120% Explosions, 75% entertainment

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2009)

When will Michael Bay learn that sometimes less is more? In the Transformers sequel there are so many explosions, transformations and robot fights that you soon reach a point that you almost don't care anymore. I say 'almost', because as a big budget action movie Revenge of the Fallen surely delivers... for the fans.
The first 20 minutes or so are plain bad. The story starts out in the past when we see Bionicle-like Decepticons inhabit our very earth. Jumping to the present the movie treats us with some childish humour (a crying Bumblebee? Come on!) before it really kicks off at the university. Our hero Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf) has a close encounter with an incredibly hot female student. Too good to be true, of course! But the lady turns out to be a lethal Decepticon and a few seconds later the big chase/escape/adventure begins.
When the Decepticon invasion starts invading our planet and something terrible happens to Optimus Prime the movie gets interesting. The special effects are first rate (the sinking of a big marine ship, the Decepticons under water), Megan Fox looks incredible sexy, Shia Labeouf has some great funny moments and John Turturro... well, John Turturro is as neurotic as he's always been.
Too bad that the movie is about 20 minutes too long and that there are so many fights and explosions that they cannot make a big impact anymore. The direct confrontations between the Autobots and Decepticons are so unclear that you never know which one is winning or gets damaged. Thank God Michael Bay sometimes uses slow motion.
I guess something pretty drastic must happen in the inevitable Transformers part III to keep the franchise alive. Because although this sequel is a great spectacle it showed nothing new. Except maybe the fact that some Decepticons can disguise themselves as humans - like in Battlestar Galactica.
If you enjoyed part 1 you will certainly enjoy this one too. But this sequel will not win the franchise new friends...
7,5 out of 10