Hey y’all,

Managed to catch Transformers: Dark of the Moon on Saturday, at iMax in Melbourne.  So much to like (and also a bit to dislike) – so let me get straight into it:

Likes:

  • Shia LaBeouf (‘Sam Witwicky’) – Say what you will about Shia, he is no Matt Damon in terms of acting chops (and Transformers is not exactly ’Good Will Hunting’) – but Shia effortlessly gets the job done.  He has his detractors (many, in fact) but I can’t imagine the franchise without him these days. A good performance here by Shia. His parents on the other hand, we’ll come to them later.
  • Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (‘Carly’) – The new and improved Megan Fox? Yes! Apart from the obvious, there is a fair bit to like about Rosie.  In her first main acting gig, she held her own alongside Shia and Optimus. The comment I’m hearing most from people is how she was able to run around Chicago in heels. Apparently that would be difficult? Anyway, she was fine in this role – no obvious issues (remember, let’s keep everything in context – I realise Dark of the Moon is no potential Academy Award nominee!).
  • 3D – I watched Tramsformers: Dark of the Moon in glorious 3D at iMAx Melbourne. Needless to say, it was beautiful. I would never have thought, 20 years ago, that I’d be watching a modern day remake of Transformers on the “big screen” (let alone the third instalment in the current franchise).
  • Optimus Prime – Optimus is (surprisingly) both a like and dislike this time around – you’ll find out why a bit later on. How can you not like Optimus, anyway? Voiced brilliantly once again by Peter Cullen.
  • Sentinel Prime – A nice (seemingly temporary) addition to the Transformers franchise.  I mostly loved what they did with this character. Kudos to the writers for acknowledging Generation 1 Transformers here – they should have done a whole lot more of that. I’ve also read that Sam Witwicky actually uttered “Sentinel Prime” in one of his ramblings in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’. Kudos again! Loved the twist mid-movie, with Sentinel turning against the Autobots and obliterating Ironhide (perhaps I would have liked Ironhide to be given more of a chance, but he didn’t see the twist coming either).
  • Megatron – I loved the “new-look” Megatron. In rags and chains, with half a head missing (carry-over from ‘Revenge of the Fallen’?) – his attitude seemed more like the Megatron of old (Generation 1), including being subject to mind games toward the end of the movie (although usually it was Starscream going back and forth with him, not a human character as in this case – Carly). Loved Megatron coming to the aid of Optimus, but just didn’t like where this ultimately ended up.
  • Bumblebee – Solid.  I’m pretty content with what the writers have done with Bumblebee throughout this latest movie franchise.  Was happy for “Bee” (as Sam calls him) to say a bit more in Dark of the Moon, too.
  • Ken Jeong (‘Jerry Wang’) – I hadn’t checked any spoilers at all for this movie, so the cameo of Ken Jeong was quite a pleasing one.  Though, I would have favoured he stick around a bit longer.
  • Alan Tudyk (‘Dutch’) – Provided a few laughs, quite funny actually. Another that I would have liked to see more of throughout the movie. Perhaps he could have replaced John Turturro (‘Simmons’) all together, as I thought he was relatively over-used and may have been best left out of this one.
  • Thank you Michael Bay – no “Twins” (from ‘Revenge of the Fallen’).  Worst. Characters. Ever.

Dislikes:

  • The Autobots are always outnumbered – Historically, there have always been more Decepticons than Autobots.  For whatever reason, my memory tells me that this was the case even back in Generation 1 days.  In ‘Dark of the Moon’, especially in the Chicago battle scene over the final 45 minutes – it seemed to me that there were hundreds of Decepticons (including droids from the large “mothership” that was ultimately taken down by a pair of small, battery-powered Autobots.  You’re telling me there was no defence mechanism built to defend the mothership from Autobot intruders?).
  • Whilst the numbers (of Autobots and Decepticons) may be about equal if you look through the IMDB voice cast, it seems like it is just Optimus, Bumblebee and Ironhide.  The Decepticons feature Megatron, Starscream, Sentinel Prime (well, he was a bad guy!), Soundwave, Shockwave, Laserbeak.
  • I thought there was the perfect opportunity in this film, for Optimus Prime to call in “re-enforcements” after being banished from Earth.  The Decepticons, and Sentinel Prime, had taken control of Earth.  In fact, when I first saw the “space shuttle” the Autobots were leaving Earth on – I immediately thought of Omega Supreme and hoped it would be revelaed that the Autobots had brought Omega to earth in case of Decepticon attack, ready for activation upon Optimus’ command.  Alas, it wasn’t to be.
  • I guess my point is – the Decepticons have had some bad-ass robots feature in at least a couple of these films (Devastator in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ and Shockwave here in ‘Dark of the Moon’).  Why aren’t the Autobots allowed to have their own super robots?  Where was Omega Supreme (as mentioned above), Metroplex, Sky Lynx, Superior, Defensor etc, to name but a few?
  • It was unrealistic for the small group of surviving Autobots to defeat the entire Decepticon stronghold in Chicago.  Some kind of back-up/re-enforcement would have been just the tonic to make for a far more realistic (and believable) final battle scene.
  • And what of the Dinobots?  They remain the most obvious/easiest inclusions for future movies (if there are any).  I would love to see Grimlock, for example.  Whilst I’m at it, what about Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, Blaster, Perceptor?
  • Where was Starscream in ‘Dark of the Moon’?  Upon first viewing (I plan to go again), he had a minimal part to play.  I would have preferred Starscream have the conversation with Megatron toward the end of the film (about challenging Sentinel Prime), instead of the human character Carly having that conversation.  It would have had more impact and played into the leadership battle dynamic that has played out between Megatron and Starscream since Generation 1 in the 1980′s.
  • Since when can ropes contain the greatest Transformer of them all, Optimus Prime?  I was shocked to see Optimus tangled up in ropes atop one of the sky scrapers late in the movie.  Surely he is powerful enough to cut the ropes or simply break them by transforming etc.  Was anyone else surprised by this?
  • Since when does Optimus Prime execute Decepticons?  Another shock, first to see Optimus destroy Megatron when he was pleading for his life (only to shoot him point blank) – and then to take out Sentinel Prime, who was similarly pleading for forgiveness from Optimus – but it was not forthcoming.  Was this not totally out of character for Optimus?
  • I wasn’t opposed to the introduction of “Que/Wheeljack”, but I felt there could have been some kind of background given as to where and how he originated.  I initially thought it was ‘Cup’ (Generation 1 Transformer).  I think I should basically forget Generation 1 at this stage.  It seems the writers/makers of this franchise have no intention to give us original 1980′s Transformers fans much love.
  • Sam Witwicky’s parents.  Seriously, why even have them in this film?  They were somewhat required in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ but in this movie they were absolutely not needed.  Please, no more!
  • You can’t tell me they couldn’t have worked “The Touch” by Stan Bush into this film somewhere.  This gets back to a previous point about the Generation 1 TF fans, but this song is synonymous with Transformers, yet it’s been overlooked in each film.

It feels as though I’ve “disliked” a lot but I think most of it stems from my desire for Generation 1 Transformers to be acknowledged in these movies more often.

Overall, I loved ‘Dark of the Moon’.  Coming out of the movie, I think I gave it a rating of 9.3 out of 10 (a solid 4.5 out of 5).  As I said earlier, I’ll go back for another look very soon.  I’d rate ‘Dark of the Moon’ well ahead of ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ and at least on par with the first (2007) movie.  The original 1986 Transformers movie, of course, remains my all-time favourite.

Thanks for reading everyone!  Feel free to leave a comment.