Movie Reviews

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.
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Mako Crab
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Movie Reviews

Post by Mako Crab »

Part 1 is still the best.

I'm a little mixed on this one. I liked it for the most part, but there were a few pacing issues and other stuff. For me, it just seemed too long. Like during the big Chicago battle, how many scenes do we need of the guys running up stairs, down stairs, more stairs, stairs everywhere! And yeah, everyone seemed to have the goofy meter cranked way up (barring the military guys). The whole humans working with 'cons subplot. . . . ehhh. . . . I don't know. Didn't really do it for me. Guess the humans wouldn't have much else to do if they weren't connected somehow.

I did like Sam's dilemma- that he just wanted to matter again. That was nice. His parents weren't as annoying as in RotF, but not as funny as in part 1. Sam actually comes off as a bit of a dick in this movie at times. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I'm glad to see a hero or main character get all pissed off and jealous for a change. But sometimes he just seemed pissed all the time.

Oh what else, oh yeah, there were robots in it. A whole lot of robots and a whole lot of them that didn't matter. Seriously, all the Decepticons were non-characters except for maybe Megatron.

Laserbeak turning into EVERYTHING- dude, pushing my suspension of disbelief. He's a laptop, a piece of art on the wall, a pink robot, just everything. Don't know about that guy.

I did like that all the bad guys got taken out in this film. Puts a nice cap on the trilogy and I'm glad to see that they really, REALLY killed Megatron in a way that he just won't ever be coming back. Time to come up with some new villains! That or reboot the series already. Heh.

So yeah. Decent movie. Still got a lot of laughs. But it did feel like it dragged on at times and by the end I was ready for it to be over.

Oh- and Optimus Primes' plan; let's fake our own deaths and let the Decepticons kill Chicago for a while. That'll show those ungrateful humans that they need us! The uplifting music started playing when he was explaining his plan, but I couldn't help but be a little taken back. Like. . . what did he just say??
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Tigermegatron
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Tigermegatron »

I loved this DOTM movie. it had a more serious tone & less kiddie silly nature.

ROTF felt like it was made for 4 year olds viewers. DOTM feels like it's made for adult viewers.
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andersonh1
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by andersonh1 »

I'm going to see it Friday, in 3D at the IMAX. Well, half-IMAX since that's what we have locally. Still, never seen a 3D movie before, so I hope this one's worth it.
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Tigermegatron
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Tigermegatron »

andersonh1 wrote:I'm going to see it Friday, in 3D at the IMAX. Well, half-IMAX since that's what we have locally. Still, never seen a 3D movie before, so I hope this one's worth it.
I saw my FIRST 3-D movie yesterday & ofcause it was DOTM. The movie was awesome in 3-D.
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Gomess »

I see *everything* in 3D. I go to the movies to treat myself to a bit of 2D now and then. Is that so wrong?
COME TO TFVIEWS oh you already did
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Dominic
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Dominic »

Dark of the Moon:

All things considered, Dark of the Moon is better than the last two. That is damningly faint praise. But, it is something.

I will give Bay credit for doing things with the franchise that are rare, if not new. The movie outright says that the world has changed by virtue of Cybertronians moving in. Granted, the changes are not as great as I wanted to see. But, at least they are assumed, which is better than the stasis quo most TF series have shown. And, as much as people complain about the high death count and Autobot aggression in the movies, it was good to see Prime willing to fight decisively. As with the first two movies, the score was excellent. (Too bad I cannot find the damned thing at Newbury.) The movie opens with a beautiful sequence that took place on Cybertron. I really hope that Bay's Cybertron becomes the canonical basis for what the planet looks like.

Unfortunately, while the twins were not prominently shown in the movie, there was still plenty of moron-fodder humour and a set piece that would have dragged on too long even had it not been a stupid concept to begin with. And, thanks to some choppy editing, (likely the result of the movie being a bastardization of 2 or more drafts), the Decepticon constrictor worm thing is arguably in two places at once.

As noted above, the twins are not prominently shown in the movie. I am given to understand Mudflap is in the movie for a few seconds. I missed him. And, if he is in there, he died. At one point, the number of Autobots on Earth is established to be 9, (Optimus, BB, Ratchet, Sideswipe, red Italian car with the shivs, Wheel-Q, and the 3 Wreckers). I take this to mean that the Twins, Jolt and the bikes all died between the second and 3rd movies, or possibly off screen in this one.)

I am not sure, but it sounded like Mirage (red shiv- mobile) and Wheeljack (British/Jewish robot) were renamed. I do not know if this will apply to the toys. It may or may not be similar to the Brawl/Devastator question from the first movie. Wheeljack's death was (crassly) funny for the same reason that the Banking Guild in "Attack of the Clones" was. If you do not get that, I ain't gonna get in to it here.

It sounded like somebody said "Minicon" in the movie.

I am not sure, but I think that Sentinel killed Sideswipe.

I clapped when Optimus killed Sentinel. (Nobody else did.) It was kind of refreshing to see.

*edit* Barricade is clearly visible during the last battle. He get a bomb attached to his foot and dies horribly.

*edit* Apparnetly, the novel ends with Megatron and some surviving Decepticons going home to Cybertron. (In the movie, the planet is implied to be destroyed.)

Optimus orders his troops to carry out a pogrom before they enter Chicago. ("We kill them all.") I have to wonder how many Autobots that Prime and his troops would have had to execute while carrying out that order. (The forces fighting under Sentinel and Megatron were likely mixed.)

Grade: C/D
Last edited by Dominic on Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BWprowl
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by BWprowl »

I'm opposite of you Dom. Of all the brutal deaths Optimus has handed out over these films, it really didn't sit well with me the way he just offed Sentinel there. Seems like with his mentor/father figure, he'd at least want to take him into custody or something. I mean, there's gotta be *some* compassion left there, right? It's just...I dunno.

That said, after all the time I spent wondering how this movie could make me care about Sentinel as a character, they did a pretty good job. I guess some people would say his turn was too much of a random shift, but it makes sense. Sentinel really does believe in the ideals he taught, freedom for all and like that, but Sentinel's comparable to the American founding fathers, who said "Freedom should be everyone's right...except for women, and blacks, and the Irish!". Everyone deserves freedom...but mainly Cybertronians and not these dumb weak squishy things. He's unfortunately old-fashioned in his thinking, but I'd still say he's inherently good.

His turn also tied into the other thing that I liked about the film: That it actually had some noticeable themes and ideas about it. The concept of loyalty, and how it pertains to one's species was *strong* in this story. Sentinel Prime was devoutly loyal to his species, at the cost of his feelings towards other species. Sam has learned to distrust his species, and says himself that he prefers to report directly to the Autobots, which has arguably alienated him from his own people. Several humans make the choice to be loyal to the Decepticons for a chance at a fraction of the 'Godhood' Sentinel talked about, particularly Dylan, who sold out his own species for a chance at power. The fact that I was able to notice all that and more really says something about the script this time around, mainly that it's actually *coherent* (thanks for nothing, ROTF).

As for the other stuff in the movie, the action was well-done (we actually got some full robot fights *without* shaky-cam! It looked amazing!), the humor was much more cut down from ROTF (and what was there was mostly well-done. John Malkovich for the win, that guy makes any movie better!), and while the movie still swung too long for my tastes, at least it was well-paced and structured (starts off with a decent juxtaposition of daily life for Sam and the Autobots, then turns into an espionage-ish secrets'n'spies thing, then moves into the HUGE final battle in Chicago). It just felt like Bay was putting more *effort* into everything this time, and as a result he seems to have made the movie that ROTF desperately wanted to be. Also liked that all the robots actually felt like they *did* stuff in this movie. Guys like Sideswipe fly by in ROTF, and Jolt just kinda stands around, but here you could see them actually participating and *gasp* getting screen time. And lines! I never even knew Sideswipe had a voice!

And thank God the Wreckers were *awesome*. I was all ready to hate annoying redneck bots, and then...badass soccer hooligans! Seriously, making the *Wreckers* sound *European*? That can't possibly have been Bay's doing, that had to have come from a big fan who was on-board somewhere.

Kudos to Hasbro for doing an admirable job of keeping the secret of Sentinel Prime, even if I had become a little suspicious from all the boxes talking about how certain the Autobots were to win with him around. But still, the comics featuring him as a theoretically nice guy, all the marketing playing Shockwave up as a decoy New Main Antagonist... You remember how they utterly failed at keeping Megatron's return a secret in ROTF, despite the fact that they were allegedly trying to? Yeah, this was the opposite of that.

When's Soundwave's toy coming out? I dug his design here, and I need someone for my Laserbeak to play with.
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Sparky Prime »

I'm seeing the movie tomorrow morning, but I wanted to comment on this...
Dominic wrote:I am not sure, but it sounded like Mirage and Wheeljack were renamed.
Mirage I've heard had his name changed to "Dino" (pronounced deeno) supposedly by request from Ferrari.

Wheeljack was changed to Que (pronounced as simply Q) although I've never heard a reason attributed for that.
I do not know if this will apply to the toys.
I'd doubt it. Hasbro would probably have to get the copyrights for those names, and I think they're more likely stick with the more familiar Transformers names anyway, given that's who those characters were supposed to be.
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Mako Crab
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Mako Crab »

Sparky Prime wrote: Wheeljack was changed to Que (pronounced as simply Q) although I've never heard a reason attributed for that.
As far as I know, it was a tribute to Q from the James Bond movies, who was also a wacky inventor.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Movie Reviews

Post by Sparky Prime »

This was the best movie of the trilogy. By far. They really did learn from their mistakes in the past two movies and this movie delivered on everything. Great to see the Transformers get so much more screen time and lines in this film. They greatly cut down on the stupid humor (although there is still some). Action scenes were plentiful and fun to watch. The plot was much more coherent. It may have been a long movie but I never got bored while watching this one.

It was great to see a little bit of action on Cybertron at the beginning of this film, as well as later on when they try to bring it to Earth. It's a unique and interesting design for the planet. The prologue I felt kinda dragged on a bit though. I didn't think it was really necessary for them to show things like Nixon's phone call to the moon when they didn't add anything to it to tie into the secret mission. I think just the stuff leading up to and the Apollo 11 mission would have been sufficient given they later explain all of the Apollo missions included a visit to the Ark. Speaking of which...

Awesome that they had the REAL Buzz Aldrin come in to talk about their secret mission to the Autobots.

I noticed several Star Trek references throughout the film. Brains and Wheelie turn on the television to an episode of Star Trek and Wheelie says "it's the one where Spock goes crazy". Some twisted foreshadowing there. One of the sound bytes Bumblebee uses is from "Wrath of Khan", with Spock saying "I have been and always shall be, your friend". As was Sentinel Prime's line about "The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few". And Sam compares Dylan's office to the Enterprise.

Nice touch having a bunch of little Scraplett's fixing Megatron's face from the last movie. Or were they Cybertronian parasites? I found it odd Megatron would squish one if they were trying to repair him. Interesting that it appears some of the hatchlings had survived and Megatron was caring for them, even telling them not to be greedy with the little bit of energon he had for them. That's a side to Megatron we don't normally see.

I'd have to agree with BWprowl on Optimus killing Sentinel. I can understand Optimus would be pissed off at how Sentinel betrayed them and caused so much destruction, but still, you'd think Optimus would have some compassion for the guy who he used to respect and was his mentor, begging for mercy when everything he was fighting for is seemingly destroyed.

Good to see the Matrix wasn't destroyed when Optimus had shot the Sun Harvester in ROTF. And I thought it was a nice touch that they had a scene where Optimus offered it to Sentinel, who actually refused it. I think that shows there was still some good in Sentinel, despite what he did.
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