Unimpresed regardless of striking visual effects.

Rating: 3/10 (25 July 2009)

My anticipation level for this film was high as I expected more robots providing the thrills and a darker tone as "promised" by director Michael Bay. The results were unsatisfying. While we got more robots like what he promised, he tends throw them around in the scenery to the point that we don't get to learn much about them, hear anything they have to say, or remember what their names were before he wipes them off-screen just to give more "depth" to these loud, lumbering idiots known as humans, particularly it's two leads Shia LeBouf and Megan Fox, who characters cute, if unbearable, teen romance subplot comes off to be more time-consuming rather than interesting considering the fact that Bay's films doesn't seem to have the time or place for any depth at all. If the human characters weren't enough, we have two dimwitted robots taking up the majority of the screen time from the much serious ones, you know the ones we never really got to know. The pros of this film are the visual effects, which are just as eye-catching as they well in the first film, the forest fight between Autobot Optimus Prime (outstanding voice-work by Peter Cullen), and Decepticons Megatron, Starscream and Grindor (in case anybody wants to know his name), which is something a die-hard Transformers fan would want in a film; the rocky relationship between Starscream and Megatron, which is a surprising throwback to the G1 cartoon and all other incarnations. The cons are, well, everything else. Robot characters again being thrown around left and right with no explanation of them and falling short of true fan boy's expectations, too much comedy this time around, but the jokes fall flat and the humor is just outrageous beyond meaning such as the gigantic Decepticon called Devastator being depicted with wrecking balls dangling from his crotch area like testicles despite the fact the none of the vehicles forming him are wrecking cranes; countless demeaning shots of Megan Fox bent over in whatever leathery gear she has on to make the frat boy demographic hoot and cheer like Married...with Children audience members (as a guy myself and a Transformers fan, I prefer action/effects first as it is called Transformers and sex appeal way, way later); the plot being a hodgepodge of relentless idiocy and inconsistencies; the unnecessary pyrotechnics displayed in this film, and the hype being built around certain characters that don't live up to their promise and the horrible addition of the Autobot twins who speak in profanity-ridden gangster jargon despite the fact that these characters are "for the kids" I know it's not meant to be brilliant considering the fact that it was based on a line of toys and that the original cartoon as just as flawed, that was my defense for the original film at least. I irritates me when people have to bring up the word "Oscar material" when it come to getting the film right and it an incredible movie going experience, to which the audience found in it; it's not about making it a "Oscar" film, it's about making it a better film.