Title of the post says it all. It has only been about 3 months since the release of the movie. Personally I thought the movie was pretty good. The GF didn’t like it one bit.

Now I maintain the position that only crappy movies get a quick home release. And that’s what makes DOTM so hard to classify. According to Wikipedia, DOTM is one of the most successful movies ever financially. It grossed $1.18 billion worldwide, and is the 5th highest grossing film of all time. However, critical reception was mostly negative and is usually not liked by anyone outside the hardcore Transformer fandom. I guess the quick home release makes sense if viewed from that perspective.

One of the very first post that I did when I started this blog was the release of Revenge of the Fallen. I definitely liked that one the least out of the three. Read that post to see my thoughts. Even Michael Bay himself has admitted that “Transformers 2 was crap.” Overall, DOTM corrected many of the flaws found in ROTF. DOTM cut out most of the juvenile non-sense, with the exception of that Asian character played by Ken Jeong. Story was more coherent. Bringing Cybertron to Earth is a worthy homage to the Ultimate Doom story arc in G1. Sentinel betraying the Autobots is an unexpected twist. In recent stories, Optimus’ predecessor has been less than perfect and the movie really explores that concept. I think Leonard Nimoy is destined to voice villains in the TF franchise. The acting was your standard Michael Bay cheese, but with so many big names in the cast it doesn’t get that bad. I liked Patrick Dempsey’s role. Good thing McDreamy and Josh Duhamel were there to keep the GF interested with their good looks or she might have fell asleep. But yeah, I liked DOTM, but the first film was still the best.

DOTM wrapped up things pretty good. I can’t think of any loose ends. All the baddies you expect to be killed off are terminated in spectacular fashion by the Autobots, or in some cases humans. I think this means we have seen the last of the Bay TFs. Shia LaBeouf has stated very clearly he’s not doing any more. That’s probably just as well. I think my interest for this trilogy has run its course and it’s time for something new. I like to see a new director take over and steer TFs more toward their G1 roots. J.J.Abrams perhaps? Every franchise he touches turns to gold.

But Michael Bay sure walks away a rich man. I don’t know how much of a cut he had in the 3 films and related merchandising, but he’s gotta be one of the wealthiest men alive in Hollywood today. That’s some good fortune for a director whose craft is questionable at best. He’s got TransFans to thank for this.

So am I gonna get the Blu-Ray? I don’t know. I like to get it on sale. A few months back I finally got ROTF on sale for about $10 at Amazon. I guess if I see one now for around $15 I’ll buy it, but if not I’ll keep looking.

The Bay TF movies have been fun, but I think I’m done with this franchise and I’m ready for another live-action reboot. I wonder what Hasbro has in stored for us besides TF Prime. One can only wonder… Transform and Roll Out!

Teletraan I Communiques