Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

After Revenge of the Fallen being literally one of the worst films i've had the displeasure of viewing, this one was something of a curiousity, with Bay seemingly acknowledging his errors. And it's fair to see he's gone a way to make a far superior film to that sequel but still suffering his ego.

The film basically spends the run time setting up the final act, it's not a ground breaking script and has the typically ham fisted dialogue and inconsistencies, which generally serve to allow for Bayhem. That said, the plot does what it needs. It's a lot less convoluted than before but the twist got me and it plods along at a pace to just about maintain interest over the (overlong) runtime. A few more liberties could have been taken with the editing and present a much tighter film instead of aiming for a Blockbuster 'epic'- is it me or do they all seem to have a need to be 150mins these days?

There's a few new characters, both human and metal and a few have been dropped. All surprisingly worked except trying to making emotional death scenes for characters we don't really know. The new piece of ass in the film isn't fantastic at acting but she wears the tight white dress and looks good in slow motion, so she's fine. Shia seems to be hated by a load of people but i've liked him since Even Stevens and he does fine here. A lot has been toned down, the humour's still shaky but it got the laughs when needed and wasn't cringe inducing like when his parents got stoned *groan*. Ken Jeong has a great cameo and, for my money, was far funnier than in Hangover 2. Alan Tudyk also had a great cameo that needed more screen time, hell, i'd be happy with a spin-off of just him and Turturro. Malko has an odd cameo and McDormand is mostly exposition but it certainly brings up the quality with higher calibre actors (mostly Coen regulars). I liked the little human plot they had with Dempsey as well and generally the human angle was pretty engaging and not just something getting in the way of Bayhem.

Ah. Bayhem. Let's be honest, the film is just an excuse for it. He delivers his biggest film, with sweeping shots of a devastated Chicago landscape. He does seem to be getting a bit away with himself, merging in a post apocalypse resistance angle but when it comes to the end it's all about huge robots fighting. And they are huge. The editing has been calmed down and the action is a lot easier to follow and enjoyable. There's not a massive set piece per se and it's not quite the jaw dropping spectacle any more but if one thing Bay can do, it's Baysplosions and he's on form here and the restraint pays off. Shockwave with the tentacles was fun but the problem still remains identifying any robots other than Optimus and Bumblebee and there's a host of new ones thrown in with little introduction.

Overall, it's not a perfect film but it's about what you can expect from Bay and then maybe a little more. I'm glad he's recognised some downfalls of the last film and he's certainly improved on it. If Revenge made you lose faith in the franchise, this redeems it. Plus there's a cool meta-joke about Nimoy who marvellously voices one of the characters.

+

Oh and saw it in 3D, not my choice as it was 3 times the price of a normal ticket but it actually wasn't dark and distracting like most flicks i've seen in the format.

Terrible! I want my money back. I don't even know where to begin. Such a total mess of a film.

1/10

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

id go with a .

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

Is this all jumping on the "it's hip to knock Bay bangwagon"?

It had trite dialogue, plot holes, questionable cohesion but was still delivered what you expect it to. And I give Bay props for learning from his mistakes while staying true to his style of bombastic over the top Bayhem. It big, dumb, fun and I liked it without as much pretentiousness as it could have.

I haven't seen it yet, but i am pretty sure that it's not that bad.
Surely it's better than Revenge of the Fallen?

I loved Transformers 1. I must have seen it like 8 times.
But 2 and 3 are simply terrible. I honestly dont know if 2 is worse than 3 or vice versa.

Dunno dude, it was really really bad. So disappointed.

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

I haven't seen it, but the consensus is it's better than Revenge of the Fallen, which is saying it's better than sh*t, so isn't that faint praise? Anything is better than that cinematic pile of puke.

I won't see this because even if it is better than the second one, it still has all the things I hated about even the first one:

-Shia LaBoeuf and his unfunny parents
-Indecipherable robot designs. I mean come ON, we all KNOW what the Transformers look like and it's not the walking garbage sculptures in these movies...
-Michael Bay. Not a good director any way you slice it.

Plus, in 3d, you're forced to pay 15 dollars for all this. No.

Well, I was excited by transformers 3. I like shia Leboef, I liked the music in the first 2, and the trailer was awsome. So, I went to see it, and then I went to see it again. In 2D. I counted 2, (there may have been more) useless scenes, only included to make people who paid for 3D think it was worth it.

The story line wasnt great, but it was WAY better than number 2. And it was darker. The humour was less cheesy than the previous films, but it was still pretty funny. I do agree that it was overlong, but it was a good fun film to watch. I have a history of liking films, good or bad, if they are entertaining. This was entertaining. 3.5/5

2 was terrible but I thought Bay definitely made an attempt to avoid most the reasons that made it stink

everyone says 2 was bad...2 wasnt bad..it was just the language, and the pervy little 13 year old jokes.... and i wish i saw it first, my kids love transformers, and they pick out their fav...well o. prime is a fav and if i had known, that would have happened...i would not have shown the kids until much later.

other than that...loved it...i loved it because it gave us so many g-4 references, and devastader...[i can never spell his name] did yall see that *****...

i cant let my kids see the new one either!! bumble bee is a fav....and iron hide....oh, no..no..my kids would be so sad...

i have loved transformers since g-1, beast wars..so-so..armada sucks, i dont even want to talk about the "new" travisty that cartoon network has trotted out like a show pony... and michael bay is the only one to stick with orginial names, and all we wanted was..please, please--make the noise..it was love at first sound..

i think i saw the first one about..from july 3rd to the second movie...average twice a week...second one was less, but its a middle child, and i am waiting to go see dark of the moon in 3-d in about 2 weeks..

but im such a geek, and a fan boy [even though im a girl] so anything that comes close to g-1 through g-4...and will take a little bit from all things transformers and make it sound great, and look amazing...i cant really be upset at anything important in the movies..i thought the music could have been better like the first one..

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

Solid rating Pyro and I completely agree with your assessment. The folks that keep saying that this is a terrible movie. Explain? What did you expect exactly? This movie has spectacular effects and a moderately enjoyable story to bridge us to all the effects. What more do you want from an over-the-top Sci-Fi - action film?

I'd say is right on the money.

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

Everyone says 2 was bad.... including the people who made it.

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

It's funny, I'm one of those too and yet when I watched early last week before going to see the new one. I thought it was OK. Not terrible though, just too busy is all.

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

I picked up the transforming bumblebee case version, as i'm a sucker for a special edition. I remembered good parts so thought i'd give it a seocnd watch and yeah, it stunk. Still awful, misfires on almost every beat.

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

In such movie end-of-the-world movies, the score plays a very important part as the sore has to be spot-on to engage the audience in every sequence of the movie, be it a very tense moment or a very emotional, and the composer really does an excellent job with the sore for this movie.
hope u would agree with this..

Re: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
 

people say they hate the second because there is to much going on, this is worse for that.

Is it not too much to ask Bay to take a portion of the £56 billion dollars he spends blowing stuff up and instead put it into his Transformers scripts so we have some decent dialogue and three dimensional characters to go with his "jaw dropping" effects, maybe a cohesive storyline aswell

No, people hate the second because it was full of racist, juvenile, and just plain unfunny jokes, plus it was hard to tell what was going on, and even harder to care, since nothing in the film had consequences.