Yesterday, a few of my gay friends and I decided to escape the oppressive desert heat of Reno by retreating into the air-conditioned haven of the movie theater. Shane suggested that we go see Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, which recently opened this past Wednesday. I immediately went to my source of all cinematic opinions - Rotten Tomatoes - to see how critics and fans alike felt about the 3rd installment of a somewhat crappy series of movies. It was split. Critics thought the movie was atrocious, lacked plot, character development, blah blah blah and fans felt it might have been the best movie thus far out of the group. I'm sorry critics, I am going to have to side with the fans on this one. Not every movie can have the intellectual stimulation of "The King's Speech" or "Inception"; sometimes I just want to robots beat each other up and destroy buildings for two and a half hours. 

The movie in many respects brings the whole story full circle - though I suspect they have a 4th Transformers movie brewing in the back of their minds. We learn that in the final days of the battle between Autobots and Decepticons on Cybertron, a spacecraft containing technology that could have changed the course of the war for the Autobots forever attempted to escape the dying planet. Unfortunately the ship was shot down and incidentally landed on the dark side of the moon. The technology, we come to learn, is a space bridge; a mechanism that would allow large cargo to be transported long distances across the universe. It then becomes a race between the Decepticons and Autobots to see who will obtain and control this technology first. 

While this is going on, we find Sam Witwicky - played by the gorgeous Shia LaBeouf - shacked up with a new girlfriend (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) - who is basically a carbon copy of Megan Fox except blonde and British - attempting to find a job. He cannot find a job - an FBI record will do that - and struggles with his feelings of inadequacy having save the world twice - even received a medal from Obama - but now is just another mundane; a mundane that cannot find a job. He feels left out, as the Autobots have aligned themselves with humanity and are now helping us with our covert missions and operations. The movie is made complete with an impressively talented and comedic cast including John Turturro, Patrick Dempsey, Josh Duhamel, John Malkovich, Tyrese Gibson, Alan Tudyk and Frances McDormand.

So yes .... I cried at multiple points during the movie. I am not necessarily proud of it, especially since Shane at one point in the movie turned to me and said "OMG are you crying?". Call me a humanist, but there is something about the world ending in a major and collassal way that gets me all verklempt. Also, some Autobots got destroyed throughout the movie and it was a very devastating event for me. Also I have been told on numerous occasions that I cry when a grasshopper farts, so apparently it doesn't take much to get the tear ducts flowing for me.

This is definitely one of the summer blockbusters of the year and I recommend everyone to go see this film. The 3-D aspect of the film is absolutely incredible and makes sense for the all of the ridiculous stunts and CGI effects they have throughout the movie. My favorite part of the movie was when I learned that parts of the "post-apocalyptic wasteland" was shot in Detroit, MI and that Michael Bay may have used scenes from "The Island" (also shot in Detroit). Why is it that whenever directors/producers need to find a city that really screams rubble, destruction, and war zone they film in Detroit, MI?

Happy 4th Everyone!