After their disastrous second outing, few people had faith in the third part, but Dark of the Moon rights a lot of the narrative faults and feels like the sequel the first film deserved.

A despondent Sam finds himself out of the limelight as the Decepticon threat appears to have lessened, Mikaela and Bumblebee have left him and he struggles to find a job and direction in life. But when Optimus Prime learns that humanity had found a vital Autobot ship crashed on the Moon, he rescues Sentinel Prime from the wreck, just when the Decepticons return with a plan to restore their homeworld of Cybertron.

Watching Dark of the Moon feels like an endurance test by the time it finishes, this is due to a ridiculously drawn out battle set in Chicago for the climax. While it makes up for Revenge of the Fallen's terribly underwhelming finale, it does become a blur of insignificance after a while because there's simply too much happening! But if there is one thing done right this time is a correct use of characters. A lot of the ludicrous padding and fluff from RotF is completely missing; our human characters are involved but not excessively (ie. Sam's parents hardly feature at all!) and let's say this film provides us with humans who aren't noble and just. There's a lot more of the Transformers too (you would hope so) and it feels like they have a lot more respect shown to them now. Decepticons genuinely appear threatening and the Autobots are shown to have personalities again, continuing from the first film's groundwork (a scene with a silent, brooding Optimus-in-truck-mode is a favourite). The action is off the rails too. More in keeping with the original film we see them transform during battles.

There are some deeply unsettling scenes too. The setup involves assassinations against humans who knew about the mission to the Moon, executed by Decepticon Laserbeak (great to see him too),one where he infiltrates a family's house by pretending to be a friendly Autobot playing with their daughter. Woah, woah! RotF was too cheesy, but this is really dark all of a sudden!

As a fan of the Transformer characters, this film sees a lot of deaths. Some are most unforgivable. We haven't seen this many prominent robot deaths since the slaughter that was the 1986 Transformers: The Movie! The only other gripe I mostly have about this film asides deaths and a bloated finale is Carly, Sam's new love interest (the forgettable Rosie-Huntington Whitely) who is given things to do thanks to the plot, but is far less notable than Fox's Mikaela (I cannot believe I just wrote that) but I do believe the film would be stronger without a love interest. But it is Michael Bay, we need a girl for those slow-mo shots.

It is a vast, vast improvement and a faithful sequel to the 2007 film. It is too long, and it does make some unforgivable decisions regarding Transformer characters, so it feels less perfect in those regards. It is still a fun film though.

I liked the first Transformers, and while it did have its problems the second was better than I expected. I came into the cinema not expecting much, but I left feeling very underwhelmed. Other than the amazing effects, authentic sound, quite excellent action and above average cinematography and editing, this Transformers entry was a waste of time in my opinion.

In my opinion Transformers:Dark of the Moon is the dullest and worst of the three. The first half is poorly paced and dull to the point of boredom, and while the second half fares much better due to the action it came too late and wasn't enough to stop the film from becoming a messy bore overall. The dialogue is stupid and formulaic, the film is much too long and the story is choppy and confused complete with a messy ending.

Michael Bay's direction is another low point, it is murky and unfocused throughout, while the characters are either underused(the robots) or annoying(John Tuturro's character). The acting is not great at all, the voice work is decent, however John Malkovich is wasted, Shia LaBoeuf's easy going charm doesn't disguise the fact his performance is uncharismatic and dull, Patrick Dempsey(performance and character) is useless, John Tuturro tries hard but ends up over-compensating and the less said about the lovely but bland replacement for Megan Fox Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the better.

All in all, a mess and the worst of the three. 3.5/10 Bethany Cox

DARK OF THE MOON is the third and final instalment of the TRANSFORMERS trilogy and a film that's pretty much indistinguishable from the previous two entries in the series. It's another overlong, noisy, and completely over the top offering from Michael Bay, who as a director understands nothing of nuance, subtlety, or how to properly direct his actors.

The plot is vapid and routine. Once again the Autobots and the Decepticons are back on Earth and battling it out. The best thing about the film is the calibre of the special effects; the CGI is endless and exemplary, and shiny chrome and plate metal have never looked so good. Kudos to the special effects guys for creating such a realistic-looking race of giant robots and featuring them for so much of the screen time.

I admit that I got a basic enjoyment from this film from watching the endless destruction of both cities and robots. There's something of an appealing kaiju quality to it. Unfortunately, the rest of the elements of the film are rubbish. Shia LaBeouf is really awful in these films, not even making an effort, although the worst actor in it is Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, who doesn't even try to act; she just stands around and looks dumbly on. Jon Turturro is here, doing a bad impersonation of Al Pacino, while Frances McDormand comes in to pick up her pay cheque. The worst thing about Ehren Kruger's dumb-as-nails script is his insistence on going for the lowest common denominator throughout, i.e. aiming it at the teenage male crowd, thus including endless stupid comedy relief (those mini-Transformers) and generally spoon-feeding to viewers.