How about an explosion here? No, how about everywhere?

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 2011)

I was eager to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but there were no more seats left so I decided to go see Transformers: Dark of the Moon (TDotM). My brother went with several of his friends and said it was a good film, like somewhere along the line of Fast Five or Thor.
After giving Transformers a chance, hoping that it would live up to the first movie of its franchise, it disappointed me TERRIBLY. The third instalment is nowhere near as good as Fast Five or Thor, let alone the first Transformers. Even though, I can't compare it to Thor, I definitely felt more entertained with Thor than TDotM. The funny part is that I was yearning for more action sequences in Thor, whereas in TDotM, I was wishing for less. The action sequences could have been replaced with a decent story line or better dialogues near the end (that would be a miracle because the first half of the film was tremendously terrible due to the corny/cheesy wannabe funny dialogues with redundant/idiotic characters). Now, by comparing Fast Five and TDotM, there were some similar elements. Both movies definitely were aimed to attract teenage boys. There were hot girls, awesome cars, unrealistic/exaggerated moments and manly underdogs. Nevertheless, Fast Five was a much more entertaining movie with a good plot development and just the right amount of action.
Acting: Shia LaBoeuf's acting was the only one that stood out. I always liked him as an actor because he carries a lot of emotion and heart into his movies. He knows when to act serious and when to add in a sense of humour. Michael Bay obviously abused LaBoeuf's strong points and made his character Sam seem dull by the third instalment. In this third movie, LaBoeuf is a teenager who must speak super fast, while stuttering. I don't know how he does it, but I'm surprised he didn't get a spasm yet. So if LaBeouf's acting was mediocre in this movie and he's known as a good actor IMO, then the rest of the cast is pretty abysmal or unnecessary.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (RHW) who replaces Megan Fox does a decent job for her first movie role. Though, she still doesn't do anything except wearing mini dresses and high heels with her natural pouty lips. She looks like a living Barbie doll, not that I'm complaining, but she seems oddly misplaced in the movie. I don't really appreciate Megan Fox and her acting, but I have to say that I prefer Mikaela compared to Carly because I feel that no matter how RHW acts, she gives off the Victoria Secret Model aura.
The rest of the casts were pretty much useless and they just did what they Were supposed to do, which was basically being useless.
4.5/10
Storyline: I don't even know where to start. It was horrible. Bay tried to incorporate historic details along with military issues that I felt like it bombed the movie because of the way he wanted to make his viewers believe that it would be a great movie revolved around that. When I was watching the movie, I felt like I was watching separate clips mashed up together. I believe the reason why I liked the first Transformers was because they didn't delve into the history and military business. In fact, they added more sentient robots to the point where you don't care if one of them dies because there's always another one that pops up randomly.
The beginning of the movie was not needed. If Bay was going to focus on the action sequences, he might as well left out the beginning. The parents were not required at all. They used to be funny in the first instalment, but now they've been long butchered. Carly wasn't needed just because Mikaela left Sam. Though, you can definitely tell why Bay needs her in his movie. The stereotypical Asian dude was horrific that I rolled my eyes. He wasn't funny, but rather disturbing! Also Simmons and Bruce are similar characters. Why not just cancel one of them or both of them? Dylan was also a random character. He was misplaced and I'm sure any human would be smarter than to side with those huge robots that can crush them at any instant.
I didn't find any correlations between these characters that would lead up to the climax. Besides, where was the climax? I didn't even know where the halfway point of the movie was because the story all seemed very monotonous.
Overall, the beginning, the middle, and the ending were HORRIBLE.
1/10
Special Effects: Without a doubt, amazing and that was the reason why I gave it a chance.
10/10
Entertainment: Till now I don't know how much I was actually entertained because it didn't feel like a normal movie, but just a bunch of spectacles. The last 40 minutes was action packed and very well done. Though, it left me voided. I didn't feel anything. The action was supposed to fill up the void, but sadly it didn't. Don't get me wrong, I was entertained at first, but after around 25 minutes into the action part which was supposed to be epic, I saw that Bay just added an explosion after an explosion in random areas or anywhere he could. It felt like going into a firework hoping to see huge ones that will surprise you. Eventually, you see those huge ones that surprise you and you tell yourself it's worth your ticket or your time; though it keeps on shooting huge ones without a pattern to the point where you don't care anymore. It's just a random blotch of huge fireworks. That's exactly how Transformers made me feel like.
6/10