I would agree with that. Just like the SW Prequels. You may want to watch a bit here and there but to sit through that mess again. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

C+

Immensely better than Revenge of the Fallen, but falls short of the original.

One of my most watched Blu-Rays.

So finally watched this on FX (Which made it's running time like 4.5 hours) What a steaming pile of shit. I just kept laughing every time Patrick Dempsey came on. How anyone could think he was a good villain is crazy. This film didn't have a plot. It was basically a soap opera bad with special effects. Gone is all the fun and humor of the first film. I'd say it was worst than the 2nd film, but I can at least remember laughing a little bit. Also Meghan Fox was a hell of a lot hotter, while not a great actress, she can at least apparently read English. Shia looks bored and is obviously tied of these kinds of films. The action is repetitive most of the way. Dumbest has to be when the army runs up 40 flights of stairs then jump on the decepticons only blind them with their parachutes???????? I give them credit for showing them actually killing a shit load of people in Chicago, and a few moments of decent humor, but overall completely stupid. The overhaul for 4 is intriguing, but I don't know if I'll go out for that one either. This is easily the worst set of sequels since Matrix and Pirates.

D

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

This was the sequel the first deserved! It goes back to the same quality, just taking a different route to achieve it. The serious progressive nature is back, and apart from being on for an hour and still not really feeling like it has started, the final hour (everything after "in the name of freedom, we take the battle to them!") is just awesome, including the twist. The fight with Shockwave was a nice teaser in Chernobyl but in Chicago it's even better. Pretty much all the fights with Optimus Prime are great to watch. His fight with Sentinal Prime is also quite exciting, and nicely built up. The finale is an overloaded feast of destruction and robotic action, and an enjoyable climax to the Optimus vs. Megatron saga that probably should have ended the franchise as a trilogy.

I also love it when films go into historical fiction. How it links it to landing on The Moon (much like how the X-Men films link to Auschwitz and the Cuban Missile Crisis) makes it a more satisfying watch for me as a history fan. I guess, if I wanted to be picky, these films always find a convenient way to keep the Transformers coming back to Earth, despite in every previous film claiming that each film's plot is the ultimate in weaponry/rejuvenation/destruction etc. In the first it was the cube/Megatron in Antarctica. Ok, fine. Then it was Egypt. Now it is The Moon (and I can tell by the poster that the fifth film goes to the UK to use Stonehenge as something mythological). Each film claims that its new object or method or location is the final, one-and-only way for Cybertron or the villains to win or something, but with each new movie that is disregarded and they've found another way, and the US government just didn't inform anyone of their knowledge of each new thing because with each new film the term "top secret" just adds a new 'top' prefix. I am expecting in the fifth film for Turturro to work for Sector 10 and be spouting about having "top top top level clearance", lol. Basically, it is just bad story creation. Not that I care. I don't watch these films for story. I like it to be as simple as it can be, just show me some awesome action. But it is still worth noting. It's actually kind of cute to see what new way they can come up with to make the film happen.

So what's not good? Well, apart from the inter-film stories, I am not a fan of how they dismiss Megan Fox's character with no real explanation beyond some vague throwaway line that she was a bitch or that type of girl or whatever. And Tyrese Gibson has a larger role in this one, which is never a good thing (though if I am honest he is weirdly fine in these films - yet annoying as fuck in the Fast flicks).

Partick Dempsey and John Malkovich were cool additions to the cast, and I was glad that Sam's parents took a backseat here. Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely is quite a likable babe. I probably preferred her to Megan Fox. She basically saves the day by screwing with Megatron's mind. But the main reason I prefer her over Fox is that she gets to wear a much better wardrobe, and she looks super hot in every single piece of clothing. Bay has a way of filming her to maximise her babe-ness.

Oh, and this probably has a better highway action sequence than The Matrix Reloaded. I don't know how many visual effects shots or components this film has, but it must be a record. The film basically gets the jump on The Avengers' final fight, and it is done so much better here too.

Oh and lastly, Ken Jeong gives a perfect edgy yet comic performance.

B+

God this was a pain to sit through. Megan Fox is greatly missed, Huntington Whitely is horrible. The whole thing has a very been there done that feel. There's nothing in this film the first two didn't do better. It's numbing and not pleasant.

F

I somehow always like this better than Part 2 because I feel that there is a smooth flow of story in this one even though the finale is a so long I was get exhausted towards it (but that was also true for #2). It also felt that they did close the story of Sam with this and I really wished Fox was in this.

B-