys die and come back? I mean, Megatron before this film had been already killed once and badly injured as well. Come on, seriously? Wouldn't he just give up after two times his plan didn't work? And I have something to say too about the climax: how can they create a climax that lasts around 45 minutes of non stop action? Come on seriously, for the last 45 mins of the film it was just pure explosions and shooting and crashing etc. I had a headache after watching the film.

The film has its good parts despite its bad ones. The most obvious can be the special effects. The effects are some pretty good one, with the explosions, shooting and Transformers looking quite impressive. The action is entertaining for a while, just until it gets too long and then we get tired. And we get some new cool Autobots and Decepticons as well, and while they might have no shred of character development in them, its fun to watch them in action.

When you get an unnecessary (and awful sequel) for a little over average film then by no means we should get a third film. While it may not be as bad as the second one, I still think that probably it was left undone. Some flashy special effects and some cool action aren't enough to save the film from its lazy and depth-less script, its flat and useless characters and some crappy acting. I know it is no surprise that this film is this way, but seriously, they could have done it much much better with another script and a better director.
My recommendation: Don't watch it, but if you have to then I would trongly advice you to wait for the DVD. Much cheaper and you won't feel guilty for wasting your money on the cinema.
My score: 38% (probably high from what you'd gather from the review, but yeah, I think it pretty sums it up).