In the year that the world said goodbye to Harry Potter and hello to Game of Thrones, Transformers: Dark of the Moon crushed the box-office to become the fifth-biggest film ever at the time. But how does one get nostalgic for an admittedly bad film?
Truthfully, one wouldn’t. But for me, it is a nostalgic film. From the brilliant trailers to the intriguingly daft premise (Neil Armstrong found a Transformer?), this was an 11-year old’s perfect film. I saw it enough times as a kid that I am impervious to the blatant flaws: the film is long and often slow, the human characters are poorly acted and even more poorly written, and it features excessive military porn.
But a recent re-watch opened up new frontiers to appreciate it: the sound design is exquisite and the score is excellent. Furthermore, the actual Transformer aspect of the film is stunning: the opening is gorgeous, the action is high-octane and the tipping skyscraper set-piece is very well made. It did open the can for a sky-beam third act (and two horrendous sequels), but the Chicago battle, highway chase and eye-popping CGI are fond childhood memories that still make me smile. No hate!
Check out the trailer below:
