Transformers:Dark of the Moon Discussion
I haven't been a huge fan of either of the previous TF movies. DOTM is neither better or worse than its predecessors. I liked the robot-on-robot action (third act was pretty awesome), was moderately amused by the comic flourishes to every human interaction, and tolerated the endless exposition and speechifying.
The bots were too anonymous for my tastes. The Decepticons were mostly interchangeable. Sentinel Prime looked good. Optimus was cool with his flight pack, but not enough attention was given to his power-up. Shockwave and his giant mechanical worm were scary. I liked the Wreckers; their designs were fresh.
Big, blockbuster, stupid stuff. The 3d was well done. Ultimately forgettable. The leering, lingering shots of Carly aren't unwelcome, but juvenile nonetheless. Malkovich was good, Ken Jeong was a little much, Whedon player Alan Tudyk gave a standout performance.
Just okay for me, but I am not the target audience, I suspect.
But what are your thoughts?
I ended up seeing this in 3D at our local cinema pub on Sunday. I figure if i'm going to sit through a 2.5 hour bayfest, I better have a comfy chair and a beer.
It was better than I expected, but that is because I had given up all hope of a coherent story from the beginning. I went into this looking for a few hours of mindless escapism with giant robots and explosions, and I was not dissapointed.
The robot-on robot fighting was much clearer and better thought out than ever before. Each (robot) character seemed to have its moment to shine. I liked the red ferarri Transformer (enzo?) and Sentinel Prime was better that I thought he would be.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
Sooo... there were a lot of cringe-worthy and WTF moments. Ken Jeong's character was unnecessary, and pretty much the same "wacky asian" he is in every other movie. Sam's new love interest was a walking mannequin, with no real purpose. Really all the human characters were just one dimensional window dressing. Why even have humans in this thing?
What I really dug were the set pieces that Bay and crew obviously spent a lot of time on. I liked Megatron in the desert. That had a great feel to it. I liked Sam fighting Starscream, and I liked the whole seige on chicago with the giant ships.
I liked the attack vehicles launched from the big ships, they seemed very "Machinen Kreiger" in design. I didn't like how frequently and ruthlessly the decepticons killed humans. It seemed very against the tone set in the movie, and was a little odd for my kids.
Shockwave was great, but I thought he was going to be the main Villain in the film. I never really understood his relation to the giant mechanical worm. Was it part of him or a separate entity?
I liked Laserbeak, and I like that Soundwave has a vehicle form now.
Product Placement was off the chart once again, with the major offenders being Cisco and Waste Management. You see a transformer scanning a WM truck, but you never see his robot mode. This is minor though compared to other plot holes in the movie.
But hey, go and turn your brain off and enjoy the excellent robot battles. Just try not to groan too loudly whenever a human opens their mouth. Although i will echo what the Enthusiast said - that Malkovitch and Tudyk were excellent.
"Why even have humans in this thing?"
People have been wondering that since the first movie, which had more human characters than Transformer characters, and they were on the screen longer as well.
As for Decepticons casually slaughtering humans, that's also been part of the series since the get-go. The first movie has the helicopter guy wipe out entire Army base for no apparent reason, complete with using explosions to disintegrate people; Frenzy uses his ninja stars to take out half the Secret Service; the bulldozer guy rips a bus in half and then explodes it. (Let's not forget the HIGH-LARIOUS bit where Megatron flicks some guy with his finger and sends him flying 40 feet into a concrete wall.)
Spolier Alert-
I agree with a lot if not everything you say Josh, It was more like just mindless battle with no real introduction to characters or to certain things, its like wow Optimus has wings, how? Trailer perhaps (since he did point out he had to go get his trailer) but thats cause we as fans would expect it to be that from seeing the toys but Im sure it left a few non fan people scratching their heads. As for the Ferrari character, his name is Dino and I BARELY caught his name in the film. They could have taken five minutes in the base to introduce everyone somehow. That einstein looking robot I felt was stupid. So robots age? If they can take on any form why pick one thats bald with yellow teeth/moustache and stupid looking? Shockwave was cool overall especially his voice and I also didnt understand the whole snake thing, was it a part of him, seperate? I dont know, it was just there and very scary. I didnt see enough of each cars transformation to put together who is who, the colors help a bit, but I didnt figure out who the blue mercedes was. The Einstein dude? I didnt really like Laserbeak either, why does he have spit? I dont know, for me watching transformers as a kid was cool because you could easily pick a favorite and keep track of robots but I was so darn confused throughout the whole movie. All Decepticons, while clearer than previous movies, still looked like metallic shards glued together and all were the same damn color. Maybe Im not familiar enough with their new designs. Now, because I am Colombian, I tend to follow Juan Pablo Montoya's Target car more for pride in my country rather than as a Nascar fan (which I am NOT) but I absolutely did not enjoy the robot mode. I don't even know the robots name. It looks like a fat Italian guy with a floppy gut. Nitpicking aside my wife and I enjoyed the movie, it was total eye candy in 3D. Favorite design was Sentinel Prime, probably one of the cleanest designs.
The WTF moment was that after all that ish that happened in the building being torn apart by Shockwaves giant destructive phallus, Carly managed to come out at the end with her high hells intact on her feet. A real girl would have come out shoeless with a wet spot on her crotch and skid marks.
I just realized that with this post, I have officially reached TF Nerddom because I usually dont care to write about new transformer stuff. I guess Im just antsy cause at this very moment my wife is in labor.
Good luck to you and your wife! Don't forget that everything will be fine if you just yell a lot. (Hey, it always works on TV!)
I'm not sure yet Enthusiast. I'm still debating whether or not to go see it with my free movie pass. I like 3-D movies but to a certain extent, and I like to see effects like that in the 3rd act but---with all due respect---I can turn my brain off, but I can't turn my feelings off to suspend my sensitivity to bad taste. The human heart doesn't work that way I don't think. Misogyny, one-dimensional crudes, & those adult WTF contents shouldn't be in a movie that's supposed to be for kids.
I know that I might sound somewhat like a red-blue boy scout prude here but that's the way I am.
Speaking of Red-Blue Boy Scouts, It seems more likely that I'll save my free movie pass and my gasoline funds for Captain America.
Who agrees or disagrees it's best to see Bayformers on the internet?
Not to necro a thread from a million years ago on my first post, but while the movie was and is terrible, the toyline has some nice pieces. The Human Alliance Scout two packs are all pretty sharp and vaguely Mask-ish in style with their tiny riders. The Cyberverse line has some interesting entries as well, I just bought commander Hatchet the other day and he is really surprisingly cool and intricate. And voyager Air Hammer is amazing, Fireblast Prime too. If you can ignore the media aspect and just focus on the toys, there are some awesome figures out now. And let's face it, Transformers media hasn't been remotely good since Beast Wars anyway.
