Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Review

I explained in the Transformers [review] why this is getting reviewed on my site, so reference back to that for furthur explaination. Let me preface this review by saying, I highly enjoy spectacles. I enjoy good summer blockbusters. I like guns, boobs, and monsters. I am even a Mchael Bay fan although I really hated the Bad Boys franchise. Given that I wasn’t that big a fan of the first film and that the critics were trashing this like mad, needless to say I went in this movie with trepidation. I can’t say I was pleasantly surprised but what I got, I enjoyed. People definitely over-reacted to this movie initially. Especially with the racism remarks, but overall, the action was top notch, and thats what I came to the theater for. The film actually starts out very strong and is extremely entertaining and it felt much like the first one. About an hour into the film there is a visually stunning battle in a forest between the Autobots and Decepticons.

Following the events of Transformers, two years have passed and the Autobots have formed an alliance with the American military in a group called Nest in order to take out the remaining Decepticon forces that are still on Earth. After dispatching the Decepticon Demolisher in a visible, damaging battle in Shanghai, Demolisher speaks of the Fallen returning to have revenge.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen makes it to the final act which is where the film becomes a complete mess. There is plenty of action here and some of it is good but then some of it is very bad. The human characters run around and yell for a little over thirty minutes dodging explosion after pointless explosion. But, I am not a snobby reviewer, I get it, its just giant robots. I am not expecting a Citizen Kane here and neither should you. The truth is, Bay is a rotten fit for this assignment; he’s much too self-important to recalibrate his approach for the younger audience this material demands. Critical consensus on Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is overwhelmingly negative. But the critics are wrong. Michael Bay used a squillion dollars and a hundred supercomputers’ worth of CG for a brilliant art movie about the illusory nature of plot.

Performance wise, it’s fine. Fox and Labeouf ain’t winning any awards but they are convincing throughout and John Turturro’s character is great value, as well as being actually funny in parts. The soundtrack, cinematography and everything else technical is spot on.  There is a much deeper history revealed about the Transformers in this flick that I thought added some much needed richness to the whole mythology of the Cybertonian race. We learn more about The Primes. We learn more about Energon and the history of the Transformers on earth as well as the grander plans.  Great action. Fantastic effects. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen takes all the good things about the first Transformers movie and makes them bigger and better.