Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

On Wednesday, June 29, 2011, I saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon with my brother Justin. Coming off of a terrible sequel, I was skeptical about how this endeavor would end up. The movie can be summed up in one word: WOW!!! It was an incredible, action-packed movie with a darker storyline. Shia Lebeouf has been a favorite actor of mine since Even Stevens aired on the Disney Channel. Over the years he has transformed into a good young actor in films such as Disturbia. Rosie Huntington-Whitely, while not as attractive as Megan Fox in my opinion, definitely held her own on the screen. Keep your eyes open for some fun cameos including John Malkovich and Ken Jeong. I normally can't stand Ken Jeong, but he's not on the screen that long and his role suits him. The battle scenes between the Autobots and the Decepticons are some of the most visually stimulating scenes ever. I was very impressed with how Michael Bay presented the battle scenes in this movie. They reminded me of the Mission City battle in the first Transformers movie in 2007 (my favorite of the trilogy). The idea of treason is heavily featured and I like how it was used in both a human aspect and a machine aspect. Optimus Prime is easily my favorite of all of the Autobots, but Bumblebee was actually really awesome in this installment. Instead of being used as a mechanical punching bag as he was in the first two films, he actually ends up fending off an attack by himself when he is outnumbered about 5-1 by the Decepticons. There is a brief scene at the end where Optimus Prime and Megatron team up to take down the Benedict Arnold. Actually, this Benedict Arnold is my favorite character in the movie besides Optimus Prime. I would say who the Benedict Arnold is, but if you haven't seen the movie and plan on seeing it I don't want to spoil that for you. The humor was not nauseating like the second movie. The parents were kept to a minimum this time luckily. I will rank these movies on a 5 point scale and for this first review I will give it a 4/5. Bay must have heard what the critics and the Razzies said about the second movie and upped the ante for this installment. I give Michael Bay's formulaic model a high mark here because it actually worked much like Armageddon did in 1998. The reason I gave it a four is because even though the human villain was portrayed well I couldn't buy the actor playing him as an evil person. That's the only gripe I really had with this. Overall, this almost 3 hour summer blockbuster delivered the big explosions, decent acting, and pulse-pounding battle scenes. The battle scenes take up most of the movie which I love since the movie is really supposed to be about the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons anyway.

Gerard Verterano