Dark of the Moon starts impressively, taking its initial story from a Transformers novel, where the US moon landings and space race are explained to be a front to investigate a Transformers ship that has crashed on the dark side of the moon. It transpires that the Russians obtained a Transformer energy source from the crash site and began experiments with it at Chernobyl with disastrous consequences. Grounding the beginning of the film in this historical context is the strongest point of all three Transformer films. However, as soon as the initial story is set and the screenplay of Ehren Kruger takes over, starting with the appearance of Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), the film descends into familiar territory.
Cue another weak script for the same bunch of characters, Special Agent Simmons (John Turturo), Lennox (Josh Duhamel), Epps, (Tyrese) and what was not great but occasionally amusing the first time becomes annoying the third time around. Megan Fox is not present this time and the script throws some barbs in her direction. Her replacement is posh Brit Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who ticks all the aesthetic boxes Bay must have been looking for in a replacement but provides nothing more. Cameos from John Malkovich and Ken Jeong provide some fresh humour in places.
Despite the criticism that Revenge of the Fallen was bloated, Dark of the Moon clocks in at just over two and a half hours and is far, far too long. I have no problems with long films, I have sat through Apocalypse Now and Once Upon a Time in America many times but for an action film with a cheesy script it is completely unnecessary.
I couldn't help compare the films main protagonist, Sentinel (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), with the Fallen from the previous film in that both were characters from Cybertron's past, re-activated and brought to Earth as part of the Decepticon's plans.
Visually the action looks amazing again, in particular the scenes on the freeway and with the falling skyscraper but it has all been seen before. The film culminates in another huge battle between the Transformers set against a different cityscape (Chicago this time) that feels oh so familiar.
By giving Dark of the Moon 5 out of 10, it made me realise I was too kind to Revenge of the Fallen.
I think they could have skipped this movie. Even with the new girlfriend, Shia still looks like a scared little boy that has no idea what is going on. Granted Megan Fox had man thumbs, but at least she could act, but you don’t have to act well with a script like these movies have had. I saw no need to waste the money on seeing this movie in theaters. I finally sat down to watch this butt numbing movie when I saw it on the Epix page at Dish Online. I thought movie theater chairs were uncomfortable, my office chair during a bad movie is even worse. Although when I told a movie buff I work with at Dish about my dislike of the film, he turned his nose up to me and walked away. Here I though you shouldn’t talk about politics at work, turns out it is don’t talk about movies you don’t like.
ReplyDeleteIt's always nice if the actors can act though, even with a cheesy action film script!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought people would be turning their nose up at you for liking this film!
I'm sure that the thought of a fourth Transformers film doesn't fill you (or your numb butt) with much joy then!