Shia LaBeouf returns as a ‘loser’ Sam Witwicky in the highly anticipated movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, directed by renowned Michael Bay. Together with Shia, is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a model-turned-actress who has her debut through this movie.

The story revolves itself around an almost exact same storyline as the previous 2 installments, with Autobots and Decepticons fighting for their freedom and justice. The classic tale of good versus evil. Only this time, the problem arises from historical baggage, when a war broke out between both parties and an ancient Transformer ship, known as The Ark, was lost decades ago on the moon.

The Ark was carrying Sentinel Prime, the leader of the Autobots, and together with him are Pillars that have the power to transport anything, or in specific terms, their homeland Cybertron, to Earth via a Space bridge. The Ark was discovered on the Moon in the ‘60s and the Apollo astronaut’s real mission was apparently to uncover and explore the spacecraft. However, in later years, the mission was terminated due to a hidden plot planned by the Decepticons and Sentinel Prime.

In the present day, Optimus Prime found Sentinel and revived him, hoping that the latter will be by his side to protect mankind from wars around the globe while dealing with Megatron, who had yet to make any moves.

Meanwhile, Sam found himself another stunning looking girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and leads an unemployed life. Definitely, with Sam as the hero for both previous sequels, he dreamt of working together with the Autobots to fight evil and to find pride once again. However, he was denied the chance by Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand), a National Intelligence Director who merely regarded him as just another ‘teenager’.

Nonetheless, he still managed to get back into business with the Autobots to defeat the Decepticons when they found out that Sentinel Prime and Megatron were planning to destroy and transport Cybertron down to Earth. These plots slowly intersect in an awkward action-packed manner and definitely – here comes the spoiler – Autobots win and save the day!

Enough of the plot, let’s get down to business. Expected to provide the audience with a mind-blowing cinematic experience, the movie saw nearly everybody booking tickets online and scheduling it into their calendars, it was (no offense to dedicated fans) quite a disappointing movie.

With the first movie of the series, Transformers, Michael Bay managed to pull huge and loyal crowds to theatres and it was a blast. However, no matter how hard people tried to see the light in the second sequel, it didn’t meet the high expectations of the fans. Although it did well in the box office, fans are upset with what came out. Bay had promised that such mistakes will not be made again and he will take part in the editing and production of the whole movie. But did he really NOT make the same mistakes again?

Who doesn’t love the sound of the gears and machines movement of the robots whenever they fight? The transformation of sleek looking cars into robots and the squirming and ‘zooming’ eyes of audience to see who is able to find which part of the car is the arm or leg of the machine is truly a spectacular scene to behold. The stunning graphics and animations of this movie series is one of its kind and fans will applaud the animators for. However, the question is, will they chorus in unison when the storyline is yet another boring and meaningless one? Another thing to note, if there is another Transformers sequel, the producers may have to invest in some editors for the film.

Despite that, no audience will ever forget Bumblebee being the cutest thing on Earth. And less to say, this movie is awkwardly wonderful.

Movie: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Rating: 2.5/5

Opens: 29th June 2011

Duration: 154 minutes

Language: English

Age Rating: PG – Action Violence

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson