Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

Posted by on July 3rd, 2011   Filed under: Action, Featured, Movie Review, Sci-fi

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Directed by: Michael Bay
Written by: Ehren Kruger
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Ken Jeong

The Transformers franchise has always been known for its flashy visuals, ridiculous characters and the Michael Bay filter that is thrown on top of it. I am a huge fan of the first Transformers film. A film about a boy and his first car that turns out to be an alien robot and wins him the girl. The second film, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, is full of itself with its incoherent plot, slow motion action and stupid characters. Now we have the supposed “final chapter” for Michael Bay in his Transformers franchise Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.

The third installment in the franchise is not so much a departure from the awful second film but features a plot that is stretched out beyond belief. I can officially say that I am tired of the Transformers franchise. Halfway through this movie, I was bored. I could not believe the lack of action and the extension of an otherwise simple plot that had taken place during the two hour and thirty seven minute running time of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. You could cut half of this movie out and it is definitely a much better film. Michael Bay’s run times are just ridiculous. Especially for the Transformers franchise.

Actor Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky a slick, full of himself character that has really run its course through the duration of this franchise. He is fine overall in the film, as is his stunning new girlfriend who is the biggest surprise, if any, in this film. First time actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley who plays Carly knows how to play the nice, sexy partner for Sam. If there are any problems with her they are very minor but I would say coming out of a Transformers movie what a huge step up from Megan Fox. The chemistry between Carly and Sam are very much there through the overblown script.

The problems with Dark Of The Moon trail from its prior film Revenge Of The Fallen. I am so used to this formula of filmmaking, action and characters that I came out of this movie having almost no recollection of what I had just seen. It is just a mess of a film that cannot even transition from scene to scene without taking me out of the movie completely. It is just the definition of poor filmmaking. There is something there but it just cannot make it out through the comedy, little robot pets, stupid revelatory monologues and pointless slow motion action sequences. Slow motion is fine for a great action set piece that you want to “show off” in a sense, but not something to laugh at. In this film we have many laughable moments that try for emotional gripping “epicness” that you can see is not there at all. I barely care about these characters at this point in the franchise. If there was any time for a reboot, this is a franchise that deserves it. The effects are too good for someone like Michael Bay too direct in a feature length film.

Anything that is cool in the movie lasts no longer than thirty seconds. By the time you warm up to a scene or any action sequence between two robots, it is cut from and bogged down in plot, stupid characters and short action sequences that do not do it for me. Revenge Of The Fallen had much better action than any sequence in Dark Of The Moon. Yes the plot makes sense, I think. But because of the messy filmmaking and drawn out scenes such as a thirty minute sequence featuring Sam, Carly, and Epps (played by Tyrese Gibson), the end result is nothing but pointless action and boring drama.

Am I supposed to get the definition of “hero” in this movie? Because I can not even begin to think about how many problems “Dark Of The Moon” has with the moral to this story. The film is boring, uninspired and cliched. I have seen all of this before. For those who have not seen it, the movie peaks in the trailer. You are not going to get more from the movie than you do from that. Start over for God sakes. — Joe

SCORE: 1.5 stars





  • FoxMulder

    “I could not believe the lack of action”

    Seriously?

  • scoville

    “I am a huge fan of the first Transformers film.”

    Thanks for getting that out in the beginning of the review. That was enough for me to not read anymore.

  • “I could not believe the lack of action”

    That right there makes it clear you never actually watched the movie and you’re just bashing it cause that’s the cool thing to do.

  • Bert belgium

    The one thing i hated most, although i genedally give it a pass, was the fact that they really made optimus look like an asshole!! With the whole faking their death to prove a point an, giving the silent treatment, finishing off robots point blank that where down instead of capturing them. And just really shitty oneliners!

    O yeah and laserbeak really shouldn’t have spoke at all!

  • James

    Action or lack of action…either or, it’s not what makes a movie good.

  • Duke Togo

    For the first hour, there was almost no action is what I think he meant. My fellow TransFan friends saw this Saturday in IMAX 3d, they hated it. They said that Autobots were no different than Decepticons and were majorly disappointed that the Guardian of Cybertron Shockwave had almost nothing to do in the movie, he was just there to draw attention away from the real villain. There isn’t a whole lot of transforming, much of it happens offscreen or from afar. The script borrowed from two of the cartoon’s storylines. After the movie, we watched the toon to wash the bad taste away.

    Personally, I give it zero stars, I actually felt pummeled by this movie, considered leaving, but my friends were my ride home.

    Hoping Neill Blomkamp takes over for the next trilogy.

  • Brugal

    Did you watch the movie? there was tons of action the only serious problem with the movie was the pacing other than that the story was great, the action was amazing and there were no stupid fart jokes

    this movie was what part 2 should have been, and on a side note they did use alot of the stuff from part 2 in part 3, like the matrix thing and how megatron was still seriously injured from his last fight

    Im guessing you didn’t watch the movie and your bashing it cause you’re a sad sad person…

  • Duke Togo

    I forgot to mentioned that I christened the movie Wild Wild West 2, the robot worm thing reminded me of the Big Metal Spider from WildWildWest 1.

  • Goon

    This was better than the other two but thinking that the story was “great” is cause for a head examination.

    The big action scene is pretty well done and generally the robot stuff is better handled than any of the other two films, becuase there was a clearer distinction between goodies/baddies as well as of what was actually happening. The general geography of his action scene is still not so great though.

    But the first hour and a half is BRRUUUUTAL. Does anyone actually care for those military characters? Can you even tell me their names without looking them up? Why do they keep coming back? is there someone out there who thinks they are essential to the franchise? They are sub-Channing Tatum level bland. A South Park paper cutout would have more expression and character than this.

    And Shia as Sam Witwicky is the whiniest, most entitled, most unwatchable and detestable protagonist ever put on film, and he’s in Bad Nic Cage mode in a lot of this movie too. Shia just plain sucks, and his character might actually be one of the weakest parts of this film.

    All the humans are filler, but they are usually just frustrating “I dont care about you but I’m stuck with you now for several minutes before more robots” filler who spell out the story in the blandest most clinical sense. Sam though, Sam is anti-entertainment here, just a pure piece of shit, and of the thousands of people that probably die in TF3, the biggest crime is that he is not one of them.

  • Rick

    i loved it. very pro millitary! the part where the special forces jumped out in thier squirrel suits! that was awesome. i thought the movie was awesome. stop trying to ANALyze everything, and enjoy a film for once!

  • Nelson

    The critics are probably going to universally trash this movie, because they can, and maybe on many levels it deserves to be ripped on, but it’s still going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, regardless.

    If you go by how the critics look at it and judge the movie based on “oscar-worthiness” then every critic that reviews this movie will give it a 3 out of 10.

    If you choose to view the movie and judge it based solely on its entertainment value, as 95% of the people that see it, young and old, will do, then it will probably get at least an 8 out of 10 from most people.

    Yes, if you pick this movie apart, minute by minute, section by section, you can find a lot of things to nitpick about, but the fact is, for what it is, even if Bay was given absolute crap to work with, he showed that crap in the best possible light and the majority of people that see the movie will appreciate that.

    I think if there was a contest held to see who could come up with the best live-action Transformers movie, Bay would likely win that contest or at least come in at no less then 3rd place and I think he deserves credit for that.

  • swindler

    I’m ok with Joe’s commentaries, but Shia’s acting was bad, as the movie as a hole was a joke, some good stuff but the franchise was ruined as Michael Bay inspiration was limited repeating scenes an ideas from the previous movies… and that vulgar comedy…. it was a disaster, it could be nice to have some parts of the movie removed, like all the comedy in it, i have to edit the dvd version, I’ll have to do it my self….and.. i didn,t like patrick Dempsey acting in this one, seemed kind of sheap! Rosie was ok…!

  • My gosh. I thought that “Woooah- the building’s falling over!” sequence would never end. When Prime showed up to save the humans I, no kidding, thought to myself, “Oh yeah. Transformers.”