They are back! Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro reprise their roles, along with new face, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
Paramount Pictures
Rating: PG-13
Directed by: Michael Bay
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, with John Malkovich and Frances McDormand
Studio Synopsis:
Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us.
J.P.’s Take:
It appears director Michael Bay has finally succumbed to the mass criticism after the overblown “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” failed to meet expectations. “Revenge” is the second film in the “Transformers” outings, which suffered from something I call “over indulgence syndrome.” What I mean by that is Bay felt compelled to cram as many special effects and long winded battle scenes onto a 16:9 screen as possible. As a fan and proud collector of the original cartoon series, I felt it was an unnecessary move on his part. After a while, viewers would become lost in the intertwining robotic bodies slicing and dicing at each other — instead of focusing on a real story; as incomprehensible as it was.
The latest entry, “Transformers: Dark Of The Moon,” is still much of the same chaotic experience as the first two films, except it’s much more of a controlled chaos with slightly less mechanical clutter. It’s still loud and full of explosions, morphing robots, epic battles, monstrous machines, etc. Additionally, dialogue is still disjointed and weird … just as it was in the beginning. Only Bay’s shot compositions in this film are clearer and less jarring to the senses. Once more, we are treated to the dazzling special effects that are highly imaginative, with the added touch of 3D to enhance viewing pleasure. To my surprising, the 3D imaging was easy on the eyes.
On this third go-around, the story involves a reworked historical moment in U.S. history. Apparently, what was the first moon landing in the 1960s was actually a mission to investigate a crash on the dark side of the moon. It turns out that our astronauts discovered an ancient Autobot spacecraft called “The ARK.” Flash forward to the present, the Autobots learn of the ships whereabouts and the technology it was carrying, while The Decepticons also learn of the ship and they are prepared to go to battle over its remains. Back on Earth, the film’s leading man and “hero,” Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself again in the latest plot to save the world from total destruction by the hands of the Decepticons, with a new love interest Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely) in tow.
Rewriting history is a very tricky thing; it requires the writer to establish an alternate universe and make it plausible. “Dark Of The Moon” is that alternate universe and I credit Ehren Kruger, who collaborated in the writing of the last film, for the decent job of keeping story concise and to the point.
Bay’s signature production stylistics is still intact. You’ll find a gratuitous glamour shot of the very attractive Whitley, standing stationary while explosions are going off behind her. All the while, she’s looking hot and totally unfazed by what’s going on.
Huntington-Whiteley as Carly Spencer is a great addition to the cast (surprisingly, I didn’t miss the original girl, Megan Fox, that much). She held her on with the bots and the cast, and, like Fox, is very lovely to the eyes. Along with LaBeouf , John Turturro returns as Agent Seymour Simmons, Tyrese Gibson as USAF Chief Master Sergeant Robert Epps, Kevin Dunn as Sam Witwicky’s father, and Josh Duhamel as U.S. Army Lt. Colonel William Lennox are all back in the fold.
New cast members added to this film, include John Malkovich (as Sam’s new boss Bruce Brazos), Ken Jeong (Sam’s co-worker Jerry Wang), Patrick Dempsey (Carly’s boss Dylan Gould), Alan Tudyk (Dutch), and Frances McDormand as U.S. National Intelligence Director Charlotte Mearing.
On the voice side, Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime and Ironhide in the original “Transformers” animated series) is back as the voice of Optimus Prime, Hugo Weaving as Megatron, and Robert Foxworth as Ratchet, with Reno Wilson returning to the franchise in his third voice role – this time as the mouth of Brains. The main newcomer – and should be a recognizable voice — is the one-and-only Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, as Sentinel Prime.
I saw this film with “Sidewalks” creator and host Richard R. Lee, who isn’t a follower of “Transformers” animated universe. While he did see the first film once, he thought this 2nd sequel had an actual story, and he liked the old moon landing scenes to setup the story. He still got confused about some of the robotic characters, but, luckily for him, the voices of Cullen and Nimoy helped him in knowing the so-called “good guys” vs. “bad guys.” At the conclusion of the film, he said he was “emotionally exhausted” at what he watched. He felt it was a non-stop battle for over an hour between the robots on the streets of Chicago, but it kept his interest. He thought the effects were great and he enjoyed it in 3-D as well.
All in all, I found “Transformers 3” a much more enjoyable viewing experience and a vast improvement over Part 2, maybe even better than part 1.