"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2011)

I have to say that I actually really enjoyed 2011's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," much like I did its predecessors "Transformers" (2007) and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (2009). Now I know I'll probably just catch hell for making that statement. But I don't care, it's my thoughts and that's all that matters to me.
Like most 20-somethings today, I grew up watching the original "Transformers" cartoons throughout my youth growing up in the early '90s. Those were really good times. I even collected a few of the Hasbro toys (which inspired the cartoon and big-budget live-action movies), but my admiration for "Transformers" never really peaked because the channel that I used to watch the original series on removed the show from its early-morning line-up during the mid-90s and it didn't return to TV until just recently - like within the last four years when the first live-action movie was released.
History lesson over...
Like its two predecessors, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is loud, obnoxious, high destructive good fun. The first film is obviously the best by any standard, I'm partial to liking the second film only slightly more than that one, and this third entry probably has the most ridiculously over-the-top city-wide siege battle I've ever seen. (The film's last 40 minutes are basically one long action sequence; 20 years ago something of this magnitude would have been impossible because of the sheer scale of everything but because of CGI and bigger budgets, lengthy action sequences of this type are now commonplace in the movies today.)
As you will recall (or in case you've been living under a rock and have no idea what a "Transformer" is), the whole "Transformers" mythology involves a centuries-old war between the heroic Autobots and the malevolent Decepticons, massive shape-changing robots of extraterrestrial origin who mistakenly bring their conflict from their home planet Cybertron to Earth where humans are soon brought into the fold along with them.
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" begins in 1961, when an Autobot spaceship carrying a secret from Transformer home planet Cybertron crash-lands on the moon. A little bit of revisionist history thus takes place in which it is revealed that the whole Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union at that time was instigated to see who could reach the lunar crash site first and learn its secrets. (This is all set up in some pretty quick-step tempo that includes archival footage of President Richard Nixon and the 1969 moon landing integrated with scenes newly shot by over-indulgent, over-director Michael Bay.)
We learn that this secret could also save mankind, or wipe us out.
The Decepticons are back once again, led by their fearsome leader Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving), and they once again resume their war with the heroic Autobots who are led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, the only voice actor from the original "Transformers" TV series). Caught in the middle of it, are determined human players Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf, still continuing his likable Everyman thing), his new love interest Carly Spencer (newcomer and model Rosie Huntington-Whitely, now having thoroughly replaced Megan Fox), soldiers Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Agent Simmons (John Turturro) and his assistant Dutch (Alan Tudyk), and newcomers federal bureaucrat Agent Mearish (Frances McDormand) and Carly Spencer's hunky boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey).
Everything culminates in an epic, highly destructive Earth-bound siege in Chicago between the Autobots and their human allies, and the evil Decepticons.
I think Bay out-did himself on this picture with seeing how many things he can blow up and how many bullets can be fired. It's all utterly ridiculous, but the entire time I was more in awe of the amazing technical feats of it all. From the beginning of the "Transformers" series of films, I've always been impressed by the level of attention paid to the littlest details of every scene.
Every time a Transformer transforms, I've always been amazed by the sights and sounds of metal parts clanking, whirring, and reconfiguring into some robotic alien mass or robot disguised as heavy-duty machinery. I'm also awed by the amazing details of every explosion, every slain robot that gets torn apart limb from limb in battle, and just the overall attention to detail. It's a pure visual spectacle where you're just in awe of everything that's going on. If you hate Michael Bay, at least like his special effects.
Whatever your feelings regarding Bay are, don't miss out on this one; you'll only regret seeing one of the most finely detailed action epics of the year.
10/10