Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Year: 2011
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Josh Duhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Shia LeBouf, & John Turturro
Runtime: 154 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 25/07/20
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Josh Duhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Shia LeBouf, & John Turturro
Runtime: 154 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 25/07/20
As I’ve stated previously, I have a soft spot for the Michael Bay Transformers films. When looked at from an informed critical viewpoint the films are generally very below average and do little more than act as 2 and a half hour adverts for the various product placements that literally dominate the frame. I saw an analysis that there’s at roughly one product advertised per 2 minutes of film in the Transformers films which is close to three times the amount of the average film with a lot of product placement.
So, another two years went by and another Transformers film was released, touted as the end of the series too. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a strange film to be excited for in 2011. Everyone hated the films, but everyone went to see them anyway, the box office results are proof of that. But for me, Dark of the Moon was brilliant and it is by far my favourite Michael Bay Transformers film.
Dark of the Moon starts with a lot of exposition about how the 1969 moon landing was actually just a cover up by the U.S. government to investigate a UFO that had crashed on the lunar surface. When they get up there they discover it to be an Autobot ship that had escaped from Cybertron. Stowed away in a hidden compartment which the astronauts do not find is Sentinel Prime, one of Optimus’ brothers and a high ranking Autobot scientist.
Skip to present day, the events of Revenge of the Fallen happened roughly three years prior. Sam (Shia LeBouf) has graduated college and is now on a job hunt. He lives with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely) who works for a very rich guy who’s job I’m not 100% sure is ever actually explained. Anyway, Sam gets repeatedly put down by this guy and even manages to be given a job at a firm he is a shareholder for because of him. Meanwhile the Autobots are continuing their purge of Decepticon threats around the world, but they are being held back by new legislation that is trying to be put through to force the Autobots off Earth in the hope that the Decepticons will follow them.
Sam learns through a conspiracy theorist at his new job that there is an Autobot ship on the moon, so Optimus and the others check it out and find Sentinel Prime. They return him to Earth and resurrect him using the Matrix from RotF where we are introduced to Sentinels Pillars. These Pillars allow objects of great size to be transported through space and time, but the U.S government have confiscated them believing them to be weapons. It is here that it is revealed that Sentinel Prime has actually joined the Decepticons and plans to use the Pillars to transport Cybertron to their current position and enslave humanity to help rebuild it. The Autobots are successfully booted off Earth before they can stop Sentinel and humanity is left to fend for itself against a full scale Decepticon invasion.
So, another two years went by and another Transformers film was released, touted as the end of the series too. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a strange film to be excited for in 2011. Everyone hated the films, but everyone went to see them anyway, the box office results are proof of that. But for me, Dark of the Moon was brilliant and it is by far my favourite Michael Bay Transformers film.
Dark of the Moon starts with a lot of exposition about how the 1969 moon landing was actually just a cover up by the U.S. government to investigate a UFO that had crashed on the lunar surface. When they get up there they discover it to be an Autobot ship that had escaped from Cybertron. Stowed away in a hidden compartment which the astronauts do not find is Sentinel Prime, one of Optimus’ brothers and a high ranking Autobot scientist.
Skip to present day, the events of Revenge of the Fallen happened roughly three years prior. Sam (Shia LeBouf) has graduated college and is now on a job hunt. He lives with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely) who works for a very rich guy who’s job I’m not 100% sure is ever actually explained. Anyway, Sam gets repeatedly put down by this guy and even manages to be given a job at a firm he is a shareholder for because of him. Meanwhile the Autobots are continuing their purge of Decepticon threats around the world, but they are being held back by new legislation that is trying to be put through to force the Autobots off Earth in the hope that the Decepticons will follow them.
Sam learns through a conspiracy theorist at his new job that there is an Autobot ship on the moon, so Optimus and the others check it out and find Sentinel Prime. They return him to Earth and resurrect him using the Matrix from RotF where we are introduced to Sentinels Pillars. These Pillars allow objects of great size to be transported through space and time, but the U.S government have confiscated them believing them to be weapons. It is here that it is revealed that Sentinel Prime has actually joined the Decepticons and plans to use the Pillars to transport Cybertron to their current position and enslave humanity to help rebuild it. The Autobots are successfully booted off Earth before they can stop Sentinel and humanity is left to fend for itself against a full scale Decepticon invasion.
That was a big plot synopsis and to be honest that actually covers the first hour and a half of the film. It takes a long time for the true plot of the film to actually come through and during most of that time we are with Sam who is having manbaby problems. The human storyline is much better this time round because they are directly involved with it rather than it just happening to them, but it still falls short of what it should be. The story of the Autobots vs Decepticons also works must better this time because characters actually die in this film. My biggest issue with the film though is the fact that it cuts to credits about a minute or so after the final battle. There’s no actual resolution to the story and considering that Earth starts to be invaded and enslaved by Decepticons it’s extremely underwhelming to not see any resolution to that.
The performances this time round are generally much better. LeBouf does his best performance of Sam yet, Huntington-Whitely is a good replacement for Megan Fox (but again doesn’t have a whole lot to do other than stand around looking pretty). Patrick Dempsey is pretty good as Carly’s boss but I feel like they could have done more with the character. John Malkovich is also interesting as Sam’s boss and provides some really funny moments.
The action sequences look great and are among the best in the entire series, the CG effects on the Transformers are better than ever (and this time they run at the same frame rate as the film so they aren’t all juddery). But it still doesn’t solve the issues of bad editing and inclusion of completely redundant scenes taking up a lot of time in the film, mostly to sell you products. It’s ultimately just a really nicely shot, but poorly edited commercial.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is my favourite of the Michael Bay Transformers films, but it’s still not exactly a good film. I would recommend this one the most out of the five films Bay directed, but realistically the only people who will like Transformers are people who enjoyed them growing up (like me) or teenage boys who like explosions and lots of them.
The performances this time round are generally much better. LeBouf does his best performance of Sam yet, Huntington-Whitely is a good replacement for Megan Fox (but again doesn’t have a whole lot to do other than stand around looking pretty). Patrick Dempsey is pretty good as Carly’s boss but I feel like they could have done more with the character. John Malkovich is also interesting as Sam’s boss and provides some really funny moments.
The action sequences look great and are among the best in the entire series, the CG effects on the Transformers are better than ever (and this time they run at the same frame rate as the film so they aren’t all juddery). But it still doesn’t solve the issues of bad editing and inclusion of completely redundant scenes taking up a lot of time in the film, mostly to sell you products. It’s ultimately just a really nicely shot, but poorly edited commercial.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is my favourite of the Michael Bay Transformers films, but it’s still not exactly a good film. I would recommend this one the most out of the five films Bay directed, but realistically the only people who will like Transformers are people who enjoyed them growing up (like me) or teenage boys who like explosions and lots of them.