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Transformers 2 was one of the worst reviewed movies of 2009 (so bad some critics are taking a pass on Transformers 3 altogether), but also one of the top grossing movies not just in that year, but in history, setting a handful of box office records. Clearly, an action movie doesn't always need a cogent plot to get some, well, action. But! For those moviegoers who like a little sense to go along with the spectacle, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is a rollicking recovery for the series, a trilogy best enjoyed as a kind of live-action cartoon for adults.
Presented in 3-D, the special effects are more conventional in the first few minutes of the movie as the 1960s space race is recast as a reaction to alien contact. Optimus Prime provides narration (sounding like a laconic John Facenda), describing the civil war between the freedom-loving Autobots and the tyrannical Decepticons that led Sentinel Prime, then-leader of the Autobots, to escape his home planet on a secret mission in the hopes of changing the tide of the war. Sentinel Prime's crash on the moon extinguishes all hope for the beleaguered Autobots and they lose their struggle.
Years later we find that a small band of Bots, now led by Optimus Prime, has taken refuge on Earth, living among humans as allies and guardians. But the discovery of the alien wreck on the moon and the machinations of re-emerged Decepticons (led by Megatron) threaten to bring the alien civil war to a new planet.
Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf ) is trying to find a job. Our erstwhile hero, a recent Ivy League college graduate and savior of the world twice over, is having a rough time on the job market. Not that you'd know it from the material facts of his life—a posh loft apartment and a smokin' hot British girlfriend who can swing the rent while he's sans paycheck. Okay, there is a beater Datsun played for comical effect, but still.
Previous series hottie Megan Fox was booted from the third film reportedly for comments likening director Michael Bay's on-set demeanor to Hitler. These remarks didn't sit well with producer Steven Spielberg (oh yes, he's been implicated in this series from the beginning), and now we have a new fox named Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). Meet the new girlfriend, same as the old one. Leggy sexpot with just enough spunk to be (arguably) more than a damsel in distress? Check.
There is a host of returning supporting characters, including Josh Duhamel as Lennox, John Turturro as Simmons, and Tyrese Gibson as Epps. And to this group some unlikely faces are added. I almost choked on my Diet Coke when Frances McDormand showed up as the National Intelligence Director. She, John Malkovich (as Sam's eventual employer), and Patrick Dempsey (as Carly's suspicious boss) put in excellent supporting performances that do as much as the coherent plot to prove Bay was serious about turning the Transformers around from what even Bay admitted was a disappointing second installment.
It is no great brain tease, but Transformers 3 is a jolt to the adrenal glands. It's a thrilling spectacle, the 3-D providing spatial points of reference that make the robots' transformations more vivid, less mechanized blurs. But watching soldiers don wingsuits and skydive into a besieged Chicago in 3-D is just as impressive. And the snappy dialogue is no mean feat itself. It would be a stretch to say that there are robust characters in these movies, but there are a lot of strong personalities who serve up one-liners with comical aplomb that make laughter one of the movie's best special effects, especially in the context of the looming destruction of the world.
Still, for the third time, director Bay has taken a product—a toy!—made for 8-year-old boys and turned it into a movie intended for an audience at least twice that age. Take the PG-13 seriously—not just because of a sexy female lead over whom the camera often lingers, but for its mayhem, violence, and language. It's definitely not a movie for 8-year-olds, or even 10 or 12, for that matter.
But for an older audience, Transformers 3 is the archetype of a summer blockbuster—all explosions and chest-swelling bravado and snarky sidekicks and big guns and hot chicks and hero shots. LaBeouf sells insecure, wisecracking Sam without a wink, leaving it all out there on the battlefield, um, in the Chicago Loop. Watching Sam bob and weave through the urban wasteland, over crumbled buildings and under crumpled cars, LaBeouf seemed like a kind of movie star hybrid of Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, combining compact, physical prowess with a kind of manic, everyman likeability. You identify with him and are a bit jealous of him at the same time. This is the guy you want to save the world—and get the girl. But I don't want to ruin the ending for you.
And while I don't think this movie is necessarily improved upon by additional post-movie reflections—it's a visceral experience as much as anything—I think it is notable that this movie is about noble machines. The film, created with the help of many machines, features as its heroes machines that choose to fight for the good of humanity rather than dominate us the way they could thanks to their superior technology. There's no great reason given for the loyalty of the Autobots to humanity, though the bonds of friendship with a few specific humans do seem to be at work.
I suspect anxieties about our increasingly dependant and intimate relationships with machines could be read into this story. But this is no morality play. It's a popcorn movie. And it's an edge-of-your-seat good one.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- Sam says he wants to matter again. Have you ever been felt like your role in a certain arena had diminished against your will? How did you cope with that?
- Was Carly right to be annoyed that Sam insisted on getting involved with the alien conflict? Why or why not?
- What did you think of the violence in this movie? Did it ever seem gratuitous? What are your thoughts about the entertainment value of violent spectacles? Is there any tension here with Christian values?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerTransformers 3: Dark of the Moon is rated PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo. The violence mostly (though not always) involves machines being killed, and yet it still feels graphic and would certainly be disturbing to younger viewers. Sexual innuendo is laced throughout; the lead female character is sometimes scantily clad, and the camera lingers over her curves—especially her rear end, in one scene. There's kissing, but no sex. There is awkward talk about sex between Sam and his parents. And there are plenty of expletives throughout.
Photos © Paramount Pictures
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