"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" Review

The Transformers franchise looks for redemption with Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and actually finds it.

The movie picks up three and a half years after Transformers 2 and Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) is having a hard time finding his first post-college job. To make matters worse, he's living off of his girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely), who works as a personal assistant for the more-than-sketchy d-bag Dylan (Patrick Dempsey).

Meanwhile, the Autobots are still working with the NEST team and Lennox (Josh Duhamel) to protect the world from the Decepticons. A Russian informant leads the team to Chernobyl where they find a fuel cell from an Autobot ship that crashed on the moon in the 1950s.

Sam discovers the real purpose of the Apollo missions were to beat the Soviets to the moon to examine and recover technology from the crashed alien ship. After uncovering the conspiracy, he once again finds himself thrust into the middle of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. 

The real question is: Did the world really need another Transformers movie?   

After the abomination that was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I lost all interest in Transformers -- Shia LeBeouf dying and going to Autobot heaven was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Honestly, how can you come back from something that stupid?

Well, a lot of things happen in Transformers 3 to make it better than Transformers 2. For starters, even though Transformers is about giant alien robots, Dark of the Moon is the most human of the franchise. I give a lot of credit to writer Ehren Kruger for using the extreme circumstances of the movie as a way to explore human emotions and relationships. 

Another improvement is the transition into much darker subject material. There's a particularly poignant scene depicting the aftermath of a full-scale Decepticon attack on Chicago. 

And, possibly the biggest bonus, Megan Fox is gone -- fired by Steven Spielberg after she said director Michael Bay was like Hitler. 

Of course, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is still victim of the same pitfalls of the other movies. Michael Bay tries too hard to infuse the movie with humor that feels completely forced -- especially given the more serious subject matter. Shia LeBeouf seems incapable of playing a single scene without sounding like a complete smart-ass. At least there aren't any giant Decepticon balls in this one.

And, as always, the movie is like watching one really long special-effects orgy. Not that the effects aren't good -- it honestly looks like there were real giant robots on the set. The problem is that there is so much going on visually that you can't even begin to process everything on the screen. It is sensory overload, especially in 3D. 

All in all, Transformers: Dark of the Moon manages to not only bring the franchise back from the Vortex of Suck that was Transformers: Rise of the Fallen, but it is the best movie in the series.

6.5 of 10