Excellent action movie without a human touch

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2011)

I had a lot of expectations from DOTM right from the moment I saw the first trailer. The media hype about a dark story, technically pronounced action sequences, toned-down comedy and last but not the least '3D' were driving me crazy to go watch the movie. Well I did, and here are my opinions. The action sequences have defined DOTM to be the benchmark for all future action movies aiming to blast the audience in 3D format. Michael Bay has once again proved that there is no one to parallel him in orchestrating explosive shots deftly. The story elements embedded with amazing special effects work as constructive blocks in the able hands of Bay, building up to an explosive hour long climatic sequence that should end Bay's take on the saga. But...I feel that the story was a bit of a let down. The first movie was a fresh artistic piece that made me look up in awe. The second movie was just a mix of better action with not so good a story, yet a good take for an intermediate episode. But in both those movies, the human characters, especially Sam, were at least 70% instrumental in moving the story forward. Unfortunately in DOTM, I found Sam to be less integral while many characters who were important in the past two movies ended up playing near-insignificant roles except for some comic bits or command- center style dialog. If you think the robots filled the gap, well, I don't exactly think so as it is a simple autobot vs decepticon plot with more numbers on either side bombing each other, and hence more focus on action. So in all... 3D 'wow', story 'so-so', experience 'worth it'. If you want the action, go get it as you don't want to miss it on the big screen. Else if other elements are important to you as the action is, you might be disappointed.