Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D (12A)****

Lumbering onto the screen like one of those old ’50s monster-on-the-loose movies, the third episode in the Transformers franchise goes all out to destroy everything in its path.

This is what Spielberg’s lame War of the Worlds should have been – a mighty slice of sci-fi that allows director Michael Bay to indulge his fondness for helicopter shots, enormous CGI effects, car chases, battling robots and explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.

It’s also rather cleverer than the average sci-fi flick, and certainly less pretentious than Inception. To set up its story, it combines the 1969 NASA moon landings – our history – with a far-off civil war between rival factions of robots.

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Thus the history of the Autobots and the Decepticons is played out on Planet Earth as a long-lost artefact is discovered, launching a new plan by the Decepticons to resurrect their home on our green and pleasant globe.

Throw in betrayal, both human and robot, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon is rather more than just another fast-paced, cacophonous, pedal-to-the-metal sci-fi extravaganza. And to add to fans’ delight, the character of re-awakened Autobot leader Sentinel Prime is voiced by Leonard Nimoy. Yep, that’s right: Mr Spock. And he even gets to throw in some classic Star Trek one-liners.

The ostensible stars of this one are Shia LaBeouf (as hero Sam Witwicky), Josh Duhamel and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the very English supermodel replacement for Megan Fox.

LaBeouf gets the meat. The rest of the human cast – and they are legion; Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Frances McDormand, Ken Jeong, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk and Patrick Dempsey as the villain – fade into the background as soon as the robots appear and start bashing the rivets out of one another.

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Dark of the Moon begins with the Apollo 11 landings and concludes with a breathless battle in a shattered Chicago. It boasts the humour of Men in Black and the action of Terminator 2. Shia LaBeouf does a lot of yelling into mobile phones, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson look manly and Rosie, a decorative clotheshorse, poses, struts, runs and screams. Even Buzz Aldrin contributes a cameo; seems he was in on the secret all along.

Of course the real stars are cinematographer Amir Mokri, production designer Nigel Phelps, and special effects guru John Frazier and his team. The multitudinous stunt team also deserves a medal.

Thus it is all enormous fun, if a tad overlong. The wholesale destruction of Chicago and the desperate attempts of puny humans to stop the Decepticons is the stuff great sci-fi is built upon. This is not quite a great movie but it is a good one.