Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 29, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
23
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 28, 2011
As a performance-art act of juvenile Id-fulfillment, it's magnificent. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJun 28, 2011
Dark of the Moon is hardly a fleet production, but here Bay makes his best, most flexible use yet of all the flamboyant bigness at his command: Computer-drawn characters and human actors seem to occupy the same narrative for once. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 28, 2011
Not rocket science by a moonshot but sporadically dumb fun. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 28, 2011
Bay doesn't care about your soul, he just wants your money - but he at least makes sure you go home feeling exhausted and spent rather than vaguely dissatisfied. It's a fair exchange. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyJun 28, 2011
While I still protest Bay's too-hasty cutting (many shots are good enough to warrant a few extra seconds), his set pieces, and his sets, are magnificently entertaining. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 28, 2011
Moon delivers the popcorn in gigantic fist-fulls of fun. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 28, 2011
Nothing you see makes any sense at all, but the sensations are undeniable, and kind of fun in their vertiginous, supercaffeinated way. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 28, 2011
Not a great movie -- not even a great sci-fi action movie based on toys. But it is brisk and eye-catching, it builds to a truly impressive action set piece, and it's the most fully-realized 3D film since "Avatar." Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissJun 30, 2011
The scorekeepers at the various sites that rate critics' enthusiasm for a film shouldn't even try to elicit a Pass or Fail grade from me on T3. I'm a fascinated, stupefied outsider. Just mark me Present. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 30, 2011
Pass the popcorn, dude; this shit rocks. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonJun 29, 2011
If you're going to make a movie in which some of your stars are animated toys and much of downtown Chicago is reduced to rubble, this is the way to do it: shamelessly, with no expense spared and no cliche avoided. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJun 29, 2011
Its urban devastation knows no peer. Robots smash into each other with steely ferocity, and the humans - well, they do a fine job providing comic relief. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJun 29, 2011
The franchise remains as much an endurance test as a movie, but at least a better Bay has delivered a leaner, meaner, cleaner 3-D rage against the machines. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJun 29, 2011
Solidly mindless, breathless summer fun. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJun 28, 2011
He concocts a climactic war that flattens downtown Chicago. Bay is such a little boy's director. You know he picked that city because it's the one with the best rock-'em-sock-'em street names. Wacker! Wabash! Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangJun 28, 2011
The result may still be a big, bloated spectacle, but it's a big, bloated spectacle you can just about follow. Read full review
50
Washington PostMark JenkinsJun 28, 2011
Dark of the Moon is capable of having a little fun with itself. In one scene, mini-Autobots watch "Star Trek'' on TV, not noticing that Spock has the same voice as Sentinel Prime, the formerly moon-stuck 'bot who's rescued and revived in order to play a major role in this installment. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 28, 2011
Stinting on story, dialogue or character development, Bay leaves us with little more than destruction and a hollow, clanking spectacle. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 28, 2011
One small step for action movies, one giant leap into the abyss of mindlessness. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJun 28, 2011
But don't worry about remembering the characters - the movie certainly doesn't. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 28, 2011
This "Transformers" is better than the second film (though that's not saying much), with some enjoyable bits here and there. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttJun 28, 2011
The millions of man hours put into producing this techno shock and awe must be staggering. Everyone got his job done, but somewhere along the way, the movie got lost. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 28, 2011
Oh, what a hollow experience Dark of the Moon is! Bay is so afraid of boring his audience, he pitches every scene at the same high volume right from the first shot, and the effect is exhausting. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 29, 2011
The only saving grace is that this time around, the script (yes, there is one, and it was concocted by Ehren Kruger) has occasional wisps of lucidity, and Bay delivers – overdelivers – on the mayhem. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensJun 30, 2011
Marveling at its grotesque gigantism doesn't make this two-and-a-half-hour-long movie any less dull. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 28, 2011
All the problematic aspects of the Hollywood bad boy's filmography - reactionary rah-rah patriotism, sneer 'n' drool female fetishization, callously detached bloodletting - remain in soul-shattering force. Read full review
40
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Jun 28, 2011
An improvement on Transformers 2, but then what isn't? To paraphrase the Bard, it's a tale, full of sound and fury and extremely stupid dialogue and nonsensical plotting and preposterous stunts and robots punching each other's heads off, signifying nothing. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineTodd GilchristJun 28, 2011
It's true epic filmmaking that's toppled over its tipping point: after the 20th explosion and 64th wall of shattering glass, its enormity undermines its impact. Read full review
40
Village VoiceDan KoisJun 28, 2011
Amid the windy speeches, fiery explosions, exposition dumps, and product placements, there are a few treats to help the intelligent moviegoer - drawn to Dark of the Moon by peer pressure or kitsch factor or an insatiable desire for overstimulation - through the ordeal. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJun 28, 2011
The overwhelming sci-fi action spectacle is a merciless sensorial assault that leaves you with something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 28, 2011
LaBeouf, who appeared to hit a low in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," has sunk to greater levels of incompetence here. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 28, 2011
A work of ineffable soullessness and persistent moral idiocy. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 4, 2011
The first ten or fifteen minutes of Michael Bay's movie tremble, unaccountably, on the verge of being fun. [11 & 18 July 2011, p.101]
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 28, 2011
A visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had at the movies. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJun 28, 2011
Anyone hoping to engage even a single brain cell, however, is out of luck. Which is too bad, since popcorn blockbusters don't actually have to be mind-numbingly stupid or soul-suckingly empty. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickJun 29, 2011
Director Michael Bay, Hollywood's answer to the Antichrist, isn't primarily interested in your soul, though his movie does a pretty effective job of sucking that away (and sucking, in general). Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 29, 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - high on any list of the worst blockbusters ever - is a movie bereft of wit, wonder, imagination, and any genuine reason for being. Watching it makes you die a little inside. Read full review
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