I did what any red-blooded American did over our holiday weekend. That’s right, I went to see a movie. This was after consuming roughly my own body weight in hamburgers and hot dogs while hanging out with friends all afternoon. I almost didn’t go to see Transformers 3 because it was getting a love it/hate it response from people and I was desperately afraid I’d fall into the hate it camp. There’s nothing as disappointing as walking in to a movie thinking it will be fantastic, but wandering out a few hours later wishing you could get a refund.
We didn’t leave terribly early for this one so when we arrived I was just hoping we’d get seats that weren’t in the very first row. No problem. Ten minutes before it was due to start there were only four other people in the theater. Four. This may have increased my anxiety just a tad since a big movie and an empty theater is generally not a good sign. By the time the movie started there were maybe two dozen of us, clutching our sodas and turning off our phones as the previews started.
Despite all my anxiety, all my worries that I would be terribly disappointed, this is officially the best movie I’ve seen this summer.
Now, now, now before you get all bent out of shape and call me crazy, let me explain. I wanted action. Unrealistic, completely over-the-top, not possible, unsurvivable by mere mortals action. I wanted fighting robots. I wanted fun one-liners and corny comic relief. Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon had all of these things.
I’ve heard complaints that Shia LaBeouf was mopey and didn’t do much for the first half of the movie. Okay, I’ll agree he was a bit mopey but it made sense for his character and there was so much happening around him, so much crazy, that I could forgive the mopey. Also, there is a fantastic car chase where our hero is about to die and Bumblebee morphs from car to bot to car again all while Shia flies through the air letting out a scream worthy of a twelve year old girl. I love him for pulling that off perfectly and making me and everyone else in the theater laugh and will forgive the mopey for that scene alone.
There are also complaints that the action is too drawn out and completely unrealistic. Really? So when you went in for a movie about alien robots that transform into cars and help save our world from destruction, were you really expecting a film firmly rooted in reality? That there’s your problem. This is, at its heart, a Transformers movie. Half the fun of seeing this is watching stuff you know would never work, not even a little, and seeing it, well, work. Sure, the chances you’d survive sliding through the shattered glass of a giant skyscraper without being sliced to bits are very small. It doesn’t matter. They survived and it was awesome.
I’m critical of movies that don’t live up to my expectations, especially when they advertise themselves as one thing but turn out to be something else. That makes me walkaway angry. But Transformers was exactly what it was billed…action, explosions, robots, action and action. My expectations were firmly met and I just held on for the ride. It wasn’t a serious, hard-hitting commentary on the world and the human condition. It was the Transformers doing what they do best. Oh, and one last thing. The voice of Sentinel Prime is Leonard Nimoy. If you happen to be a Star Trek fan, pay close attention to this little fact. LLAP, enjoy the movie, and let me know what you thought of this actionfest.
Absolutely agree with everything you said about the film. I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was. If people come out complaining about the dialogue, acting, realism, etc, then they obviously haven’t seen the first 2 Transformers films.
Perfect pop-corn big budget SFX blockbuster action movie.
I completely disagree. Why does everyone set the bar so low just because it is a summer action movie? Super 8 is mediocre, but it’s a masterpiece compared to Transformers.
You had no problem that the women in the movie were only there to be sex objects? The only exception being Frances McDormand, who for some bizarre Michael Bay reason, repeated that “she isn’t a ma’am”.
The dialogue actually made me wishful for George Lucas, and although the action looked great, it was incomprehensible. There was no flow and no story arcs, just random violence. And really, they were unable to cross the Chicago River?
Phil, I haven’t set the bar low at all. I wanted an action flick, and this is an action flick. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else, and I didn’t want anything else. Just because it’s all crazy action, doesn’t mean it was poor. It did was it set out to do with no apologies.
I don’t think you can say all the women were sex objects. Really, the only two women (other than his Mom, not a sex object) were his girlfriend (Rosie) and the agent (Frances). You even say Frances wasn’t treated that way, in fact she was a bit of a hard a**. Rosie, yes, super-sexy, hot, girlfriend. Why should that bother me? Is he only allowed to have an ugly girlfriend? If she was a brainiac would that have been okay? Sexy and smart is okay, but sexy and just an average girl is bad? I don’t have a problem with a beautiful woman being, well, a beautiful woman. And, to her credit and without any spoilers, she DOES use her brains in the end and help instigate a fight that helps saves the day.
As for dialogue, again, Transformers, I wasn’t there for the words. I was there for the action, crazy, unrealistic and over the top action. No semblance of reality required. It was just a fun action flick.
Fair enough. Although I haven’t seen many of Michael Bay’s films, from what I hear, sexism, racism, and homophobia are a common theme in all of them. T3, amazingly, is supposedly better than most.
Women can be sexy without a film being sexist, but the girlfriend was a completely one-dimensional character. No character arc, no motivations, just eye candy. And a horrible actress to make it even worse. The mother wasn’t a sex-object, she was the Nag, and the girlfriend played that part a bit too.
Next time you watch a film, do the test where you look for two women to have a conversation that isn’t about men. It’s scary how few Hollywood movies can pass.
She definitely was one dimensional. I agree with you there! And methinks her getting this role may have had more to do with those super pouty lips than her acting skills 😉
I will pay attention to see how often women talk about something other than men. I’m betting you’re right thought, that it doesn’t happen often.
I so want to agree with you here and I do with some bits. The chase you mentioned when Bumblebee transforms with Sam inside and back again was definitely a highlight.
There was way too much exposition for the first hour. Do we really need a convoluted back story that rewrites history just to watch a loud action spectacle? These films take themselves way too seriously this would have been more fun if they’d just cut to the chase (literally) and realize that we care much less about the hokey setup and just want to go straight to the action after 15 minutes or so. 2.5 hours is ridiculous for a film that ends up exactly where you want it to go.
The final 45 minutes was quite enjoyable the highlight being the whole sequence when the group is attempting to escape from the falling skyscraper. It was exciting and brought some needed human connection (that the second film sorely lacked.) This 3rd installment was a surprise to me mostly because I enjoyed it even though I despised #2.
That said I really have no need or desire to sit through a 4th.
I almost didn’t see this one beause the second was so meh, so I hear you on not wanting to see the fourth (is there one in the works, I don’t even know). And, I do agree, the beginning was longer than it need to be, absolutely. It didn’t bother me that much, not enough to hurt the experience, but if they’d have gotten to car chases and stuff exploding a bit sooner, I wouldn’t have complained either.
I agree. A banquet for the senses. One main course after another. While I was watching it I was thinking “Don’t they say that the golden hour is the hardest to shoot? This is non stop. How they do that?” It has LOTS of visual candy, golden hour, gourgeous women, fantastic cars, increadible action, of course, perfect CGI, beautiful arquitecture, sci-fi, some love, some humour, some hunks, big guns, great photography, great sound effects… and if Transformers wasn’t enough you have rip-offs from The Matrix, Dune, you name it, I didn’t have time to catch them all. Mr Bay didn’t want to risk it and he threw everything in his blender.
“That there’s you’re problem. This is, at it’s heart, a Transformers movie.”
and then about 2 lines down:
“Sure, the chances you’d … is very small.”
c’mon…
I don’t follow…. C’mon what?
Well, it should be “your” instead of “you’re”, “its” instead of “it’s” and “chances … are” instead of “chances … is”.
Yes – Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel. I laughed so hard when he dropped that line. 😀
Ah, the Grammar Police! Thank you for pointing out the errors as you are absolutely correct. I, alas, am neither Decepticon nor Autobot, but merely human. This means, despite proofing, I make mistakes and miss them even after proofing a piece. Thanks for pointing them out. I’ll proof more carefully next time.
No problem 🙂 It just caught my eye that there were a couple of errors in a short space.
Otherwise, good point. I haven’t seen it yet but I plan to check out Transformers 3 purely for the entertainment value 🙂
I think you’ll enjoy it…just go for the fun and let all sense of logic fly out the window 🙂
I felt this movie was like titanic, the second half of the movie was the best part. IT started really slow. I like the ADD fest that 2 was , non stop action , you did’t have this here. I could have done without much of the boss and parents interaction. the sequence with the asian guy was way too long. I DID like this girlfriend better than Megan Fox This one actually had a bit of a brain. Would have liked more of one but this one at least showed a bit of a brain in the scene with megatron. I’m a fan of Michael Bay films , I’m a fan of action movies and I don’t expect them to be anything but.
one thing that did bother me though ( and you need to put an edit button on here.) And sorry if I spoil it for someone , is why didn’t something catostophic like earth quakes or tides change during the end of the movie when the decpeticons did what they did. ( is that vague enough?)
(Pulls out To-Do List, Adds Talk to Editors about Edit Button)
I think I understand your vague, spoiler-free question because I actually wondered the same thing! You’d think that it would have caused some of that stuff and made for spectacular scenes of destruction. Ah, perhaps natural disasters weren’t in the budget?