REVIEW: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon 3D

MOVIE
Transformers:
Dark Of The Moon

CAST
Shia LaBeouf,
Rosie Huntington-Whitley

RATING
PG-13

RELEASE
June 29, 2011

DIRECTOR
Michael Bay

STUDIO
Paramount Pictures

RUNNING TIME
2 hours 34 minutes





STARS
***1/2












REVIEW:

It's been two years since worldwide moviegoers were exposed to the the terrible piece of crap that is 'Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen.' I was one of the few who actually liked the movie back in 2009. But that was 2009, and I actually have come to despise the movie and laugh at how bad it is. After that piece of crap was released in 2009, it seemed almost impossible for Michael Bay to regain his respect from Hollywood and the rest of the world. However, Paramount still had respect for Mr. Bay, so they greenlit a third Transformers, and Bay told the world that his final Tranformers movie, 'Dark Of The Moon' would be his final Transformers movie. So Bay polished his shoes, fired Megan Fox and that annoying college kid from the second movie, and got rid of those racist twin robots who were just as annoying as Jar Jar Binks. Moviegoers have been on the fence to see this movie after 'Revenge,' but two impressive trailers shined some light on this movie and gave us hop on a better third film. I am here to tell you that with the power of 3D, Michael Bay has made the mother of all robotic destruction movies, with intense action, fun bellylaughs, eyepopping special effects, and one hell of a movie experience. Transformers: Dark of The Moon is not only the best of the franchise, but one of the best action movies of the year.

SYNOPSIS: (Courtesy of Fandango.com)
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and his new girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), join the fray when when the evil Decepticons renew their longstanding war against the Autobots. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) believes that resurrecting ancient Transformer Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy), who was once the leader of the Autobots, may lead to victory. That decision, however, has devastating consequences; the war appears to tip in the Decepticons' favor, leading to a climactic battle in Chicago.

For those who love non-stop action, a hot lady, and some comedy bits here and there, then you might just be in movie heaven with the supposedly final Transformers installment. Michael Bay promised us a better movie than the last one, and he without a doubt delivers that. The action sequences, especially the hour long climatic battle in the ruins of Chicago are the best action scenes shown in the entire series. I can guarantee that they will blow your mind of of your head and into the Pacific Ocean. If you're reading this in the West Coast, then it'll blow your mind into the Atlantic instead. There is so much action in this movie that it will give you a headache you will not regret getting. Some of the stunts in this movie are so unbelievable, but they just look so cool to watch. There is one scene where some of the human characters are sliding down the edge of a falling building, so they break the glass underneath them to get inside the building where they keep sliding down, waiting for their doom. This was possibly the most incredible 3D action sequence in recent history, and we can only get it from Explosions Bay. The action in this movie was even cooler watching it in 3D.

The 3D in this movie I swear was the best use of 3D since Avatar. Yeah, the 3D in Pirates and Tron looked really cool, but only Michael Bay could make fighting robots in 3D look really spectacular. Come to think of it, the only way to fully experience this new Transformers movie is in 3D. The colors look more crisp, there aren't too many gimmicky moments, aside from Ken Jeong's hilarious gimmicky moment, and there is as much depth in certain scenes as there were in Avatar. You really feel that you're in the destruction and ruins of Chicago seeing these huge robots kicking eachothers asses. The Chicago ruins shown in this movie look so real, that I could barely tell the difference from real Chicago and CGI Chicago. Chicago is possibly my favorite city in America, and I loved seeing it being blown to smithereens by these badass robots. To see this in 3D was breathtaking to me. If you love Transformers or the city of Chicago dearly, you must go see this movie in 3D. I guarantee that you will not regret paying the $3-$5 surcharge.

I thought Megan Fox was pretty good in the first Transformers. However I thought that she was awful in Revenge Of The Fallen. It was smart for Bay to fire Fox, mainly because there was very little chemistry between Fox and LaBeouf. However I was skeptic of Bay to hire a Victoria's Secret model for the new lead, because I got the feeling that Bay is just an old school pervert. But all of those thought went down the drain, because the newcomer hot model can actually act. I believed that she and LaBeouf actually had chemistry together. She actually may become a very good actress/extremely sexy model. Shia is always good in the movies he's in, and this movie is no different either. I just wish that he would do things during the action scenes other than scream "OPTIMUS!!!" or "BUMBLEBEE!!" He screamed those same lines in the last movie. Talk about recycled lines. Patrick Dempsey gets my award of biggest douchebag of the year. Pardon my language, but that is the absolute truth. I don't want to say how he's a douche since it will spoil a lot of the movie for you, but he plays a douche very well. Hard to believe that this type of character can come from the same guy from Grey's Anatomy and Enchanted.

I don't understand why John Malkovich and Shia LaBeouf's parents are in this movie, but for the time that they're in the movie, they are hilarious. Even though they just disappear from the movie about an hour into it, they use their time wisely and are clearly the comedic part of the movie. John Turturro is also the funny guy in the movie, and he nails his role as always. He isn't needed in the movies after the first one, but he is always a really funny character. The best character of the whole movie, in my opinion comes from the very small role that comes from Ken Jeong. This guy, who you may remember as Mr. Chow from The Hangover movies, steals the scenes that he is in. I just wish that they didn't kill him so abruptly, because they could've taken his character to great lengths in Chicago. This isn't exactly a spoiler, because Jeong's role only lasts about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, that's not the worst thing to come from this movie.

As I mentioned before, this is a hardcore action movie. If you're going into this movie expecting an equal blend of comedy and action, go see something else. The comedy really stops about halfway into this movie. After the end of the first act, there is non-stop action throughout the second act of the movie. During the hardcore action in the second act of the movie, I was hoping for a little comedic moment to give the audience a light chuckle. Instead, we got tons of sci-fi action that almost seemed endless. Bay isn't afraid to show that this is war, but I just wanted a brief break from all of the action. This sort of explains why all of the funny characters were eliminated from the second half of the movie. The comedic characters were very brief in the first hour of the movie. When Sam is about to go to the final battle, he tells his parents that he loves them, and they are gone from the rest of the movie. What happened to them? Did they survive the robot war? I don't know, and I will never know. The same thing sort of goes for John Malkovich, who has an unnecessary scene where he meets Bumblebee for the first time. How did he even know that Sam knew the robots? Just a very unnecessary scene in a very fun movie. My final problem comes from Optimus Prime's dialogue in the movie. Why does he always talk like he's giving an important speech to someone? At least give him some dialogue that we could actually believe coming from an alien robot. Despite these problems, the movie still rocked.

Despite the many flaws clearly present here, Transformers: Dark of The Moon is a spectacular action movie with great plot twists and spectacular visual effects in spectacular 3D. The action is awesome, the stunts are unbelievable, and the movie uses the 3D element so well. The action scenes, which take up about 70% of the movie will blow your mind away, especially if you see it in 3D. The stunts in this movie may be unbelievable, but so are the ones in Fast Five, and that movie was also badass. The acting is much better from the previous two movies, and Michael Bay heard your cries about the comedic elements of the second movie. While the comedy is toned down in the second act, I still wish that Bay had thrown in one of two little chuckles that could give us a brief break from the chaos happening in Chicago. Still, this movie was just an awesome experience, and a nice end to this trilogy. If you want to see the alien robots' lives without Megan Fox being there, then do yourself a favor and end this trilogy on a high note in your mind with Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.

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