Cinema Verdict Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

OPENING: 07/01/2011

STUDIO: Paramount Pictures

RUN TIME: 157 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Be afraid of the dark.

Opening Statement
Michael Bay’s Transformers was a disappointment, and his Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was regarded by many (myself included) as an insufferable disaster. However, audiences have responded to the franchise with enthusiasm, so Bay is back once again with Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It’s yet another letdown from the famed director, but it comes a bit closer to hitting the mark than either of its predecessors.

Facts of the Case
Our story begins with a compelling prologue set in the 1960s, which provides an alternate history of the moon landing. Apparently, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong actually discovered the wreckage of a massive Cybertronian spacecraft when they arrived on the moon, but the government covered that fact up for security reasons. The ship had been piloted by Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek) and had been carrying advanced technology which could have saved the Cybertronians if his mission had been completed.

Fast-forward to the present, where heroic Autobot Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) has just learned of the moon landing cover-up. Hurt by the betrayal but recognizing an opportunity to help his own race, Optimus sets out on a mission to revive Sentinel Prime and retrieve the lost technology. Unfortunately, the villainous Decepticon Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving, The Matrix) is still hatching a diabolical plan of his own.

Meanwhile, our old pal Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf, Disturbia) has just graduated from college and moved in with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely). Alas, despite receiving a medal from President Obama and earning a college degree, Sam is having a difficult time finding work. He’s finally reduced to accepting a job working in a mailroom for a company run by the terribly eccentric Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich, Jonah Hex). The job is one of many frustrations for Sam, who’s also upset about his girlfriend’s flirty boss (Patrick Dempsey, Enchanted) and his self-perceived lack of significance. However, it’s only a matter of time before Sam finds a way to insert himself into the latest Autobots vs. Decepticons smash-fest.

The Evidence
In a variety of ways, Transformers: Dark of the Moon represents the very best and worst of Michael Bay’s tendencies as a director. That’s kind of a relief when you consider that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was basically a endless demonstration of the reasons Bay is often picked as the critical whipping boy of summer blockbusters. However, this installment of the Transformers franchise also packs in a few potent reminders of why Bay’s films are so immensely popular.

Let’s start with the good news: the final hour of Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes awfully close to being the thrilling Transformers adventure we’ve all been hoping for since the first film was announced. While Bay’s action scenes in the previous film were cluttered, choppy and often incomprehensible, this time he gives us surprising clarity, fluidity and a real sense of space. At long last, he’s served up some action scenes which offer the kind of genuine primal thrills a film about robots punching other robots ought to deliver. The director turns in his best visual work to date, and his use of 3D is some of the strongest I’ve seen lately.

Additionally, the Transformers are actually the central figures in the plot this time around, as the saga of Optimus, Sentinel and Megatron forms the core of the story. Finally, it feels as if Bay is placing the spotlight on the title characters, which is something which should have been a given from the start. The pseudo-science Ehren Kruger’s screenplay offers is entertaining as opposed to eyeroll-inducing this time around, and his X-Men: First Class-style historical fiction element is a fun idea which leads to the immortal cinematic moment in which Optimus Prime shakes hands with Buzz Aldrin. Any film in which such an event takes place can’t be all bad, right?

Unfortunately, to get to Bay’s summer movie fun in the final hour, you’re going to have to slog through the film’s insufferable first half, which is dominated by the movie’s awful human characters and some of the worst cinematic comedy you’ll witness this year. This series has never been a great outlet for Shia LaBeouf’s acting, but he somehow manages to turn in the most obnoxious performance of his career in his third outing as Sam Witwicky. I suspect that LaBeouf is trying to pull off some sort of explosive Robert Downey Jr.-ish energy in his performance, but his rushed quips and high-octane temper tantrums grate on the nerves. Fortunately, during the last hour LaBouef tones down this nonsense and settles into agreeably forgettable action-hero mode. As for newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whitely: she’s here strictly as an object for the cameras to leer at lustfully from time to time. She serves the same function as Megan Fox in the previous installments and has even less of a character to play.

However, things get really bad when we’re dealing with the supporting characters. For some unknown reason, Bay has encouraged his actors to go to embarrassing extremes in their performance. The characters played by John Malkovich, John Turturro, Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong, Frances McDormand and Patrick Dempsey are so cartoonish that they make Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck look like characters in a Tarkovsky film. Only Turturro manages to wring some amusement from his character, as his comic timing saves a few potentially terrible moments. Everyone else just falls flat on their face; Malkovich has a scene which made me wince in pity. While I appreciate the fact that Bay is attempting to bring some levity to the proceedings in an era when too many summer blockbusters are grim, humorless affairs, the seemingly endless moments of intolerable comedy he delivers in this film make one yearn for the film to start taking itself too seriously.

Closing Statement
There’s a rather entertaining action movie lurking within Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but Bay nearly crushes all of the progress he makes in this installment by amplifying the poor qualities of his human characters. It’s a shame that some of the strong action sequences he delivers are stuck in a film this frustrating. Still, I must make a confession: though Bay’s film does contain some of the worst scenes you’ll see in any movie this summer (or all year, for that matter), I enjoyed sitting through the wild inconsistency of this mess more than I did sitting through the consistent mediocrity of Green Lantern, Cars 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. That’s not a recommendation, or even a suggestion that Dark of the Moon is any better than those films. It is what it is.

The Verdict
5/10

• >“”>