Third time's a charm for Bay with his Transformers franchise. Win a pair of tickets to see the film at BFI IMAX London.
Although based on a line of toys, TRANSFORMERS is as much a comic book movie as anything Marvel Studios produces, as the stories of Optimus Prime and the rest of Transformers were told in a series of comics published by Marvel, and were integrated into the Marvel universe for several stories. The comics were originally conceived as an elaborate marketing tool that proved as popular as (if not more so) the toy line. With the massive advances in CGI it was only a matter of time before a "live action" Transformers movie came out and it made sense that Michael Bay would direct as he specialised on in movies that are as big, dumb, loud and explosive as a Transformer.

The first film was a massive hit that really lived up to the name of blockbuster, and with Spielberg producing you knew it had to be entertaining, delivering an action-packed and witty movie. The sequel didn't fare quite as well but still managed to deliver. However, this third chapter is as good as, if not better than the original. OK it may be lacking some of the witty banter of the first one, but there is still plenty there to keep the laugh quota up, and there's a great supporting cast playing the more eccentric characters, including Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk and Ken Jeong, who deliver that humour. Sam Witwicky has a new girlfriend, played by Brit Rosie Huntington-Whitely, who is definitely there more as eye-candy than anything else. And the story…?

In 1961, a Cybertronian spacecraft lands on the dark side of the moon. Known as The Ark, it was the last ship to escape a Cybertron devastated by wars. Piloted by Sentinel Prime, it carried "the Pillars", technology that could save the Cybertronians once and for all. On Earth, the crash of The Ark is detected by NASA, and President John F. Kennedy authorises the mission to put a man on the moon. In 1969, Apollo 11 lands on the surface of the moon to collect samples from The Ark.

In the present day, the Autobots have forged a military alliance with the United States of America, but largely act independently in stopping humans from destroying themselves. During a mission in Chernobyl at the request of the Ukrianian government, Optimus Prime discovers a fuel cell from The Ark that the Soviet Union attempted to use as a power source, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster. Optimus is devastated at the news that humans lied to the Autobots - knowing as he does the contents of the ship - and launches his own mission to retrieve the Pillars and revive Sentinel Prime.

Of course, nothing turns out the way you quite expect, which still leads to the inevitable battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. What would a Transformers movie be without giant robots beating each other up and Sam saving the day as he runs around either screaming like a big girl, getting angry or feeling sorry for himself? The whole movie does require a massive suspension of disbelief, as well as any sort of rational reasoning, such as: "Why do the Autobots keep changing into their vehicle forms to escape a fight when they can move quicker in their Autobot form?"

Niggles aside, what Bay does give us is massive entertainment in his trademark explosive, jingoistic style (and he does a much more convincing job of digitally destroying a city than Roland Emmerich). - in 3D and 7.1 Dolby sound. There's been a lot of complaints recently about the poor quality of 3D presentations and the cynical moves by studios to cash in on the format (which seems to be having something of a backlash), but this one is probably one of the technically best 3D movies since AVATAR. It is an audio and visual onslaught, and even though its two-and-a-half hour runtime sometimes feels a little overlong with some unnecessary scenes and exposition, but for the most part Bay keeps it entertaining and fast paced enough that the action has moved on before you really have chance to get too analytical or critical about it. This isn't a movie for in-depth critical analysis; we have THE TREE OF LIFE for that.

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is in cinemas and IMAX now.

We have two pairs of tickets to see TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON at the BFI IMAX, Southbank. We will give one pair at the end of the first and send week. Click on the link below to enter.