A Michael Bay Compilation

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2009)

First let me start by saying that I like Michael Bay. I don't listen to the haters who long for a cult classic every time they go to the theaters and are most likely just jealous that Bay has the coolest job in the world; he gets to blow lots of stuff up and make millions of dollars for it.
I was a big fan of Transformers, and I feel that Revenge of the Fallen did a good job of keeping pace with the first. This time it's bigger, louder and much more boggling to all of your senses. The Action scenes feature bigger robots and bigger expanses of land to comprise the settings, such as the entire Egyptian desert. The plot does suffer from noticeable (HUGE actually) flaws such as Sam and his entourage enter the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Which is in Washington DC for those who don't know, Michael Bay being obviously doesn't) and then run out the back door only to find themselves in some sort of airplane graveyard desert . Oops.
Unfortunately, I found myself constantly laughing out loud at the repetitive use of shots and sequences that were blatantly copy and pasted from basically every other Michael Bay film. The low angled shot of a slow motion jumbo jet passing overhead is ripped straight out of the first Bad Boys. Then we move to a scene where a series of marines barge into an underground vault where an alarm has been tripped, but for some reason this scene looked very familiar. Maybe it was because I had already seen it in the opening scene of The Rock. Then there is Armageddon. Oh man, where do I begin? Lets see, we have an exact replica of the shot from outer space where an asteroid (in this case an alien) is traveling directly into our atmosphere. And then there's the sequence where the asteroids (aliens) are tearing apart Paris as they fall from the sky. Bay should have saved himself some money and just edited in the scenes where Asteroids beat down on New York City because they looked the same to me. Going down the list we come to Pearl Harbor. As more alien asteroids fall to earth, a few conveniently plunge through an aircraft carrier just so Bay could have a slow motion underwater shot of the boat sinking. From Bad Boys 2 we have the scene where the camera continuously moves 360 degrees through a crack house, passing through little holes and openings in the wall with Will and Martin on one side and some Haitian druggies on the other. This time it's Shai and Megan on one side of an Egyptian shack and killer robots on the other side.
And of course every Bay movie has that one low angled, slow motion, 360 shot of the main character, that is quickly becoming a trademark of all his movies. However, this movie has just about as many 360 slow-mo shots as Michael Bay has movies. Even the killing of alien robots has become overly extreme and in some cases graphic. This is no doubt a tribute to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th, which are both produced by Bay.
Overall the movie is an enjoyable summer blockbuster thrill ride. The action keeps the pace moving, the comedic punch lines offer some flavorful color and lets just be honest, Megan Fox is smokin' hot! It's still a Bay film so don't go expecting Oscar gold. This movie is a series of big budget explosions strung together with tidbits of story line but worth seeing.