Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

First off, I hate 3D, so much so that I watch them in 2D. The problem is, you see the 3D effects even in 2D, and they're obvious and obnoxious. Robert Ebert agrees with me. :)

That aside, oh Megan and Michael... how I wish you two hadn't parted ways. That said, I figured a Victoria Secret runway model would more than fill in for Megan's sex appeal and pouty-ness. Instead, we ended up with a very nice opening shot, a lack of a second female to bring additional sex appeal to the film, flat chemistry between Shia and Rosie, but nothing else otherwise. I understand that Sam might be growing up, but I really enjoyed the sexier side of the first two movies, and felt this one changed the formula too much in this area.

Speaking of Sam growing up, I really think the writers could have done better. I mean, for Transformers 2 they were on a strike! That being said, Sam "[buys] a car, turns out to be an alien robot," then Sam "just wants to be a normal kid," and now Sam "saved [the world] twice and can't talk about it." The undertones seemed to be that Sam just wants to be a part of the alien team N.E.S.T., but for some reason a) can't bring himself to ask or b) isn't allowed to. Instead of addressing that idea head-on, the writers take us through reams of job interviews (John Malcovich is great here), and find a round-about way to get Sam back into the robot war, whilst constantly throwing in our face that Sam's not a robot war soldier. That's the first half of the movie. In the second half, we actually got some robot action on.

Some of the tertiary characters were interesting. I always enjoy John Malcovich, and the Frances McDormand held her own, however some strange stuff happened, like the parents just seemingly falling off the face of the earth once the action started rolling. They sort of did that in 2, but then brought the parents back in.

Last but not least, let's keep in mind that we've been with Sam since he got his first car, almost said the L-word to Megan Fox, went to college, and is now dating a super model and looking for a new job--pardon me if I broke down the 4th wall a little too much there. After all that, why the heck is he still considered a "kid"? It seems a misused term now, a full 4 years after the first movie was released.