Monday, October 10, 2011

FILMonBLU-RAY: Transformers - Dark of the Moon (Review)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2011 - Paramount
Released on Blu-Ray & DVD on September 30, 2011

# of Discs: 2 (Blu-Ray, DVD)
Runtime: 157 Minutes

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) returns for his third foray into the world of giant robots, now out of college, looking for a job and with a new girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). He is drawn back into helping the Autobots protect the planet from the evil Decepticons, who this time around have a secret plan involving the moon. Joining Sam once again is former government agent Simmons (John Turturro) and Lt. Colonel Lennox (Josh Duhamel) along with the U.S. military.

New robots debut in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, on the Autobots side is the introduction of the legendary Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy), the former leader of the Autobots and for the villainous Decepticons is the debut of Laserbeak and a true appearance of Shockwave.

Like the previous Transformers films, most of the highlights of the movie are the jaw dropping visuals during the robot battles. First, however must be mentioned before the battles is the various scenes dealing with the Ark, the Cybertronian spaceship carrying an invention said to be capable of ending the war between Autobots and Decepticons, that crash landed on the far side of Earth's Moon. It was brilliant to weave history into fiction with having the crew of Apollo 11 investigate the ship crash and then to see the intricate designs of the Ark when the Autobots make their voyage to the Moon to recover what they can from the wreck and find Sentinel Prime still functioning.

But the goldmine of visuals comes once the story hits Chicago, where the Decepticons have their controlling Pillar for the Space Bridge they plan to use to bring Cybertron to Earth and where Carly has been taken by her Decepticon controlled boss. Between buildings being brought down while the characters are inside, to Carly going face to face with Megatron and Optimus taking out Sentinel and Megatron putting a possible end to the robot conflict, the film is filled with mesmerizing moments.

Unfortunately it was not clearly advertised that this release of TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON would be only bare bones discs, meaning that only the film was released without any of the special features included. Instead there are plans for a feature packed release in the near future. This was not done with the previous films but is something that is starting to pop up more frequently with films but I hope it does not become a disturbing trend.

If you enjoyed the previous Transformers films, there is no reason you will not enjoy this one. The lack of Megan Fox's Mikaela Banes character is jarring but the non-stop action and Sam's heroic acts are more than enough to push past the absence. A near perfect execution to this final leg of Michael Bay's Transformers trilogy, worth seeing it in the beauty that is Blu-Ray.

Look to buy the bare bones TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON Blu-Ray over at Amazon for $26.99

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