Originally Posted by
AustinDawg
I give it a C, (which is an A+ for Michael Bay movies). It was definitely lacking in several areas:
1. The script was just plain bad. Real Bad. Michael Bay bad. Granted, I may not have been the intended audience. A fact revealed to me in the opening scene when the subtitle says "Qatar - The Middle East". As opposed to Qatar, Nevada or Qatar 90210. Aside from that, there were several times I winced while watching. Examples: Optimus Prime saying "My bad"; anything coming out of Jazz's voice module; a 15 minute long masturbation joke, etc.... . I won't even elaborate on how they butchered Jazz. Imagine a robot doing an impersonation of Dave Chapelle doing an impersonation of Rick James.
2. Character development. The movie is supposed to be about giant robots, yet we get over an hour of a 2 1/2 movie dealing with nothing but 2 humans and an awkward teenage crush scenario. Because of this, when one of the Autobots gets killed (I won't spoil it), I was like "meh. That sucks, I guess". I think they could have spent a little more time building the Autobot-human bond and a little less time trying to figure out which K-Tel Super Sounds of the 70's anthem will loosen up Megan Fox. There are several other missed opportunities that weren't exploited. Well, we can always hope for sequels.
3. Obvious logic Flaws - Okay, so this All-Spark mass shifts from this 8,000 cubic foot block to a Hellraiser toy that fits into Shia Lebouf's hand. Still can't get my mind around that one. Secondly, when they find it, they want to keep it away from the fast pursuing Decepticons, so that they can save life on planet earth. So, what do we do? I know, let's fly it into the 2nd largest city in the United States - preferably downtown!
4. The action sequences - Imagine taking an aluminum recycling bin, welding everything together, and rolling off a hill with a closeup camera nearby. You would have basically the last 45 minutes of the movie. And can someone please show Bay how to use a steady cam? Half the time I couldn't tell who was getting their ass kicked, but then again, I'm getting to be pretty old.
That said, there were a few positives.
1. Megan Fox - nice.
2. Acting performances from the human actors. I thought Shia Lebouf did an excellent job in the lead role. And did I mention Megan Fox? Jon Voigt played the same character he's played in every single movie. I forgot where I was in one scene and briefly thought I was watching Varsity Blues in the theater again. Maybe not a positive, but not necessarily a negative. (exception - the John Turturro character was ridiculous. Only Michael Bay can take an actor I really respect and turn him into excrement).
3. Probably foremost was the CGI. It was the best I've ever seen in any movie. Including LOTR. This technology is really reaching its zenith.
I guess at face value it is what it is. A light-fare, blow-crap-up summer movie. But as a fan of the toys and comic books back in the '80's, I was wishing for more. Instead I got Armageddon with robots. I could see how people could go and be entertained, but for anyone who says it was the best movie they've ever seen, I would recommend that they see more movies. Start with the first two Godfathers.
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