Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Movie Review: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

I went to see Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon today at the matinee. The only option was 3d which I'm not a super fan or truth be told. It wasn't in your face which was good... but the part where it costs me $3 more but doesn't add any value is an annoyance to me. How 'bout I bring my own glasses and if all you have is the 3d you don't charge me the extra? I don't like paying more for the 3d when it's just there so they can say it's there. In Avatar it actually added something to the movie. It was amazing. So far that's the only time it's been worth the money to me.

I WILL spoil things here so don't read any further if you don't want to see spoilers. Hopefully this is "below the fold" as it were by now... the fold of what your eyes will see on scanning.



The voice of the Sentinel was Leonard Nimoy and he was AMAZING in it. There's a line that he says that was straight out of Trek that gave me nerd goose-bumps and I laughed out loud! It wasn't funny. It was just sheer enjoyment of the moment. I loved it. I can see some ppl saying it was exploitation or cheesy. They're wrong. It was a fun nerd nod and I liked it!

The movie was good. The parents, while less annoying this time were weirdly out of touch like they are in all the movies. What is it about hollywood that makes parents always have to be stupid, clueless morons that are obviously too mentally incompetent to take care of themselves? These two are a danger to themselves and those around them. I get that they're supposed to maybe be comic relief maybe... but in all three movies they were neither funny nor entertaining... not did they move the story along... the only relief was when their scenes were over. (I used too many "nors" but that's either here or there (sic).)

The combat scenes in this one were a little better, no, they were a LOT better than in number two. In number two the camera was all up in their grills and you couldn't SEE anything because it was too close. They realized that before filming this one and it was pretty. The cinematography was, in my opinion well done. The shots were good. THe problem I have saying that is they weren't real. There was no camera involved in a lot of the stuff I'm talking about. It was all rendered... beautifully. The sound effects were great. One of my favorite things about the Transformers movies is that sound they make when they're shot. That TAAANG! noise. I love that. I want it as a sound for when I get text messages on my phone. 

Today the space shuttle is wrapping up on it's last mission. Doing the final checklists and it's going to land for the last time tomorrow. It made the opening scene of this movie more poignant as it was the start of the Apollo program with the hope and excitement that the beginning of the American space race captured pretty well, using some footage of JFK and showing it mixed in with the movie. The contrast of the excitement and thrill of the start of the race while we're in the middle of mothballing it and fading as a space going nation, hell, we're foundering and giving up space completely.  It was said well this morning on twitter by Andy Borowitz: NASA's new slogan: "To boldly go wherever the Russians are willing to take us."

In the movie there's a shuttle explosion which was, in my state of mind that was still remembering the contrast between the start of space race and our recent resignation from it... the shuttle explosion, something I remember very well... the shuttle explosion in the movie, the emotional resonance with that was surprisingly there... in the context of the movie I think it made what was happening right then more impactful. (Hey. I'll spoil, but not going to completely spoil by saying the autobots were on the shuttle at the time. Oh Shit! Belay my last!) 

Which brings to mind the choice of the city they opted to destroy. Part of me wonders if they chose to destroy and blow up Chicago because they didn't want to do New York because a) done too often or b) too 9/11ish... too much of a downer. There's more emotional distance between the Challenger disaster and now vs. 9/11 and now. That's still kind of all up in ppl's heads. If they'd blown up LA nobody would have cared, and the skyscraper density wouldn't have been there maybe? I don't know. I never compared skyscraper density between LA and Chicago or NY.


So, yeah. Go see the movie in the theater. It's visually beautiful. Shia's at his best in in compared to the other two. His hot new girlfriend, who even his ditzy idiot mother can't figure out how he got, "You'll never get another one as hot as the last two unless you've got a really big..." Yeah. That's the fatal flaw in the movies. The girlfriend is way hotter than he is. I'm going to have to assume he's got a giant tonker... or it's in the script.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A lot of parents really are out of touch and out-of-it period. Once I asked if the dad ever talked with his son. The dad replied that he did. He told his son stuff all the time and the son ignored him. I asked if he ever listened to what the son said. He explained that the son only said stupid stuff, so it was pointless to listen.
You make the movie sound good;

Rich G said...

I liked it. The explosions were excellent and satisfying. The scene in the building that's falling over was fun. I recommend it at a matinee price if you have to see it in 3d and at regular price if you can get the 2d option.

I think it's time to start voting with our dollar on having 3d added onto every film just so they can add a couple bucks to the price... at least it is for me.