PLOT

When the Autobots learn that a long-lost Cybertronian spacecraft is being hidden on the moon, they must fight to keep it’s secrets from falling into the hands of the Decepticons, who want to use it’s power to enslave mankind.

REVIEW

Oh boy where do I start…

The original transformers movie left me with hope that they’d build on what was a decent base and give us a sci-fi/action trilogy to remember but then came ‘revenge of the fallen’ and in one fatal swoop they somehow managed to take the foundations the first movie had build and flush it down the toilet…

If you agree with the above statement then, like me, you would be hoping that ‘dark of the moon’ could pull off a miracle and save the franchise. Unfortunately that’s not what we get but the good news is that the 3rd movie does rectify the terrible mistakes made in the 2nd (like that was hard to do!!).

They’ve gone back to basics with a simple plot, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is now living with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) in Washington DC and struggling to find a job where he feels he holds some meaning or importance having recently received a medal from the president for his heroic actions shown in the previous movies. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a breathe of fresh air, her character Carly is a ambitious British woman working for a reputable antique house and considering this is Rosie’s first role in a movie I think the criticism of her performance is pretty harsh, I prefer her to Megan Fox.

The plot is setup when Optimus Prime discovers a part of the Autobot ship (the “Ark”) that fled Cybertron during the civil war in the hands of a Decepticon and realises the humans have been lying about their awareness of the transformers existence from the start. Cue an explanation regarding the real intentions of the US Apollo 13 mission as Optimus learns that the Ark crashed on the moon and has been there ever since. Optimus reveals his predecessor Sentinel Prime was aboard the ship and he sets up a mission to retrieve Sentinel Prime from the wreckage and plans to re-energise his spark.

It becomes apparent that there has been a lot more going on behind the scenes than we first thought, the US authorities have secretly been studying parts of the wreckage that were brought down during Apollo 13. When Sentinal Prime awakens he reveals that the ship was carrying hundreds of pillars which create a bridge that defies our laws of physics by bending time and space, with the ability of transporting anything…. even a planet. The humans reveal they have 5 which leads the Autobots to panic hoping the Decepticons haven’t got any in their possession.

So that’s the setup and since I don’t like spoiling the movies I review this is where I stop. The twists and turns in the plot come fast from this point onwards, some of which totally contradict the plots of the first two movies.

Yet again we meet the usual 7 or so Autobots we’ve been used to seeing since the first movie and yet again (!) there are far more Decepticons roaming around. Although Shockwave was used to promote the movie early on, no doubt causing excitement amongst fanboys, he’s so underused it reminds me of the treatment Venom got in Spiderman 3! We’re introduced to some new faces and you’ll be glad to see some popular faces return such as Agent Simmons who is now a wealthy author making his fortune by exploiting his encounters and knowledge of the transformers.

The culmination of events leads to an epic battle that pretty much covers the last hour of the film, it’s like black hawk down only with robots! The action set pieces and visuals are truly stunning and easily outdo the previous two movies but with all the contradictory plot points and the anti-climatic end this movie falls flat on its face.

VERDICT

A stale ending to a mediocre trilogy

Score: 6