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I saw this last night in a Cinemark "XD Theater" (very nice theater over here, 3D Imax with awesome seats and amazing sound).
Anyone expecting Academy award winning acting is just silly, so I did not have those expectations. The expectations I did have was some awesome action, mildly compelling story and some cool new ways to present the transformers themselves.
I hate to say this thing was just horribly done. The last 45 minutes of the movie I was just ready for it to be over with. The story jumped around so much it was as if they just sat around a table pitching ideas and took every single idea as something to throw into the movie. There were way too many pointless characters. Even the love story portion was extremely lame. I think the general plot was solid, just very poorly executed with way too many offshoots and twists.
The action itself was just over the top. I felt like I was watching a cartoon. Not that the CGI wasn't awesome, which it of course was, but in that how the action happened. One example: When Sam & the military squad were trapped in the building which was being cut in half by Shockwave, and they're all sliding around inside the building and on the outside like rats in a maze. And meanwhile the building is remaining intact in large sections which is ridiculous. Reminded me of Wile E. Coyote or Tom & Jerry.
I was hoping to see some creative new ways to present the Transformers themselves. That didn't really seem to happen. Of course there were new Transformers we hadn't seen before, but equipped the same old ways with the same old weapons and fighting in the same manner. The only "new" things I noticed was Optimus' "bag O tricks" aka his trailer, and Shockwave's tunneling thing (which seemed extremely overpowered for a "lower ranking" decepticon. Megatron seemed like a completely pointless character, and having him wear that hood thing was freaking stupid.
Even bigger spoiler here that continues the thought
The ease with which Optimus killed Megatron was ridiculous and made him an even more pointless character really. If Megatron was really that weak, any other decepticon could have taken him out and taken his place (especially Starscream who was already leaning towards mutiny in the first two movies).
The jokes were funny but seemed more like just a way to break up the action. It was all way too deliberate. It honestly felt to me like a group of young children put the scene sequence together. There was absolutely zero flow to the movie whatsoever. It's like they had a deck of cards w/the scenes on it and played 52 pickup to figure out the order.
One thing I did enjoy was the NASA references. They actually filmed parts of the movie at JSC where I work, and some shots at Kennedy in places where I have visited. I thought it was funny that NASA didn't let them use the current launch control center at KSC, as the one in the movie is the old one. It was also great to see a cameo by Buzz Aldrin.
The 3D, as in most 3D movies I've seen, was more of a general afterthought and didn't add much to the movie except in a few specific places (where it was very intentionally a "3D" scene).
In all, if you were on the fence about heading to the theater to watch this one, I'd skip it and just make it a rental. I'm not going to bother buying this one unless I come across it very cheap. It saddened me to see them take the potential this movie had and just flush it down the toilet. My ranking of the series easily ends up with the first one being great, the second one being ok, and the third one being garbage.
edit:
Oh and one more thing, I had no idea that Leonard Nimoy did the voice over for one of the major characters. I literally said "Oh my God, really?" outloud when he spoke his line "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" at the end of the movie. Lamest cross-movie reference ever.
Anyone expecting Academy award winning acting is just silly, so I did not have those expectations. The expectations I did have was some awesome action, mildly compelling story and some cool new ways to present the transformers themselves.
I hate to say this thing was just horribly done. The last 45 minutes of the movie I was just ready for it to be over with. The story jumped around so much it was as if they just sat around a table pitching ideas and took every single idea as something to throw into the movie. There were way too many pointless characters. Even the love story portion was extremely lame. I think the general plot was solid, just very poorly executed with way too many offshoots and twists.
The action itself was just over the top. I felt like I was watching a cartoon. Not that the CGI wasn't awesome, which it of course was, but in that how the action happened. One example: When Sam & the military squad were trapped in the building which was being cut in half by Shockwave, and they're all sliding around inside the building and on the outside like rats in a maze. And meanwhile the building is remaining intact in large sections which is ridiculous. Reminded me of Wile E. Coyote or Tom & Jerry.
I was hoping to see some creative new ways to present the Transformers themselves. That didn't really seem to happen. Of course there were new Transformers we hadn't seen before, but equipped the same old ways with the same old weapons and fighting in the same manner. The only "new" things I noticed was Optimus' "bag O tricks" aka his trailer, and Shockwave's tunneling thing (which seemed extremely overpowered for a "lower ranking" decepticon. Megatron seemed like a completely pointless character, and having him wear that hood thing was freaking stupid.
Even bigger spoiler here that continues the thought
The ease with which Optimus killed Megatron was ridiculous and made him an even more pointless character really. If Megatron was really that weak, any other decepticon could have taken him out and taken his place (especially Starscream who was already leaning towards mutiny in the first two movies).The jokes were funny but seemed more like just a way to break up the action. It was all way too deliberate. It honestly felt to me like a group of young children put the scene sequence together. There was absolutely zero flow to the movie whatsoever. It's like they had a deck of cards w/the scenes on it and played 52 pickup to figure out the order.
One thing I did enjoy was the NASA references. They actually filmed parts of the movie at JSC where I work, and some shots at Kennedy in places where I have visited. I thought it was funny that NASA didn't let them use the current launch control center at KSC, as the one in the movie is the old one. It was also great to see a cameo by Buzz Aldrin.
The 3D, as in most 3D movies I've seen, was more of a general afterthought and didn't add much to the movie except in a few specific places (where it was very intentionally a "3D" scene).
In all, if you were on the fence about heading to the theater to watch this one, I'd skip it and just make it a rental. I'm not going to bother buying this one unless I come across it very cheap. It saddened me to see them take the potential this movie had and just flush it down the toilet. My ranking of the series easily ends up with the first one being great, the second one being ok, and the third one being garbage.
edit:
Oh and one more thing, I had no idea that Leonard Nimoy did the voice over for one of the major characters. I literally said "Oh my God, really?" outloud when he spoke his line "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" at the end of the movie. Lamest cross-movie reference ever.
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