Transformers: Dark of the Moon

As expected, this actioner is 99% Special Effects and 1% people and plot. Very simply, the plot exposes the REAL reason President John F. Kennedy declared his intention to "put a man on the moon in this decade." An alien spaceship had crash landed on the dark side of the moon and we wanted to get a look at it before the Russians did.

Once we understood that, we settled in to watch over-the-top Computer Generated Imaging in 3D, and enjoy some familiar and welcome faces:

• Shia LaBeouf ("Transformers" franchise) returns as Sam Witwicky, friend of Autobots, the "good-guy" transformers, a motormouth go-getter who can't seem to land a "real" job. I liked his job interviews.
• Josh Duhamel ("Life as We Know It") is back as Lennox, the crackerjack military guy who, when things get rough, backs Witwicky all the way.
• Tyrese Gibson ("Fast Five") is still our durable Epps, an indispensable sidekick who manages to survive all of the catastrophes thrown at him.
• John Malkovich ("Red") isn't on screen very long, but a murmur of affection swept through the audience when he first appeared in one of Witwicky's job interviews.
• Frances McDormand ("Burn After Reading") is Mearing, trying to develop a strategy for the U.S. government in this latest crisis.
• John Turturro ("Miracle at St. Anna") comes back as Simmons, an expert targeted by the villainous Decepticons, the "bad-guy" transformers.
• Alan Tudyk ("Tucker and Dale Versus Evil") is Dutch, Simmon's resourceful aide-de-camp.
• Patrick Dempsey ("Enchanted") brings a nice change of pace to his usual lover-boy persona. Here he is a phenomenally wealthy industrialist with dubious intentions.
  

Of course we have more: Leonard Nimoy is the voice for Sentinal Prime, while Buzz Aldrin plays himself. Ken Jeong is mostly indecipherable in a quick, tasteless scene, and I disliked the ingénue so much I won't even name her.

The 3D is as expected: we dodged debris during endless scenes filled with blowie uppie stuff and simply took it for granted the rest of the time. There is very little profanity and there are no sweaty bodies or nudity. But next time I'd settle for more plot.

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Here is a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi543989017/
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