Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Released: June 29th 2012

Directed By: Michael Bay

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Certificate: 12A (UK)

Reviewed By: Luke Walkley

The latest and maybe the last, instalment of Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise had gained a large amount of publicity due to its record-breaking budget of $400 million- but would the large spending go anyway to reinvigorate the series after the ill-received Revenge of the Fallen?

Bay and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg made the gutsy decision to axe leading lady Megan Fox and replace her with the unknown Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. A move that while rumoured to be forced upon them by some comments made by Fox, could pay off dividends if she was able to bring a new dimension as Shia LeBeouf’s  love interest.

Dark of the Moon is centred around a large government cover up during the ‘Space Race’ of the 1960’s. The US and USSR are each aware of an alien spaceship which collided with the moon and set about becoming the first to reach it. Unknown to each government, the spaceship was carrying a legendary Autobot- Sentinel Prime who was carrying with him technology that is able to bring back their home planet- Cybertron. The Autobots of modern day learn of the crash after an attempted cover up and set out to retrieve their fallen master. The Decepticons, living up to their name have hatched a plan that could finally see them take control of Earth and use its inhabitants as slaves to bring Cybertron to its former glory.

Shia Lebeouf returns as Sam Witwickey, the boy hero of two films ago is long gone and he is now a jobless man, living with new girl friend Carly (Huntington-Whitely) and while he was innocent and played the character brilliantly, he fails to live up to his previous performances. He appears more awkward in his on screen relationship with Whiteley.

The producers have attempted to pass off Fox’s characters absence by suggesting she dumped Sam and left., however it feels like Carly and Sam have just met, the chemistry is almost non-existent and they lack the back and forth that even Fox was able to deliver. On the subject of Whitely- she is unbelievably British and her accent sticks out like a sore thumb against the rest of the cast. Not her fault, but its seemingly over played and becomes annoying almost instantly. She is also the victim of some glaringly obvious continuity errors. Firstly her shoes change from scene to scene and her jacket remains whiter than white despite being caught up in a giant battle between humans and robots.

Obviously Transformers key area has and always will be the visual effects and thanks to the massive budget it doesn’t disappoint.  Sure Director Michael Bay is obsessed with destroying as many cars as possible, but the film does not let up. Several scenes, including the building collapse look absolutely stunning and you will be hard pressed to find visuals of that calibre in many other films made thus far (Avatar and Inception are the main competitors) Bay’s approach to the visuals allows him to create these unique scenes that are on such an imaginable scale you can’t help but be drawn into the majesty.

The machines enjoy the return of their well known voice actors, Hugo Weaving as Megatron and Frank Welker as a host of robots includng Soundwave, Shockwave and Barricade, are both fantastic. With Leonard Nimoy providing the voice of Sentinel Prime, the visual feast is well complimented by an audible one.

If you go into Transformers expecting strong dialogue and great acting you had better leave during the trailers, however if you are willing to switch off and enjoy what is effectively 3 hours worth of Robot Boxing in high definition then you will be right at home. While Transformers continues to fall short overall, its effects are enough to give it some decent standing. Nowhere near brilliant, Transformers is a middle of the road ‘movie’ but when it literally blows up anything in its path you won’t find a lot of films willing to take it on in the visual department.