Transformers: Dark of The Moon

Well wouldn’t you know it, the third time’s the charm. Two cluster-you-know-whats and a billion dollars later, Michael Bay has finally crafted Transformers: Dark of The Moon is the best of the series (not too much competition there) but still hampered by a Swiss cheese script and wooden performances.

Transformers 3 takes place 4 years after the events of Rise of The Fallen. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is fresh out off college and searching for a job in recession era Washington D.C. Living with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) who herself has a stable job working for a exotic car collector (Patrick Dempsy, who camps the hell out of his script). Struggling with being irrelevant, Sam is suddenly thrust back into action when the Autobots discover learn of a powerful weapon hidden on the moon and an arms race begins against the Decepticons to reach it and learn it’s secrets.

Let’s make one thing clear: this is not a great movie. Like a buggy video games, Transformers is loud, jittery and full of awful performances. Shia is a mess here, screaming and panicking like a extra one minute and showing bravado the next, his character is scattered to say the least but he shows a nice range of emotion that hints that an actor may live in that shell.

Everyone else is ok, spitting out obvious lines you’d expect from a blockbuster and the comedic aspect (Ken Jeong and John Malkovich over stay their brief welcome.) Huntington-Whiteley has little to do hear but makes you forget about that other girl as soon as she graces the screen.

The action is top notch and well controlled this time. The bots themselves look fantastic and have epic battles throughout the movie. The last hour alone is a jaw dropping boast of a master action craftsman (Bay) doing what he does best.

The run time is a little long, 2 hours and 37 minutes to be exact, but the visual and audio overload numb you to this fact. This being a Michael Bay movie, expect plenty of slow motion shots, adrenaline filled action and over the top sequences. The movie’s not Shakespeare, but I’m sure he wouldn’t care anyways.

B-