Synopsis
A mysterious event from Earth’s past looks to haunt and destroy Earth’s future. The only ones who can save the day are the Autobots, right? Maybe not this time around.
The overall story was actually quite good. I think that involving more of Cybertron’s past in the third film helped to give better understanding and depth to the Transformers’ purpose and drive. The whole storyline that the American (and Russian) governments from the 60s found a bunch of Transformer technology that had crash landed on the moon during the Cybertron war was brilliant. It was a great set-up for a story and one that didn’t disappoint by the end. I think Bay really found something rich with this one, and he didn’t really waste much in telling it.
With that said, Michael Bay’s opus can be divided into two very specific elements. The first part of the story focuses on the humans and the second on the robots. As much as Bay has said he didn’t want to go the fanboy route and strictly feature the Autobots and Decepticons as the centerpiece for all his films, it might have a better bet if he had.
The biggest issue with Transformers: Dark of the Moon is that it wants to be purely an action film. When the action is going on then the main focus of the film seems to fall upon the Transformers, and the film truly is a ‘non-stop thrill ride’ to quote a cliché. You can tell that Michael Bay is at a very good comfort level when buildings are blowing up, robots are having it out and everything is seemingly going to hell. This is pure Michael Bay, and it’s damn good.
On the flipside to that coin, when the film starts slowing down and dragging its feet restlessly then that’s the point when the story focuses on the humans. I don’t want to take anything away from Shia LaBeouf because he’s a great actor, but as soon as his onscreen persona starts you just want to hit ‘skip’ on the Blu-ray player. He spends most of the time whining about why the world has screwed him over, and not enough time doing what he does best — getting the action started with the robots. Again, this is not LaBeouf’s issue, as this was how his character was written. Bay seemed to desperately want to force Sam’s story, the story of Dylan (Patrick Dempsey), and the love triangle between those two and Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley); simply put, this doesn’t work. This is not Bay’s forte and it clearly shows. If Bay had simply diminished Sam’s role in the story and refocused more attention on the Transformers’ situation and plot points, then this movie would have been so much better.
Again, when the action gets going in the film you’re going to be ‘wowed!’, but as soon as the focus reshifts to Sam and human crew then you’re going to feel slightly bored. Now, this movie does a better job with the balancing act of humans/transformers than the last film, but it still doesn’t quite get to that place where everyone is ‘perfectly’ balanced and represented in the story. Nonetheless, it’s a much better effort (and product) than the second film.
As for the Blu-ray portion of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it was impressive. There are no artifacts, graininess or anything that might taint the HD picture. The transfer looks remarkable, considering how much CGI is going on during most of the film. Credit Paramount Pictures for the transfer and making all the colors of the spectrum stand out pretty strong, especially during the battle scenes. For example, when Sam and his soldier friends are breakdancing through a tumbling building the picture looks sharp. You get to see some great colors, some very impressive lighting and it all looks frightfully beautiful in HD. Again, credit Paramount for doing a fantastic job with the video transfer.
On the audio end of things, it’s potentially more impressive than the video. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was made for 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio mastering. There is so much action going on and very little down time that you’ll be enthralled with how good it all sounds coming through your speakers. The sound mastering is potentially one of the best I’ve heard on a Blu-ray this year. Good action means that there should be great sound, and this movie depends a lot on sound (see Soundwave for example). The little sound effects associated with the robots mixed in with the battle sounds of guns and buildings blowing up, really translate well in 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. I wish all action films could sound this good.
Finally, as for the features… they are absent. There is most certainly another version of this film on Blu-ray that will making its way to retail shelves soon (there is a coupon included from Paramount for $10 off the next release) that will include features, but this release has nothing.