For all you fellow men and impressionable boys out there who miss Megan Fox,
in Transformers, don’t worry. After she was fired by exec Steven Spielberg for that undue
remark about director Michael Bay, super model Rosie Huntington-Whitely came on-
board. She’s just as hot, if not hotter than her predecessor and like he did with Megan,
Bay knows exactly how to showcase her fine assets (no pun intended). This time from the
bottom up. She will draw you into Transformers: Dark of the Moon like Winnie-the-
Pooh to a honey tree.
But before we come to this delightful scene, there’s the obligatory history of Cy-
bertron and the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, told to us by Optimus
Prime for the purpose of catching us up on things since Revenge of the Fallen. In fact,
it’s a history that goes back over 40 years to the first Apollo mission.
Seems our 1969 mission to the moon had an ulterior motive other than just being
the first to land on it. Our astronauts discovered a wrecked Autobot spacecraft on the
moon’s dark side. The crash had been detected by scientists back in 61. So the actual
mission was to find it. They did. They brought back samples of course, not knowing the
long range consequences and sworn to secrecy.
Despite his relationship with the Auobots and by the way, saving the world twice,
Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky has been relegated to nobody status. He’s graduated from
an Ivy League school and can’t find a job? Unbelievable. He lives in D.C. with his new
hot girlfriend Carly ( Mikaela apparently dumped him) who tries to be as encouraging
as possible about finding work. However, it’s not a very pleasant state of affairs when
you’re jobless and your girl is supporting you and is working as an arts and rare autos
curator for a billionaire. Could give you a mild case of inferiority. Sam’s only consolation
right now, is that he does have job interviews set up and finally lands one at Accuretta, a
communications firm headed by John Malkovitch’s Bruce Brazos. A crazy place to work
but better than nothing.
It’s seems so odd that Sam would have to literally prove himself a third time.
But it’s one of several elements that makes TF3 so interesting. Even after a fellow
employee is mysteriously murdered prompting Sam to make various logical connections
to something the Decepticons have been planning for years, Ms. Mearing ( a very strait-
laced Frances McDormand) head of the Transformers secret NEST HQ, still doesn’t think
Sam is qualified to help in any way. It takes awhile for her to realize that Sam does know
what he’s talking about.
Gratuitous comedy is at a minimal thankfully because of our serious tie-ins with
the Decepticons. That’s not to say there are no funny moments. They’re a bit more sup-
portive this time and Sam’s parents don’t garner as much screen time as they did the last
two installments, which contributes even more to the movie. It was quite relieving to see
Judy Witwicky toned down from pot smoking.
If you’re accustomed to seeing Patrick Dempsey in certain types of roles, be pre-
pared for a change up. He’s not totally what you expect as billionaire Dylan Gould. Of
course I won’t give away any of his character, but Dempsey has the versatility to pull
this on off nicely.
John Turturro makes a triumphant ( and amusing)return as Seymour Simmons as
a conspiracy buff ( Is that a logical segue from government agent?) and who has an in-
teresting connection to the aforementioned Ms. Mearing.
With old and new characters in the right places, with decent dialogue fastened to
the usual outstanding special f/x produced by Industrial Light & Magic, Transformers
Dark of the Moon is a major improvement on the previous films. I only hope if Michael
Bay decides to make a fourth, it will be better or at least, just as good as this one.