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It's alright - not great, but alright. The action scenes are huge - robot apocalypse style - and thankfully the "humoristic" bits have been toned down (oh, they're still there, but it's nothing compared to the sheer embarassement that was Revenge of the Fallen).
I just really, really wish someone would bother to give me some lickable human sidekicks instead of this Witwicky kid.
I mean, it wasn't so bad in the first movie, with it's tons of human characters, and besides, in the first movie, Sam's character arch was a pretty traditional one - young man, bit of a loser, gains something (magic, spider powers, alien car) and at the end of the movie has saved the world and won the girl, and if it's a little well-written he did it not thanks to the neat thing he got, but thanks to something he had all along. You typical coming of age story - tried and true recipe. We've seen it all before.
The problem is, it's a coming of age story. At the end, the character is supposed to have matured. It works fine for a single movie, but if the movie spawns sequels, you really shouldn't just rinse and repeat the plot - I mean, something like Spider-man can get away with it, because Peter Parker is a bit of a loser, and Spider-man is the one winning the day, so it's manageable. But generally, you really shouldn't, and this movie, and the annoying Shia LaBeouf character in it, is an illustration of the problems with it.
Let me ask you - if you where CIA or NEST or Section 7 or whatever the authority handling the Autobots are - what would you do, if you had a somewhat intelligent young man who knew the secret, who had been an integral part of saving the world - twice - showing himself to be courageous and capable of thinking in stressful situation, even if he isn't traditional marine material, and who had the added advantage of being a personal friend of the Autobots and one of the few humans trusted completely by them.
Would you A) recruit him - in or right out of college - have him learn to use weapons, strategy, diplomacy, attach him to senior agents, military aides, maybe brainwash him a bit to ensure that if push comes to shove his loyalty will be first to the US of A and second to his Autobot friends, because while young and inexperienced, he is uniquely qualified to be the perfect liason/handler for your new alien allies and since the Autobots doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon, it plans to pay ahead and you will get to shape him to meet your requirements, or would you B) give him a pat on the head and kick him out to struggle to make ends meet in a world of unemployment, not even bothering to give him a phone number to call in case his habit of attracting evil aliens robots resurfaces, leaving him to have to drive up to the secret base and throw a temper tantrum as only means of contact.
Much as I'm not a fan of Sam, I'd have gone with A, because it makes sense - but since the movie is using the formula of loser-ends-up-saving-the-day, it goes with B. Maybe to allow the drooling teenage boys that was probably the primary intended audience to relate.
Unfortunately, now it leaves me wondering why? After all, it doesn't make any sense, so there has to be a reason (in story, I mean) - so you take a look at Shia's character in this movie - and unfortunately, he doesn't exactly make a good impression. He comes across as a whiny man-child with entitlement issues, quite frankly, and let's not even get into the way he treats Bumblebee, except to say that that is no way to treat your best friend. His old girlfriend has mysteriously vanished (personally I suspect she's working with Ratchet and Que and was just off for a three week vacation in Hawaii during the movie) and been replaced with a not too bright (seriously, what does she see in him?) damsel in distress type - she gets points for calling Megatron a bitch, but apart from that... she'd have worked better, in my mind, if she had been an infiltrator transformer like the one in the second movie. At least that would have explained her basically throwing himself at Sam and wouldn't have affected her primary function as eyecandy for teenage boys.
My theory? I suspect Sam was rejected by NEST or whoever - I suspect they sent him to a psychologist and the evalution came back with words like authority issues and budding sociopath and other nasty words - maybe PTSD or something worse. Considering the events of the second movie - captured, tortured, not to mention the computer stuff in his brain thing - it wouldn't be much of a stretch. It would explain why the authorities let him basically be put out to pasture. And quite frankly, the way he comes across in this movie, I actually think they did the right thing. Who'd trust that whiny brat with any sort of responsibility?
Anyway, apart from me overanalyzing what is probably just my dislike of Shia the Steak - two things. First, why doesn't anybody at least suggest dropping a nuke on Chicago? And second, OMG they killed Starscream! And of all the deaths, he had to suffer the ignomy of being killed by Sam Witwicky. I could weep.
I just really, really wish someone would bother to give me some lickable human sidekicks instead of this Witwicky kid.
I mean, it wasn't so bad in the first movie, with it's tons of human characters, and besides, in the first movie, Sam's character arch was a pretty traditional one - young man, bit of a loser, gains something (magic, spider powers, alien car) and at the end of the movie has saved the world and won the girl, and if it's a little well-written he did it not thanks to the neat thing he got, but thanks to something he had all along. You typical coming of age story - tried and true recipe. We've seen it all before.
The problem is, it's a coming of age story. At the end, the character is supposed to have matured. It works fine for a single movie, but if the movie spawns sequels, you really shouldn't just rinse and repeat the plot - I mean, something like Spider-man can get away with it, because Peter Parker is a bit of a loser, and Spider-man is the one winning the day, so it's manageable. But generally, you really shouldn't, and this movie, and the annoying Shia LaBeouf character in it, is an illustration of the problems with it.
Let me ask you - if you where CIA or NEST or Section 7 or whatever the authority handling the Autobots are - what would you do, if you had a somewhat intelligent young man who knew the secret, who had been an integral part of saving the world - twice - showing himself to be courageous and capable of thinking in stressful situation, even if he isn't traditional marine material, and who had the added advantage of being a personal friend of the Autobots and one of the few humans trusted completely by them.
Would you A) recruit him - in or right out of college - have him learn to use weapons, strategy, diplomacy, attach him to senior agents, military aides, maybe brainwash him a bit to ensure that if push comes to shove his loyalty will be first to the US of A and second to his Autobot friends, because while young and inexperienced, he is uniquely qualified to be the perfect liason/handler for your new alien allies and since the Autobots doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon, it plans to pay ahead and you will get to shape him to meet your requirements, or would you B) give him a pat on the head and kick him out to struggle to make ends meet in a world of unemployment, not even bothering to give him a phone number to call in case his habit of attracting evil aliens robots resurfaces, leaving him to have to drive up to the secret base and throw a temper tantrum as only means of contact.
Much as I'm not a fan of Sam, I'd have gone with A, because it makes sense - but since the movie is using the formula of loser-ends-up-saving-the-day, it goes with B. Maybe to allow the drooling teenage boys that was probably the primary intended audience to relate.
Unfortunately, now it leaves me wondering why? After all, it doesn't make any sense, so there has to be a reason (in story, I mean) - so you take a look at Shia's character in this movie - and unfortunately, he doesn't exactly make a good impression. He comes across as a whiny man-child with entitlement issues, quite frankly, and let's not even get into the way he treats Bumblebee, except to say that that is no way to treat your best friend. His old girlfriend has mysteriously vanished (personally I suspect she's working with Ratchet and Que and was just off for a three week vacation in Hawaii during the movie) and been replaced with a not too bright (seriously, what does she see in him?) damsel in distress type - she gets points for calling Megatron a bitch, but apart from that... she'd have worked better, in my mind, if she had been an infiltrator transformer like the one in the second movie. At least that would have explained her basically throwing himself at Sam and wouldn't have affected her primary function as eyecandy for teenage boys.
My theory? I suspect Sam was rejected by NEST or whoever - I suspect they sent him to a psychologist and the evalution came back with words like authority issues and budding sociopath and other nasty words - maybe PTSD or something worse. Considering the events of the second movie - captured, tortured, not to mention the computer stuff in his brain thing - it wouldn't be much of a stretch. It would explain why the authorities let him basically be put out to pasture. And quite frankly, the way he comes across in this movie, I actually think they did the right thing. Who'd trust that whiny brat with any sort of responsibility?
Anyway, apart from me overanalyzing what is probably just my dislike of Shia the Steak - two things. First, why doesn't anybody at least suggest dropping a nuke on Chicago? And second, OMG they killed Starscream! And of all the deaths, he had to suffer the ignomy of being killed by Sam Witwicky. I could weep.
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