Just another ‘Transformers’ sequel

The summertime is a time when Hollywood chooses to hit viewers up with big blockbusters, over-the-top action films, and movies that have more explosions in them than actors.

It is a time when, as a student, you can turn off your brain and relax for the summer and enjoy a few hours of eye-candy that would otherwise detract you from your studies.

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” is eye-candy.

Chances are that, if you see this film, you’ve seen “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” so you will enter the theater with certain expectations based on those two films.

“Dark of the Moon” doesn’t disappoint on expected expectations.  It is, through and through, a “Transformers” sequel.

Michael Bay returns as the director for a third outing with the Autobots and Decepticons, only this time Bay seems to have listened to his critics of the last film, albeit he may have listened a bit too much.

Also returning to the franchise is Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, and Tyrese Gibson.

Newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley joins the cast as the new love interest for Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf), replacing Megan Fox as the other kind of eye-candy in the franchise.  Whiteley, a newcomer to acting, manages to look gorgeous and pull off a few genuine emotional moments in an otherwise emotionless film.

The film centers around the discovery of a crashed Autobot spacecraft on the dark side of the moon, and how NASA’s Apollo missions were simply a cover-up to retrieve debris from said crash.

The overall plot is a little convoluted, and could have been trimmed down, but the general feel of the film is that of a last installment in this chapter of the Transformers line, and is, therefore, an attempt at an epic finale.

The movie does have some epic qualities, but it is still firmly a “Transformers” film, and really just an excuse to see giant robot beating the crap out of one another.

In that last point, the movie doesn’t disappoint.

Clocking in at over two-and-a-half hours long, “Dark of the Moon” has a slow start and seems to spend a little too much time over-explaining itself, but manages to end the last half of the movie with some juicy action that actually serves to propel the story forward rather than detract from it.

While watching this film, however, I couldn’t help but feel that sections of the film are missing – no doubt due to the long running time, cuts had to be made, and as long as you can take certain jumps in logic with a grain of salt, you can still thoroughly enjoy “Dark of the Moon,” especially if you’re a fan of the previous “Transformers” films.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the previous “Transformers” films, as I am, you will enjoy this movie with a little bit of that usual summertime willing suspension of disbelief.

Don’t over-analyze this one, just sit back and enjoy the fireworks.