TRANSFORMERS

DARK OF THE MOON
Paramount Pictures

I have to say, I really expected the third installment of this toy-to-comic-film franchise to be the worst yet, but damned if it isn't the better of both its predecessors. Dark of the Moon launches by weaving a conspiracy theorists wet dream connecting the moon landing to the disaster at Chernobyl and mankind's secret history with these robots in disguise. With the main characters fully vetted in the first two films there were thankfully less annoying, campy, pointless, human involved moments that cluttered those up, to make way for two and half hours packed full of of robot smashing awesomeness. There are still of course the obligatory funny moments with Sam's (Shia LaBeouf) mom and dad, his rocky relation ship with yet another supermodel girlfriend (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and playing the hero/victim of the world-won't-listen-but-I'm-always-right plot set up. There were delightful performances by John Malkovich and Frances McDormand (Fargo/Burn After Reading), an awkward and overly acted cameo by Ken Jeong (The Hangover/Role Models), and a voice characterization by Leonard Nimoy that sounds exactly like an angry Leonard Nimoy (note the reference with the Star Trek clip, it'll be funny afterward). But what really makes this an entertaining film for a huge geek like myself is director Michael Bay finally unleashing a lot more explosions and building shredding mechanistic mayhem that we've all be waiting for since the first one. Scene after scene is filled with slow-motion metal crunching robot face-smashing. The Decepticons are more razor edged and blood thirsty and unlike in the earlier films, this time we see plenty of human casualties, and by casualties I mean people being blasted to bits with bones and ash left behind in unexpected detail. Even the kill-them-all battle cry by the normally zen like Optimus Prime was an eyebrow raiser. And Shockwave ... oh Shockwave and his shredding mechanical DUNE-like worm. Just wonderful. Worth it in the theater and in 3-D to boot! It was so good I was yelling out the window all the way home at semi-trucks and sports cars that they weren't fooling anyone.

- Max/MOVEMENTsouth