Fucking awesome!
What can I say, definitely my cup of tea. CGI action for the win, baby!
It ain't perfect, mind you, but no movie has been. That said, it's closer - for me - than anything I've seen thus far, and it will definitely be my number one Blu Ray when it arrives.
Sentinel Prime, voiced by Leonard Nimoy, rocked. So damn good. Awesome character, and an absolutely shocking betrayal about halfway through on his part. Anyone who says they saw that one coming is a fucking liar :)
Pretty cool really too, because Michael Bay had us all thinking Shockwave was going to be the main badass in this one. Nicely done, Mike.
That said, 'ole Shockwave could've used more screen time though, I'll admit to that one. Like Megatron basically sitting on the sidelines during much of the show, he was a bit underutilised.
I didn't think much of Sam's new girlfriend (outside of having a great set of legs and an arse to die for, of course). While I wasn't a big fan of Megan Fox back in the day, this new chick actually has me missing her. I'll admit that I think the chemistry between Shia and Megan was better than with Shia and Rosie.
That's not necessarily fair, mind you, because Sam started with Megan and was with her for two movies, compared to Rosie being the newcomer in just this one movie.
There have been a couple of long threads over at IMDB about the death of Ironhide. I always really liked Ironhide in the cartoons, tough nut that he was, and up until this third movie, it's fair to say he hadn't gotten anywhere near his fair share of screen time. Most of the combat that took place in the first movie showed him getting his arse kicked, and in the second he did absolutely nothing.
He redeemed himself though, and I felt good for Ironhide fans, because he was involved in a huge fight just prior to his demise, and we did get to see him finally kick some arse. He went out like a boss, and it's not my favourite expression, but it is fitting.
At the end of the day though, I'm always rooting for Optimus Prime. At first I didn't like how Bay made him so different from G1 Prime, but now, I fucking love him. And I've come to fucking love that truck.
Part of the reason I'm still so fond of Prime is that he continues to be voiced by the great Peter Cullen. He captured my imagination 23 years ago in the animated cartoon, and the son-of-a-bitch is still doing it now. There's a reason why Peter Cullen has made a living out of voice acting, and his game is as good as ever in Dark of the Moon.
I just fucking love him, too. If Peter Cullen knocked on my front door right now, there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. He wouldn't even have to speak like Prime.
Like I said though, there are things I didn't like about the movie. I don't care for Sam Witwicky and his personal life. You have a new girlfriend? Don't care. Trying to get a job? Don't care. Don't like your girlfriend's boss? Don't care.
Overall though, great. Pretty much exactly what I wanted.
Which brings me to my next point...
I got home after the first showing, and logged straight into IMDB. And the movie's rating was at a rather abysmal 6.9 out of 10. What the fuck?
People love to hate Michael Bay. As I've said before, I don't think it would matter what the man could put out.
I see IMDB ratings for movies typically start high when they're released, and then lower, and my guess would be that it's because the more passionate fans are among the first to register their (typically higher) votes.
Bay movies don't follow this trend though, and I think that's because there's always a legion of haters just ready to swarm. If anything, they see the viewing of the movie as a formality, because they've already decided they don't like it.
Just because it's Michael Bay.
So the quicker they can get the actual viewing out of the way and get that 1/10 vote registered, the better. Some even have more than one account ready to go, so that they can make their opinion weigh more than yours or mine.
I don't really care about their opinions. I mean, it's all subjective anyway, and just because I like Dark of the Moon, that doesn't mean I expect anyone else to.
The difference between us though, it would seem, is that I don't feel threatened by their opinion.
