‘TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON’Rating: PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo.Running time: 2 hours, 34 minutes.
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will not solve the world’s most pressing problems, but it does blow stuff up really well.
Its urban devastation knows no peer. Robots smash into each other with steely ferocity, and the humans – why, the humans do a fine job providing comic relief. And the product placement! The best I’ve seen in ages. As a movie based on a line of Hasbro toys, this beats out “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” by a long shot.
All in all: a big fat brainless entertainment from director Michael Bay (and writer Ehren Kruger), who takes his trademark cinematic excess to bold new heights of distended self-parody. I mean lows. I mean, is there a difference in a movie like this?
Keep in mind, I happen to be one of three or four people in the English-speaking world who liked the last “Transformers” sequel and said so in print. Subtitled “Revenge of the Fallen,” it was widely derided as one of the worst cinematic efforts in the history of the art form. I regarded it instead as a loud and rather stupid battling-giant-robot movie, but one with a certain testosterone-drenched entertainment value. Ever since, I’ve been informed by irate readers that I am a bonehead.