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Business rating: 2/5 stars
Star cast: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, alien robots.
What’s Good: The engaging action sequences and visual effects.
What’s Bad: The weak script; the uninspiring performances; lack of emotional connect with the audience.
Verdict: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is visually vibrant but weak on the plot.
Loo break: During the long, boring and inconsequential chatter between the human characters.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for the well-choreographed action sequences.
User rating:
Paramount Pictures’ Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is a sequel in the Transformers series. The first two films in the series depicted the war between alien robots, Autobots (the good ones) and Decepticons (the bad ones), on earth, and how the earth is saved from impending disaster by the courageous young man, Sam Witwicky (who helps the Autobots). The third film continues on the same track and ups the ante as far as the disaster quotient is concerned.
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), after being feted by the American government for his bravery, is now jobless and is living off his super-hot girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). The Autobots, in the meantime, are being trained and used by the US government for their covert operations in the Middle East and Russia. Through a flashback sequence, the audience is told that the US moon mission in the 1960s was organised in response to an alien spacecraft crashing on the moon. This spacecraft, a Cybertronic ship, carried the leader of Autobots, Sentinel Prime, and a new path-breaking technology that he had built. Now, the Decepticons, who have deceived humans into believing that they no longer exist, get a sniff of this spacecraft and its contents. They want access to Sentinel Prime and his technology, which has the potential to change the ‘physics’ of reality.
Soon, Sam gets involved as he is frustrated with his newly-acquired desk job. Carly leaves Sam for her rich and cool boss, saying that she can’t have Sam dying for the country like her late brother. Sam’s parents want him to patch up with the girlfriend.
Then, the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, are forced to leave earth in a space shuttle when the Decepticons warn humans about an impending attack. But the Autobots soon return to fight Sentinel Prime (who has now switched sides to the Decepticons). Sentinel Prime has a vicious plan of teleporting Cybertron (the Autobots’ uninhabitable planet) to earth and then using six billion humans as slaves in rebuilding his planet. Predictably, Sam saves the day.
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon – Script Analysis
‘Transformers: Dark Of The Moon’ starts off well, with the reference to the abandoned alien spacecraft on the moon etc., but the narrative soon descends into a predictable pattern of attack and counter-attack by/on the Decepticons on/by the Autobots. The humans (Sam included) have very insignificant roles to play in the drama. No doubt, the action sequences have been executed very well and they hold the viewers’ attention, but the screenplay offers little entertainment value beyond that. Overall, the script (by Ehren Kruger) fails to engage.
The screenplay drags, with sequences that don’t make much sense when put together. The latter half of the film provides ample scope for close combat between the giant robots, but the climax is hardly convincing. Moreover, the whole alien attack on Chicago city is reminiscent of the cataclysmic films like Battle Los Angeles and District 9.
Perhaps, the biggest flaw of the screenplay is that the audience also will not feel connected to any of the characters in the film (human or robotic). It appears, not enough thought has gone into developing the story well enough. So, while Sam Witwicky was the underdog hero and Optimus Prime (the leader of the Autobots) was the action hero in the previous films, in this Transformers 3, their characterisations leave much to be desired. Megatron, the scary villain, is also reduced to a vestige in this part.
Moreover, the dialogues are quite ordinary as they are devoid of humour and wit. All in all, the screenplay ends up being a mash up of visually appealing action sequences and a seemingly complicated but uninteresting plot that does not engage much. Fans of the franchise in India will be disappointed due to the lack of a coherent screenplay. Action junkies, however, will enjoy the visually rich experience (more so in 3D).
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Trailer
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon – Star Performances & Direction
The performances are so-so. Shia LaBeouf does his usual Sam Witwicky act but fails to impress greatly. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is hot, but that’s about it. John Turturro reprises the role of the government agent but poor dialogue-writing does him in. John Malkovich is totally wasted in the role of Sam’s obsessive-compulsive boss. Patrick Dempsey (as Carly’s boss), Frances McDormand (as head of Intelligence), Josh Duhamel (as Lennox) and Tyrese Gibson (as Epps) pass muster. Ken Jeong (as Jerry Wang) does an okay job.
Director Michael Bay sticks to his forte, making the action sequences as imaginative and larger-than-life as possible. In this, he succeeds. However, the lack of an engaging script and a seemingly hurried editing job (by Roger Barton, William Goldenberg and Joel Negron) mar the film’s entertainment quotient to an extent. Steve Jablonsky’s background score is effective. Amir Mokri’s cinematography is very good. Production design (by Nigel Phelps), and the visual effects are top-notch.
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon – Verdict
On the whole, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon will get audiences into theatres because of the strong brand name and the excellent publicity, but many will leave disappointed.
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon release date – June 29th (in India)
