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"TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON"
(2011) (Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel) (PG-13)

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QUICK TAKE:
Action/Adventure: Various humans and their sentient Autobot robot allies try to prevent malevolent sentient Decepticon robots from enacting a plan that will enslave humans and be the end of the Autobots.
PLOT:
Long ago, opposing factions of sentient robots, the Autobots and Decepticons, waged a great war that all but destroyed their home planet of Cybertron. The Autobots' leader, Sentinel Prime (voice of LEONARD NIMOY), devised a way for a victory, but his spacecraft crashed on Earth's moon in the 1960s. As a result, the American government, through its NASA program, sent man to the moon, not to explore the heavenly body, but to investigate the crash.

Since then, the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime (voice of PETER CULLEN), and the Decepticons, ruled by Megatron (voice of HUGO WEAVING), have battled on Earth. With the help of human teenager Sam Witwicky (SHIA LaBEOUF), military forces including the likes of Captain Lennox (JOSH DUHAMEL) and Sgt. Epps (TYRESE GIBSON), and government agents such as Simmons (JOHN TURTURRO), the Autobots -- all of which can transform into other mechanical vehicles, such as Sam's bodyguard, Bumblebee -- seem to have defeated their enemies.

Even so, they now work undercover for the U.S. Government and Director of National Intelligence Charlotte Mearing (FRANCES McDORMAND), seeking out any signs of Decepticon activity. At the same time, recent college graduate Sam can't get a job, much to the chagrin of his father Ron (KEVIN DUNN), although his mother, Judy (JULIE WHITE), is more accepting. As is Sam's live-in girlfriend, Carly (ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY), who supports them by working for wealthy businessman Dylan Gould (PATRICK DEMPSEY).

With a good word put in by him, Sam finally gets a job working for Bruce Brazos (JOHN MALKOVICH), an eccentric telecom and aerospace CEO. It's there that he has a run-in with coworker Jerry Wang (KEN JEONG) who just so happens to be under the control of a Decepticon. It turns out they as well as the Autobots are quite interested upon finally learning of the crashed ship on the moon, and it's Optimus Prime who reactivates Sentinel Prime.

But things don't go as planned and the Decepticons embark on activating a nefarious plan that will enslave all of humankind while being the end of the Autobots. With Sam thrust back into action, along with the military and Simmons and his personal assistant Dutch (ALAN TUDYK) among many others, the humans and Autobots work side-by-side in hopes of stopping their mortal enemies, including the highly destructive Shockwave (voice of FRANK WELKER).

OUR TAKE: 5 out of 10
I'll admit that I only have a layman's knowledge of the inner workings and details of movie budgets. Of course there's the usual upfront as well as back-end payouts to the filmmakers, cast, crew, theaters and more, but I'm often amazed at the disparity of what some small films can accomplish whereas really big ones sometimes fail to dazzle or simply mystify me as to where all of the money went.

With big jumps in software capabilities coupled with lower prices for that as well as the computer horsepower needed to make it all work, we've seen some fairly impressive-looking films of recent that didn't have tremendous budgets. At the same time, however, we've seen films with budgets at or more than $100 million that didn't look good and occasionally didn't even have any obvious special effects.

Say what you will about filmmaker Michael Bay, there's no denying that he puts the vast majority of his budgets up on the screen. Sure, the acting is sometimes fairly rough, the dialogue often laughable, and the plotting nothing to write home about. But if you want the razzle-dazzle treatment (as well as a fairly guaranteed box office return), the director of films such as "Pearl Harbor," "Armageddon" and "The Rock" is pretty much the go-to moviemaker nowadays.

And some of his biggest pics have been the "Transformer" films. Starting with "Transformers" in 2007 and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" in 2009, the flicks have earned north of $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. While the first was generally decently received by critics, the sequel was reviled by most. But since it earned beaucoup bucks, it obviously spawned a second sequel that arrives this week in the form of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

While it still has its share of non-special effects related problems, it's a big improvement from the last film. And if you want to see what a reported nearly $200 million budget can buy you, you could do far worse as the film certainly delivers in terms of big screen spectacle. So much is simultaneously transpiring at any given moment that one nearly needs to watch such scenes unfold frame by frame to fully appreciate what the special effects wizards have spent the past months and maybe years working on, hunched over computers, creating amazingly intricate details and a plethora of onscreen mayhem.

Although Bay still runs into problems with some of these sequences -- where it's virtually impossible to tell who's who and what's what, not to mention that we still really don't care about any of the characters, human or transformer, their goals, plight and/or future -- he has a better grip on most of the action than in the previous outings.

Some of the action sequences are nothing short of breathtaking and exhilarating, delivering exactly what summer movie audiences are longing for and what has yet to be delivered this year, at least in terms of the scale of what's presented here. In fact, the third act is pretty much one long action sequence pieced together by shorter ones, with some fairly memorable moments, including what happens when an enormous, metallic tapeworm type robot "eats" through a building and sends the top half of it -- along with those inside -- tipping over to one side.

One can't live on effects alone, however, and viewers need time to catch their breath, and that's when and where the film -- like those who blasted their way before it -- similarly faltered. New to the series fold screenwriter Ehren Kruger doesn't deliver as many cringe-worthy moments of dialogue like his predecessors, but some are present. And it still amazes me -- although methinks this is somewhat of the point, be that purposeful or just incidental -- that many of the main transformer characters (Leonard Nimoy joins the likes of Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving as those leading vocal gravitas to such parts) still come off as more human than their flesh and blood counterparts.

While some of that human cartoon aspect is done on purpose for comic relief effect -- including the return of John Turturro's overzealous government agent character and the introduction of John Malkovich as...wait for it...an eccentric type -- others, such as the characters played by Patrick Dempsey and -- I couldn't believe my eyes -- Frances McDormand -- are too two-dimensional to make much impact.

That leaves the regulars, including the return of Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as tough military types and, of course, Shia LaBeouf, as the young anti-hero once again thrust into saving the world despite the unfavorable size ratio comparison his character faces.

Speaking of shapes and sizes, the notably absent character is the one played in the previous two films by Megan Fox. Stories differ about the reasons for her departure, but the only reason for her presence before -- as eye candy -- has been easily replaced by Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. It's her debut big screen performance, and while she won't be winning any newcomer acting awards, at least she fulfills and fits the necessary Fox replacement requirements, including being able to slip into an assortment of skin-tight attire and thus essentially be her own special effect.

And that's pretty much the only reason -- meaning all of the visual panache -- to see the flick. If you want to be wowed by the works of hundreds if not thousands of programmers, stunt people and such, then this is the flick to see (and -- while I usually don't make this recommendation -- the 3D presentation here is also done right that it should be viewed that way). Granted, had as much effort and money been put into the script and creating believable and sympathetic characters, we might have had something somewhat classic.

But who are we kidding, it's a Michael Bay film based on a Hasbro toy line. In that case, Nimoy's lifting of his classic line from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" -- about the needs of the many (moviegoers looking for mindless summer escapism) outweighing the needs of the few (film critics) couldn't be more on the nose. Certainly nothing great but entertaining enough for what it is and tries to be, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" rates as a 5 out of 10.




Reviewed June 27, 2011 / Posted June 28, 2011


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