Transformers: Dark of The Moonby Wilson Morales
Considering the last film, ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,’ was a disappointment to the fans and critics, does anyone think going into the next film, ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon,’ that all of the sudden, it would do a 360 turn and be the best among the three films?
Not close enough!
While Michael Bay has done some changes, like replacing Megan Fox with Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and enhancing the filming with 3D effects, he still goes overboard with scenes and effects of watching your favorite childhood characters on screen. Nevertheless,‘Dark of the Moon’ is a slight improvement over the last film, and one can only go into seeing it as mindless fun.
Once again, the Decepticons are up no good and it’s up to Sam Witwicky (played by Shia LaBeouf) and his trusted Autobots to work together and stop them before mayhem ensues.
Now that he’s being awarded the Medal of Honor from President Obama, life should be great for Sam. After all, he has saved the world more than once already. Instead of just basking in the glory, Sam is still in his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer’s (played by Huntington-Whiteley) place and struggling to find a job. Even when his parents, who are living the life and cruising around the world, are disappointed that Sam has wasted his potential so far.
Meanwhile, while several Autobots are scattered around the world protecting from their common enemy, the Decepticons are busy laying a trap for Optimus Prime that will get closer to their goal of destroying mankind.
When it turns out the initial mission to the moon was to retrieve some artifacts left from the wreckage of the Autobots/ Decepticons war, the legendary Buzz Aldrin is brought back in to explain what they saw and found. Before you know it, Optimus Prime fills in the rest of the mystery to the artifact found and he’s able to revive his old mentor and original leader of the Prime, Sentinel Prime.
With Sentinel Prime on US soil, the trap laid for Optimus works, and the Decepticons plan to bring their world to Earth and have the humans work as slaves.
With Michael Bay, one is never going to get perfection. You don’t go into his films and expects Shakespeare like performances. He’s a visual storyteller with lots of action and effects and that’s what he does best. It may be sometimes over-the-top, but Transformers 3 on 3D delivers.
While it’s good to bring back familiar actors like Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson, it’s the voiceover work of the Autobots and Decepticons audiences want to see. One can’t make much out of Huntington-Whiteley’s acting. As a replacement to Megan Fox, she holds her own with LaBeouf. She’s not blame her when Bay chooses a couple of scenes to highlight her beauty, but that’s the point of casting her. He wasn’t looking at actresses who went to the Royal School of Dramatic Arts.
Actors like Turturro, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, Alan Tudyk,and Frances McDormand have been in better films, but this one gives them something to look back and say that they let themselves be a big commercial film. It’s good to see Dempsey, playing Carly’s boss Dylan Gould, on the big screen. He looked like he had more fun on the set than he does on his day job, TV’s ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’
‘Dark of the Moon’ is certainly preposterous when it comes to plots and continuity, but just like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films, we go for the excitement of seeing it, even if we are taking one for the team. We expect plenty of actions, dumb dialogue, and a large popcorn and soda.
