Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Michael Bay lies at the forefront of modern day Snake Oil Salesmen; he dresses sharp, has been around long enough to call himself a veteran (note: call himself a veteran), and boy golly does he have a product you just can't wait for. Sure enough though, his speech is too well rehearsed, that it's all for not, and you find yourself with something certainly less than promised. Though because it was such a big seller, around comes Mr. Bay again. He tells you that this time he's gone bigger, he's gone better, and sure as shootin, this time, you are going to be MORE blown away. Again though, the buyer is left bewildered and befuddled that what they were told, doesn't match what they were given. Worried that his target audience is falling by the wayside, Mr. Bay does the unthinkable: he apologizes. He laments that he understand that many are dismayed with his product, including himself. He personally vows, for the sake of his integrity, nay his loyal followers, that he will do right by them. That this time, he is going to give it that extra something. Let it be said, right here, right now; if you show a turd in 3D, you are just showing a turd in 3D. That turd, ladies and gentlemen, is Transformers 3.
True there is much debating about what kind of film can be made from a toy line, or lucrative series of cartoons, for that matter. The issue at hand is a film of cognitive sense or merit. No one is looking for a game changer or awards darling, for the most part people are looking for something slightly better than decent. What Micheal Bay is able to come up with for Transformers 3 is relatively astounding. He made a film, a sequence of photographs projected onto a screen with sufficient rapidity as to create the illusion of motion and continuity. Outside of that there are moments where people talk, occasionally broken up by giant transforming robots fighting. So.....those are the positives. The issues that arise out of the murk are more than a plethora. Scenes exist, merely to shoot people in a pretty light...Not a constructive light. Nor a light of any other importance than to convey "don't you think that looks nice". It has the appearance, sure, but there is no understanding of it's importance in the greater whole. There is a sequence in the film with the supposedly surprising betrayal of a human character, who is working on the side of the bad guys. The issue here makes no sense, specially when there was already a scene in the 2nd film to show that it was possible for a Deception (or any evil robot for that matter) to pose as a human. The logical decision would be to have had the human character killed and replaced in secret by said evil transformer because said treacherous human had access to something of importance to overthrow all human life, but alas, this is a Baytacular, and things like common sense, reasonable decibel level, and coherence are severely lacking.
Again I am brought back to the snake oil salesman, or even more recently, the Evangelical Healers. There is a good show to be had, if you are able to strip away all the things that make one a sensible, semi-intelligent person. True people often just want to be entertained, but that never means they deserve to be insulted, or even worse, be lead to believe that they aren't being insulted, and are told that what they are being told and sold isn't going to be gotten by everyone, and that you are smarter for not being more analytic. The same goes for films featuring Madea, Larry the Cable guy, and Kevin James.
The film going public wants to be entertained on another level. There are signs of it everywhere. They want to be entertained, enthralled, captivated, and more or less elated. They want to be intruiged by something new and they want to be motivated to push their collective thoughts out into the lobby where they converse about what certain things meant, what the movie said to them, and have an intellectual conversation about everything they saw on the screen. Yes there are a place for large CGI blockbusters that want to make money, but your main objective in those instances should be to entertain (The Avengers (2012), or to elevate a certain film genre past it's set preconceptions (The Dark Knight (2008). The majority of the public will still say that they want their brain turned off from time to time (that why we had the 80's), but in the end, things won't change unless those making the films, attempt to start that change for the better, from within.
* 1/2 out of *****
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