Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

2011, 157 minutes, Rated PG-13

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson and Frances McDormand, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is incredibly entertaining, but mind-numbingly dumb.  It has to have one of the worst screenplays in history.  There is a little introduction at the beginning, but after that, we have the human story.  It is inane with no character development whatsoever and vile attempts at humor.  In this part, director Michael Bay tries to throw in as many actors as he can at once.  He uses John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, and many others and then throws them away.  As soon as he throws them away, the action starts and the human story is gone.  After that, the robots all fight and our brain cells are killed off one by one.  However, what an awesome way to kill brain cells.  

Michael Bay makes the best of his $195 million budget and his sound design and CGI are impeccable.  The action scenes in this film are incredibly long and incredibly fun.  The highlight of the film (which actually is around half of the film's length) is a monstrously exciting fight scene in Chicago.  This scene has it all: incredible FX, loud robot action, psychotic stunts, and inventive camerawork.  The most impressive aspect of this scene is when the camera is placed on men with flying suits and we follow them down to the ground.  Even if Michael is incompetent in every other aspect of filmmaking, I give him credit for knowing how to use his CGI and camera very well.
Overall Transformers: Dark of the Moon is worth going to see if you need a mindless action film with extraordinary CGI and camerawork.  If you can get past the story (or lack of), you will be in for a really fun time.

2.5/4
-Joshua Handler