3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

While the box office was brisk once again, critics had big problems with this sequel to the 2007 CGI action film, not the least of which was that they had to spend 147 minutes watching a CGI action film.

Anyone who had trouble with that is going to freak when they see the DVD package sticker promoting "3 Hours of Bonus Extras." Who really has the time for that?

Having watched portions, I can you tell it doesn't require three hours for the "Transformers" team to tell you how "big" everything was, how brilliant and hard-working director Michael Bay is (even if he was continuously late to the set) and how creative the people at Hasbro are. A Hasbro exec even sits there and says, "I'm amazed every day at what we do." He actually says that!

You also get actors who play U.S. soldiers telling us what a physical grind it was on the set, something that actors in camo should never, ever complain about. There are three deleted scenes including a creepy romantic moment between Sam Witwicky's aging parents that's going to be hard to erase from my mind.

As for the movie, it's big, loud, overstuffed and, all in all, more fun than trying to transform one of those toys from a robot to a car. This time around, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is off to college, leaving behind his woefully ugly girlfriend (Megan Fox) and transforming Autobot Camaro (Bumblebee). Before you can say "keg party," Sam is called back into action to save the world from the evil Decepticons, spinning the story off to Washington, New York, Paris and the ruins of Egypt, where Megatron's crew will slug it out in biblical fashion against Optimus Prime's.

The special effects are out of this world, Fox is even more so, and John Turturro, as the bullying Sector 7 agent, sparks the second half of the film as a frothing alien obsessive.

People who trashed it the first time will find that "Transformers" on DVD is smaller on the small screen, and still as long, but that it comes with a pause button.

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