I can't promise this to be a spoiler-free review but it's not like Transformers is an M. Night movie.
The beginning showing the ultimate battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Cybetron was brilliantly shot. A lot of action and a lot of CGI. Then it scene went to Earth and showed the Apollo 11 with Buzz and Neil on a conspiracy mission to investigate the crash site. I'm not sure how I feel about using such an iconic moment in history but I guess it wasn't such a big deal.
And then came the introduction to the new girl, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who's taking over Megan Fox's lead role. Here's the first big mistake of the movie. Director Michael Bay and writer Ehren Kruger shouldn't have replaced Fox's character. They should have just replaced Fox with Odette Yustman (as mentioned in a post I made last year when news of Fox given the boot was first reported, and also in the TV series Breaking In starring Yustman when the similarities between the two were made into joke) and continued with their romance. It just didn't make sense to have Fox's character to dump Shia LaBeouf's character.
I couldn't get behind Huntington-Whiteley's Carly. In what world can someone like Sam Witwicky get a girl who looks like a supermodel right after getting dumped by one of the hottest characters ever created on the silver screen? Michael Bay didn't even bother to make Carly relatable. Every time she's on screen, she's in some designer clothing and looked like she was about to go on a runway. At least Mikaela was more human.
But I'll give Bay credit again. Like Fox, watching Transformers I could never have guessed Fox was such a bad actress. First-time acting, Huntington-Whiteley didn't look too bad either.
LaBeouf delivered again as far as delivering was concerned. There were a few moments when he was screaming like a little girl that really brought the human side back in check. But having said that, Sam never seemed to grow with each instalment. Unlike how Luke Skywalker grew across the trilgy in Star Wars, for example. Sam was still Sam, but I guess that's what the audience want in a way.
Optimus Prime once again couldn't stop himself from delivery the cheesiest lines. I had to shake my head towards the last act when they came back to save the human race. He uttered something that just made my skin crawl.
What really didn't make sense there was how every time we get a new Transformers movie, we always get a few new Autobots and Decepticons. Where did they come from? So in this movie, we got to see how Decepticons jumped into a portal and appeared on Earth. But where were the Autobots? Mentioned in the start, they were wiped out in the war, then how the heck do we still get new robots like Dino and Que who had the silliest names. I'd rather see some Dinobots or Insecticons!
And why doesn't Bay just use characters from the cartoons? Why create new looks and new names? Why make Starscream into this ugly and deformed looking thing? And where are all the robots introduced in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, like Arcee and those bikes? But I'm glad those two irritating Autobots were nowhere to be found this time. Though the two little Gremlin looking ones were just as annoying.
Speaking of Starscream, he lost all his menace and character. I thought he evolved the worst in this third instalment. Megatron didn't have enough screen time. But in general, the robots didn't get enough screen time. This movie, with its 2 and a half running time, had too many human-and-human interactions. At some point it didn't even feel like a Transformers movie.
Too many new human characters were introduced (when they should have gave us more authentic Transformers characters). There's Ken Jeong, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk, Buzz Aldrin (but as Buzz Aldrin - he was a pleasant surprise), Lester Speight, and Patrick Dempsey. Malkovich's and Jeong's character was the lamest addition. I only found satisfaction with Dempsey's as the new bad guy and Speight for comedic relief.
Other scenes that made zero sense: Why didn't Sentinel Prime took leadership control from Optimus after he offered? It would have made better sense if he was in control. And Optimus, leader of the Autobots, strongest of them all, was tangled in wires for a good long time when most of the important action was happening.They couldn't find a better way to keep him occupied? Totally lame.
And why did they need that rocket to go back into space when they already managed that a half hour ago?
And Dempsey's character still had calm maids to serve him and lay his table when Decepticons were out wiping out humans. What the hell was that???
Tyrese Gibson's character asked a damn good question, "Why do the Decepticons get all the good stuff?" Indeed, why. How come none of the Autobots can fly. Optimus had to use a stupid jet pack. It's as if Autobots were more primitive when it came to technology.
But with all these cons, I found myself at least enjoying half of the movie because Bay did something right in this instalment. He gave some of the best action sequences in all three movies and he listened to the fans comments and reduced the shaky camera sequences. He even slowed down while showing the robots throwing punches or transforming and that was an absolute delight. The sequence with the insurgent team inside the building was genius.
And the main storyline this time was a good one. It wasn't as confusing as the previous one which I don't even remember what it was about. And I gues with the long running time a lot of sub-plots can be told (more) properly. But most importantly, Bay delivered what really mattered in a Transformers movie. The action, the robots, and the transforming.
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