Transformers 3: Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

After their disastrous second outing, few people had faith in the third part, but Dark of the Moon rights a lot of the narrative faults and feels like the sequel the first film deserved.

A despondent Sam finds himself out of the limelight as the Decepticon threat appears to have lessened, Mikaela and Bumblebee have left him and he struggles to find a job and direction in life. But when Optimus Prime learns that humanity had found a vital Autobot ship crashed on the Moon, he rescues Sentinel Prime from the wreck, just when the Decepticons return with a plan to restore their homeworld of Cybertron.

Watching Dark of the Moon feels like an endurance test by the time it finishes, this is due to a ridiculously drawn out battle set in Chicago for the climax. While it makes up for Revenge of the Fallen's terribly underwhelming finale, it does become a blur of insignificance after a while because there's simply too much happening! But if there is one thing done right this time is a correct use of characters. A lot of the ludicrous padding and fluff from RotF is completely missing; our human characters are involved but not excessively (ie. Sam's parents hardly feature at all!) and let's say this film provides us with humans who aren't noble and just. There's a lot more of the Transformers too (you would hope so) and it feels like they have a lot more respect shown to them now. Decepticons genuinely appear threatening and the Autobots are shown to have personalities again, continuing from the first film's groundwork (a scene with a silent, brooding Optimus-in-truck-mode is a favourite). The action is off the rails too. More in keeping with the original film we see them transform during battles.

There are some deeply unsettling scenes too. The setup involves assassinations against humans who knew about the mission to the Moon, executed by Decepticon Laserbeak (great to see him too), one where he infiltrates a family's house by pretending to be a friendly Autobot playing with their daughter. Woah, woah! RotF was too cheesy, but this is really dark all of a sudden!

As a fan of the Transformer characters, this film sees a lot of deaths. Some are most unforgivable. We haven't seen this many prominent robot deaths since the slaughter that was the 1986 Transformers: The Movie! The only other gripe I mostly have about this film asides deaths and a bloated finale is Carly, Sam's new love interest (the forgettable Rosie-Huntington Whitely) who is given things to do thanks to the plot, but is far less notable than Fox's Mikaela (I cannot believe I just wrote that) but I do believe the film would be stronger without a love interest. But it is Michael Bay, we need a girl for those slow-mo shots.

It is a vast, vast improvement and a faithful sequel to the 2007 film. It is too long, and it does make some unforgivable decisions regarding Transformer characters, so it feels less perfect in those regards. It is still a fun film though.

After the critical back-lashing Revenge of the Fallen, Michael bay stated that the third and possibly final Transformers would take away everything that failed in the last movie and give the audience what it wanted. But has he learned his lessons? Yes and no. Gone are the racially insensitive robots, the incredibly messy and clumsy plotting and much of the dizzying, incomprehensible camera-work. What remains is the poor geeky humour and questionable performances from the leads. Shia Labeouf was very enjoyable in the first movie but here has gone into overdrive, and his character Sam Witwicky has become much less relatable and interesting. His home life in particular (of which the first half of the movie focuses) is getting irritating. His girlfriend problems and embarrassing parents boring and we really couldn't care that much about how he feels unappreciated for saving the world twice. Then there's Megan Fox's replacement: Rosie Huntington-Whitely. She can't act. At all. It wasn't expected that the former model would be that great but she really is poor.

The first hour of the film is much like Rosie. Nice to look at (especially in 3D) but lacking any substance at all. We are left with Ken Jeong doing his Hangover thing in a 12A film, and not being funny, just very annoying. And John Malkovich doing his thing but really just embarrassing himself. There are reams of exposition, while the plot is better than the last two films it is still handed out poorly. Bay won't let the action tell the story, it has to be action, break, story, break, action. The rest of the first hour is just CGI and Shia going mental while Rosie watches blankly.

But all of a sudden the supporting comic actors are dropped and Michael Bay does what he does best: Explosions and fighting. An impressive freeway chase leading into a fight a plot twist (yes a plot twist in a Transformers movie) and a death of a significant character. The whole film gets better from here. The plotting gets tighter, John Tuturro and Frances McDormand are given more screen-time (there were so many Coen favourites in this movie I was expecting John Goodman to be voicing an Autobot) and the action is dished out in spades. Whe the decepticons invade Chicago all hell breaks loose. And we are given fights, battles, explosions and collapsing buildings galore. Robots kick, punch and rip each other apart. And this is where the third dimension comes into play. This is definitely the best 3D experience since Avatar. Watch in awe as Optimus Prime tears chunks of metal out of other giant robots and chucks them at the screen while in the depths of the background, aerial battles ensue. It is breathtaking and a triumph for 3D, proving that it can be done properly and amaze the viewer.

If you went an hour late to the movie, and make sure it's a 3D screening, this would be a 5 star experience of pure entertainment. But as it stands it's still a solid closer for the trilogy, an improvement on Revenge of the fallen but not as good as the first.

I have to say I enjoyed watching Transformers 3. If you take it for what it is, a Michael Bay movie with awesome, epic visuals, an over-the- top weak plot, not very deep characters, and classic 'Bay' humor, then it's great. Not as good as the first, but easily better than the 2nd one.

First off, the visual effects are amazing. One of the best, if not the best, that I've seen, both in details on the transformers, in action/fighting sequences, and in more general landscape shots - the views of Chicago when it was being attacked by decepticons were great. I watched it in 3D in the theater, and it was arguably the best 3D effects I've seen, and best use of 3D cameras, and that is including Avatar which i also saw in 3D. This is what Michael Bay is really good at, and this movie shows he is arguably the expert in visual effects and composition.

visual effects and presentation - 10/10

The plot isn't great. When it starts out, it seems like it might develop nicely into a moderately complex story rooted in some historical events that happened very differently than how we thought (kind of like the hoover dam part in the first transformers), but in the end not much is made of that and the plot is relatively direct and over-the-top. However, it does have a few good moments that offer a bit more complexity or emotion, and anyways I didn't watch the movie hoping for a subtle, complex, and nuanced plot.

Plot - 6/10

The characters and acting aren't Oscar-worthy either, to say the least. Rosie Huntington-Whitely is not a great actress, in fact she isn't really an actress, and it shows, but, to be honest, I have seen worse performances. Shia Labeouf is decent in his role as usual. and again there are some new characters, including some for Michael Bay- esque comic relief (which in my opinion is actually funnier than much of the humor in revenge of the fallen, which felt a little too forced to me).

Characters/acting - 6/10

Fun - 8/10

If you're expecting a layered, nuanced movie with deep characterization and a complex and well-written plot, well, then, don't watch this. If, though, you want a fun blockbuster with truly amazing visual effects, a decent (but forgettable) storyline and characterization, and an easy to follow dynamic, well you'll probably like Transformers 3.

Not as fun as the first one, but definitely a step up from Revenge of the Fallen and a fine way to end a trilogy of Shia Lebouf.

I was highly disappointed with Revenge of The Fallen and I thought the script for Dark Of The Moon would be similar to the other films of the franchise. But surprisingly, it was fresh. Ehren Kruger cleverly used the Apollo 11 event to create a Decepticon world invasion storyline with few interesting twists...

Although I was amazed with the explosive action and brilliant special effects used in the film, the film itself lacks a lot of things...

It started very well with the whole history of THE ARK and it crashed throughout the second half of the film. The humour was still silly like Revenge Of The Fallen. For example, Ken Jeong was appalling and Sam's parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) tried to be funny and humorous but failed. Replacing Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington Whiteley wasn't much of a big difference. However, she was certainly better than Fox. There was pointless scenes around the last half of the film that made it a really long, boring film. Also, Michael Bay tried hard making the slow motion action scenes very 3D and realistic which was a bit irritating and ruins the film. The main antagonists haven't performed well enough to create an epic ending to the franchise In another point of view, however, this film was fairly enjoyable and the script was written very well. The soundtrack used was fresh and bends well with the film. There was some scenes that just blew me away and the CGI special effects definitely deserves an Oscar nomination. Shia Labeouf, John Turturro, John Malkovich and Alan Tudyk was enjoyable to watch.

Overall, Michael Bay definitely improved this film compared to Revenge Of The Fallen by creating really amazing CGI effects and a really interesting script, but it wasn't enough to deliver a spectacular ending to the franchise...