Least worst sequel to a Transformers movie I've ever seen

Rating: 3/10 (18 June 2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - is it a bone fide hit in the making or a load of noisy old rubbish? Well, it's both, quite probably. Having not seen the first film I hoped there would be a sufficient introduction to get me into the Transformers world, but I don't think the filmmakers could really be bothered as it would have got in the way of whatever explosion happened to be going on at the time. Now, don't get me wrong, explosions are lovely and all, but there was so little by the way of character exploration in this that in no way did you care about any of the protagonists; the almost complete lack of plot didn't help much, either. Well, I say there was no plot - there may have been but I can't be certain because my eyes started to bleed and then I fell asleep.
So, what was good about the movie? Well, Shia was likable in the lead role, Megan was always watchable (although I couldn't tell you what her acting was like), there were a few scenes with Sam's parents that were entertaining, much (although not all) of the effects work was effective but that was about it, I think, because come the end, I still wasn't sure exactly which of the robots were goodies or why I should care. Oh well.
As it is, I think they missed a trick with this one; had they cut down on the swearing a bit they'd have made a PG rating rather than 12A/PG13 and so their prime constituent of eight year old boys could have had a field day without having to drag their poor parents along. And, as I sat there with my low expectations I thought, "this really IS just like a Saturday morning cartoon" and so on that basis it was just about tolerable, which is especially odd because I was bored stupid by this kind of mindless cartoon as a kid.
All in all, then, I'd say skip this and go watch Star Trek instead. However, if your only demands are to watch large robots fighting for your gratification towards an ill-defined but doubtless noble cause, then this is the movie for you.