Transformers Dark Of The Moon Review (2011)

After the disappointment of Revenge Of the Fallen I was still eagerly anticipating the third and possibly final film from Michael Bay's robot franchise. Has Michael learnt his lesson from the last film? Well not exactly.

The idea for the story is a good one with the first landing on the moon actually becoming a cover up story for a top secret mission after a spaceship was found to of crashed landed on the dark side of the moon. But that's pretty much as good as gets in terms of the story. The script is still as lazy as the previous films, I couldn't tell you the names of Tyrese and Josh Duhamel's characters and quite frankly I don't care. But only because the script isn't good enough to make you care. You won't find a hero like Neo from the Matrix or Ripley from Alien to cheer for in this film. The comedy is still there, even though Mr Bay himself said this would be a more serious film....it isn't. I have no problem with comedy as long as it's good comedy but the comedy in this film is lazy at best. Why hire good actors like John Malkovich and Alan Tudyk just to play characters who provide cheap comedy relief in between the action scenes?

Surprisingly the first hour is very slow and hardly any action happens which can be quite annoying if your just looking to see some robots fight and chase each other around Chicago. This part of the story focuses on Sam Whitwiky (Shia LaBeouf) trying to find a new job and his new girlfriend (Rosie Huntington-Whitley) trying to push him on. I enjoyed Shia's performance in the first Transformers but found him quite annoying at times in this film. He just seems to continuously throw tantrums when things don't go his way. As for Rosie, well she's a beautiful girl with which there is no doubt. But she can't act for toffee so much so that I was wishing for the return of Megan Fox.

The last hour of the film saves this from becoming another disappointment and is worth the admission fee alone as it's just none stop with some of the best action I've seen in a long time. This is what Michael does best. The fighting scenes are much more clearer and bigger then any of the previous Transformers, the 3D is brilliant (arguably the best since Avatar)and the scale of the arena is massive (the whole of Chicago centre is destroyed). This is how an alien invasion film should be done (turn your head in shame Skyline) The only let down is Megatron as he's hardly used in the film which is a waste. I was expecting a big final stand off between Prime and Megatron and felt it was a missed opportunity when the two robots finally meet each other.

If this Transformers didn't have the last action packed hour then this would be getting 2 stars. But thankfully it does which pushes my rating up. Easily better then Revenge Of The Fallen and on level terms with the original.