With the excellent Transformers (2007) still strong in everyone’s mind and the lamentable Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) thankfully a distant memory now, the news that Transformers 3 (2011) had been confirmed for production was met with a mix of either bated breath or an internal groan, dependent on the viewpoint. Entitled Dark Of The Moon, it went on to be a huge box office success, despite its apparent lack of critical acclaim.
With a cinematic release date on the 1st July 2011, Transformers 3 brought back Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, along with Josh Duhamel as Major Lennox and John Turturro as Agent Simmons along with many of the rest of the cast from Revenge of the Fallen. Peter Cullen returned as the voice of Optimis Prime, who was perhaps the only thing that was right about the second live action adaptation.
However, the big news for the movie was that Megan Fox, frankly the best part of the first film and one of the many flaws in the second, did not return as Sam’s girlfriend Mikaela. Both sides of the fence are apparently adamant that it was their decision, but either way, she was out of the third and final installment.
The good news was that she was replaced as Sam’s love interest by British supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whitely, who took on the part of Carly Spencer. With her other big job being a Victoria’s Secret model, there was speculation as to whether or not she’d be able to top Megan’s car mechanic moment. But with the poshest name on the runway, and a fairly squeaky clean elegant delivery she didn’t quite manage anything as monkey wrenchingly jaw dropping as Fox’s big moment.
There was a lot of expectation for Transformers: Dark of the Moon to perform better than Revenge of the Fallen and from our point of view they just about pulled it off. They needed to pull out all the stops to live up to the genius of the cartoon and while that wasn’t entirely the case it got the series back on track a little. If there was a sure way to achieve this, it would have been the addition of the Dinobots to the character roster, but we had to wait for Transformers: Age Of Extinction for that treat.
Despite the fact that it was hotly tipped as being the last of the Transformers films, it only turned out to be the last one for LaBeouf, Lennox and Turturro as they went on to be replaced by Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer in Age Of Extinction.
With the runaway success of the 3D movie machine thanks to the might of Avatar, Transformers 3 was released in Real D 3D cinemas, as well as in IMAX 3D. Filming was underway throughout 2010, and director, Michael Bray’s hints that the third film would be darker than the first two, went on to be true, but not quite true enough.
 movie details, release date, trailer and cast info from Tuppence Magazine's film news & reviews section, looking at the Dark Of The Moon.){kind=link}