Ever since I got disappointed with Green Lantern, I lowered my expectations already with all the other movies coming our way. The fanboy in me just couldn’t handle another heartache! That’s the reason I kept my hopes in check with Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon even if the initial reviews were good.
I was hesitant to watch the movie in 3D despite the recommendations of critics because I wear corrective glasses (you can’t wear glasses over glasses). I decided to go with it though and risk the extra Php120 on the ticket. If you’re in a rush and you can’t read the entire review here’s the footnotes version — Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon delivers consistent stunning visuals, heavy action, and a far better story compared to the first two installments. This is probably the best Transformers among the three movies.
PLOT SYNOPSIS (Minor Spoilers)
During the Cybertronian Wars, Sentinel Prime, the great Prime leader of the Autobots, raced out of Cybertron in a huge space vessel known as the Ark carrying with him an advanced Autobot technology that could have saved Cybertron from utter destruction. Unfortunately for Sentinel Prime, the Decepticons intercepted the vessel damaging it and sending it crashing on the dark side of our moon in 1961. The crash was detected by NASA and in 1969 Apollo 11’s moon landing mission was primarily to collect data from this alien craft.
In present day we follow Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf) 3 months out of college, with a new life and a new girl friend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) living the life he not so envisioned. After ridding the threat of the Decepticons in the last movie, the Autobots, working with the US government are busy helping people with their problems and policies, ridding the world of tyranny and oppression one terrorist group at a time. This leaves Sam to continue his life without privileges and without his Autobot friends which leaves him longing for a purpose.
In one of the Autobot’s mission in Chernobyl, Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, discovered a part of the Ark and was shocked to learn that humans knew of the Ark’s existence for quite some time and withheld this information from him. He then launches his own expedition towards the Ark, revives Sentinel Prime through his Matrix of Leadership (the dagger-crystal that was used in Revenge of the Fallen) and brings back 5 pieces of ‘the Pillars’—the advanced Autobot technology that can transport matter through rifts in time-space (aka teleportation portals).
Meanwhile the Decepticons, in their broken state, plots their revenge and ultimate goal of (surprise!) taking over the world. In a plot twist we discover that everything the Autobots were doing, from knowing about the Ark piece to finding and reviving Sentinel Prime was all part of their scheme for world domination.
From that point on it becomes one long roller-coaster ride of mayhem and action eventually ending up in a climactic and epic battle sequence in Chicago.
REVIEW
You don’t need a degree in film to utterly enjoy this movie. In fact, if you do have one, you’d probably hate this. However, not taking the plot too seriously and character development realistically, Transformers 3 plays on its strength which is the grand spectacle of special effects and robot-bashing mayhem it brings. The last fight sequence alone should be enough to get the best fight sequence in next year’s MTV awards!
You just can’t take Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon to task on following the exact story in the cartoons because this is already the third movie and we’ve pretty much bought in to Michael Bay’s interpretation. There’s wasn’t too much character development and a lot of the side characters had very minor roles. In fact Sam’s parents were reduced to comedy relief and they were more annoying than funny in all of their sequences.
That said if you approach this movie with an attitude of just “wanting-to-sit-back-not-think-and-enjoy” you’ll get your mind blown away. The effects will just leave your jaw on the ground. Everything builds up to one massive, destructive, and epic battle in Chicago. My only problem with it is that they kinda rushed the final battle of Optimus Prime. I would have loved to see that particular fight go the distance!
If you want something that’s just ridiculous fun without over-thinking and over-analyzing, then Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is a definite must-watch!
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is now showing in major theaters nationwide.
Unbox Score: 4/5
