It's sad, because somewhere in this bloated, rickety mess is a decent film. Really! The tone in this one is much different than RotF's or the first's, and I liked it! Sam's more like an adult than ever. The Autobots seem more distanced from the humans, doing their own things. Life moves on. It's at times sombre, melancholy, and then grows steadily more brutal as the film progresses. Humans getting blown to bits on screen? Dark. Robot executions? Optimus' transformation into a genocidal, murdering bot? Cool. And as the dust clears and fighting stops, it doesn't feel like a heroic victory. No rah-rah, no optimistic speech from Optimus at the end. It just ends. And there's lies the film's biggest and most warped juxtoposition. As humans are getting (visibly) vaporized on screen and the call to arms feels desperate and urgent, every other scene grasps for a laugh. The tone is terribly inconsistent. I'm supposed to take the situation seriously when you have Ken Jeong, John Malkovich, John Turturro (once again), and Alan Tudyk (breaks my heart) acting like buffoons? Thankfully, none of it is as egregious as the ____ in RotF.
The whole experience felt odd to me. Confusing. Makes my head hurt.
