Should've been better

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2009)

Michael Bay's sequel to the 2007 smash hit based on Hasbro's best selling toy line is a mixed affair.
Optimus Prime and his fellow Autobots now work with a US Military Task Force called NEST in hunting down rogue Decepticons whilst reluctant hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself leaving home and his girlfriend (Megan Fox) for college.
Whilst the first film was in no doubt a Michael Bay film, you always got the sense that the guiding hand of Executive Producer Steven Spielberg had been predominant throughout its production, Bay's excesses were toned down and focus was put on the story and the characters. Unfortunately I got the feeling whilst watching Revenge of the Fallen that Spielberg took a less "hands on" role for the sequel.
This is a Michael Bay film through and through, there's no escaping that. Loud explosions, slow-mo action scenes, shots filmed from the ground staring upwards to an orange tinged sky, all his traits and clichés are here, not to mention the obscene amount of gratuitous shots of the US Military that borders on the pornographic by the films conclusion (I'm almost convinced that if you took out half of the shots devoted to glorifying them, the film would be a good 15 minutes shorter) It's because of Bay's excesses that this film is a mess. There is a good story in here, somewhere, but it's surrounded by so much bombast and flag waving bravado that it really does leave a bitter taste in the mouth when the film (finally!) finishes. Not only that, I was quite amazed at the amount of swearing and sexual references in the film. I'm definitely no prude, but come guys, this is, essentially, a kids film that will be watched by a huge amount of 6-7 years olds. What's wrong with some good old fashioned PG entertainment?!? Besides that, the two main misfires are, for a film where the main villain is mentioned in the title, he's quite conspicuous by his absence. The Fallen could've been Palpaptine to Megatron's Vader but the dynamic and relationship are so poorly conceived and written that you still don't really have a clue what either have been doing or have been up to, rather than they want to destroy Earth's Sun.
The sheer amount of new Transformers is also confusing. I'm all for going bigger and better in sequels but here, there are just too many of them to keep track of. So many new Autobots and Decepticons are introduced that they just end up being faceless (and under written) robots. One of the things that the first film got right is that you had a core base of 5 autobots that were fully fleshed out, had definitive characters and most importantly, you cared about. Here, with several more thrown into the mix, you just don't give a monkeys! I'm not even going to mention the Twins, Mudflap and Skids. Jeez, what were they thinking?!? (Honestly if people thought Jar Jar Binks was racist, they're going to have a field day with these two!) There are some good points, it's not all bad. The first hour is very good and up there with the first film. Shia and Megan (especially Megan ) are great on screen and always watchable, there's the right amount of mystery and action in that first hour (the college Decepticon attack is a great stand out scene and is reminiscent of something from the Terminator franchise) but the film really suffers once, spoilers ahoy! - Optimus Prime meets his death in a terrific forest set action sequence.
From that point onwards, it's as if the film loses its heart and soul and just becomes another cynical overblown Hollywood product. The film only really recovers once, there go those spoilers again! - Optimus Prime is resurrected.
But by that point, it's too late, the damage has been done and you've given up caring.
There is a good film in here, somewhere. Trim out the worst excesses of Bay's film-making, lose at least 30 minutes of the running time, get rid of the awful Twins and you would have a film that is as good, or if not better than, the first film. However it seems as if being better equals bigger and longer in Hollywood today when, in some cases, the reverse is true. 7.5/10 (and I'm being generous, that's for the first hour, Optimus Prime and all those scenes of Megan Fox running)