Heavy Special-Effects a Little Plot...but still hits the target

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2011)

there's explosion after explosion, mixed with some comedy and several gratuitous shots of the lead actress in form-fitting clothing. It's nothing new, but why fix it if it ain't broke?
Shia LaBeouf reprises his role as Sam Witwicky, who, when we last saw him, was helping the Autobots – the good guys – fight the Decepticons – the bad guys – and keep hidden secret images imprinted away only in his mind, that could destroy the world, if they fall into the wrong hands.
This time around, he's rooming in D.C. with Carly (the excellent Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), as he desperately seeks a job doing something more than sort mail. While the skeleton of the story's different, the action is much the same. Trade Megan Fox for first-timer Huntington-Whiteley (who was better than Fox ever was at playing a not just a pretty face), and viewers still have a hot piece to look at, although it should be said, in the end, Huntington-Whiteley's character Carly has a very important role in helping save humanity.
Bay and filmmakers take viewers on a journey back in time to see man's first step on the moon, and we learn that it wasn't only a mission of exploration, but that we were there to cover up the crash-landing site of an Autobot named Sentinel Prime.
Flash-forward 50ish years to present day, and humans are allies with the Autobots as they help us fight many of the world's wars. This allegiance comes to a screeching halt when Sentinel Prime, "the Einstein of the Autobot world," is brought to Earth. For decades, he's been protecting pillars that, if joined together, would create a teleportation machine. Needless to say, if the pillars end up in the wrong hands, who knows what might be brought to Earth.
And that's just what happens, and war is waged once again between the Autobots and the Decepticons, and it comes down to Sam and the rest of humanity to help the good guys fight the bad guys.
Even though this is the same old story within the same old format, it's not bad. Bay sticks to his recipe of a good – not great – summer action flick, packed with great young actors in LaBeouf and Huntington-Whiteley, and perhaps an even better supporting cast in Frances McDormand as the head of the human team, John Malcovich, as Sam's pain-in-the-ass boss, and Patrick Dempsey as an evil villain; and returning favorites including John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel.