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Transformers: Dark of the Moon |OT| - Bigger, Badder, Better?

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Story was very weak. Pacing was off, there never seemed to be any sense of urgency when the Transformers were fighting. The human fight scenes were a little better. It was too long, they could have cut 30 minutes no problem.

Other than that, it was alright. Wanted to see
Crybertron fully materialize though. That would have made part 4 interesting.
 
That short two second cut where we see through the eyes of a soldier, only seeing his gun, was pretty weird. But also pretty good for those two seconds.
 
Wow. I really didn't like this movie. Maybe I'm being a bit critical, but it was BARELY better than the second one. The movie is just way too long. It focuses a good 80% of it on humans. I feel like the robots get no screen time. The last 30 minutes or so were pretty cool. Although even then I got angry at it and found ways to nitpick.

The humor is terrible, I cringed often. Acting is terrible universally in my opinion. Girl was hot. I'll also put up a few spoilers:
Starscream went down like such a bitch. I couldn't help but laugh at the fact he died so easily. Pissed me off. Optimus killing people with the sword is always cool actually. Action was fun for the most part. It was bogged down by the constant human scenes. Music sucked. I hated the part with the flying squirrel suits, just corny as hell to me.

Me and my friends basically poked holes in it after the movie. That made it worth it. Sigh, I expected more from this.
 
As I said earlier in this thread, I'm still having a little bit of trouble with people in this thread complaining about Optimus and his
violent behaviour in this movie. After all the shit Megatron has pulled in part 1 and part 2, and the way the Decepticons behave (killing humans without remorse, and killing Autobots so stonecold like that), what was he to do? Be a nice guy? Hell no. Decepticons had it coming to them IMO! They were so brutal and ruthless, it was 'enough is enough' for Optimus I think.

About Cybertron.
No way that Cybertron survived. When Bumblee destroyed one of those little pillar things, Cybertron as a whole imploded, nothing was left of it. Maybe Bay chose to do this, and kill of so many main Decepticons, so nobody can go on from here, and nobody can continue on somethin he has started. I dunno.

I'm actually having mixed opinions about whether Bay should do a fourth or not. Shitty story and characterisation or nor, this man does know how to shoot action sequences, and make them look cool as hell. What bothers me is this: if they will reboot this in a few years, will the designs be different or not? I really like the designs in these movies, and I love how the transformations in all three movies have been shown. On the other hand, I would like to see some Transformers movies where things are a bit more darker and serious, like how Nolan handled the Batman franchise, you know. Instead of stories with enormous plotholes and inconsistencies in them. So yeah, it's a bit of a dilemma.
 
Saw it last night, IMAX 3D, here are my thoughts:

Overall, the movie is pretty much what you can expect from an summer-action-movie. The movie has even less pretentions about what it is than the first Transformers, which makes the movie so much more enjoyable.

The humor in this one fits, it's almost never awkward or forced. There is no comic relief in the sense of one actor making all the funnies, instead there's a shitload of characters with a funny line or two, with a handful of characters sticking out as the real funny characters(Bruce, Simmons, Dutch and that Intellegence broad).

The action is intense at some moments and awe-inspiring at others. What I really liked as opposed to the other movies was how long-range shots of the battlefield were used to give you a sense of scale, to be followed by a street-level view of Sam, Epps or the robots for that connected feel. The long-range didn't really add to the movie itself, but it just gave you that sense of how deep the pile of shit is that the main characters are wading through.

Also, this is not like the other Transformers-movies, I felt the previous ones were more like the standard Hollywood-formula for adventure-movies (1 guy takes on the task of saving the world, etc etc), this one is that too, but has a real war-movie woven into that. Bots are taking on Cons and vice versa without holding back. The robots also act more like they are built; Ironhide is big and heavy and he throws his weight around in his advantage, Dino is slim and slick and mostly uses his agility and speed to get around in combat.

I felt this was easily the best of the three, Bay managed to find that balance between big-ass war and personal story and the movie is far more coherent than the second. Story-wise, it doesn't make much sense, especially when you take the continuity from the previous movies into account, but the thing is... it doesn't need to make sense. Sure, there were some far-fetched ideas and some were illogical to a fault, but those were details and when one of those illogical story-points leads to the most awesome 3D-scene ever shot, I can forgive Bay.

On the music-side of things, Bay needs to get his shit together. Soundwave's themesong was the only one that fits. The rest is just plain random angry teen-music.

OK, spoilertime:
The wingsuit scene: wow. The story leading up to it makes no sense (sneaking a shitload of bigass transportplains into a heavily patrolled Chicago-airspace, yeah right), but once they jump... WOW.
Patrick Dempsey makes an excellent bad guy.
I have a theory that John Malkovic can simply not suck. In any movie. Ever. This movie adds to that theory. The jobinterview, the playtime with Bee; awesome.
Laserbeak was visceral. Every scene he's in was intense, not just the action, but every one. Especially the scene where he's having a teaparty with the kid. Damn, sent shudders down my spine.
Q was underused. All of a sudden, Q pops up and gives the human anti-'Con-toys. Next scene he's in, he gets shot. Makes no sense at all.
Barricade's cameo was awesome.
Wheelie was actually likeable this time around, and the interaction with Brains made him worthwhile.
I expected Shockwave to challenge Megatron's leadership early on, didn't see Sentinel's betrayal coming, very well done.
Sam's frustration was a good schtick early on to set things up for the rest of the movie.
The Datsun was golden, they actually found a car that's worse than a 70s Camaro POS.
What the hell happened to Mojo? Everything in the movie got explained, except Mojo and how Sam ended up with Mikaela's dog!

Why the hell are the 'Cons flying one-robot planes when they have the ability to transform into planes? Also; why are those planes equipped with man-sized hatches?

Final thought: Rosie Huntington is gorgeous. If she gets her lips de-siliconed. Those things are hideous.
 
I loved this movie. I'm shocked at being able to say this, but Bay actually managed to fix some of my major complaints with the first two movies.

First off, the Transformers themselves. Much more screen time for the bots which I am deeply grateful for. Bay finally realized that they don't necessarily need to be shooting something to be relevant. Optimus actually had important, plot driven dialog with other Transformers, which greatly helped to flesh out sorely underdeveloped characters.

I actually clapped at the fact that Ironhide was speaking in the movie, only to have Sentinel kill him a scene later. See Bay, you CAN drive emotion just with the Bots!

Bigger Autobots and Decepticons having more fleshed out roles by proxy made the smaller guys tolerable: ROTF was terrible for this: The worst part about the twins is that they had more lines then the rest of the Autobots combined up to and including Optimus! These were little things, but they helped to humanize the Transformers, and they desperately needed it after the first two films.

Second, the military. Overcast thinks they were featured too much, and they were pretty much the focus of the entire second act, however I was much more satisfied with how they were portrayed this time. ROTF, felt like the military's actions were the driving force of the movie and the Autobots were along for the ride. DOTM had them in more of a support role, and even what they accomplished was secondary to the overall goal of the Autobots' plan. More importantly, this movie actually drove the point home that the military was outgunned and outmanoeuvred. I still wasn't happy with
The relative ease they took out those Vehicons with, but at least they were no name generic Decepticons and not main baddies.

Third, Sam himself/the humans in general. Greatly toned down over the first two; which meant a lot less wasted scenes. Sam generally wasn't on screen unless it was Transformers related, whereas in the first one there were entire scenes that had nothing to do with anything but Sam or Mikaela
Sidebar: This new chick is leagues better that Meagan. She was hotter by a mile, but more importantly she was always warm and inviting; she actually made me care about her well being in the movie. Also, she's managed to do something I've never experienced before; she made me retroactively hate Meagan Fox' performance in the first two, when at best I was just cold to her previously. Seriously just thinking back she was such a robotic ice queen in both movies..
The parents were adequately scaled down too.
John Malkovich was pretty much worthless in the movie, but I don't care. That guy can do no wrong as far as i'm concerned.

Now as for Optimus...

This movie did something that countless iterations have never done with Optimus: have him act purely out of emotion. Optimus has always been the coolest head in the room; even in situations in which he would have been completely justified to blow his top he hasn't done it. That's what made the ending fantastic for me: It managed to humanize Optimus Prime. I love Optimus: In fact it's fair to say I love him and his character more than I actually love Transformers itself. However if he ever had any failing it's that he was always right, always took the higher ground. He's been portrayed as holier than Jesus Christ at times. Having him react the way he did to Sentinel, without remorse or a second thought, might not have been typical of Opty, but it would have been the most likely outcome considering the level of betrayal. Sentinel went against everything he taught Optimus, KILLED Ironhide, and nearly enslaved an otherwise innocent alien race. If Optimus had done his usual mercy routine it would have been far too unbelievable. I know there's gonna be a lot of "That's not Prime" bitching about the ending in the future, but I think Bay handled that perfectly, all things considered.

I do have my gripes about the film, but i'll save those for discussion. Best of the three by a mile.
 
PhoncipleBone said:
Makes sense since he worked for Harry Gregson Williams, who was an understudy of Hans Zimmer. All their stuff is interchangeable.

You are making a degree of separation that isn't necessary here. Yes, HGW was a Zimmer protege, but so was Jablonsky, who scored these films. Don't see where HGW fits into this :lol

Also, get a fucking avatar, Dead.
 
DeaconKnowledge said:

Considering Optimus:
Agreed totally. Sentinel betrayed Optimus, the Autobots as a race and humanity. Fucker needed to die and Optimus Prime, in full bad-ass mode this movie (holy shit how he took care of that Hentai-Con and Shockwave), took care of it. Relentlessly, without hesitation and fully just. I fully expected the movie to be over by then, but he went and beheaded Megatron too.
 
Not really sure what to say about this one albeit it's the weakest of the three movies I thought.

Foremost to me was the pacing...Watching the last 1/3rd of the movie felt like I was watching the scene where Arthur was rushing the castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, except much more drawn out and worse; the action just really went nowhere until the last two minutes. By the last 30 minutes I was pretty much checking my watch over and over wishing that someone would finally kill someone. I love the Transformers ever since G1, and I love seeing them in action when they are doing something worthwhile, but this movie seemed to be an hour of Transformers transforming for no good reason other than to make the movie longer.

The movie as a whole felt sloppier and off pace compared to the other two, which is saying a lot. There were whole scenes where I had absolutely no idea what or why I was watching. I think this was made worse by the acting, which was just ummmm, I don't even know how to describe it. Everyone was acting like they were on a mix of adrenaline and LSD the whole time. Lastly, I really miss the humor from the last two movies, which I thought was pretty good; In this movie, just downright facepalm-able mostly everytime.
 
Which new Autobots are in this? Does Arcee return with a more prominent role that lasts longer than 30 seconds?

EDIT : Oh, it turns out Arcee got killed in TF2, I don't remember that.
 
Also
am I the only one who thought of Mony Python's Holy Grail when Optimus' arm got cut off?
"That's nothing, it's just a fleshwound!"
 
Kweh said:
Which new Autobots are in this? Does Arcee return with a more prominent role that lasts longer than 30 seconds?

EDIT : Oh, it turns out Arcee got killed in TF2, I don't remember that.

New Autobots:
- Dino (which was supposed to be 'Mirage' really)

- Q/Que (which was supposed to be 'Wheeljack' really)

- Brains (a small autobot like Wheelie.


Also, there's three new Nascar Autobots, called Leadfoot, Topspin and Roadbuster, but they aren't allowed to go off the base, because no one likes them :)
 
Kweh said:
Which new Autobots are in this? Does Arcee return with a more prominent role that lasts longer than 30 seconds?

EDIT : Oh, it turns out Arcee got killed in TF2, I don't remember that.


Easy to miss she was in it for all but 2 scenes for about 8 seconds a piece. She gets blown up during the Bumblebee vs. Constructicon Jackhammer vs. Ravage fight.
 
Just watched this last night. I strongly disliked the first Transformers movie, however I can't remember much about it. My buddy paid for me to see the 2nd one, which I also hated and thought was about an hour too long. The 3rd was just as bad (I also had to get paid to go to this one). I think the comedy characters make these movies even worse than they already are. But, I was never going to be impressed so any readers can ignore this post.
 
neorej said:
Laserbeak was visceral. Every scene he's in was intense, not just the action, but every one. Especially the scene where he's having a teaparty with the kid. Damn, sent shudders down my spine.

Why the hell are the 'Cons flying one-robot planes when they have the ability to transform into planes? Also; why are those planes equipped with man-sized hatches?

Lazerbeak was boss. That tea party thing was probably the creepiest thing in the entire series.

As for the man-sized hatches, that really bothered me. Rosie's head ended being not that much smaller than Bee's face, haha during the internal shot.
 
I think what made this one a bit more bearable for me is that I never disliked Wheelie. I see a lot of people complaining about him and the other stupidformer he was with in all their scenes, but I actually laughed at most of his stuff in TF2 and here I thought it was even funnier.

Have fun at your new job at 7-11, dickhead

Also, the music was fucking fantastic. Yes, I get some of the Zimmer comparisons but I would say that about the first two scores as well. This one had some incredible music, the music during the
freeway sequence
went along so well with the cinematography and editing that it really blew me away, and there was another new theme that I seriously loved, on the soundtrack it's called
Sentinel Prime
 
jett said:
Even duckroll gave it a negative review? Now I don't know if I should spend money on this thing.

If you feel that my impression indicates that it would not be something you like, then yes you should not spend money on it. I don't think I gave it a "negative" review, but the movie is what it is. It is probably the strangest Bay movie ever made, and if that sounds interesting or appealing, by all means watch it. You won't regret it. Lol.
 
I read a review online at CNN.com that said that Rosie Huntington-Whitley makes Megan Fox look like Meryl Streep. I laughed pretty hard at that.
 
Can anyone explain:

why the autobots should be kept a secret when probably the whole world saw them in TF2 fighting in the city?
 
Saw it yesterday and honestly didn't like it much.

It just seemed off for some reason, and I liked the first 2 for what they were so I was kinda shocked how uninterested I was in it.

The 3D really only stood out for me whenever Optimums was in murder mode and the skydiving scenes. The impression of falling in those scenes was awesome.
 
Feature said:
Can anyone explain:

why the autobots should be kept a secret when probably the whole world saw them in TF2 fighting in the city?
I think everyone knew about them in the movie.

Edit:

Bill O'Reilly was talking about them so they were not a secret.
 
duckroll said:
If you feel that my impression indicates that it would not be something you like, then yes you should not spend money on it. I don't think I gave it a "negative" review, but the movie is what it is. It is probably the strangest Bay movie ever made, and if that sounds interesting or appealing, by all means watch it. You won't regret it. Lol.

Man I'll watch the trainwreck then. :P

Did you end up seeing it in imax?
 
duckroll said:
Which city?

I don't know which city it was (could be movie nr 1 too). But in one of the movies they fought in the middle of some city.

If everyone knew about them, then why were they kept so secret.
 
Feature said:
I don't know which city it was (could be movie nr 1 too). But in one of the movies they fought in the middle of some city.

If everyone knew about them, then why were they kept so secret.

Their location was for obvious reasons, (protect against attack, spying...)
 
jett said:
Man I'll watch the trainwreck then. :P

Did you end up seeing it in imax?

IMAX is next weekend. The entire first week was booked solid when I wanted to get tickets. Lol.

Feature said:
I don't know which city it was (could be movie nr 1 too). But in one of the movies they fought in the middle of some city.

If everyone knew about them, then why were they kept so secret.

The city was the first movie. No idea how they managed to keep it secret, but they did. After the second movie, the existence of alien robots is not really secret anymore, just not openly talked about by the government.
 
duckroll said:
IMAX is next weekend. The entire first week was booked solid when I wanted to get tickets. Lol.



The city was the first movie. No idea how they managed to keep it secret, but they did. After the second movie, the existence of alien robots is not really secret anymore, just not openly talked about by the government.

I've never been to an IMAX before so I assume booking is recommended as opposed to just showing up?
 
Carbonox_Ratchet said:
I've never been to an IMAX before so I assume booking is recommended as opposed to just showing up?

I dunno, this isn't an IMAX thing in particular. I live in a country where every cinema has internet and phone booking for all their shows, with seat selections. I hear it's kinda different in the US, dunno.
 
I wonder what will happen to my eyes after an IMAX showing. I went in to the regular cinema to watch the film in 3D with my eyes perfectly fine, yesterday. I came out and a quarter of my right eye was bright red.

I fully expect complete eyeball saturation after an IMAX 3D showing.
 
duckroll said:
So... I've finally seen it. It was pretty... unusual. I can't specifically put my finger on it, but there's a pretty large tonal shift in the third film compared to the first two. It's almost sad. While the second movie seemed to build on the events and characters of the first movie, the conclusion to the series feels more like a sort of distanced discomfort for everyone involved. It's not any one element, but basically the entire movie. '

[snip]


I appreciate the film, but I'm not sure if I actually liked it. I guess I'll find out after I watch it again in IMAX 3D next weekend.

Good to hear, duck. You seeing it again in IMAX 3D is good enough for me.

Sadly, I probably won't catch this movie until next weekend. I have family & friends staying at the house for the weekend, and I don't think a trip to the movies is going to work out.

EDIT: oh fuck, I forgot you can read spoilers when you quote them. :(
 
It was broadly what I expected, and I was entertained. A few things that I thought were wrong / or ways it could have been better:

- There was no reflection upon the deaths of any of the autobots, so it was hard to be emotionally invested. At least Jazz got an "aw Jazz" out of Optimus in the first movie, but in this - Ironhide - who he was probably closer to bites the dust, and nobody says anything! My heart was in my mouth over bumblebee's near execution though

- I was a little fatigued by the end because it had gone on so long. There was some stuff that really could have been cut. I like the comedy that some of the characters like the Sector 7 guy provide, but he had some really stupid scenes. Like that one where he says something about 'telling megatron' its time to tango or something. If they had cut some of those things, they could have put more footage in elsewhere and made some smoother edits... bumblebee was kicking ass one minute and captor to decepticons the next, megatron went from relishing the battle on top of the building, to chilling against a wall waiting for a lecture from blondie... there were a couple of moments where the continuity seemed to jump. Equally there was some awesome editing too. I loved the montage of Lazerbeak on the kill, jump cuts to black... really nice. The jump to the attack on Chicago was cool too.

- I was relieved that the ship that Wheelie and co took down didn't have any greater impact on the battle... I was worried it was going to take out the pillars or something, which would have been Star Wars prequel levels of coincidental sillyness.

- Sam and Eye-candy's romance was INCREDIBLY cheesy. In fact the whole tone of the movie was in some respects -- those slow mo shots of military men walking towards the camera etc... it was like this movie's cheesyness had become self-aware. Like they were doing it deliberately... but that "I love you" conversation at the end really took the cheesy biscuit. I groaned... until of course bumblebee made me laugh.

On the plus side - the action was incredible, especially the last half hour or so... the 3D really made some of it all the better. Whereas in the past movies I felt there wasn't enough Robot on Robot action, this movie rectified that.... and yet, I found myself most gripped during the human scenes in the big tilted building. There was a genuine sense of peril there... and something about what was going on that made you feel a little sick in the stomach. Really ambitious action. Oh and the Spock references were awesome.
 
French said:
Is the 3D good ?

All the 3D movies I watched ( Avatar, Thor ... ) had shitty and useless 3D.
I haven't seen this yet but if you thought Avatar's 3D was shitty and useless then I don't think you'll ever care about 3D. Thor's was a shitty post-conversion. This was filmed in 3D, just like Avatar.
 
RoboPlato said:
I haven't seen this yet but if you thought Avatar's 3D was shitty and useless then I don't think you'll ever care about 3D. Thor's was a shitty post-conversion. This was filmed in 3D, just like Avatar.

Wow, I didn't even know Avatar was filmed in 3D. :|
 
I thought the first half was about as bad as Revenge of the Fallen. Transformers humor isn't for me. The second half, wow, it's one giant spectacle, and I have to admit to enjoying the heck out of it. 3D was pretty good too. Still dim, but it definitely felt like a different experience generally for the better.
 
@radioheadrule83

To be fair...
Jazz's death was only taken into account when the battle actually ended and he was given a brief eulogy. Ironhide's death was just so sudden, that the autobots didn't have time to react.

Even when Optimus arrives he's still looking around trying to take in all that's happened.

About the abrupt ending...
Normally, Optimus ends the movie with a speech that wraps everything up. But nevertheless, silence can also be powerful, in a "nothing needs to be said" way, as both a way to show respect for all those who have passed away and all the trials and tribulations, up till that point.

Then we cut to Linkin' Park's new song and one last joke for John Turturro that completely undermines the serious tone in which the story could've ended.

Cut that non-sequitur out and it would've been a much stronger ending.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
First Sculli and then Deacon? Color me surprised!

Xia, I need to tip my hat at you and your co-workers. ILM outdid itself. Again. So much awesomeness. Especially when the bots and the actors interact, so goddamn convincing. Excellent work dude.
 
I am going to be seeing this tonight and I am expecting to be relatively entertained no matter how good or bad the movies proves to be.

This franchise has struck a weird chord of loyalty with some people.
I was talking with this kid yesterday who is about 19 and he was so amped to see this movie I honestly couldn't understand it. He then goes on to explain to me that Transformers 1 is in his top 3 movies of all time.....of all time. SMH
 
I don't know why everyone is praising ILM really. Didn't look like they did much work on this movie at all. The praise should probably go to whoever found Michael Bay real talking alien robots to film with. Pretty amazing stuff.
 
Just remembered something. Can anyone tell me why...

Megatron was just sitting in that alley living up to his hobo look? The scene when Rosie comes up to him. All that was missing was a bottle of whiskey in his hand.
 
RoboPlato said:
I haven't seen this yet but if you thought Avatar's 3D was shitty and useless then I don't think you'll ever care about 3D. Thor's was a shitty post-conversion. This was filmed in 3D, just like Avatar.

While I do agree with you here, I thought Thor's 3D was good too. Avatar is the best I've seen and Thor is probably #2 for me. Tron, Toy Story 3, and RE were really shitty 3D imo

But yes, if you say Avatar in 3D was thought it was shitty and useless, then 3D will never be for you.
 
Carbonox_Ratchet said:
Just remembered something. Can anyone tell me why...

Megatron was just sitting in that alley living up to his hobo look? The scene when Rosie comes up to him. All that was missing was a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

Because in an earlier scene he accidentally suggested that Sentinel was working for him, and he got an ass whooping.
 
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