Story
The opening scenes of Transformers: Dark of the Moon show the final stages of a war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Their home planet of Cybertron is all but destroyed. In the final moments of the battle, an Autobot spacecraft tries to escape. It’s referred to as the ‘Ark’ and is carrying a cargo that could win the war for the Autobots. But it’s hit by enemy missiles and seems to be destroyed before it can escape.
In the present day, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has just graduated from college and is living with new girlfriend Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington Whiteley) in Washington DC. Meanwhile Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and the other Autobots are working with the US government to keep the planet free of Decepticons.
While on a mission to investigate the happenings at Chernobyl’s deserted nuclear plant, Optimus Prime discovers a fuel cell from the lost Ark. Optimus Prime demands answers from the head of National Security (Frances McDormand), who tells him about a crashed spaceship on the dark side of the moon. Optimus and a team of Autobots go to the moon where they discover that the crashed ship is the lost Ark.
Meanwhile, Sam gets a new job and Carly is working for wealthy accountant Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey). It turns out Gould is working for the Decepticons. As soon as Sam starts his new job, he finds himself involved in ‘dark side of the moon’ conspiracies and is attacked by Decepticons. Sam escapes to an army base and is reunited with his Autobot friend Bumblebee. He also gets help from an old friend, Seymour Simmons (John Turturro), in the latest fight to save the world from the Decepticons.
Themes
Robots; conspiracy theories; alien invasion; betrayal and revenge
Violence
Transformers: Dark of the Moon has long sequences of intense science fiction action, violence and destruction. Although most of the violence is between giant metal live robots, the violence is still brutal. A lot of blood and gore is shown. For example:
Sexual references
This movie has some sexual references. For example:
- A photograph shows Carly in tight jeans standing next to a man. Sam says something about Carly’s jeans being too tight.
- Characters talk about a man being asked to frisk Carly and refusing.
- Sam’s mother talks about Sam’s girlfriend being a ‘world-class hottie’.
- A man says that a sports car is modelled on a woman’s appearance.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie shows characters drinking alcohol of various types in bars and at parties.
Nudity and sexual activity
This movie has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:
- Carly wears one of Sam’s shirts and bikini underwear. She climbs on top of Sam and straddles him while he’s lying in bed.
- Sam pins Carly against a wall and she wraps her legs around him. They kiss.
- In several scenes, women wear low-cut tops. Throughout the movie, Carly wears very tight dresses.
- A man shoves Sam into a toilet cubicle and straddles him while Sam is sitting on the toilet seat. The man straddling Sam then gets up and pulls down his pants, reaches towards his crotch (not shown) and pulls out a wad of papers. Sam then pushes his attacker. Both men stumble out of the cubicle to find another man standing there looking at them.
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
- The Transformer movies are based on Hasbro toys that are marketed to young children.
- General Motors, Mercedes and Corvette cars – their prices are mentioned.
- Apple computers and iPods.
- Nike and Adidas.
Coarse language
The movie contains coarse language, name-calling and put-downs.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third in the Transformers series of movies. It’s a science fiction action adventure, targeting an adolescent male audience.
You should note that this movie seems to have more violence, brutality, blood and gore than previous movies. At 149 minutes, it’s also very long. Although Transformers toys are specifically marketed for very young children, this movie is not suitable for children and contains images that might scare and upset younger children.
The main messages from this movie are the following:
- Everyone has a right to freedom.
- You should make a stand for what you believe in.
- The needs of the many shouldn’t outweigh the needs of the few.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include selflessness, courage and bravery.
You might also want to talk about how female characters are portrayed in this movie, including the amount of time they get in the storyline and the stereotypical way in which they’re shown.