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I walked into the movie expecting an below-average story telling, a building relationship story (like in first), and any battle scenes way too close up to really tell anything other than that something is moving around with explosions (like in the first). It seems though that the third movie finally got a lot of things right!

The story flowed a bit better and more realistically detailed instead of feeling hashed together although it did have a few weak moments in it but if it didn't, then it wouldn't be a Bay film. The relationship felt like it had been around a bit longer and there was certainly a bit more chemistry. As for my final expectation, I have to say it totally blew me out of the water because the camera views weren't "Let's shove it in your face and expect you to believe it is real" but more pulled back and because of that, there was more depth and in my opinion realism. After all, how many of us really see things super-close in our lives? Do you stare are your hand razor until you can see every nick and malformation in the blade caused by a lot of use? No, but that's how I felt after the first movie.

The views of the scenes were well done, with camera work that panned with the subject like they should. The battle scenes were awesome. There was even a 'Surprise!!'  moment in the movie just when things looked darkest. I even enjoyed the good shots that showed the whole city.  The special effects for each of the scenes were definitely impressive. At points I even forgot that the transformers were not really there but digital things on a computer! It takes a *lot* for that to happen with me. There were even nice, small touches that helped sell the effects such as human skulls skittering on the ground after a Decepticon would blast a human or whole group into nothing but a skull or pieces of clothing.

So in short, *THIS* is the movie that the Transformers movie should have started out like. This is the best of the 3 movies, period! My recommendation? Go see it and go see it in 3D! The 3D works good! Especially for the moments where you have people, helicopters, missiles, and jets coming from the sky or falling towards the ground.