Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is one of the guiltiest pleasures of all time. It is a film that every part of your brain screams at you to dislike but your eyes can’t help but lap up the visual feast that director, Michael Bay (Transformers, The Island) has served up. And you should be thankful that the film looks good because it certainly doesn’t have much else going for it.
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeaouf – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen) is back this time with the very English, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) in tow due to the fact that Michael Bay can no longer stand to be in the same room as Megan Fox anymore (okay the Bay vs Fox part is part of the plot but we all know why Rosie had to be brought on board). Sam feels left out because his life seems to have hit the pits while Lennox (Josh Duhamel – Life As We Know It, Romana & Beezus) gets to play with the Transformers everyday in their new National Security roles. However, when Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving – Captain America – The First Avenger, The Key Man) decides he wants to get his hands on a long lost ship on the moon Sam races to help the Autobots out once more.
As I mentioned previously it is a good thing that the 3D battle scenes are enough to keep the audience’s eyes fixated on the screen during Transformers: Dark Of The Moon because there isn’t a hell of a lot else going on to keep bums in seats. I’m not sure why Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Rise Of The Fallen, Blood And Chocolate) allowed his name to be credited as screenwriter for this film because like the last film it almost seems that a script was non-existant. There is zero characterisation throughout the film and Kruger seems determined to go off on these little comedy tangents with character’s like Sam’s parents and Jerry (Ken Jeong – The Hangover Part II, TV’S Community) that just distract the viewers away from the regular story and are unfunny and don’t work either.
There are also some dreadful acting performances. Poor old Ken Jeong really shouldn’t be in the film at all while the cardboard cut-out of Carly in the cinema foyer would have had more acting range than Rosie Huntington-Whiteley manages to muster. Even poor Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel had nothing to work with as even the main characters seem to be horribly one-dimensional and you can only imagine that they signed on for the film so they could pick up a decent pay-check at the end.
While Transformers: Dark Of The Moon might look good up on the big screen there really isn’t much under the surface when you do some scratching. If you want big explosions over things like story or characterisation then this is the film for you.
DIRECTOR: Michael Bay
STARS: Shia LeBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Hugo Weaving, Ken Jeong
CLASSFICATION: M
RUNTIME: 149min
BUZZ RATING: 
Out on DVD/Blu-Ray 16th Feb 2012