20131214: Action Review--Transformers Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Mixed CGI and live action; feature length film, 2011, PG-13, 154 minutes.  Action.
2. IMDB: 6.3/10.0 from 256,856 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 195 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 36% on the meter; 56% liked it from 245,270 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 4.0/5.0 from 4,626,624 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Michael Bay.  Written by Ehren Kruger.
6. Starring: Shia LeBoef as Sam Witwicky, Rosie Huntington-Whitely as Carly, Josh DuHamel as Colonel Lennox, John Turturro as Simmons, John Malkowicz as Brazos, Patrick Dempsey as Dylan Gould, Frances McDormand as Mearing, Alan Tudyk as Dutch.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Sam from the first two Transformer films has a new girl friend, Carly, whose ex-boyfriend, Dylan, helps him get a job. Little does Sam know that Dylan was the reason that he did not get any other jobs.  He's cut off from contact with the autobots.


2. An autobot artifact is found in Chernobyl.  It is traced back to the dark side of the moon.


3. This turns out to be a plant by the decepticons in a long gambit to get Optimus Prime to return and revive Sentinel Prime.  The decepticons had already taken possession of hundreds of 'pillars' needed to construct a space-time bridge to Cybertron, which could allow for the whole transformer balance to be redone more strongly in favour of the decepticons. 


4. The decepticons show their hand when Sentinel announces he had 'made a deal with Megatron' at the end of the transformer war that destroyed Cybertron.  Sentinel convinces the American government to help rebuild Cybertron, and to make the autobots exiles and outlaws.  Director Mearing finally accepts Sam and plots to oppose Sentinel and the decepticons.


5. The autobots get launched toward space; Megatron shoots them down. Sentinel plans to bring Cybertron to Earth in pieces via the space bridge, then to use six billion humans to rebuild it, as commanded, to its former glory.


6. Sam finds where Carly is in Chicago.  He re-unites with the autobots; they decide to attack the decepticon base in Chicago before the decepticons can fully enclose it and render it unassailable.


7. There's a lot of fighting (45 minutes worth?).


8. Will the decepticons be defeated before they pull Cybertron across the space bridge?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Technically excellent action film saddled with a bloated script.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully done eye candy.


2. Sound: 10/10 Fine.


3. Acting: 7/10 I liked John Turturro, Frances McDormand, John Malkowicz, Alan Tudyk, and Patrick Dempsey.  Shia LeBoef and Josh DuHamel were OK, but Rosie Huntington-Whitely was a strong negative.  Megan Fox is looking a lot better after seeing this film.  The voice acting was very spotty; some fine (Leonard Nimoy comes to mind), some hard to understand, some just laughable.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Too long.  Just under two hours would have been better, instead of just over two and a half.  The story of Sentinel's betrayal was rather nice, but should have been tightened up.  The story of the skyscraper broken in two was visually interesting, but the likelihood of humans surviving it seems very low.


5. SFX: 10/10 Excellent.