Metallapocalypse

Rating: 8/10 (19 July 2011)

I'll do myself a favor and I'll skip the worthless introduction...Lets start from what matters most.
Story- Unfortunately, in movies like this , the story is either completely absent or barely present whatsoever . However , fortunately , in the case of "dark of the moon" the writers did their best since the first movie in the franchise to offer a pretty comprehensive and easy to pick up story . It is not something exceptional, but still better than nothing . This time the movie was given a darker and grimmer tone (Bay actually kills people on screen this time around ) , by enhancing the sense of a end-of- the-world , all caps disaster and a full-scale war not lacking in deaths and sacrifices. The film begins with a cool back story lasting around 1 hour until the real action makes its way to the screen . That very hour , being scarce on action and epic battles was surprisingly intriguing for me. I assure you , if you can sit through the first hour you will be on the edge of your seat for the rest of the movie . Unlike the first part , the film's last one and a half hours are literally bursting with rousing action , full scale battles that fully delivers on its promises unlike other lacking movies of this very caliber (like X-men First Class for example) . However what i didn't quite like is the fact that during those action set-pieces , the story got totally lost and felt totally nonexistent.
Characters , acting - This time around the cast was more ample than before with newcomers like John Malkovich playing Sam's boss , Frances McDromand , Alan Tudyk and others. Shia Labeuf returns as a more mature , determined , but desperate Sam Witwicky . Rosie Huntington Whiteley- now she's a matter of discussion. And NO , I wasn't angry because Megan Fox wasn't in this movie . For her first time on the big screen , Rosie was pretty good and charming , enough to make you forget about megan . John Malkovich , John Turturro, Alan Tudyk and Ken Jeong provided the humoristic component , which by the way was the first in a TF movie where the humor felt at home and not out of place . Particularly , the scene in the Russian bar is worth a billion dollars. The whole overcrowded theatre laughed their *** off ,including me . The Robots - what was wrong with them in the first two movies pretty much remained unchanged here assuming how much I despise those cheesy dialogs between decepticons that were all like " oh Lord Megatron , this is our greatest plan " . Quite possible , this was the most frustrating thing in the entire film for me . The autobots on the other hand were surprisingly good and sounded appropriate , fortunately .
Vissual and audio effects , soundtrack- Mr. Bay really outdone himself with this one by showing us one the best visual and audio effects since Avatar. One should definitely see this in 3D as this is the visual spectacle we were all waiting for . The film was more dynamic than ever as the intrigue and the stakes were way higher . I can't tell you more about the effects without spoiling parts of the story , but tell you what, I was always on the edge of my seat , my eyes and ears were in heaven while experiencing this . The soundtrack- another masterpiece by Steve Jablonsky , one of my favorite composers , who provided an emphatic , heroic score . Like the previous Transformers score, the cheesy popcorn factor is very high and I wouldn't have it any other way. I won't say that this score is better than the previous scores, but it's definitely up there. If it is the last Transformers score, it ends on a high. Steve Jablonsky, Michael Bay and Transformers are a perfect fit and I really hope they continue their fruitful relationship long into the future.
Bottom Line- Overall , Transformers dark of the Moon simply destroys Revenge of the fallen in every aspect and lifts itself to the highs of the first film in the series . If you don't mind seeing an summer action popcorn-flick , this is the perfect choice as your impressions after watching it , especially in 3D will be no other than positive and euphoric . No matter if you're a fan of the series or not , you should see this film . Its not perfect at all(a lot of goofs and plot holes , the story could have been a lot better, the villains are terrible except for sentinel prime) but all in all it ultimately does best what it is meant to do - to entertain.
PS: Noticed a plethora of negative reception towards the movie , as from experienced moviegoers as from professional critics. My advice to you : Trust no one and go see this movie if u enjoy such spectacular movies. One can complain about a movie for his/her entire life only to find out , in the end , that this is all he/she can do .