Monday 31 October 2011

Transformers 3 : Dark of The Moon - REVIEW (repost)


Transformers 3 is the 3rd Transformers movie directed the infamous Michael Bay.
I, as a transformers FAN decided to go see it when it came out at the cinemas. ( did I have a choice).
First of all, let me tell you what I dislike. I dislike people going to watch movies like Hulk and Transformers and then complaining that it's just action and no plot/story line. Why would you watch these movies for a deep plot, it beats me. I suggest going to watch Eat, Pray ,Love or Atonement instead. Ok, with that of my chest, I will admit, I didn't really have high expectations for Transformers 3. Cos being intelligent, I knew the story/plot would probably be weak and senseless.

Okay, let us get into the movie itself. First, lets start with the title,  Dark of the Moon. The dark side of the moon basically refers to the side of the moon not illuminated by the Sun, hence, it's dark. This is actually different from "the far side of the moon", which is the side not visible Earthlings as the moon's orbit and rotation just happens to keep this side permanently facing away from us. This, Michael, is your first mistake!
The story starts of with the "Arc", the autobot mothership, crashing on the far side of the moon after escaping Cybertron. This triggered of a space race that sent the first man to the moon. The first Lunar mission was apparently a secret mission to investigate this alien spacecraft. So far.... so good.

Next scene, Michael is back with shots of a super hot girl who has replaced Fox. I could look up her name but i can't be bothered. She is undeniably good looking and the director undeniably enforced a few eye candy shots that had no relevance to the movie whatsoever. The real question is, why would  a rich successful hot woman go out with the "shorter" unemployed, grumpy, insecure man that Sam Witwicky had become. Again, nonsensical.

The first half of the movie was very slow and dare I say boring. I found myself looking around the cinema and wondering when things would pick up. And when the action arrived it arrived in quantity. Senseless, disorganised, illogical but in the bucketloads.  Again, we pit the decepticons numbering 200 vs the autobots, numbering 9 and the United States military, which somehow had dwindled to a handful of soldiers .
Before I went to see the movie, I wondered which new transformers would be brought in for this instalment. Could it be the the Combaticons? Bruticus? The Aerialbots and Superion? Predaking? Devastator? Metroplex? Skylink? I was so full of hope. Unfortunately most of the new transformers were nameless and generic. The only few prominent ones were of course Sentinel Prime, Soundwave and Shockwave.
I won't go into detail the action scene. What I want to talk about is what happened to the autobots?!?! They have dropped their standards. No longer were they the heros who stand for "good", they seemed to have laxed a bit in their code of honor. {warning:spoilers}

1st of all, we see them working with the US military, fighting in the interests of the United States. Fighting wars in other countries! Funny how superior intellectual being decide to join in petty earthling squabbles but, whatever.
2nd. Sentinel Prime. THE Sentinel Prime, previous leader of the autobots betrayed the autobots. Huh?!?! That is like saying Goku betrayed the Z team. Yoda betraying the Jedi. Mr Bay, that is sacriledge! Just because they made Jim a traitor in mission impossible doesn't mean u can do what u like in Transformers.
3rd. The extent of autobot brutality was shameful. In one scene a few autobots rip an injured decepticon limb by limb after telling it " this is gonna hurt". Even the decepticons followed some kinda war code as they detained the autobots in the battlefield and did not attempt execute them until ordered to do so.
4th Optimus Prime ripped Megatron's head and spine out after Megatron saved his life. Megatron even offered to co-exist with the autobots saying "what would  you be without me". Shame on you Optimus Prime! How about when u shot your own ex-leader in the back when he was down, when all he tried to do was save the WHOLE Transformers race.

I can't go spotting every mistake in this movie but I was actually annoyed that Tomahawk missiles hit air targets. They don't , they are long range cruise missiles for bombardment not for air-interception. Also, if 9 autobots can beat 200 decepticons, why did you still lose the war?!?!
Ok, I need to wrap up before this goes on for too long. Looking at the general opinion, most critics have given this film the thumbs down. Rottentomatoes' critic rating was 20% but the user rating was 76%. Most people feel that T3 is better than T2.
To conclude, Transformers 3 disappointed me somewhat EVEN with my low expectations. Sadly I have to agree with critics who say that its plot and story suck. Even the acting is bad. I would only recommend this to Transformers or mech fans aka nerds. The other group who may like this is pure action/eyecandy fans. If u are a normal person who is not a transformers fan looking for a good movie ( or have 2X chromosomes ), you have been warned.