Movie Reviews

[Mako Crab]

I loved it when Laserbeak was about to assassinate Jerry and he said, "You were always my favorite, Jerry!" I was all giddy and laughing like mad, because my real name's Jerry! And then Jerry busts out the two guns! Hell yeah!!! I was jumping up and down in my seat!

[Mirage]

Prime was just ready to be done with it, and he did say they'd kill them ALL when the battle started. Plus, Sentinel (horribly) killed Ironhide and countless NEST soldiers. Optimus is truly pushed to the edge in this film, and if nothing else, he feels much more justified in his brutality here than he did in ROTF.

I keep hearing myself say this was a GOOD film, but I think that's about all I can muster. I believe Michael Bay when he says this is the best Transformers film he can make. Everything good about the previous films coalesces here, most of the nonsense is removed and what's left is a greater whole. If nothing else, we should be grateful that Bay made Transformers a viable film property, and proved wrong many naysayers in doing so. Of course, it would be nice if we couldn't find so many faults in the films themselves, but on the whole I think we should look at the series as a success.

That said, I'm much more excited for the possibility of the films to come. DOTM has already raked in more than enough to assure the franchise will continue. It would be nice to think Spielberg will take over the reins himself, but I kind of doubt it. I'm guessing we're headed for a reboot, and I'm more than ready to see that happen. Let's just pray the franchise ends up in the hands of a director capable of appreciating what Bay and Co. did right, noting where they went wrong, and brave enough to make their own mark on the brand while keeping its integrity intact. We can only hope...

[138 Scourge]

Went and caught this thing yesterday. Loved it.

I was even excited for this before I saw it. With ROTF, I was more resigned to it, like, "Okay, guess I'll go ahead and see this thing." With DOTM, I was rolling down to theatre, singing "GIANT ROBOTS SMASHING SHIT!" on the way. My girlfriend's gotta wonder what the hell is wrong with me on occasion.

The opening of the movie on Cybertron was amazing. I see what Dom's saying, I'd be okay with this being Cybertron for awhile. That was something.

Man, Sam and Mikela's breakup must have been hard core. He got custody of the robots and the dog. That's a great dog, too. I want one like that.

A lot more robot action, like you guys have said. And a lot more robots getting lines, that's great. Sideswipe didn't get a lot of action this go-round, but I did like his one scene. Same deal with Ironhide. And man, I half-suspected what was gonna happen with Sentinel, and had heard that Ironhide was going out, but that scene, man. I was still shocked and kind of horrified. As for the new guys, I liked Que well enough, early pictures made me kind of unsure if he was gonna be a goofball old-man caricature, but he worked for me. And Dino...Dino was great. I was sold on that guy during the freeway fight scene, when he busted out his swords, revealed they were chained to his arms, and went all Kratos on the Dreads. Toy of this guy, please. Hey, and we finally figure out what happened to Barricade! Guess he was just laying low for the last movie, huh?

The Wreckers were great. Way to play against expectations, movie. My girl was expecting those guys to be the annoying redneck stereotypes, but between the cool Euro accents and the fact that they were all Mad Max'd up for the whole movie, she didn't even recognize that they were the Nascar-bots. Also, loved why they didn't get out much "Because they're kind of assholes". I almost want toys of these dudes, now.

Hey, Alan Tudyk was in this! And he was really cool. I just got into Firefly this past year, so seeing Wash showing up was okay with me. Also, yay for Frances McDormand and Malkovich! We actually got a pretty solid cast this go-round.

Did anyone else think this movie was adapting about half of G1? Between bringing Cybertron to Earth, taking over a major human city, and sending the Autobots off of Earth in a doomed ship, it was pressing a lot of my Geewunner buttons. And it managed to sort of probably unintentionally adapt those three episodes and still do it's own thing.

The Autobots actually felt heroic here. A lot of Decepticons died in pretty horrific ways, but given what they were up to this time around, it was entirely justified. Not like last time, when Sideways and Demolishor get the death sentence for trying to get away from the Autobots that are tying to kill 'em. And man, this movie was cleaning house on Decepticons, wasn't it? I think of all of 'em, Starscream's last fight with Sam was my favorite. Starscream in general really seemed more like a Starscream in this, and that came out well in his last fight. And man, I'm a sucker for fights that should be comically lopsided, but the apparent underdog wins. And it didn't seem forced, it seemsed entirely plausible that, armed with some alien weaponry, Sam could bring this dude down.

My only real problem is, as mentioned elsewhere 'round here, Prime's "fake our own deaths" plan was kind of dickish. Then again, this is two movies in a row that the humans turned on the Autobots, I suppose it was time he let people see what would happen if the Decepticons won. Still, kind of a harsh way to make a point. And I really didn't need to hear Optimus saying "We'll kill them all". I mean, I don't have a problem, really, with the Autobots just taking the Decepticons out this go-round, but it seems jarring to hear Prime saying that sort of thing. Like Superman threatening to kick someone's balls into outer space, it just seems a weird fit.

I'm guessing we're headed for a reboot, and I'm more than ready to see that happen.

Cripes, I kind of hope not. It's like with the Spidey reboot, I don't wanna have to do the whole thing with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock again. If the series reboots, we'll just get Prime vs. Megatron round four. We got the majority of what people expect of the major Decepticons out of the way, I'm ready to see Galvatron, Trypticon, Thunderwing, or maybe some all-new Decepticon villians get a shot.

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.

I didn't even catch that. That's kind of awesome.

As far as Prime vs. Sentinel goes, I'm normally don't want Optimus to be a stone-cold killer, but man, this guy had to go. Sentinel made his deal with Megatron back in the last days of the war, which means even before Cybertron was a barren, lifeless wasteland he'd turned traitor. Then you factor in little things like planning to destroy Earth, enslave humanity, personally giving the order to seal off Chicago and murder any humans that tried to resist, and killing Ironhide, I figure Sentinel crossed the Moral Event Horizon pretty thoroughly. Besides, if they do take him into custody, he's just gonna be at the mercy of the species that he went to war with and tried to enslave. Yeah, I think a nice clean headshot was probably more merciful in this case.

[andersonh1]

Saw this with the wife and a friend of ours on Friday, in 3D and IMAX. Some of the 3D was really good, some of it didn't really look all that different than a normal film. I think this was certainly the best movie of the three, edging out the first one and easily surpassing the second film in quality.

Lots of G1 cartoon references here, as Scourge points out. Cybertron coming to Earth, Megatron taking Lincoln's place at the monument, the Autobots being forced to leave Earth by the Decepticons, and the takeover of a major city. And then of course there's Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime quoting Spock's lines from ST2 about "the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few". And what's the crazy little Autobot watching at the start of the film? The Trek episode where "Spock goes crazy", a sort of meta foreshadowing of Sentinel Prime's betrayal. And for the comic fans, there's Megatron declaring "All Hail Megatron!"

I thought the Autobots generally felt more rounded and more like characters this time around. Even those with just one good scene came off fairly well. Sideswipe isn't quite as kill-happy this time, being willing to let the Decepticons surrender rather than just killing them on the spot, and Ironhide gets to show just how he's survived this long in such a brutal war by schooling those 'Cons, before he's killed by Sentinel. What could have been a cheesy kill-line "I dismiss you from service", works thanks to Nimoy's great old man voice and solemn delivery. And the Wreckers made a good impression as well with their limited screen time. And the loose end that was Barricade is finally tied up, as he appears in the end and is killed in the fight.

Megatron is really interesting this time around. His fire and drive seem to be gone, even if he's still going through the motions of his plan with Sentinel Prime. Note how he's almost gentle with the little protoform Decepticons at the start of the movie when he's meeting with Starscream and Soundwave. He's very subdued when dealing with Sentinel and lets himself be pushed around. Prime kills him fairly easily in the end. He's certainly not the same Megatron we saw chasing Sam back at the end of TF1.

Optimus Prime is at his best all through the film. Delighted and gentle with his old mentor when reviving him; deferential and willing to give him back his place as the Autobot leader; anguished when he realizes that Sentinel has betrayed them all, and then finally sick and tired of these murderous Decepticons and ready to finish them all off. I like that he finally has his trailer, and that it's a weapons/flight deck.

Another loose end tied up: the Autobots had a spacecraft, and it brought the second wave of Autobots to Earth.

I thought all of the scenes in the devastated Chicago worked very well. The place looked trashed, and all the buildings that were burnt and collapsing looked very convincing. Seeing Decepticons targeting running humans and shooting helpless Autobots in the head makes sense given the brutal nature of the movie-verse Decepticons. Not that the Autobots are any less violent when they have to be, but they did come across better in this movie.

Loved it. Definitely going to go see DOTM again.

[Sparky Prime]

I just remembered something.... Anyone remember when Bumblebee got into a car accident with a real police vehicle while they were filming in Washington D.C.? I recall they'd said they would find a way to write that into the movie but obviously they cut out that scene instead. Makes me wonder what else was left on the cutting room floor.

[Onslaught Six]

(Too bad I cannot find the [soundtrack] at Newbury.)

That's because it isn't coming out until the DVD. Wait for November.

I am not sure, but it sounded like Mirage (red shiv- mobile) and Wheeljack (Jewbot) 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.

Rumour is that Mattel owns the rights to make Ferrari toys, and they're being particular dicks about Mirage--basically, Transformers is a Hasbro advertising vehicle, so the Ferrari in the film literally cannot have a name that is associated with Transformers toys. So even if Hasbro went ahead and was somehow able to trademark "Dino" and use it for their toy, then the movie itself would have had to change the name of the character because 'now Dino is a Transformers name.'

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

Nope, he's right there at the end. Man, Dom, your eyes really are bad.

*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.)

It's not really implied to be anything, it just sort of...disappears.

Anyway! I kinda liked it.

[Sparky Prime]

It's not really implied to be anything, it just sort of...disappears.

Looked to me like Cybertron was being turned inside out as it was sucked back through the space bridge portal...

[Onslaught Six]

Yeah, but for all we know that's what it looked like on the Cybertron side when it was being sucked to Earth. Truth is, we don't know. And we probably won't ever know.

[Dominic]

Cue the inevitable argument:

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.

Sentinel Prime butchered at least 1 of Prime's men. And, as Skids and Mudflap are briefly seen in the hangar, we can assume they were killed by Sentinel as well. (Yes, they were annoying characters. But, there is a difference between us as viewers wanting them dead and somebody actually wanting the enthusiastic, though harmless, neighborhood retard to be hurt.) Remember, Prime had 8 Autobots under his command by the time the exile happened. We can assume Jolt and the bikes were killed between movies. But, the twins were in the movie.

Sentinel also may have killed Sideswipe. And, he killed a number of humans, including some that Prime may have personally known and liked.

Sentinel's reasoning may have been good, (trying to perpetuate his species). But, he also hit Prime pretty hard.

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).

Agreed. But, I get the feeling the Dylan was more trying more to survive than anything else. I recall him expressing distaste for the Decepticons during the execution scene, even though Soundwave playing with his food was taken out of the movie. (And, Mirage/Greasebot shows up later, implying that the scene itself did not happen off-screen.)

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.

I wonder if the Matrix will be used (between movies) to raise some of the dead characters.

I think Sentinel's refusing the Matrix was more a question of him not needing it. He had manpower and resources to complete his plan. And, he may well have been assuming that Prime would have gone along with it once things got underway. (Seninel's motivation was not power. So letting Prime remain leader, in both symbolic and practical terms, would not have been an issue.)

Man, Sam and Mikela's breakup must have been hard core. He got custody of the robots and the dog. That's a great dog, too. I want one like that.

I got the impression that the writers were trying to make Mikaela a heel in that she abandoned her dog.

Not like last time, when Sideways and Demolishor get the death sentence for trying to get away from the Autobots that are tying to kill 'em.

They were up to no good. Sideways and Demolishor were the guys making trouble in the neighborhood. Granted, they were taking the night off. But, ya know, they were still bad guys.

As far as Prime vs. Sentinel goes, I'm normally don't want Optimus to be a stone-cold killer, but man, this guy had to go. Sentinel made his deal with Megatron back in the last days of the war, which means even before Cybertron was a barren, lifeless wasteland he'd turned traitor.

That is the thing, it was not really treason. He wanted to prevent Cybertron from being a barren wasteland.

On a completely tangenital note, has anybody noticed Sentinel's package bio. Wow, Hasbro really tried to avoid spoilers with that one......

Note how he's almost gentle with the little protoform Decepticons at the start of the movie when he's meeting with Starscream and Soundwave. He's very subdued when dealing with Sentinel and lets himself be pushed around. Prime kills him fairly easily in the end. He's certainly not the same Megatron we saw chasing Sam back at the end of TF1.

Aside from his treatment of Starscream, (rudeness in the first movie and knocking him around in the second), movie Megatron was not really that bad. Prime did more damage to Cybertron than Megatron did.

Nope, he's right there at the end. Man, Dom, your eyes really are bad.

I need to see it again. Where am I looking? (I saw Sideswipe get hit by Sentinel's gun. And, we saw what that did to Ironhide....)



Dom
-agrees with Bay being in the HoF, not so much Spielberg.

[Onslaught Six]

I think Sentinel's refusing the Matrix was more a question of him not needing it. He had manpower and resources to complete his plan. And, he may well have been assuming that Prime would have gone along with it once things got underway. (Seninel's motivation was not power. So letting Prime remain leader, in both symbolic and practical terms, would not have been an issue.)

I dunno, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Prime could use the Matrix for any number of purposes (Who knows what they'll make the Macguffin do next?) so if Sentinel really was acting maliciously, he could have easily taken it.

I got the impression that the writers were trying to make Mikaela a heel in that she abandoned her dog.

I get the impression that the dog's presence was always written in since before Megan Fox left. (Seriously, so much about Carly points to her being a shallow Megan Fox stand-in.)

Nope, he's right there at the end. Man, Dom, your eyes really are bad.

I need to see it again. Where am I looking? (I saw Sideswipe get hit by Sentinel's gun. And, we saw what that did to Ironhide....)

There's a shot at the end of the film where Ratchet is standing with his arm on Bumblebee's shoulder. Sideswipe is to Bumblebee's right (our left). It was in several trailers.