Transformers: the Trilogy

Rounding out the trilogy: the Transformers saga is all largely animated, CGI-dominated and action packed.  All of them have been top grossing movies, but none of them are outstanding.  In other terms, I think that the movies are wasted pictures, especially the last two, because they have such potential to become both fun movies and good ones.  At least the first one was something fresh, which made it both a good and a fun movie, but the last two are complete opposites of the first flick, being mechanically bad on the inside and the out.  All three films are directed by Michael Bay, notorious for his overuse of big and bloated CGI effects, which goes into effect with all three of his Transformers films.  Note: the Transformers films are based off of the kids Hasbro toy line.

Transformers: ***

Transformers is easily the best out of the bunch.  It never could have reached any level of greatness, but it was still one of the most decisive summer movies in years.  It's a rare movie that puts excellent CGI effects to great use.  The characters lack deep development, but the entertainment remains strong.  In the end, it's a wallop, though both on a technical and entertainment level.  As I look back on these statements, I wonder if Transformers is a good movie.  Well, the goal of most movies is simply to entertain, to take our minds off of what we were previously thinking about, and to get us immersed in the motion picture.  If we take that into account, then Transformers is a good movie, even though I can't find a way to call it a must see by logical standards.

Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen: *

Revenge of the Fallen couldn't have been much worse.  In one word, it's crap.  What's more, it goes on for a godawful two and a half hours.  And most of it is squads of robots shooting, transforming, blasting and cursing their way through other hordes of robots.  Despite being a whopping success at the box-office (yes, this waste-of-my-time movie earned over 800 million worldwide), Revenge of the Fallen couldn't escape from being rated Worst Picture of the Year at the Razzies, an award it fully deserved.  Let's face that fact; I enjoyed Transformers because it was a really fun movie, but I can assure you, Revenge of the Fallen is in no way enjoyable to watch.  In fact, it's quite ugly to look at.  If Hollywood ends up resorting to this kind of crap, well, that will be a sad story indeed.

Transformers, Dark of the Moon: * ½

Dark of the Moon was at least promising.  For a while, that is, before it was released.  From the previews, it looked like Bay had recovered from the insanity of Revenge of the Fallen and had gotten his third sequel back on par with the first pic.  Dark of the Moon, in reality, ended up not being worth all that more then Revenge of the Fallen, but at least the premise was much more interesting.  It's a two and a half hour long movie, and one hour (yes one entire hour) of that comprises the climatic battle where the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out to the death in the ruins of Chicago.  That's one reason that makes entire movie so overbearing, and another reason why I left the theater totally shell shocked.  I was over joyed to see the light of day again.