Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a 2011 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. First released on June 23, 2011, it is the third installment of the live-action Transformers film series. Like its predecessors, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film's story is set three years after the events of the second film, with the Autobots, during their collaboration with the NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers) military force, discovering a hidden alien technology in possession of humans, which had been found by Apollo 11 on the Moon, 42 years prior. However, the Decepticons unveil a plan to use the technology to enslave Humanity in order to bring back Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro reprised their starring roles, with Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving returning as the voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and Kevin Dunn and Julie White reprising their roles as the parents of the main protagonist, Sam Witwicky. English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley replaced Megan Fox as the lead female character; the cast also saw the additions of Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, and Frances McDormand. This installment of the franchise--which director Bay announced would be his last--welcomed Keith Szarabajka, Ron Bottitta, John DiMaggio, George Coe, Francesco Quinn, James Remar, Greg Berg, and veteran science-fiction actor Leonard Nimoy to the voice cast. The script was written by Ehren Kruger, who also collaborated on the narrative of the second film of the series. Dark of the Moon employed both regular 35mm film cameras and specially-developed 3-D cameras, with filming locations in Chicago, Florida, Indiana, Moscow, and Washington, D.C.. The film was rendered specifically for 3-D, and the visual effects involved more complex robots which took longer to render.

In May 2011, it was announced that Paramount Pictures would move Transformers: Dark of the Moon's release date of July 1 to June 29 in order to monitor an early response to footage. Exclusive early premieres in select 3-D and IMAX theaters took place June 28 2011, one night before worldwide release in 2-D and 3-D (including IMAX 3D) formats--each featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.

Critical reception of the film was mixed to negative, with several critics calling it better than Revenge of the Fallen and praising the film's visuals and 3-D action sequences, but criticizing its writing, acting, and length. Dark of the Moon grossed $1.12 billion worldwide, and is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, the second highest grossing film of 2011 (behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2), the highest grossing film in the Transformers series, and the tenth film to gross over $1 billion. The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 84th Academy Awards. A sequel to the film, directed once again by Michael Bay, is scheduled for release in June 2014.

The Plot

In 1961, the Ark, a Cybertronian spacecraft carrying an invention capable of ending the war between the philanthropic Autobots and the malevolent Decepticons, crash lands on the dark side of Earth's Moon. The crash is detected on Earth by NASA, and President John F. Kennedy authorizes a mission to put a man on the Moon as a cover for investigating the craft. In 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 lands on the Moon.

In the present, the Autobots assist the United States military in preventing conflicts around the globe. During a mission to Chernobyl, to investigate suspected alien technology, Optimus Prime finds a fuel cell from the Ark, discovering that it had survived its journey from Cybertron. The Autobots are attacked by Shockwave, who manages to escape. After learning of the top-secret mission to the Moon, the Autobots travel there to explore the Ark. They discover a comatose Sentinel Prime – Optimus' predecessor as leader of the Autobots – and the Pillars he created as a means of establishing a Space Bridge between two points to teleport matter. After returning to Earth, Optimus uses the energy of his Matrix of Leadership to revive Sentinel Prime.

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky is frustrated that he is unable to work with the Autobots and is failing to find a job. He also becomes envious of the close relationship between his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer, and her boss Dylan Gould. After finding work, Sam is provided information by his eccentric co-worker Jerry Wang about the Ark, before Jerry is assassinated by the Decepticon Laserbeak. Sam contacts the now-independently wealthy Seymour Simmons, and together they realize that the Decepticons and their leader, Megatron, are murdering people connected to the American and Russian space missions to the Ark. They locate two surviving Russian cosmonauts, who reveal satellite photos of hundreds of Pillars being stockpiled on the Moon. Sam realizes that the Decepticons raided the Ark long before the Autobots' mission and intentionally left Sentinel and five Pillars behind to lure the Autobots into a trap – Sentinel being the key to activating the Pillars and the Decepticons lacking the means to revive him. The Autobots rush to return Sentinel to their base for protection but Sentinel betrays them and kills the Autobot Ironhide, revealing he had made a deal with Megatron to ensure the survival of the Cybertronian race.

Sentinel uses the Pillars to transport hundreds of concealed Decepticons from the Moon to Earth, and Carly is captured by Gould, who is revealed to be in the service of the Decepticons. The Autobots are exiled from Earth at the demand of the Decepticons to avoid war, but as their ship leaves Earth it is destroyed by Megatron's second-in-command, Starscream, seemingly killing the Autobots. The Decepticons, led by Megatron and Sentinel, seize Chicago as their agents place Pillars around the world. Gould reveals to Carly that the Decepticons plan to transport their homeworld of Cybertron to the Milky Way, then to enslave humanity and use Earth's resources to rebuild their world. Sam teams with USAF Chief Robert Epps to go into Chicago to save Carly, but they are nearly killed by Decepticon forces before the Autobots intervene, revealing they concealed themselves during the launch of their ship to convince the Decepticons they were destroyed.

Working together, the Autobots and human soldiers manage to rescue Carly and destroy Laserbeak, Soundwave, Barricade, Starscream, and Shockwave, with Optimus using Shockwave's arm-cannon to blast the Control Pillar, disabling the Space Bridge. Sam confronts Gould as he reactivates the Control Pillar, and knocks Gould into the Pillar, fatally electrocuting him. Bumblebee and Ratchet arrive and destroy the Control Pillar, permanently disabling the Bridge and causing the partially transported Cybertron to implode. Optimus and Sentinel fight while Carly convinces Megatron that he will be replaced as leader of the Decepticons by Sentinel. Sentinel severs Optimus' right arm, and is about to execute him when Megatron intervenes, incapacitating Sentinel. Megatron invokes Optimus for a truce, having the desire to become the one-in-charge again. Optimus attacks Megatron, knowing Megatron's true intentions, decapitating and killing him. Sentinel pleads for his life but Optimus executes him too, for betraying his own principles. With the Decepticons defeated, Carly and Sam are reunited and the Autobots accept that with Cybertron gone, Earth is now their home.

Reviews

The film has received mixed to negative reviews from film critics. While many of them believed it was an improvement over Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and were also praising the film's visual effects and 3-D action sequences, criticism fell over the long running time, the below average acting, and the script. Several critics also felt that Dark of the Moon still did not live up to the first Transformers movie. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave Transformers: Dark of the Moon a score of 35% based on 232 reviews and a rating average of 4.9/10, saying, "Its special effects and 3-D shots are undeniably impressive, but they aren't enough to fill up its loud, bloated running time, or mask its thin, indifferent script." Metacritic, another review aggregator, gave the film a Metascore of 42/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews" from 37 critics.

Roger Ebert gave the film one out of four stars, calling it "a visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had at the movies." Richard Roeper likewise panned the film, giving it a D and saying that "rarely has a movie had less of a soul and less interesting characters."

Several critics were highly critical of the ineffectiveness of the film's two young stars. Peter Travers stated the two "couldn't be duller." The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that Shia LaBeouf "plays Witwicky as if he had a ferocious case of attention deficit disorder. After two films, his fidgeting isn't cute anymore." James Berardinelli said that LaBeouf "has sunk to greater levels of incompetence here. It's hard to call his posturing and screaming 'acting'." Much of the criticism towards Rosie Huntington-Whiteley compared her in an unfavorable light to Megan Fox. Lou Lumenick said that her "'acting' makes...Megan Fox look like Meryl Streep in comparison." Baz Bamigboye gave his review of the film the title 'Come back Megan Fox, all is forgiven...'.

In a more positive review, Ain't It Cool News called the film "the best entry in the Michael Bay-directed franchise." IGN gave the film a score of seven out of ten, also stating that it was the best of the franchise. E! Online graded the film a B+ while noting if this the film is truly the end of a trilogy, its main antagonists should have played more of a part. Website Daily Bhaskar also praised the film, rating it three and a half out of five stars, citing it as an improvement to the previous film and how it "gives fans something to cheer about". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film an A on an A plus to F scale.

The film had many positive reviews, from critics and the audiences alike, for its special effects and aggressive use of 3-D, leading some to call it the best 3-D experience since Cameron's Avatar. Neil Schneider of Meant to be Seen, a website focused on stereoscopic 3-D gaming and entertainment, remarked that "while Transformers: Dark of the Moon had the scrapings of a really good story, this 3-D movie was shot with a 2-D script." On the topic of 3-D, Schneider said "Transformers 3 was a mix of native stereoscopic 3-D camera capturing and 2-D/3-D conversion (as a 3-D tool), and most was done very well." He added, "At a minimum, Transformers 3 demonstrates that fast cutting sequences are indeed possible and practical in stereoscopic 3-D. More than that, it was a comfortable experience and helped exemplify great use of stereoscopic 3-D with live action and digital characters. That said, I think they still could have taken it much further."

Charlie Jane Anders of io9 believed that some elements of the film were deliberate self-references to Michael Bay's own sense of under-appreciation after the backlash to the second film: "After a few hours of seeing Shia get dissed, overlooked and mistreated, the message becomes clear: Shia, as always, is a stand-in for Michael Bay. And Bay is showing us just what it felt like to deal with the ocean of Haterade—the snarking, the Razzie Award, the mean reviews—that Revenge of the Fallen unleashed." She went on to say that the film's frequent, often jarring shifts in tone were an intentional endorsement of Michael Bay's own filmmaking style. "Tone is for single-purpose machines. Consistency is for Decepticons. Michael Bay's ideal movie shifts from action movie to teen comedy to political drama with the same well-lubricated ease that his cars become men. By the time you've finished watching, you will speak Michael Bay's cinematic language."

The Cast

Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
 Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime (voice)
 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly Spencer
 Tyrese Gibson as Epps
 Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime (voice)
 Patrick Dempsey as Dylan
 Frances McDormand as Mearing
 John Turturro as Simmons
 Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
 John Malkovich as Bruce Brazos
 James Remar as Sideswipe (voice)
 Julie White as Judy Witwicky
 Alan Tudyk as Dutch
 Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang
 Glenn Morshower as General Morshower
 Lester Speight as Eddie
 Buzz Aldrin as Buzz Aldrin
 Bill O'Reilly as Bill O'Reilly
 Ravil Isyanov as Voshkod