Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Action, yes...Story/Plot....not so much

When the Autobots learn that a secret Cybertronian spacecraft was discovered on the Moon by the United States back in the 1960's, they race to recover what was on the ship before the Decepticons can.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon delivered the kind of breathtaking and grandiose action one would expect for a summer blockbuster. The finale of the film (where the Autobots attempted to retake downtown Chicago from the Decepticons) in particular was superlative not only for the robot on robot fights, but also the action taken by the human cast members (or their stunt doubles), including some very cool "flying" suites and a sequence in which a high-rise building collaspsed on its side with Sam Witwicky and the rest of the human heroes still trapped inside.

What was missing from the film was any semblance of plot, story or character development. After the credits started to roll and even upon reflection the following day after seeing Dark of the Moon, the audience will probably find it hard to remember just why Sam was running around again trying to save the world. Although this is Shia LeBeouf's third turn as Witwicky, he seems to have lost his edge or even credibility with the part (the inferior script from Ehren Kruger didn't help). He has a new girlfriend in this one in Carly (a shoddy Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) whom he is trying to keep around by getting and holding down a job but that was all the audience was given to work with as the rest of the screen time was spent following Optimus Prime and the other Autobots around as they attempted to save humanity (again). The only time there have been believable/relatable characters in this film series was in the original Transformers, when director Michael Bay had to give the audience Sam's backstory in order to establish his character. The story for Dark of the Moon lured the audience in at the beginning with the whole U.S. Moon landing that doubled as a chance to uncover the Cybertronian ship which crashed but shortly thereafter Bay develled into his old tricks of lame jokes, useless characters and an over-abundance of scenes which served no other purpose but to kill time until the next big action sequence. It's not like an audience goes into a film like this expecting to see Shakespeare but it would have been nice to have something more than what Bay and the rest of the crew delivered.

Brainless, summer blockbuster entertainment, they name is Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Grade: C