My Movie Review on Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for the 1st installment of this year's "February Festivity", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon".

Here's the rundown of this sequel:

Two years after the battle in Egypt and the defeat of the Autobot-Decepticon battle in Egypt, Sam Witwicky finds himself getting the short end of the stick with everyday life. Even despite having helped save the world two times before and being in a relationship with his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer, he's hardly gotten much respect. Meanwhile, the Autobots the Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treat (NEST) continue tracking down the remaining Decepticon forces, who are now officially led by Megatron.

However, when the Autobots and NEST discover remnants of a Cybertronian vessel in Russia, they find out that a very special ship called the Ark apparently landed on the moon in 1961. The vessel in question was captained by the Autobots' fallen leader and Optimus Prime's teacher, Sentinel Prime, who went into a comatose after the crash.

Could this discovery somehow put an end to the Autobot-Decepticon war for good? Or is there something bigger going on behind why the Ark was found?

In the wake of watching "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", I decided that I wouldn't waste any time in renting "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" via AppleTV. With how much inner-hype the ending of the 2nd movie caused me and the new developments that one brought, I definitely wanted to see where its sequel would be going with it all.

There were many interesting things I read about with the movie as well, among them being the fact that Michael Bay was going all-out in making Dark of the Moon an improvement over Revenge of the Fallen following its shortcomings from the Writers' Guild Strike and the negative reception it received. Granted, I personally found Revenge of the Fallen to be enjoyable regardless of how flawed it was, but it was nice to find out that Bay wanted to ensure this sequel was better. I chose to eventually make it part of my "February Festivity" since the romance between Sam and Carly played a big role in the story.

Similar to my first time watching the first film, though, I had to see Dark of the Moon two times in preparation for reviewing it. For some reason, my head wasn't in the game the first time around.

So, what do I think of this sequel in words? Especially after seeing it twice?

Well, admittedly I didn't think this movie was perfect per se. The prime problem I had with the film was that there were moments where the screen would rapidly cut to black before showing another scene, mainly during the parts featuring Carly walking up the stairs at the beginning, when Laserbeak was assassinating the man who had a wife and daughter, and when the Decepticons were taking over Chicago. These "scene-to-black" and "black-to-scene" moments were not only questionable but painfully disorienting, and they made it hard for me to get engaged in the moments I mentioned.

Other than that, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" was truly a worthwhile and fabulous experience.

For instance, the direction by Michael Bay, and the story by Ehren Kruger, were amazingly well-done.

Narrative-wise, I believe this movie was a definite improvement over Revenge of the Fallen. Everything about the story had a much more organized structure compared to its predecessor, because it didn't contain any elements that were out-of-place or unnecessary. It carried a greater sense of balance too. Heck, while the movie was pretty action-oriented like the last two films were, Bay and Kruger gave the story time to wind down so that it wouldn't be too overstimulating for audiences. Plus, the characters drove the story with stride, and everything tied together with perfect finesse. The humor throughout was also deeply entertaining, the entirety of the story was unpredictable and full of surprises, and the vast amount of emotion and heart the film contained helped this sequel be perhaps the most soul-filled Bay-directed Transformers film by far. It was also nice to see Bay and Kruger go deeper into the history of the Autobots and Decepticons, especially by introducing the Ark and Sentinel Prime.

Considering how many references this movie made to Star Trek, and how much of a big fan of the franchise Ehren Kruger is, I'm surprised that he wasn't given the opportunity to write for a Star Trek film. Particularly for a future installment in the Kelvin series, because I believe Paramount would very much welcome any idea that could be pitched to them at this point.

Moving on from that...

As always, the special effects were spectacular.

The Autobots and Decepticons were as realistic-looking as ever, and the effects team certainly wasn't afraid of trying to push the envelope and work to the best of their abilities. Their work in creating Shockwave was undoubtedly the largest highlight in terms of the effects-created robots, particularly whenever he used his gigantic drill arms. Likewise, the effects team's work in creating Cybertron as it was next to Earth was so visually-accomplished that it looked like another planet really was next-door to ours, and the destruction of Chicago was so realistic you'd think that it was actually happening in real life.

The performances of the cast, characters, and character development were fantastic as well.

At first, I felt unsure about the change of romantic interests for Sam from Mikaela Banes to Carly Spencer, which was mainly due to how accustomed I was to the Same-Mikaela pairing after its two-film establishment. At the same time, though, I understood why this change happened, and considering some of the interactions Sam and Mikaela shared in the last film it'd make sense that they wouldn't be in love forever. The romance between Sam and Carly worked surprisingly well in this sequel, and I loved how Bay and Kruger gave their relationship backstory to be established on and ensured there was a compelling chemistry between them. Both Sam and Carly also had dynamic development throughout this sequel, and Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whitley gave awesome performances as their characters.

The rest of the human-visible performers and characters were fun too.

Among the supporting players, Frances McDormand gave a remarkably powerful and authoritative presence as Charlotte Mearing, and Patrick Dempsey did a great job portraying Dylan Gould as a fully-realized and three-dimensional character. John Malkovich also made great use of his screen-time as Bruce Brazos, in that he managed to steal the show any chance he had. The same can pretty much be said with Alan Tudyk as Dutch Gerhardt, because he portrayed his character with surprising effect. Plus, John Turturro was as awesome as ever in the role of Seymour Simmons, and the character himself didn't cease from getting better and better. And along with Seymour, the characters of Dutch, Dylan, and Charlotte had dynamic development. I also enjoyed the chemistry and revealed history between Seymour and Charlotte, really.

Finally, the vocal performances, and the Autobot and Decepticon characters, were as incredible as they were in the previous Transformers movies I watched.

As with the film's two predecessors, the most amazing of the reprising vocal performances came from that of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, Hugo Weaving as Megatron, and Tom Kenny as Wheelie. Optimus and Megatron were also the Cybertronian characters that had the largest developments throughout this movie.

I would also like to add that Frank Welker did a marvelous job playing Soundwave in this sequel. I never commented on his work as Soundwave in Revenge of the Fallen due to the character playing a relatively small part, but in Dark of the Moon...here, his portrayal can be given the notice it deserves. Soundwave's larger presence allowed Welker the chance to truly shine as the character's vocal provider, and it definitely helps to note the amount of ferocity he put into his portrayal.

The film's new vocal performers and robotic-characters were enjoyable too.

I really can't lie, Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of Sentinel Prime was truly one of his best works. He delivered every piece of dialogue he had with inspired theatricality, and it was all mixed with brilliant emotion, personality, and wit. Sentinel himself was also one of the most complex characters in the Transformers franchise, the unexpected twist involving him was one of the most well-worked I've ever seen, and his development was well-done to a tee.

Likewise, Keith Szarabajka was amazing in his vocal portrayal as Laserbeak. He delivered with a sense of classical villainy mixed with dark humor, and he savored every quote he had with passion. Laserbeak's personality and appearance also made him a force to be reckoned with, even as a follower of Megatron.

In conclusion, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" certainly isn't a flawless motion picture. But, it managed to succeed its two predecessors wonderfully and proved to be a rollicking great time. Considering the fact that Bay and Kruger intended on making this sequel the conclusion to the live-action series, I believe they did a terrific job in making it just that.

So, I rate "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" 4½ out of 5 stars.