'Transformers 3:' From bot to worse

Something awful has happened to the Transformers, the Hasbro toys depicted in Michael Bay's implausibly successful action-film franchise. The self-described "intelligent mechanical beings" have been stripped of whatever once resembled a heart.

That isn't the plot of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," which has something to do with the Apollo 11 mission and a scheme to dominate Earth, but an unfortunate side effect of this third film's decision to reach new heights of violence, profanity and innuendo. Where the previous films were the equivalent of a cap gun -- loud, brightly colored and harmless -- the new film resembles the kind of toy Kalishnikov that looks so creepy when put into a pair of little hands.

Then again, is this 2-1/2-hour slog even aimed at children? Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), the amiable teenager who first discovered the friendly Autobots and villainous Decepticons, is now an angry, sarcastic young man embittered by a shrinking job market. He has traded in the girl once played by Megan Fox for another, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), whose purpose is clear: She is first seen as a pair of buttocks ascending a staircase, then endures elevator eyes from Agent Simmons (John Turturro), cocky CEO Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey) and even CIA boss Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand).

The robots, too, have become meaner of spirit. The Autobots now summarily execute their enemies; the Decepticons turn humans into vapor, leaving behind the occasional fleshless skull. Some scenes of mass destruction feel unpleasantly like 9/11, with much plummeting and screaming.

The previous "Transformers" films had an exasperating charm, like loud, rambunctious little boys. With "Dark of the Moon," the series now seems to be developing a behavioral problem.