An Overlong Metallic Mess of a Movie

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2011)

I did not exactly enjoy this movie. I went in with no big expectations, simply more of the same as the first two films. I could not really believe how much more of a mess this was, compared to the previous two.
The story was actually very simple. A senior Autobot named Sentinel Prime resorts to traitorous means in order to achieve his dream of reviving their dead planet Cybertron. Can the Autobots here on Earth avert the mayhem which result from Sentinel's evil scheme? I'm pretty sure you know the answer to that question.
I call this movie a mess because it really looks and sounds very messy. Like before, you can barely identify which transformer is which, be it Autobot or Decepticon because of extremely close and fast action shots. Everything looks like a noisy blur of metal across the screen. I'm thankful I did not watch it in 3D or it would have just tripled the eyesore. The ONLY character (robot or otherwise) who meant anything above all this mess is Optimus Prime. He breathes life to this movie every time he is on screen.
The human characters are really not needed in this story at all. I do not know why people feel it is cool to act this annoyingly over the top and loudmouthed. Everyone resorts to this acting style - from Shia LeBeouf to John Turturro to Frances McDormand to Patrick Dempsey. Megan Fox's replacement, the beautiful Ms. Rosie Huntington- Whiteley was an oasis amidst the chaos but that is it. The funny lines uttered by Sam's mother remain to be my favorite lines in the whole film.
I felt there were simply a lot of useless and indulgent scenes. This caused the film to bloat up to a tedious two and half hour running time. While the Apollo 11 moon scenes were an interesting beginning, the rest of the movie simply collapses after the title card.