Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 2011

Well, this afternoon I took a short notice trip to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon, despite me being very against the idea of the film in the first place. And yes, I completely understand that plenty of criticism will be coming in for my review and rating of this film, but I am not going to lie about it, I thoroughly enjoyed Dark of the Moon and technically it was by no means a terrible film. And I think, personally, that if there was no Michael Bay reputation, Transformers' bad reputation in general as a franchise, and this being the first film made about giant robots fighting each other, that not only would Dark of the Moon receive better reviews than it did, but would get fairly positive reviews.



I am not going to spend hardly anytime discussing the story and plot, because if we are all being honest here, similar to the Twilight series, it's all a bit repetitive, and there is no reason in me telling you what you already know. But this time, in Dark of the Moon, instead of the audience sitting and watch the robots battle one another, for most of the action it is the humans against the robots. Needless to say, it is certainly not the captivatingly brilliant storyline that made me enjoy Dark of the Moon so much. However, since Revenge of the Fallen's storyline was only about Megan Fox and her clothing (or lack of) I think we are at an improvement in the third installment.


With that being mentioned, I will move to the acting. I am not entirely certain, but I believe it was Megan Fox who quit her job, rather than being fired, though either way it is very obvious that the film succeeded much higher levels of greatness without Megan Fox in the cast, I don't think anyone will care to argue with me on that statement. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley fills the shows of Megan Fox as Sam's girlfriend after they had broken up, though that is not even briefly explained in the film. However, there is undeniably a difference between the two characters, and here Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's character is at least attempted to be focused more on the character itself, instead of the looks of the actress. I cannot say that a good job was done with the character, but at least Bay gave a little bit more effort here, even if he needs more practice. And for her acting, it wasn't superb, great, or good, but it was decent, helping the film's terrible script a bit. Shia Labeouf was a big surprise for me. He was both funny and much improved from the first two films, or any of his movies for that matter. I still do not care for him as an actor, but I honestly don't have anything to complain about in that category.


The special effects were straight up unbelievable. By far better than the other two films, and some of the more impressive I have seen this decade. For visuals alone, if I had to choose between Dark of the Moon or Avatar, I would choose Dark of the Moon. Actually, while we are at it, I would say I liked the movie more as well. But the visuals here are far better than you will see on your average summer blockbuster, and yes that includes this year's Thor. The action scenes were fantastic, yes loud, but there really is not anything wrong with that. Trust me on this one, Roger Ebert is an excellent movie critic, but his statement saying the film is "visually ugly" is one of the more absurd things he has said this year, and trust me if you read his reviews he has said plenty of them.


Overall, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was both a pleasant and entertaining surprise for me at the movie theater. I went in thinking I was going to get another Michael Bay trash film, but found a decently acted, and special effects heavy film that really was not that bad. If you did not like this film, I don't blame you. If you hated it, I don't blame you. But in all seriousness, I liked it.

Rating: 6/10