Create your own visitor map!Hello, all! I know it's been a while, we've finally settled into our new house and our wedding is now only two months away, so we're knee-deep in last minute planning. But we did take some time Sunday to go see the third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon. There are many reviews and thought about this movie floating around, so I doubt I can much that's unique, but as someone who became a first time fan of Transformers with the first film (and did a LOT of fanart in response to it), I did want to share some thoughts about the whole thing.
My biggest issue with the series is the fact that Michael Bay helms it; as a director it's clear that his only interest is blowing things up in bigger and louder ways (mostly at sunset). He doesn't care about coherent plots or character development, and thus the three Transformers films are a study in missed opportunities. I've seen some reviews that go "well hey, you haters of this movie, Transformers is based off a kids cartoon from the 80's that was basically just a weekly toy commercial anyway, so what do you expect?"
This type of argument has never convinced me. Pirates of the Caribbean was just a theme park ride with literally no story or real characters. The writers and director of that film took a bare-bones idea and made something amazing and memorable out of it. You can take almost ANY concept and with imagination and care, make it awesome. Transformers, had it been helmed by a director who gave a damn, could have been something great. Instead it's a pile of half-executed ideas and (admittedly cool) special effects.
I LOVE the concept of Transformers: Intelligent, feeling alien machines embroiled in a civil war thousands of years old. That's fascinating to me, and has so much terrific science fiction potential. The first film has some great ideas that launched a whole fandom, with some of the best fanfiction I've ever read. The first movie introduces the Allspark and Sector 7, really shows the intricate construction of the robots (thank you, ILM wizards!), and at its core has the story theme of a boy and his first car, which is a piece of Spielberg heart that really helps to redeem this film's many faults. Its faults are cartoonish and often offensively stereotyped characters, cringe-worthy dialogue for the Transformers across the board, and some truly asinine moments such as Bumblebee "peeing" on Agent Simmons. Despite those things though, the movie still is enjoyable enough that I can get into it, and it really does have some amazing action setpieces with some of my favorite shots in any movie. It also has great sound design, music and effects.
So the first movie really captured my imagination, and left me wanting more. I remember when the trailer for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was released, I was SO excited. It looked like what was good about the first film mixed with some hardcore sci-fi; Transformers, especially Decepticons, could be DANGEROUS and scary and bad ass. There were going to be more than five Autobots this time!! It was going to be awesome!!! Sadly, the actual movie was anything but awesome. Many of the new characters were offensive racist stereotypes, robots humped legs for no reason, and many returning characters were even more annoying and poorly written than last time. Not to mention Devastator, an otherwise awesome Transformers concept, being ruined by a pair of giant clanging robot balls. The story itself was a complete mess. Even now I can't really tell you what it was about. Jetfire showed up and was lame, Optimus died or something, was resurrected and ended up with a jetpack, and Megatron somehow came back from the dead and became a whiny, pathetic non-villian. Even more simpering than Starscream, if that's possible. The whole concept of "The Fallen" made no sense at all, and...yeah. I could go on forever about how much this movie sucked and how utterly disappointing it was, but I'll just stop here. This movie killed my interest in Transformers for a good long while. On the positive side though, I think the best part of Revenge of the Fallen is Soundwave and his "cassette" minions. They're visualized beautifully, especially the one-eyed Ravage, who looks absolutely amazing, and his toy still decorates my desk at work
I wish Soundwave and company would have gotten more to do in TF2, it would have made for a better film.
Thankfully, Dark of the Moon redeems the series somewhat. I still think the first film is the best; it has the most color and heart, and a lot of good humor. Dark of the Moon is quite a bit more serious and dramatic in tone, which is absolutely fine and appropriate for the storyline, but a lot of its attempted humor falls flat, since the writing is as clumsy as ever. Most of the new characters are over the top and cartoonish, but they are tolerable and in some cases even enjoyable. The special effects are top-notch; I actually saw this in 3D and it worked! Using the 3D camera forced Bay to slow down his action sequences, which is a welcome change from his usual frenetic style where you can't tell what the hell's going on most of the time. You can actually SEE the robots this time, which is awesome. Shockwave makes a nice appearance, though he has zero character development or explanation for being there. He just...IS. But he has a neat robot snake thing that eats buildings, so that's cool. The story in general is comprehensible and makes sense, and builds to a very nice exciting climax. Dark of the Moon has the epic scale the first film didn't, which works in its favor. There are still a million plot holes, bad writing and stupid moments, but I was happy when I left the theater this time. I'd gotten what I'd paid for; robots beating the crap out of each other in cool ways, and a somewhat satisfying story.
Still, the missed potential saddens me. I'm glad this was the last Transformers film because really, Bay has done enough. This could have been such a great science fiction series; instead we got a loud, sloppy toy commercial. The offical comics and unofficial fanfiction have done a much better job with all these concepts than Michael Bay ever could, and I'm grateful that Transformers will live on that way for the foreseeable future. At some point I'd like to get back into my own TF graphic fan novel based off the first film. Thank you Dark of the Moon for not completely sucking; thank you for providing a decent end to a trilogy, and for making me interested in Transformers again. All is right with the world.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll have new art for all of you soon! Have a lovely summer
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Stuff to do:
Be a mom; visit the
Grand Canyon and Yosemite; go to New Zealand, Australia, Ireland,
England, Europe, Africa, China,
Japan; learn to skydive; work on a major film; go to the
San Diego Comic Con, Wizard World, New York Comic Con; drive a muscle car;
drive a smart car; finish an original comic; make another personal animated film; learn to cook a really complex dish; climb Mt. Fuji; learn to ride a horse properly; learn to scuba dive;
drive cross-country; work for Pixar; write an original novel;
walk on a glacier; visit the Egyptian pyramids; attend a summer Olympics;
live in a foreign country; successfully train a dog to do something;
see a Space Shuttle launch in person; see an Aurora Borealis in person
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