Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

Bottom-Line: Don't expect great cinema and you won't be disappointed. 

The first Transformers movie released in 2007, grossed some 708 million dollar worldwide (319 domestically, 389 overseas) according to boxofficemojo.com.  Not a bad take for movie that lacked a coherent plot-line, but sort of made up for it by dishing out the action in loving spoonfuls.  With that kind of gross a sequel was a foregone conclusion and so Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was born once again directed by explosion junkie Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon, The Island).

The Story-line (I'm being kind)

The Transformers (good and evil) have been watching Earth for quite some time, and some have been living on the planet for centuries soaking up little nuggets of human culture to call their own.  But, wait there is more: The Transformers first came to earth when man was still hunting for his food with crude spears and rocks; the year was 17,000 BCE.  They came to suck the life from our sun in order to convert it to Energon and power Cybertron's AllSpark.   To this end they built a giant machine, called the Sun Harvester that needs a key called the Matrix of Leadership to start, but only the "Primes" have the key.

But Transformer laws dictated that the planet had to be lifeless; ours wasn't and so a way erupted between the good Primes and an evil Prime, dubbed The Fallen, here on Earth.  The result: the good Primes made off with the key and entombed it with their bodies somewhere in the Nile Valley of Egypt. The evil Prime, The Fallen escapes to one of the moons of Saturn and bides his time, always searching for the key and vowing revenge on Earth once he finds it.         

My Viewpoint  

All of the principles are back for the sequel; i.e.  Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky (father), Julie White as Judy Witwicky (mother),  Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes, Josh Duhamel as Major Lennox, Tyese Gibson as Master Sergeant Epps and John Turturro as Agent Simmons.

But once again there are major plot holes, festooned throughout Mr. Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  For instance, and I still can't get over this; the robots are supposedly made inert by extreme cold, but isn't it very, very cold in the dark of space where most of the Decepticons now hang?  In fact more than one scene depicts an un-named Decepticon tapping into one of the Pentagon's communications satellite's some many miles above the planet; every cold!

And once again the movie lacks coherence, jumping from scene to scene without much glue to hold it all together.  But the action was almost non-stop; yes Michael Bay is back and he is blowing up the world.  In the process plenty of nameless humans meet their makers, but our hero's remain unscathed with the exception of Sam at one point, but he is brought back by love! (?)  

Nonetheless, I found Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen mildly entertaining for $6.50, if not a wholly satisfying, or intelligently etched together; it must be the boy in me battling the adult.  But seriously, I wasn't expecting anything more than what I got from the movie; it never pretended to be great cinema, just a Blockbuster designed to appeal to teenage boys, and based on the initial box-office take the movie accomplished it goals.

Boys of all ages will no doubt continue go see this movie; hey shinny robots, explosions, no plot, and Megan "pouty lips" Fox are all a recipe for success, like it or no.  Girls on the other hand need not apply unless of course, they like the Transformers, "Robots in Disguise, Transformers, More Than Meets the Eye" indeed.