Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 2011)

The first Transformers film was of course a brilliant display of special effects and action, the second film was terrible in comparison, and I saw that this next follow up was rated well, so I had to see it, from director Michael Bay (Bad Boys, The Rock). Basically the film opens with all the notable mission to the Moon, starting from 1961, and also in 1969, we find out that these missions were not simply to land on and explore the rock, but investigate a landed Cybertronian spacecraft, the Ark. Present day, the Autobots from the planet Cybertron, including Ironhide (Jess Harnellv), Barricade, Ratchet (Robert Foxworth), Sideswipe (James Remar), Bumblebee and leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), are working secretly alongside the military to help avoid large disasters around the world. The disasters they especially help deal with are the attacks on cities and officials by the Decipticons, including Starscream (Charles Adler), Shockwave (Frank Welker), Soundwave (also Welker), Leadfoot (Futurama's John Di Maggio) and leader Megatron (Hugo Weaving). The big story here is that from the Moon the astronauts discovered another robot inside the Ark, and the Autobots do not know it, but the Deceticons know that they will take the bait and try to revive this turned machine Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy). Sure enough, after Sentinel Prime has been awakened and seems like he is trying to help the effort in stopping the destruction of cities, he soon goes the opposite direction and joins the war with the Decepticons. The big plan for the villain robot army is to activate some hidden alien satellite style machines, launch them into space and destroy Chicago, and many cities afterwards, in order to turn Earth into another Cybertron like planet. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), recently working for annoying stuck up boss Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich), is obviously joining the effort with the Autobots and the army to try and stop them, as well as Lt. Colonel William Lennox (Win a Date with Tad Hamilton's Josh Duhamel), Simmons (Quiz Show's John Turturro), Epps (2 Fast 2 Furious's Tyrese Gibson) and Sam's new girlfriend Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand) and Dylan (Patrick Dempsey), many with expertise, many just brave and ready to fight. Also starring Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky, Julie White as Judy Witwicky, The Hangover's Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang, Alan Tudyk as Dutch and Buzz Aldrin. LeBeouf is still reasonable, his new female co-star certainly looks the part but is nowhere near as watchable as Megan Fox (who had a feud with director Bay, she said he was like Hitler on set), and the supporting members all do their parts. Of course with the other two films the real stars are the robots and explosions, all achieved by the fantastic special effects, the story may be a little hard to follow at times, and I didn't fully feel it deserved four out of five stars, but it is certainly better than Revenge of the Fallen, and a watchable science-fiction action adventure. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. Good!