Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Not Much to Howl At

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."

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