Michael Bay’s third installment of the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, continues the formula that has drawn people to see the previous two movies - robots, over the top action, some eye candy and blowing up a lot of things. Not necessarily in that order and sometimes all at once. The main problem is that like a meal of mainly rice, it fills you up, but only for a while.
I went to the movie with my family on July 4th and saw the feature in 2D. Two and half hours, five or six trailers and $39 later, we all left with pretty much the same conclusion. Yes, all of the awesome robots are back. Yes, there are even more of them, though you don’t really know where they came from unless you pay close attention. Yes, the action is so frenetic that you will be tired after its all said and done and you won’t be able to catch it all even if you watch the movie three times. This is great and the movie works if you are only looking to switch off your brain and just experience the spectacle. It is only after you step out and start discussing it that you realize that you aren’t feeling as good about it as you thought.
What we liked was the return of Wheelie and the introduction of another small Autobot, Brains. The overall banter in the movie was pretty good and did bring out laughs and smiles, but these two little bots had some of the best. Even Sam’s parents are back and provide more cringe-worthy commentary to embarrass their son. I won’t go into things we didn’t like; I don’t want to spoil anything for you. However, here are a couple things that would make the next Transformers movie better:
1. Have a love interest, or leading woman who can actually do more than be there for the male characters to look at or fight over.
2. Have a rationale for where the new ‘bots have come from and have it fit into the overall plot rather than be explained away in a single line of dialogue.
3. Don’t have another cranky, drunk on power, government agent.
4. More Cybertron, please.
5. Slow down the action or reduce the amount going on at any one time, you just can’t see it all.
The only nit I will pick about this movie is that it’s difficult to believe that after saving the world twice and graduating college that Sam would be unemployed rather than working for the government with the Autobots. Not a spoiler per se as this comes up in the first 5 – 10 minutes of the movie.
Final rating for this one is 3 Mick Happies. It works as a brainless spectacle, but the thinness of plot may not hold up for multiple viewing. It is worth seeing (robot on robot action always is) but watch it on your big screen at home, if you can wait that long.
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