Summer Movie Review: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

And the summer movie countdown continues. I saw the new Transformers movie with my brother Jordan at a special 9:03 pm showing last Tuesday night; it was really cool because I was able to see this movie before the midnight showings!! How ‘bout that?! And I was so glad to see the movie early - not because I am totally obsessed with Transformers (although I was anxious to see it!), but because I can no longer go to midnight showings of movies. Yep, I’m too old for that nonsense, sad but true. There was a time when staying up till 2 in the morning was common for me, but in recent years I have learned how much I love sleep. I will go to bed early and still end up sleeping late the following morning. It’s how I roll! 

Anyway, on with my summer movie review: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is the 3rd movie in the series/trilogy, and while I enjoyed the first one I was not a fan of the 2nd movie (which came out in 2009), so I was a little nervous about the 3rd movie. I figured it had to be better, though, and I just decided to go with the flow.

Most of the original cast is back in this movie: Shia LaBeouf (as Sam Witwicky), Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson; but there are some new additions to this movie, which include a new girlfriend for Sam named Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - she’s gorgeous and has a beautiful British accent!), Patrick Dempsey, Oscar-winner Frances McDormand and Leonard Nimoy as the voice of Sentinel Prime! And then there are the Transformers themselves: Optimus Prime and the Autobots versus Megatron and the Decepticons. If you’ve seen the previous 2 movies (or grew up watching the cartoon show and playing with the action figures) then you know the drill: The Autobots are good, The Decepticons are bad. The Autobots want to protect humankind, while The Decepticons want to rule the Earth (since their own planet Cybertron was destroyed in a huge war).

In this movie we learn that back in 1969 with the landmark moon landing the astronauts were sent on a secret mission to investigate wreckage found on the moon. The wreckage turns out to have been a spaceship from Cybertron. Unbeknownst to the humans, the ship contains special equipment that would enable the re-birth of Cybertron (or something to that effect…I’m not a rocket scientist so this is kind of hard to summarize!)

Anyway, our heroes the Autobots must save us (again!) from Megatron and his army from taking over our world…the same old spiel. But the good news is that this means there will be lots and lots of action - essentially the entire movie is action sequence after action sequence, with occasional breaks for exposition and explanation of the plot.

I did not expect to go to this movie with the purpose of learning something, of becoming enlightened; I did expect to have a good time, enjoying a fun “popcorn/summer” movie! And I was not disappointed! Awesome action! Thrilling special effects! Superb sound mixing/editing! Funny quips/remarks! Sweet romance between Sam and Carly (she’s a definite improvement over Megan What’s-her-name!) And seeing it in 3-D was even more impressive! Unlike other 3-D movies, I felt like it worked for this one and I didn’t end up having a headache or blurred vision after the movie ended!

Is Transformers 3 a good movie?! Well, it is definitely entertaining, although certainly not a classic. But sometimes it’s fun to watch a movie that doesn’t make you think, doesn’t make you ponder or contemplate life, but rather just makes you feel happy and entertained, which this movie did!

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon gets my ranking of a: