Transformers 3 Review No.1
Rating: 3/5
“Impress me!” demands horrible boss John Malkovich of Shia LaBeouf when the latter’s Sam Witwicky arrives for a job interview.
Those left cold by the last Transformers may well ask the same of Michael Bay before risking what looks likely to be his final orgy of Hasbro-inspired robo-carnage.
For them, good news. Transformers 3 (full title - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon) might struggle to equal the sheer exhilaration of Bay's 2007 trilogy-starter, but it’s a whole lot more coherent and fulfilling than Revenge Of The Fallen.
Yes, it’s punishingly long – the longest so far, in fact – and comes saddled with some excruciating attempts at comedy (the most painful involving The Hangover’s Ken Jeong as a LaBeouf-accosting conspiracy theorist).
Yet the clever hook (say, what if the Apollo 11 moon landing were a cover for some Alien-style exploration of a derelict Cybertron spacecraft?) provides a secure foundation for Bay’s customary bombast, while the devastation wreaked by snake-bot Soundwave makes it the most bad-ass Decepticon since Blackout.
Perhaps Ehren Kruger’s best move, though, is to ditch Fallen’s baffling, globe-hopping patchwork in favour of a straightforward earth invasion story that, like this year’s Battle: Los Angeles, adheres faithfully to the ID4 template.
Admittedly, it takes a while for the pieces to fall into place and for characters (flesh and metal) to reveal their true colours. But once they do, the stage is set for a final hour of über-destructive robot wars in the streets and skies of Chicago, complete with wing-suited commandos plummeting from the heavens, four climactic smackdowns and a terrific bit of skyscraper-toppling.
Now for the bad news. British model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is awful – awful! – as LaBeouf’s new love interest, sucking the life out of every scene she appears in like some pneumatic Dyson sexbot.
Introduced with a leering pan up her Victoria’s Secret pins, she achieves the unlikely feat of making Megan Fox look like a proper actress, particularly at moments where she is required to be in peril.
Huntington-Whiteley is so terrible, in fact, she makes her co-stars bad too. LaBeouf, for one, has rarely looked so sweatily desperate than in scenes where he is obliged to simulate ardour. But then his own performance isn’t much to write home about either, pitched as it is at such a heightened level of consternation you fear he might pass out at any minute.
Elsewhere Frances McDormand gives good ball-breaker as a pushy Secretary of Defence (“Stop with the ma’am!”), while Alan Tudyk amuses mightily as the hair-trigger assistant of John Turturro’s oddball Sector 7 agent.
Leonard Nimoy, meanwhile, gets to recycle his “needs of the many” speech from Wrath Of Khan in his role as the reawakened superbot Sentinel Prime. Now that was a sequel...
Verdict:
A largely linear plot and some ingenious appropriation of 20th century history helps T3 correct most of T2’s deficiencies without really matching T1’s superior entertainment value and element of surprise.Transformers 3 Review No.2
Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro
THE STORY
When a mysterious event from the Earth’s past – and more specifically a discovery on the moon itself – erupts into the present day, it threatens to bring a war to the planet so deadly that the Transformers, ably assisted by Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf), may not be able to save the human race.
THE VERDICT
It’s big metal robot time... and the good news is that blockbusting director Michael Bay has delivered a high-octane bit of fantasy action-adventure that will have Transformers’ fans relishing the film’s vivid 3D entertainment.
Granted, the departure of Megan Fox has meant that the sex appeal quota has diminished. But the casting of some double-barrelled sultriness in the curvaceous form of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (British model and girlfriend of Jason Statham) as a love interest for Shia LaBeouf means that she is not massively missed... especially once the special effects kick in.
The general opinion – even from Michael Bay himself – was that the last film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, was something of a disappointment.
So it’s a pleasure to say that this third film is a great improvement, with Shia LaBeouf really growing into the role of self-appointed liaison between the Transformers and mankind, and the film also benefits from the addition of some fine character actors – such as Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Patrick Dempsey.
With a story that’s not as messy and muddled as the last film, Bay manages to bring a darker and more dangerous tone to the plot.
And when the action kicks off – and boy does it look great on 3D – the film offers up a veritable feast of special effects mayhem.
FINAL CUT
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a fantastic feast of all-action entertainment... the first big summer blockbuster is one worth catching.
Transformers 3 Review No.3
A crime to see in a cinema!...The true definition of IMAX 3D has arrived!!! A spectacle 3D finale with the most amazing action sequences to be delivered on film since T2....The summer blockbusters are over except for HP.7 pt.2 its only contender!
- OVERALL - 4.5/5 SUPERB
The film opens up to the back story of another story about the war between the autobots and the decepticons on Cybertron and and the secret of the actual moon landings being a top secret investigation and the finding of the Ark.Transfer back to the wonderful life of Sam Witwhicky, who is becoming a man and yet still trying to get over his emotional beak-up with mikayela. But he has the beautiful Carly, by his side now, who played by the lovely Rosie Huntington Whiteley, who unlike Megan Fox can act. As their relationship blossoms, things take a tide for the worse as both the Autobots and the decepticons find out about the truth about the space landings and the ark. And in turmoil begins Earth's Last Stand and becomes a extravagant battlefield where its an all out battle for the truth and the powers behind he secrets of the ark. It becomes a sheer 3D visual extravagance and the best 3D ever seen, debris, cop cars transformers and all sorts blow out of the auditorium screen and a beautiful array of nicely shot destruction sequences and heightened moments in slow-mo courtesy of a f35 cam on 35mm film. But the what this movie contains is the most spectacular action sequences known to film, remember the first time you watched and indulged in the action sequences of Die Hard or Terminator 2, embrace to relieve that mind-blowinf feeling again that leaves your jaw scraping the floor.
The actors are all on top form, in this spectacular action finale and not one of them fails to fall out of character, with the new arrivals of some characters such as Sentinel, Carly and some new machines. In this final installment of Michael Bay's trilogy it feels like it can't get any better than this and this is by far the best of any of Bay's flicks. The actors are on top form and even the new contenders do a fine job up against the actors and characters we all know and love. These characters actually feel fully achieved and developed to the max, which is well unusual for a Bay flick and it almost feels as it isn't a Bay film and your only reminded that it is until you see an action sequence capable only by Bay.
While I'd love to indulge on how spectacularly crafted this film in the sense of directing, but I'm not.Now your probably asking...WHY? Because i'm going to let none other than Michael Bay himself do it, ask I got to ask him during the after Q & A, what it was like to do his first 3D picture.
MB
Good question, when Stephen, Paramount and myself came to the terms that the 3rd and final Transformer had to separate itself from the other two predecessors. We decided it had to be different and by making it different, we decided to make it 3D it was different, I had to begin grasping what 3D was and what it could do, its limit and limitations, but I was up for the challenge... I did the implementation stage, you know doing all the research and then I found the perfect answer and flaw to 3D...And that was simple. If it ain't shot in 3D then there is no f*cking point of it being 3D, and thats about as blunt and beautiful as the answer gets. I mean did you see such films as The Last Airbender or Clash of the Titans, they were mockeries and shambles to the power of 3D and what it is capable of. In brief term, you can't turn a 2D film, which was initially planned and created as a 2D film into a 3D film,it just doesn't work, because it was never meant to be 3D, because it was perceived and created in 2D. Because your not gaining the full capability of what 3D is actually capable of, with a post conversion your getting like a pathetic 20% job with poor results. If it ain't filmed and shot in 3D then it ain't worth seeing it in 3D. And well that's how you have to look at it, its either 2D or 3D not both...Its like trying to turn a romance into one of my films, it just doesn't make, sense.
Back with your truly, Visually Transformers 3 is an amazing success and as with all Michael Bay films leaves the audience with the jaws dropped open by the amazing visuals and SFX. From the spaceships, to the outstanding explosions to the spectacular battle sequences are the most finest effects ever seen in an pure hardcore action flick. But the most outstanding final sequence of the destruction of chicago brilliant in its destruction that its just sheer beauty like watching the sun rise, then entering the destruction of the world, and the destruction just gets more climatic. The only tackiness of the effects is the risings from the moon but other than that Transformers 3 is a fine as it comes.
Overall Transformers 3 is as fine and beautiful as a spectacle as it comes and it sets down and destroys the majority of the Summer blockbusters setting the limits down and making it near impossible for any other film to step in the ring with it. Its laid the foundation and expectation of Summer 2011, and its a fine spectacle to the conclusion to Michael Bay's trilogy leaving confusion of what Spielberg can do with the fourth... But in final regards and as I bid farewell to this review, I leave you with this final note to gain the full pleasure and experience of Transformers: Dark Side Of The Moon....THIS IS NOT A CINEMA OR THEATRE MOVIE....ITS AN IMAX 3D MOVIE
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