Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Not Much to Howl At

With blinding effects and a pointless plot, critics say it's an Optimus Crime
By Tim Karan,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 1, 2011 1:31 PM CDT

Negative reviews are like Energon Cubes to Michael Bay—they only make him stronger. His first two Transformers movies were universally trashed by critics, and the latest—Transformers: Dark Of The Moon—is no different according to its 37% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But it's not like Optimus Prime will ever give Colin Firth competition at the Oscars. While some members of the press see the movie as a popcorn flick that's at least better than Revenge Of The Fallen, others wish it would have changed into something more interesting.

  • John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal calls it "a black hole of technology, talent and time. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is a symptom of many things, chief among them the fact that summer blockbuster movies don't really matter anymore."
  • Slate's Dana Stevens sees a glimmer of a silver-plated lining. "There is something awe-inspiring about Bay's sheer commitment to scale—augmented now by that state-of-the-art anti-audience weapon, 3-D," Stevens writes. "But marveling at its grotesque gigantism doesn't make this two-and-a-half-hour-long movie any less dull."
  • Richard Corliss of Time is a bit more accepting. "T3 is the movie equivalent of an '80s thrash-metal concert (not Megadeth but Megatron), with bits of spoken exposition inserted into the action scenes like the lead singer's mumbled comments between songs."
  • Tom Charity of CNN might be the most realistic in his resignation. "It's a lousy movie, but at least it's a lousy movie with a serviceable story, killer CGI and an action climax that goes on forever," he writes. "An awful lot of people like that kind of thing—my kids included."
(More movie review stories.)

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