Friday, July 1, 2011

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Non-spoiler Review)

This was one eclipse that didn’t disappoint. (Yes I mean you Twilight.)

The most unsatisfying thing was the drive home. No expensive car or tricked-out lorry would mutate into its Autobot/Decepticon form in front my eyes. How anticlimactic.

Simply put, if you don’t like action or cars you won’t like this movie. However, I love both. So…

After somewhat of a miss of the target with Revenge of the Fallen, director Michael Bay has redeemed himself by transforming this legend of a comic book and cartoon into the most brilliant action-packed-CGI-3D –adventure of the year… so far at least (fingers crossed for Harry Potter).

So, first things first. No, hottie Megan Fox was not in the movie. Was she missed? Definitely not. English born, Victoria’s Secret model, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, debuted her acting chops and more than replaced Fox, with the ability to speak more than five words without pausing to pose, her enchanting face and her even more spectacular body (she is an angel after all). Huntington-Whiteley was cast as Sam’s new love interest in the show, Carly. Granted she wasn’t great, and sometimes emotionally stunted, she still managed to get over the low bar Fox had set.

Speaking of Sam, Shai LaBeouf reaches new heights with his acting. He’s always been on the radar for his movies but there was some real connection and emotion that brought Sam to life and jump out of the screen and no not just because of the 3D effect. His comedic performance was a lot more tamed compared to his overacting start on Disney. 

The core members of the sequel Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson were present and reclaimed their roles successfully. While Patrick Dempsey was new on the scene, as Carly’s boss. Various surprised stars popped up as well, but I won’t go into any details and risk spoiling anyone’s surprise.

This movie brought everything you’d want in a summertime blockbuster. Comedy, drama, action, some more action and when you’re about to catch your breath, yup you guessed it, even more action. I won't say too much but the most exciting thing was watching the Autobots and Decepticons strategically alternating between their two forms during fight scenes. The intricate details were just astounding. This production, however, was a lot more graphic than the previous instalments, with more violence, destruction and casualties than ever! Which is great for the action-seeking junkies but not so much for the younglings. My only concern with this was the slightly sketchy story being told throughout. Parts either didn’t make complete sense (for me at least) or contradicted other scenes. But who really goes to a Transformers movie for the story, right? Probably the ones who aren’t familiar with the franchise and found it hard to keep up with which robots were on which sides (a problem I myself sometimes faced and did a double take on the blue and red eyes; blue means safe, red means Sam had better run, didn’t you see the matrix?).

This is one, of the few 3D movies, that is actually worth shelling out the extra cash and seeing in 3D; ridiculously uncomfortable glasses and all.

Rating: 9/10


Thanks for reading! Hope it was helpful, feel free to leave me your comments below! 
Kim :)