Transformers: Dark of the Moon Reviews

There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come, that we forsake this planet and its people.

It's completely foolish at this point to expect a Transformers picture to be genuinely good from a serious critical standpoint, but even dumb summer blockbusters require a deft touch to make them work. Michael Bay's first Transformers remains one of the worst big-budget blockbusters of its decade, while its sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, was the worst big-budget blockbuster of its decade, with the latter so wrong-headed that even Bay and star Shia LaBeouf have publically admitted that they screwed up. 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon was intended to be an atonement, with Bay promising to dial down the humorous excess and produce a grittier instalment. But if this is really the result of Bay and co. trying their hardest, all hope is lost for this series (and Bay's career). An obnoxiously loud, repugnant, overlong blockbuster, Dark of the Moon is an absolute chore to get through, and though some of the mayhem is halfway entertaining, you have to wade through 90 minutes of utter tripe to get to it.

Dark of the Moon contains some revisionist history, positing that the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969 was spearheaded with an ulterior motive: to investigate an alien spaceship that crash-landed on the moon's surface a decade earlier. Within the craft is robot Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), former Autobot leader and the elder to Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). Fast forward to the 21st Century, and the Decepticons are determined to resume their war with the Autobots, seeking to acquire a teleportation device that has the potential to strip Earth of all life in order to rebuild the Transformers' home world of Cybertron. But this plot is a secondary concern, with the mostly movie concentrating on Sam Witwicky (Shia LaDouche) and his hot girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). Now an adult, Sam is struggling to find a job in spite of having saved the world on two occasions, and becomes drawn into the Autobot/Decepticon conflict which also involves the American military.

It's clear that Bay was shooting for a more sophisticated instalment here, opening with a rather intriguing segment to convey the revisionist history. Bay attempts to heighten verisimilitude by mixing genuine archive footage with faux archive footage and staged scenes, but the result feels too frenetic, jumping between the various sources as if the editor was afflicted with ADHD. Unfortunately, Dark of the Moon fails to improve much from this point onward, returning to business as usual for the series: idiotic human characters and their clichéd problems. This is the third Transformers movie, yet the titular robots are still given supporting roles, even though the Transformer-centric plotline could sustain an entire feature. Moreover, while the humour is dialled down and Bay attempts to get serious, there are still mini-robots lurking around who say and do thoroughly ludicrous things. Sam's parents also show up for more unfunny monkey business, while the supporting cast espouses exaggerated accents (including Ken Jeong and Alan Tudyk) to inject even more superfluous failed humour into the enterprise.

Dark of the Moon treats its mythology and back-story as homework, with the script deploying as much exposition as possible in a perfunctory way, leading to pure boredom between all the 'sposions. And for a major studio production, Dark of the Moon is an exceedingly ugly movie, with Bay's aggressive “orange and teal” colour scheme making for visual diarrhoea, while the pedestrian cinematography is thoroughly uninvolving. Although it's pleasant to report that Bay dialled down his obnoxious shaky-cam tendencies for this endeavour, the results aren't anything to write home about, with strictly pedestrian action scenes that aren't overly thrilling. There's simply no rhythm or sense of pacing to Bay's work; the movie amounts to a jarring mishmash of over-edited scenes, and the dissonance caused by the various tones could cause whiplash. One minute we're meant to get emotional over the 9/11-esque destruction perpetrated by the Decepticons, and the next we're meant to be excited about an impending battle. There's insufficient connective tissue, making it feel as if chunks of the movie are missing. Even more bewildering is the ending - in the course of twenty seconds, there's romantic talk between Sam and Carly, followed by a rushed montage set to a quick Optimus Prime voiceover, after which the credits suddenly appear. It all feels fucking awkward and random.

Bafflingly, the digital effects are borderline terrible. It would seem that the animators were on autopilot for the majority of the movie, as Dark of the Moon's CGI is woefully obvious and incredibly phoney. CGI is meant to be utilised to maintain an illusion and make audiences wonder how various moments were pulled off, but the Transformers here look every bit like the digital creations that they are, and it's never possible to accept them as tangible beings. There's also a CGI recreation of John F. Kennedy which looks worse than the average video game. An actor in make-up, or even a vague lookalike, would be far more effective. There are a few fun moments here and there, but Bay's focus during the climax is all wrong, with the humans again taking the foreground and doing most of the heroic stuff. Just, why?

The departure of Megan Fox was a golden opportunity for Bay to recruit an actress with actual talent, but he squanders the chance by recruiting Huntington-Whiteley, a model chosen strictly for her looks who makes her acting debut here. Her first scene features the actress in underwear, and Bay's camera leeringly observes her, only very rarely shooting above her waistline. One must wonder what an actress like Zooey Deschanel or Ellen Page could have brought to a love interest role, though Bay would probably have a tough time attracting someone so classy to this picture due to the director's perverted visual instincts. It goes without saying that the acting is awful here, with LaDouche again making no palpable effort, while the military jarheads are completely forgettable. Even though Bay concentrates on the humans so much, none of them are in any way memorable.

Exactly the kind of soulless CGI demo reel that people frown on Hollywood for producing, this third Transformers picture ultimately amounts to a numbing sensory assault best enjoyed by masochists wanting their eardrums to be permanently damaged. Despite a few enjoyable scenes here and there, momentum is too often halted by dumb humour, and Bay stretches out various set-pieces to the point that they become repetitive and pointless. This series needs to end and be rebooted with a filmmaker who might do something worthwhile.

4.1/10

Had this on DVD a while and have been meaning to watch it, many people told me not too because its really bad, but anyway I watched it and tbh it wasn't the worst thing ever, but it wasn't really goo either, the acting from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, was, to be fair, terrible, however shes smoking hot so she gets let off, the most confusing thing though, is Shia LaBeouf's acting seems to bhave got worse when compared to the previous film. All in all it gets a 6/10 for having lots of fairly decent action(which I'm a sucker for).

This third installment in the Transformers story pretty much sucks. The story, that is. What saves it? The awesome Michael Bay action sequences, for one. He sure doesn't disappoint when it comes to the big budget, well done action sequences. Next, the cast, which includes Leonard Nimoy, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk, and Frances McDormand.

The story without these other elements, and Shia LaBeouf once again getting a girl completely out of his league, is just barely watchable. I had to pause it several times just to have a bit of a break, before continuing on. I only kept watching it because of the cast that are mentioned above. Oh, and the action sequences.

The rest, I really don't care for. The girl playing the love interest this time is tolerable, but the script, I think, just leaves a lot to be desired, and I am sure glad I didn't waste my money to either see this in theatre, or to watch it at home.

After a decent and entertaining first instalment and then followed by an atrocious, chaotic sequel, a third instalment in this financially successful but critically failed franchise was perhaps the icing on the cake! After what we witnessed in the second film and after seeing the theatrical trailer of Dark Of The Moon, there were clearly bound to be footprints from the second one to make this third instalment a failure. at least some faults and flops within the film. The only reason why this third instalment perhaps needed watching was to see if it turns out even worse or slightly better than the others. Anyway, after seeing the film and although it wasn't quite as painful to endure as Revenge Of The Fallen, Dark Of The Moon was still an appalling film that quite frankly got out of hand again.


There have been debates and confusion with the title Dark Of The Moon seeing as it is in fact the name of an album from Pink Floyd. Just like the predecessor, this one doesn't express the meaning of the title and has a very muddled target audience. This is a fault that all three films have: they are about 10-20 minutes too long, especially the action scenes. The running time needlessly continues in a desperate attempt for the audience to enjoy it, but is pathetic and typical Michael Bay. Dark Of The Moon was still this *bang* *explosion* *2 minute conversation* *bang* *explosion* that we saw in Revenge Of The Fallen. It's a mystery how Dark Of The Moon has grossed over $1 billion worldwide and there is almost no reason why it actually deserves it.


Autobots Bumblebee, Rachet, Ironhide and Sideswipe led by Optimus Prime, are back in action taking on the evil Decepticons, who are eager to avenge their recent defeat. The Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, to reach a hidden Cybertronian spacecraft on the moon and learn its secrets, and once again Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. New villain, Shockwave, who rules Cybertron, is on the scene while the Autobots and Decepticons continue to battle it out on Earth.


It is a well known fact that Shia LaBeouf truly is the most overpaid and underachieving actor of this generation, and after being in some good films in the past but with a weak performance, he really couldn't sink any lower in this one than he did in Revenge Of The Fallen. Sam Witwicky has gone from a hero, to a hopeless romantic and now to a hopeless loser who can't even get a job! Even some of those scenes were hard to endure and it resulted of a few facepalms and shaking head a few times. It would just be so much better if he actually died in the film (like he should have done in the sequel when he almost did), then they would avoid being a contender for Razzie nominations! LaBeouf makes a very weak protagonist in blockbusters so, in this case, he seems more suitable for a supporting character (second best) for every film he is part of in the near future.


The news of no Megan Fox in the third film was a great idea, but at the same time it was a bit of a shock. This is where Bay could've improvised and made this a very good film with a strong leading actress to make this an epic final instalment. However, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly Spencer. is perhaps easier on the eyes than Fox was in the first two films, but as far as performance and character are concerned, she was as dry as a dog bone! She became the next annoying girlfriend of Sam's who was almost like using him just to get fame, which is what the leading cast change was perhaps for. She wasn't quite as dull, boring or an instant turn-on for men like Megan Fox was, but she really wasn't far off from achieving just that. The film perhaps would have been better if they killed her off too, just to ease the pain of the audience a bit. It is pretty easy to say that the Autobots and Decepticons are some of the most annoying characters that you will ever see in a film, because their characters basically sum up this: transforming cars banging and running around with annoying deep voices. Every single character in the entire series should just be killed off!


Michael Bay: the biggest money-grubbing, weak and chaotic filmmaker of this generation! After promising a fantastic sequel, we get a chaotic disaster and then promising a final third epic conclusion, we get another awful, forgettable waste! Understandably, with the huge set and many crew members and actors, you're going to have plenty on your shoulders but at least make sure the stories make sense, they don't go out of hand when they do and that they aren't so damn noisy! His career as a film director is truly dead now and has killed many films over the years (Pearl Harbor he totally took out of hand and destroyed!), so he should just disappear off the face of the Earth. The script was really flat as predicted! It totally died after the word ''boner'' was said during a make-out scene between Sam and Carly while the mini robot watches!


Overall, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon was, as expected, an absolutely appalling 'blockbuster' that almost sank down to the same disaster level as like Revenge Of The Fallen, but was still very close to doing so. Obviously, the effects were fantastic and that is the only bit of credit the film deserves (like Revenge Of The Fallen), so it could be an Oscar contender in that category. As far as money is concerned, it is the most overrated one of the trilogy and this could and should a few more Razzie nominations and wins in 2012!

A huge improvement over the awful second movie. However the first one in my opinion is still the best and my favorite. This movie suffers the same problems as the second one, the plot is underdeveloped but better than the sequel and the story wasn't that great this time around either but also better than the second movie for sure. The characters were still underdeveloped and the script was a bit weak. The special effects though were amazing and I did catch it in 3-D which was breathtaking, I mean if you want to see this it would be nice to invest a little more of your money in 3-D because I got my money's worth. Not only is the 3-D better than most movies but it doesn't affect the quality of the picture, it wasn't blurry or anything it was crisp and clear. Another thing I liked was the fact that there weren't any annoying robots specifically twin robots ehem, and there's also no unnecessary scenes like the mom eating "Brownies." Can someone please tell me the point of the girl though? She served no purpose in this film and it would have been better without her, I didn't even find her to be that attractive and her acting was just awful. The acting was a tad better this time but at some points Shia overacted a bit. There were some funny scenes too which kept the movie going for me and the action was great especially the last hour of the movie, in 3-D it was amazing. So overall this was a huge improvement over the second one but it still had a bunch of problems of its own and it wasn't as good as the first.

Overall, my grading is a 6 out of 10. The 3D effects were great and spot on. Some of the action sequences were blurred between Transformers' battles, but much better than they have been in the past two. I am very sad Megan Fox could not be in the movie, and the way they explained it could have been nicer. Her replacement, Carly, did a better acting job in her role but did not pull off the model sexiness they were going for. The movie had its moments and story wise might be better than the others. Alan Tudyk stole the movie from everyone. Without him, it would have had no humor and a lower rating. He made it watchable and worthwhile. Overall, a good watch but I doubt I will ever do it again.

The special effects were great to start with and it was the best of the Transformers movies. The acting was not that bad and the action was beyond belief. The 3D effect made you feel like you were in the movie. The best scene had to be when the guys body surfed through the sky. It was great. Patrick Dempsey did not play the best bad guy and It left a little lacking. Rosie was not just a great replacement for Megan but played the role so much better. Sorry but she should have been in the first two movies. Overall, it is the best thrill ride of the season. Michael Bay never fails to impress.

I cant believe i am saying this but Michael Bay has done it he has finally made a big action movie with huge explosions good...which is not only amazing but breathtaking.I am going to start this review by giving you small plot details.

During the final days of the war that devastated the planet Cybertron, a spacecraft known as The Ark attempted to escape. Piloted by the great Autobot leader named Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy), the ship was said to contain special items that could help the Autobots win the war over the Decepticons. However, the ship was hit by enemy missiles, and the ship and its crew were lost into the far reaches of space.

Yea a plot that sounds like that could mean the worst movie of all time...but nope.

This movie is amazing it has fantastic acting,editing,writing,and directing.

Plus the 3D is amazing, I was really worried about paying 11 bucks to see this in 3d but it was well worth the price of admission.

There's so much stuff in this movie a fantastic story in a Michael bay film is hard to come by but this movie has it which is amazing and i was on the edge of my seat most of the time. I actually cared about the good guys in this which surprised me. This is definitively a winner of a movie. I Cant really talked much more about this movie or i will give away allot of the movie which i really don't want to do because this movie is a real treat.

Final Verdict:

Pros:Great Story

Great Writing

Great Acting

Cons:there is still unneeded Comedy but not as much as ROTF

Starts of a little slow.

Transformers : Dark of the moon is fast moving and is two movies in one. One of the two is the landing on the moon,this is fun while it lasts. Then there is the action-packed special effects finale,that is the Michael Bay film. The moon landing storyline could alone have been a great conspiracy theory movie,but instead its wasted on Hasbro toys.

Had it not been for the fact that Shia LaBeouf can spit out more useless dialogue than a hippie protesting Vietnam, he would be out of work. Seeing as though Michael Bay likes his actors running their hearts out and yelling meaningless lines. "Run, jump, the decepticons are back!!". This is all we see really happen between characters.

Their has been a lot of disappointment over the Megan Fox firing. However, her presence is not at all missed, Rosie Huntington-Whitely is a more than perfect replacement. She is even more pleasing to the eye than Fox ever could be, because the role really doesn't require much acting. In fact standing around as the world explodes around her, is exactly what Fox did, when she didn't have a mini-auto-bot humping her leg.

Transformers has more of a plot in it's third installment. This is good and it's bad , because as we reach the third act in the film we suddenly begin to see more action than necessary. This involves the new auto-bot ,sentinel prime, whose story is brief and yet meaningful all the same. This could be said about the addition of Agent Mearing, Frances McDormand, whose job is to tell the auto-bots what to do and when to do it.

However , as the new trend for summer blockbusters go McDormand is not the only addition. Both Rosie Huntington-Whitely and Shia LaBeouf get bosses in the form of Patrick Dempsay and John Malkovich respectively. Malkovich does what Malkovich does , provide comic relief in situations where it is needed. Needless to say that Patrick Dempsey is the ladies man and even upstages LaBeouf in his introductory scene.


Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro do what they have done in the last two films which is do a favor for uncle Sam when called upon. Kevin Dunn and Julie white who play the parents of Sam Whitwicky (Shia LaBeouf) appear to have taken a chill pill, and now show that playing with robots is mere child play no matter if the world be in harms way.

Transformers : Dark of the moon lacks the potential to actually be a great summer blockbuster. Which is strange considering the fact that it had more than enough material to use. The Writer ,Ehren Kruger, who has written everything from Reindeer Games to Blood and Chocolate shows that his writing is still in the amateur at best.


Dark of the Moon is a must for die-hard fans , but for the most part I recommend waiting until the Blu-ray is released. I left the theater with mixed feelings on weather or not I actually enjoyed it.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. First of all, I read somewhere that Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf promessed this flick would be better than the previous one. Well, after watching the damned thing, I'm not so sure about that.... In 'Revenge of the Fallen', they messed up with the pyramids and, this time, they messed up with the moon but how come I didn't see this as an improvement?!? Furthermore, in 'Revenge...', there were a couple of impressive action scenes but I failed to see anything remotely impressive this time. It maybe had to do with the fact that after 3 movies, I couldn’t be really impressed anymore by those giant robots. I thought also that it was so damned long, it was kind of endless. I guess, the plot was just too convoluted and there were just too many 'human' characters with each one with his/her own sub-plot. On the positive side, there were a couple of funny scenes thanks to John Malkovitch, John Turturro, Frances McDormand and Ken Jeong. The other positive thing was that the theater was packed and the audience was very often laughing, cheering and clapping so the atmosphere was pretty cool and, in spite of these flaws, it remained somehow an entertaining summer blockbuster. By the way, after rewatching this movie after all these years, I have noticed that the end scene of ‘The Avengers’ (which would come out a year later) was pretty much identical to the end scene in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, if you are planning to watch this flick, there is nothing I can write that will dissuade you to do it but don't expect too much from this movie and you might end up enjoying it after all, at least, more than I did.