Movie Review: New 'Transformers' fill offers lots of cyber fighting, occasion sparks of acting

If you really want to see a 3-D movie that exploits the medium, catch 'Transformers: The Dark of the Moon" now playing at the Fandango Galaxy cineplex in Carson City. You'll be bombarded by rocks and pieces of giant metal figures flying out at you.

If you want a movie that makes good sense and isn't a labyrinth of confusion, of actors wandering about in scenes where no sane human would dare, where the good guys (the Autobots) look like the bad guys (Cybertronians) and can do the same tricks, like morphing from a car into a towering giant of steel and very human eyes capable of destroying buildings with the flick of a wrist then skip this one.
Minority opinion, fear, but read on.

There's a human cast too — Shia LaBeouf as the protagonist Sam Witwicky, and Rose Huntington-Whitely as Carly Spencer, the love interest who isn't very interesting. But then neither is Shia as the out-of-work guy looking for a job. Better is John Malkovich as the guy who hires Shia as mail boy for a secret agency (read CIA).
Then there's John F. Kennedy as himself (newsreels) ordering a mission to the moon to secretly investigate clues that something landed on the Dark Side. In case you didn't know the real reason we sent a man to the moon. Otimus Prime (Autobot) discovers a fuel cell from the imploding world of Cybertron. Then there is the Autobots checking out at the Moon site and find the unconscious body of Sentinal Prime, former Autobots leader.

Meanwhile, Shia and Carly hook up and get mixed in with the good and bad guys, the Cibertronians, as the baddies seek to make Chicago their new base on Earth while building a replica of their old ruined plant up in the sky. Chicago never got beat up so bad when I lived there.

All sorts of humans jump into the battle carrying all kinds of weapons, with tough-looking black guys heading the posse. All the time Shia and Carly are running around as Chicago is getting pretty badly beat up. What kind of nuts would jump around a battle scene holding hands? Nuts who are poor actors, that's who. The acting would never pass Karen Chandler's Carson High drama classes, with the exception of John Malkovitch who in a couple of scenes shows what real actors do.

Won't be giving the plot away to report that the love couple survive and the bad American who sold out for a good job in the new world order gets his comeuppance.

The technology is all that we expect for a contemporary sci-fi outing and as mentioned director Michael Bay keeps the stuff flying toward the audience. Hard to remember how directors like John Huston made movies before 3-D and cyber technology, and made good ones.

Not that this is a bore; it's summer stuff so one doesn't expect Shakespeare. Lots of incomprehensible action, dazzling fights between the metal monster Transformers.
Give it a two on a scale of one to five and don't try to think it throughout; just let it roll over you.

— Sam Bauman

Characters in Transformers: Dark of the Moon

• Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
• Josh Duhamel as U.S. Army Lt. Colonel William Lennox
• John Turturro as Seymour Simmons
• Tyrese Gibson as USAF Chief Robert Epps
• Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly Spencer
• Patrick Dempsey as Dylan Gould
• Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
• Julie White as Judy Witwicky
• John Malkovich as Bruce Brazos
• Frances McDormand as Charlotte Mearing
• Lester Speight as Hardcore Eddie
• Alan Tudyk as Dutch
• Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang
• Glenn Morshower as General Morshower
• Buzz Aldrin as Himself
• Bill O'Reilly as Himself
Voices
• Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime
• Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime
• Hugo Weaving as Megatron
• Tom Kenny as Wheelie
• Reno Wilson as Brains
• Charlie Adler as Starscream
• Jess Harnell as Ironhide
• Robert Foxworth as Ratchet
• Frank Welker as Shockwave & Soundwave
• James Remar as Sideswipe
• Francesco Quinn as Dino/Mirage
• George Coe as Que/Wheeljack
• John DiMaggio as Leadfoot
• Ron Bottitta as Amp/Roadbuster
• Keith Szarabajka as Laserbeak
• Greg Berg as Igor
•
• Directed by Michael Bay
• Produced by Steven Spielberg
• Don Murphy
• Tom DeSantoa
• Lorenzo di Bonaventura
• Ian Bryce
• Written by Ehren Kruger
• Based on Transformers by
• Hasbro

• Music by Steve Jablonsky
• Cinematography Amir Mokri
• Editing by Roger Barton
• William Goldenberg
• Joel Negron Studio DreamWorks Pictures
• Distributed by Paramount Pictures Release date June 23, 2011

• Running time 155 minutes
• Rated PG-13