Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount Pictures)
Too Much of a Good Thing
All hail Michael Bay. He is the man who transformed action movies with his action packed first Transformers movie. He brought superb special effects, thundering explosions, and basically introduced us to Shia LeBeouf. Now he has progressed to Transformers: Dark of the Moon after making a misstep with the second Transformers film. This latest one has more special effects, more thunderous explosions, and more of LeBeouf. Sadly it is just too much of a good thing.
In this new film the plot is much too complicated. We start back in time at the 1960s where NASA has determined a spaceship of some sort landed on the moon. We hastily send up Neil Armstrong and company to investigate, thus the first moon landing. The astronauts do some investigating during a black out in transmission and find the spaceship.
Later the good robots, the Autobots, aid America in collecting a destroyed Autobot from the moon. When he is revived he becomes a bad Autobot and moves over to the side of the Decepticons. See what I mean about all this being too confusing. Anyway this plot plan, along with footage of Sam Witwicky (LeBeouf) trying to find a job, makes up the first couple of hours of the film.
Finally the battle of the Autobots vs. the Decepticons arrives and it is louder and more spectacular than anything you have seen in the past. They literally blow up and destroy Chicago. But it seems to go on forever, and maybe it does since the film is two hours and forty minutes in length.
There are some humorous moments involving Sam and his parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) and with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Hungtington-Whiteley). Some of the humor works and some of it falls flat. It is worth noting that Ms. Huntington-Whiteley is a stunning young woman and fills Megan Foxs shoes nicely.
Then there is LeBeouf. Instead of being the rugged leading man, he is playing a sort of goofus who falls into heroism rather than seeking it. It makes for nice fantasies that someone like Sam could attract the likes of Carly but that is more a fantasy issue than a reality. She would more likely cast her eyes on the characters played by Josh Duhamel or Tyrese Gibson. These two guys exude ruggedness.
The film is rated PG-13 for violence and profanity.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a chapter in a series on its way to extinction. We have seen everything this movie has to offer before, and making the explosions bigger and louder, and the special effects longer will not curb its downward spiral. This franchise needs some emotional pull into its story and the little bits of humanity interspersed in this latest storyline just dont do it.
I scored Transformers: Dark of the Moon a bigger bang 5 out of 10.
