Movie Review - Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

By Alex Popp

Earth goes dark.



The Transformers series goes wild in its third installment, "Dark of the Moon."

In the last days of Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, a single spacecraft known as the Ark crash-landed on the moon. When Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong discovered it on the day of our nation's first moon-landing, its secret was kept hidden for 40 years. When the Autobots learn of it, they race against the Decepticons to reach the ship and discover its secrets, ultimately leading the robots' final battle.

Director Michael Bay has totally outdone himself. Forget the first two movies; get an eyeful of this! With one of the best movie openings, out-of-the-ordinary robot fight scenes, and the most stunning 3D effects EVER, "Transformers 3" is stupendous on many levels. Fans of the Transformers will find this a major improvement after "Revenge of the Fallen." And unlike the first two, the premise is fairly interesting and well thought of in terms of the first moon landing and finding things that are kept secret, much like some movies about Area 51 and stuff like that. There are even parts that are laugh-out-loud funny and it would seem that the main character got himself a better girl. She is not as much of a you-know-what as Michaela, and they both agree to wait to say "I love you." She seems far more sincere about relationships than Sam's ex; all Michaela could think of was "No matter what happens, I'm glad I got in the car with you."

But enough about the other stuff and to the battle scenes that completely make the movie. With spectacular visual effects, and incredible sound mixing and editing, none of the action ever fails to deliver. By the way, if you do plan to see the movie (which I'm sure you will), do not skip the 3D, lest you utterly miss out. "Transformers 3" ends the way it should have and when the words "Directed by Michael Bay" suddenly appear on the screen, you just want to shout out 30 times "It was so good!" (Here's to you, Matthew) The movie takes normal robot fights to extraordinary measures and though it isn't the best movie I've ever seen, it's definitely the most thrilling.

Rated PG-13 for language and some innuendo that is unnecessary, but never slows the story down as it only takes place in the first hour of the film's two and a half hour running time. From then on, there's no time for anymore of it because of the intense, prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, destruction and mayhem.

Four stars for the beyond epic and without the slightest hint of unsatisfying, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Oh, and did I mention the 3D should not be neglected?

Written by Alex Popp for the Animation Empire blog.

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From the Emperor...

I agree. While I can't say it's better than the first, I definitely think this was better than the second, and the reason is because Spielberg fired Meagan Fox.

That's right, after Fox called director Michael Bay Hitler in a magazine interview, Bay was willing to write it off and commented on his blog that she was immature but was still planning to hire her back.

However, Spielberg had none of that, with Hitler being a touchy subject for Spielberg (he made many movies that reflect that). So Spielberg told Bay that Fox wasn't coming back.

And that actually made Transformers 3 better. While I think I like Fox a little better in the films, the new love interest story made this third movie much more interesting than the second one.

- The Emperor