Third time's a charm for Bay and the Bots!

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2011)

There is a simple rule to knowing if its worth going to see this film..
If you enjoyed the first film regardless of what you thought of the dubious second movie, then get your damn tickets! If you hated both movies then stay the hell away because there will be nothing new for you this time around.
Quite simply this is the most outstanding action flick you're likely to see this year let alone this summer and it's a successful return to what they managed to deliver with the first movie. Make no mistake about the toilet humour, sometimes screwball acting and silly jokes. That stuff is still very evident but unlike the second movie where it went spiralling out of control and dominated the picture, here it is kept firmly on a leach. In fact it is very much a film of two halves, the first half has an even mix of humour an action but it doesn't go too over the top to the point where we see robots doing embarrassing things like peeing or showing their balls etc, and there is a lot of human death unlike the other films. You see the innocent getting wiped out not just building collapsing and explosions. The second half is very much a tour de force of action scenes that are either nail biting or breath taking, not much letting up once it starts going and the finale is very satisfying! This is no movie with an agenda to deliver some life changing tale, it makes no attempt to equal the Bard with its narrative or plot. This is a movie based on popular toys for boys. Expect that much and you will be entertained because they actually set up this movie with a very clever conspiracy theory based on the NASA missions to the moon and weave that into the roots of the franchise. Shia Lebeouf is without his sidekick for the last two movies in Megan Fox but finds a more than worthy successor in supermodel Rosie Huntington Whiteley who plays a part that's very difficult to see Megan ever pulling off. Sure these girls are meant for mostly eye candy but where Megan's hot lipstick and deep pencilled eyebrowed, glam-pornstar look got more slutty with each picture, Rosie's supermodel grace and fine English accented charm brings more class than candy. Sorry Megan fans but no way would she pull of a semi-rich bitch who's been to finishing school and back! In fact her part is essential in the few well executed plot twists and deceptions this movie presents that were never as potent in its predecessors.
All this builds up to last hour of back to back action sequences of spectacle, stealth, barbaric violence and utter heroics that will please the masses and outrage the critics who can never assess these kind of movie based on what they aim to be rather than what they don't! Transformers Dark of the Moon delivers a picture worthy of ending any action series, this is what makes buying a movie box set on home video worth parting with the cash even when one of the films is totally duff. Bay's even managed to show the industry how to use 3D with easily the best 3D presentation since Avatar. Whoever takes over this franchise has a mighty jump to make because Michael Bay has placed the bar pretty damn high!