A disappointing rehash of the first film, only not as good.

Rating: 3/10 (19 June 2009)

I'm not a rabid Transformers fanboy by any means, but I'm annoyed by the other reviews on here which seems to think that a coherent plot and decent characterisation are too much to expect from a film based on such a rich milieu, with a quarter-century of continual development and storytelling to draw upon.
After the (decent) establishing work done in the first film to create an emotional connection with these giant alien robots, I had hoped they'd be allowed to carry the next film on their own merits, and have some character development of their own. Instead we got Part 2 of "The Amazing Adventures of Sam Witwicky" in which Sam once again comes to possess the secret location of some-vital-thing, and is chased around by a bunch of interchangeable Decepticons, while most of the Autobots now seem content to merely lend fire-support to the US Military.
Although several established Transformers make appearances in this film (Soundwave, Ravage, Arcee, The Constructicons/Devastator, amongst others), no attempt is made to personalise them or give them individual motivations. Optimus Prime on the other hand displays an uncharacteristic level of savagery in his combat scenes, disembowelling Decepticons and tearing their faces off with abandon. Megatron meanwhile is entirely irrelevant to the film, merely the "apprentice" of The Fallen, a 2-dimensional stock villain of the cheapest sort; the Decepticons bafflingly willing to carry out his nonsensical agenda.
*sigh* It's got cool robots in it, stuff blows up in an exhilarating way, and Megan's boobs look nice in slo-mo. It's just a shame they didn't have the confidence to let the robots take the lead this time round, or make the effort to come up with a less ridiculous plot.