Clockworks2:Searching

TRANSFORMERS [3]: DARK OF THE MOON. Michael Bay, dir. and exec. prod. (Steven Spielberg also among the long list with exec. prod. credits). USA: Paramount and Di Bonaventura Pictures, in association with Hasbro [the toy manufacturer] (prod.,) / Paramount Pictures (US dist.), 2011 (see IMDb for dist. outside USA, and more generally for the very long list of credits). Nigel Phelps, prod. design. 157 min.2-D and 3-D.

Third film in series (qv). IMDb summarizes, "The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets." The bloatedness of this bladder-testing installment of the franchise has the positive side of pretty well completing the set of the Decepticons as a collection of what can be combined with the mechanical to make a threatening machine. So look for imagery of rusty Industrial, huge sand-worms with the suggestion of the vagina dentata (and RETURN OF THE JEDI and the Dune series), ancient fish or precursors to fish, wolves/werewolves, slavering aliens generally and H. R. Giger's Alien more particularly, jelly fish, snakes, insectoid things, and built-in weapons that can chop or blow things up. Since the main battle is set in Chicago's Loop and downtown area, the blowing up of stuff includes some interesting Chicago-School architecture; so students of the Modern vs. postmodern might want to see the movie on a large screen (in 2-D), or study a HD video version. See also for small, somewhat cute Autobots inside (and destroying) a large flying Decepticon.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 06/VII/11