Day 209: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

No campers, I am not reviewing the latest Star Trek original cast film (those who find the opening quote funny will get the reference), but am finishing off the trilogy of Transformers movies.  Today's entry was Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  Don't ask me why they left out the word "side", but they did.  All I can say about this is this: thank God it's over.  Yes, this was the best entry in the series, but that's like saying that the flu is the best disease.  They all sucked, and Dark of the Moon was no exception.  I was a huge fan of the original cartoons in the 80's, so this whole debacle was a bit painful for me to watch.  Seeing one of your favorite memories decimated by people who see nothing more than dollar signs is like watching your childhood sold off piece by piece.  Sam Witwicky is back in his latest unbelievable adventure among the world's most destructive robots, this time finding out that the entire U.S. space program is based on something found on....wait for it.....the dark side of the Moon.  Soundwave and Sentinel Prime are introduced here, with catastrophic results for the buildings of the world.  Fans of the movie, forgive me here, but this was crap.  The Transformers themselves did look better than before, but they still need a good story to go along with those shiny new effects.

Shia LeBeouf returns as Sam, but Megan Fox did the smart thing for a change and declined to appear.  Instead, we have Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's new interest.  Yay.  Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro DO return to their roles, however, bringing nothing new to the mix at all.  I want to know how the filmmakers got Frances McDormand, Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong to appear.  I can only assume that incriminating photographs were involved in the "negotiations."

The best of the three Transformers films, for what that's worth.  If you want perfectly framed explosions and good effects without the burden of a story, by all means, go ahead and watch Dark of the Moon.  Or Roland Emmerich's Godzilla.  Whichever.  You'll leave wanting more, and that's in the non-flattering, bad movie kind of way.  Sorry, fans.  4.75/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!