Transformers 2 and 3: Countless animation design hours, but nothing else

Both movies have identical storylines as the first movie. An ancient, super-powerful Transformer knows secrets. And there is a super-powerful piece of extraterrestrial technology, which will destroy the sun, or cause Earth to blow up, or whatever. And Sam Witwicky is the only one who can save Earth.

These movies do not really care about being logically consistent. A story doesn't need to be credible, but it needs to be comprehensible. These stories are neither. Stuff blows up well and some action shots look good, but other than that…

Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Earth-friendly Transformers fighting the Decepticons to get universe domination. The existence of the Earth is at stake. They are fighting to get the ultimate weapon – a matrix. (No, not that matrix. This is some sort of cube).

The most common line in the movie is "Go! Go! Go! Go!". The second most common lines are "No! Wait!" and "Ruuun!!"

Summary of the last hour: "Holy shit, it's a trick! Commence Operation Firestorm!" Then Megatron goes: "DIE!" and blasts Sam. Then enters Sam's parents and btw they all go to Cheops pyramid in Egypt.

Who ever knew that a $200-million budget could make such crap? I really liked the first Transformers. This sequel is only noisy. A lot of the problems come with the genre, but the lack of a decent storyline in this movie left me bored with all the action. The (unfunny) humor is not part of the film, so much as an add-on inserted in specific scenes. The last hour is so full of dull and monotonous pointless action that I just kept fast-forwarding.

Grade: F

Advisory: Probably no one in the production team had any idea of what do to with any of the characters, or how to get from a scene to the other.

Transformers (2011): Dark of the Moon

Somewhere after one and a half hour I realized that the movie has similarities to 怪獣総進撃 Kaijū Sōshingeki ("Destroy All Monsters"). Aliens take control of Earth's monsters and begin using them to destroy the human race. That movie is from 1968. This one is 43 years younger.

The real Apollo 11 mission is not to win the space race, but to check a crashed alien spaceship on the moon. (Who knew?) It contains dead Autobots that have escaped after a big war from the planet Cybertron with a (yet another) top-secret weapon. The CIA covers everything up.

Meanwhile in Russia, scientists have found a fuel cell from the same ship (don't ask how!). The Soviet Union attempts unsuccessfully to use it as a power source and cause the Chernobyl disaster. The KGB also covers everything up. (Btw, the Hoover Dam was built for same purpose in the first Transformers movie.)

The evil Megatron summons the evil Decepticons by tricking all nice Autobots into a trap. He revives the über-bad Decepticon General Sentinel Prime and opens a dimensional portal through a black hole to move Cybertron to Earth and slave the entire human race. He sends hundreds of Decepticons to occupy earth. They start by destroying Chicago.

Meanwhile, our hero Sam is unemployed and frustrated with life. The President has decorated him for saving the world, but that apparently doesn't mean anything to future employment opportunities. Having nothing better to do, our young hero saves the planet with his girlfriend. New leading female actor Rosie Huntington-Whitely, who makes her counterpart Megan Fox in the two first movies seem like Katharine Hepburn, spends the final hour of the movie looking as though she's ready to have a nervous breakdown. Lucky thing all villains always must proclaim something before they start to kill somebody. That gives plenty of time for the heroes to act. Phew.

I have some objections. As an evil genius it's understandable that you want to achieve global domination. Building, arming and firing your ultimate super-weapon is the most important objective you'll have. But what would have actually happened had a planet the size of Cybertron suddenly materialized and entered earth's orbit? You would have only a couple of minutes to live before they collided due to gravity. Those minutes would be filled with uncontrollable natural disasters. If you want 7 billion people for the sole purpose of slave labor, you should probably think about that.

Grade: F

Advisory: The stupid things people constantly say. Constantly!