'Transformers' shape up with year's best weekend

LOS ANGELES - "Transformers" robots have lost some of their money-making power but still have delivered the biggest opening weekend domestically so far this year.
Distributor Paramount Pictures said Sunday that "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" took in $97.4 million domestically in its first weekend. That beat the $90.2 million debut of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

  
A special effects carnival not meant as a history lesson.

Wandering around in my local Best Buy with my two kids, I often find myself planted in front of the latest 3D television set. A reel runs on a loop showcasing the glorious effects the flat panel delivers. Sometimes my kids and I watch the loop twice.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is lot like watching that endless loop—for over two hours straight. It’s a carnival of top-drawer special effects on top of effects, punctuated by incoherent attempts to develop a story that only provides a feeble excuse for another hurricane of effects. Ultimately, the movie makes absolutely no sense. When the final battle that overcomes the entire city of Chicago takes place, viewers over the age of 12 will likely lose interest—numb from the orgy of computer-generated thrills. This Transformers sequel is bigger and more explosive than the last, but certainly no better.