TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo

Big, loud, noisy, and hectic. That was my feeling everytime I watched a Transformers movie. And it was not much different for me this time. The robots are back, as the Autobots and Decepticons continue to battle for 'supremacy' over the earth. If you are a fan of the series, it may promise you with even more spectacular battles between the robots, as they fight all over, mess up and destroy the city of Chicago.

 

Apart from how I felt about this movie, I must say that what Michael Bay did in bringing these robots to live, including how he orchestrated to show the robots and their transformations in such amazing details, was indeed an impressive work. Like it or not, he is one of the top action movie directors nowadays, who knows exactly what he does and how to please the crowd, and continuously bringing us these kind of popcorn blockbuster movies. Some may say it 'dumb' blockbuster movies. But it doesn't matter, since the combined three Transformers movies itself have made more than $2,600 Million worldwide. For sure, these movies were no 'dumb' investments for the studios.

The movie took its time to introduce some of the new characters and showed how the current life of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), after saving the world two times, and who for the second time around, very lucky to get the hottest girl in town, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (ex Victoria's Secret model), who herself was lucky to replace Megan Fox as Sam's love interest in this third installment. Besides the gorgeous Whiteley, with whom LaBeouf run together hectically all around the city for the most parts of the movie, the script also tried to mix the historical event of the first men landing on the moon with a fiction set-up on what actually happened on the landing as the background story.

Now, the story. You may have heard this a million times, including from the people who hate Michael Bay, or the people who think that they 'have' to also hate Michael Bay, but I have to agree that 'storytelling' was not Bay's strong point. As much as how this movie showcased its spectacular action scenes and visuals (especially with the value added of 3D), and the quite promising first half of the movie, but somehow as the story goes, it slowly lose my interest in the middle of destruction and explosion scenes. The story was just not as strong as the robot parade. Big in actions, less in emotions.

The addition of the new characters like John Malkovich and Frances McDormand did refreshed the movie though with some good humors and their on-screen charismas. And I actually also liked Ken Jeong with his peculiar and crazy appearance, but with a strong comical bite. Shia LaBeouf did his part well in playing his character with his patent frantic expressions. Sam was him now anyway. While Whiteley has quite a lot of screen time. She was absolutely beautiful, hot and sexy. A bit stiff in acting and strange in accent, but I liked the girl, and I think she was fine in her role. Megan Fox may have her own mystery and sex appeal in the first Transformers that launched her career, but this new girl was definitely not less attractive.

This movie was not bad actually. I did have some fun with it, lots of actions, but it didn't make me jump on my seat, and the movie in overall was emotionally flat and fell a bit mechanical for me. Feeling the frantic, yes. Emotionally involved, no. Never really been a fan of the series, this film was just another Transformers movie with the same old things. Seen it before. (MJ)

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