Transformers 3 : La Face cachée de la Lune

It's 'Bayhem' time again - and this time around demolition king Michael Bay presents his trademark 'Six-C's' in glorious 3D! In case you don't know, the six 'Cs' are: chases, clashes, crashes, combustions, carnage and cleavage. Spread over a bottom-numbing two-and-a-half hours, "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" can also induce mental and metal fatigue, especially with the clanging robots smashing one another - and the whole exercise making little sense.

Technologically, however, "Dark Of The Moon" is Bay's best work so far - and action fans looking to be awed by scenes of massive mayhem and destruction in 3D should be satisfied. Story-wise, this one is better than "Revenge Of The Fallen", but not as fun and emotionally-connecting as the first.

The film opens with a flashback to the Sixties Apollo landing mission where history is rewritten (by Ehren Kruger) to incorporate the cover-up of an alien spaceship crashing on the moon. That spaceship, of course, is one of the remains of the epic battles between the Autobots and the Decepticons, and its 'discovery' sparks off another war that threatens to destroy planet Earth. Or at least the face of Chicago as we know it.

On the human level, we find that Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has traded in his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) for a newer model (a Victoria Secret one, to be exact) in the shape of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly). Sam is being offered a job by Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich) but we soon learn that Carly's boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey) may be up to no good. Then, when the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons hots up, Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) of the elite Government squad NEST are summarily called into action.

We get lulled into believing that there may somehow be an intelligent plot coming from the conspiracy of the NASA lunar-landing cover-up which also involves the Russian space program and Chernobyl. These turn out to be just an exercise in 'historical name-dropping' to spur our interest before we get to the demolition derby created by the Transformers. Indeed, some of the robots seem to emote better that the live cast. Cybertron leader Sentinel Prime, for example, is even designed to look like Leonard Nimoy (who provides its voice), complete with stuff that looks like beard. Again, the problems of the previous installments recur - like the confusion between the good and bad robots in the clashes.

Unlike the first two movies, there are no more gags about the shock of humans interacting with the mechanical 'bots. Bay, however, insists on some comic sequences and he has hired Ken Jeong to do his in-your-face shtick as Jerry Wang. John Turturro reprises his role as former FBI agent Simmons but this time around, Turturro finds it fit to clown around with his role. The most striking inclusion to the cast is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's love interest. However, with limited acting talent, she provides only eye-candy and beside her, Megan Fox would look like an Oscar-caliber actress.

Like the first "Transformers", this one is also a live-action cartoon on a grand scale. Scenes of Chicago buildings being toppled and destroyed can be as spectacular and brain-numbing as those of September 11; and the wing-suit flying sequences are breath-taking. Indeed, these are what most of Michael Bay's fans pay for and they will not be disappointed. The only problem for me is that Bay prolongs and repeats the robotic clash sequences to the point of being self-indulgent. Technically brilliant and visually arresting, "Dark Of The Moon" lacks heart and soul. (limchangmoh.blogspot.com)

After the box office success and almost critically panned Transformers film that was REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, that was released in 2009, Paramount Pictures announced that they would be releasing future films in the Transformers saga.

The third film was titled DARK OF THE MOON and the film was released in the summer movie season of 2011. The film was the last film to have Shia LaBeouf in the film as Sam Witwicky and the end of the original trilogy of films.

The film is set three years after the events of the 2009 film, with the Autobots, during the collaboration with the NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers) military force, discovering a hidden alien technology in possession of humans, which had been found by Apollo 11 on the years earlier. However, the Decepticons unveil a plan use the technology to enslave humanity in order to restore Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers.

The story was a really good story and it took inspiration from a novel called Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, written by Alan Dean Foster. The novel was a prequel to the 2007 film, TRANSFORMERS. Due to the critically panned REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, the Twins were cut out of "Dark of the Moon".

The acting is just amazing, but can get dreadful. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky one last time and he does a great job. Megan Fox was originally signed on to play Mikaela Banes in the third film, and Patrick Dempsey's character Dylan Gould was to be the employer of Fox's character, but she was fired, instead Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley plays Carly Spencer and she does a great job.

She is not as good as Fox but considering the shoes that she had to fill, she could have been a hell of a lot worse. Josh Duhamel, Kevin Dunn, Julie White and the rest of the cast are great in their performances, especially Tyrese Gibson, who was also in another 2011 film, Fast Five, which I previously reviewed.

The CGI is amazing and the action is so fantastic in this film and the best part is at the end of the film, and it was so long but I enjoyed it and the film is 154 minute long feature film.

The music by Steve Jablonsky is fantastic and much more cool and amazing was Linkin Park's song at the end of this movie.

Overall, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is not the best Transformers film, but it could have been worse.

8/10.

Transformers Dark of the Moon being the third movie of the Transformers series you wouldn't think it would be as good as the first two, well it is. In this movie Megan Fox is no longer to be seen but we are gifted with a beautiful Rosie Huntington-Whiteley playing along side Shia LaBeouf. This movie added some serious effects to it with the robots. just like the first two it combines an action/love/comedy attribute. The action scenes in this movie are without a doubt awesome. The effects they used are amazing and to sort of let you catch up with whats happening they use slow motion to let you see things that are going on. I like how they've taken something that has actually happened like the moon landing and have put there own twist on what actually was happening. this was a very good movie and would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing robots you played with as kid come to life.

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.

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.