Transformers 3: About What You'd Expect

A funny thing happens with a Transformers movie: fans become rabid, heralding the greatness of Michael Bay's vision, and many critics consider the film to be a insult to all film-making. I feel that the reality is probably somewhere between both extremes. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the latest installment to the franchise, and it delivers exactly what you'd expect: lots of transformations, lots of destruction, lots of huge robots kicking ass, and lots of lingering shots of the new Transformers beauty (Rosie Huntington-Whitely). If you've seen any of the previous films then you know exactly what to expect, whether Bay's vision is your idea of a good time or not.

As for me, I do consider the third film to be an improvement over the second, but still without the emotional impact or character-development of the first. Yes, there are some points in the film that are supposed to illicit an emotional response, but what came before did very little to support those emotional shots. In fact, the entire story seemed to be loosely strung together only to provide us with the context for the devastation Bay presents. He's a kid playing with very large toys, much like the main character from Super 8 (a much better film, even though the special effects of that film are not on the same level of Transformers), but as an adult filmmaker Bay should at least attempt to engage both the child and adult in all of us. It's not enough to simply blow stuff up; without the emotional context of characters we care about, the film is nothing more than a stunt show.

I wouldn't put so much time and energy into trying to understand Transformers if Bay hadn't made good movies before: The Rock, The Island, and Transformers are the only ones I liked, with the first being his best. Bay creates some amazing visuals, but somehow misses the mark when it comes to telling a story, or at least he's a very inconsistent storyteller. The proof is in the final battle sequence. There is no care taken as to character positions in the midst of a devastated Chicago. They pop up wherever and whenever they are needed for the next action sequence. I had no sense of direction or space at all. Great action sequences are stories within stories and so must be treated with the same care as the entire film. Take for instance, Inception, a movie that plays so much with time and space that it would have been very easy to get lost, but Nolan handles it all in such a way that the audience doesn't lose track of where and when.

But really, who am I kidding. If you go into the film knowing you'll enjoy it then you will. The same goes for those of you who know you'll just hate it. Either way, reading a review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon will do neither party any good, which brings up an interesting question: Why am I writing this? And the answer to that is, "I don't know."

But there is one thing I do know for sure: Optimus Prime is a badass.