"Transformers" Robots Battling For Box Office Bucks

LOS ANGELES (CBS4) - The giant "Transformers" robots have shrunk a bit in the early going at the box office.

Paramount Pictures says "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" launched with $13.5 million domestically in screenings Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

That's less than the $16.6 million that the second of the three "Transformers" flicks, "Revenge of the Fallen," took in from midnight screenings alone two years ago. "Revenge of the Fallen" went on to top $400 million domestically and $800 million worldwide.

"Dark of the Moon" pulled in $5.5 million from screenings that started at 9 p.m. or later Tuesday at about 2,700 theaters. The movie added $8 million at about 3,000 cinemas in post-midnight showings overnight.

Paramount has expanded the movie domestically to about 4,000 theaters.

In Transformers: "Dark of the Moon" director Michael Bay serves up another loud, long, bruising and wearisome onslaught of giant, shape-shifting robots. Bay tries to inject more flesh-and-blood consequence this time, but the human element arises largely from archival footage involving the 1960s moon race, along with images that may disturb younger kids as screaming, scrambling humans are vaporized by the `bots like insects in a bug zapper.

Puny humans Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson again are caught up in the war between benevolent Autobots and evil Decepticons, joined by new cast members Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Patrick Dempsey.

Leonard Nimoy provides the voice of an Autobot elder, his age-old, gravelly vocals proving the most human element in the movie. The visuals are dazzling, but Bay lets the battles grind on so long that the motion and noise turns numbing.

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