The third entry from Michael Bay's bombastic Transformers series is a significant improvement over its predecessor, but ultimately isn't quite as captivating as the original 2007 film. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a highly entertaining summer popcorn "flick" at its finest. It's full of explosive action, some light witty moments, and gripping enough drama to keep things interesting. There is nothing to genuninely dislike about this movie - it's fun to watch and it gets the job done. It may be a little lengthy with its running time (2 hours and 37 minutes), but generally things flow pretty well.

     Dark of the Moon has a fairly intriguing storyline involving the 1969 Moon landing and that how a good part of it contained what is now revealed as a major cover up - the government found a Autobot ship that had jettisonned from Cybertron (the Autobot's home planet) just before its destruction on the Earth's Moon. It all links back to reviving Sentinel Prime, the creator of much of the Autobot technology (and Optimus Primes' mentor). Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf) is with a new girlfriend (played a bit stiffly by Victoria Secret supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) struggling to find a job in the ailing economic climate. The story works well enough even though it seems to labor before it gets its point across, but the end result is satisfying. Sam's character simply says, "I want to feel like I matter", and anyone in his age group, myself included, I'm sure feel the same way. His motivation seems to be real enough to propel him throughout.

     The visual effects are top notch as expected. The action sequences are sweeping and grandiose - sometimes preposterous when involving the human characters, but can never be too over the top for the robots. Speaking of which, gone are the borderline offensive stereotypes from the second movie and here we have a finely assembled group of robot characters. Anyway, the action is high octane, and the quieter parts of the movie are just as entertaining. Sam's silly parents are comical, John Tuturro returns in fine form as well. John Malkovich has an humorous role as well.

     Prior to Dark of the Moon's release, I had a good vibe about it. It just conveyed an image of a better put together movie that Revenge of the Fallen, and it certainly succeeds on that front. Dark of the Moon retains the charm of the original movie and is probably a close second when ranking the three.

     The only odd choice made by this movie is in its conclusion. It took 2 hours and 36 minutes to tell and elaborate its story, which can be considered long. And in the final minute, once the dust settles, the ending is so abrupt, it was jarring. You would have assumed a movie like this, that relished all of its big moments, just ends, and credits roll. Will there be a Transformers 4? I have no idea, I suppose I would not be surprised - and I would welcome it, since they are still fun to watch - because the trilogy did not end on a definitively conclusive note.

     Overall, if you are looking for a solid summer movie to watch, or now rent since it is recently out on DVD, then I would recommend it.

-Kurt L.

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