Not as good as the first but better than the second

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2011)

The third film in the successful franchise based on an 80s toy product. This one sees the plot revolving around Earth's manned mission to the moon in the 60s (which incorporates some good use of archive footage). The real reason behind the mission is in fact a cover up for an "incident" which the world was in the dark over. An Autobot spaceship which crash landed on the surface on the moon, millions of years ago.
With the intriguing premise, the film unfortunately starts to flag. As we head back to the drama's of Sam (Shia Labeouf) Witwicky life. Set a couple of years of the 2nd film. Sam is struggling to find a job whilst his Autobot companions are out on secret missions maintain peace and order with their human allies. It isn't too long before the Decepticons make an appearance and are back to their old tricks again.
We learn that within the crashed spaceship (the Ark) contains special pillars that could help the Autobots once and for all to conquer the Decepticons and win the war....but in the wrong hands they could also lead to the destruction of the planet Earth.
To summarise the plot in such way makes the film so interesting and exciting but it is far from it. The total lack of serious/normal characters in the film jars the brooding menace. Every supporting character is a bit weird (John Malkovich's- Bruce Bezo) or over hyperactive (Ken Jeong's-Jerry Wang). It sometimes feels like there are two films competing here. One a wacky and (un)funny comedy drama whilst the other, an explosive and eye popping special effects laden action film. I am at a loss as to why there was any need for such a need to try to use stock footage of real events for it to only throw us such infantile humour.
After the absolute slating that the 2nd film received you would have thought that Bay would have learnt his lesson, but far from it. Racial stereotypes are still ever present and it seems like any ethnic minority is portray in very unpolitical correct way. A Scottish sounding Autobot is heard to say "I'll bottle ya" The humour is also not at all funny. If you do laugh, you'd be laughing at the absolute dire dialogue written for the film. I had high hopes for this film and my hopes soon turned to anger and dismay.
The other problem with the film is the pacing of the whole thing. It takes an absolute age for anything exciting to happen. When you come to see a film like this you'd expect robots to be smashing other robots, buildings or any other inanimate object. What you get is a limp attempt at humour and character development.
Enough about the negatives you say, what about the positives? Well the action scenes are extremely well handled. If you watch in 3D then your eyes will be in for a treat. Bays trademark of slo-mo is in full effect and there is so much happening at one time you could get lost in which Transformer is which. With the carnage and mayhem, you're going to be in safe hands with Bay. The 3D is also implement in such dazzling array and the action packed set pieces are done with aplomb.
I just wish he would try to leave school boy humour and offence pokes at other races alone. Apart from that I just about found the film tolerable. A complete mess with a tone which shifts from one extreme to another and just doesn't sit well. I now know why Megan Fox jumped ship and left this awful mess of a film. A sad waste of money, time and effort. I want my money back.