Revenge of The Fallen is loud, explosive metal-on-metal action extravaganza with plenty of visual heft, but very little ambition

Rating: 5/10 (17 June 2017)

With the massive success of the 2007 Transformers entry, it is only expected that Michael Bay would continue the story. Upon facing a collision course with the 2007-2008 Writer's Strike however, Bay and a trio of writers were in a rush with the production process. The evidence of their production difficulties is greatly shown in this final product of this bombastic 150-minute metal-on-metal action extravaganza. While Bay keeps his promise of spectacular visual heft involving heavy battles of giants robots sparring against each other, the script is the bumbling disappointment. The movie is underplotted, scarce of interesting characters, and signals a decline in the spirit of what the original film is wildly entertaining hit. Of course, hoping for a firmly groundbreaking story in a Michael Bay would probably be a lot of ask for consider the director's past endeavors. This does not stray from the shallowness of his bruised continuation of the Transformers saga. Set after the events of the predecessor, Sam Witwicky (played by Shia Labeouf) has graduated high school and is now heading off to college in attempt to live a normal life away from the Autobots and Decepticons. Kissing his girlfriend Mikaela (played by Megan Fox) and his parents (played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White) good-bye, Sam embarks on his college career, only to be haunted by mysterious symbols printed on a piece of the Allspark. Soon on, Sam finds himself pulled back into the war between the Autobots lead by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and the Decepticons who set out to wreck havoc on the human race. In the process, Mikaela and Sam's geeky roommate Leo (played by Ramon Rodriguez) are along for the ride.
This film cooks with roughly the same ingredients of the first entry, although it appears a plot may be the very last item on agenda. The story intends on picking up not far from the where the previous film left off and continue the epic saga between the Autobots and the Decepticons. There was some fair potential at hand. Unfortunately, the majority of that potential is squandered on a thinly developed plot that not only fails to properly explain a few elements such as why the Decepticons are still after Sam, but occasionally dives into some absurd plot elements. If you need an example, one of which propels from Sam's sexual encounter with a college girl. After all, the film, even more so than the previous entry, takes heavy advantage from some awkward sexual innuendo including some racy dialogue uttered by the robots and a shot showing John Turturro in a G-string that place some moviegoers (particularly parents who bring their kids) at heave. Some of the humor is surprisingly funny, others are just flat-out crude and out of place. On the plus side, Bay boasts a somewhat commendable aptitude in special effects and visually alluring action set pieces showcasing the autobots and the decepticons going head-to-head and ripping each other apart in a loud explosion galore. The climatic battle set near the Pyramids of Egypt where military tanks are blown up, the pyramid is nearly decimated to pieces, and the explosion racks up a number nearly impossible to count; is sets stone in the film's biggest enchantment. If there is even a minor improvement from the predecessor, it may the performances by both Shia Lebeouf and Megan Fox which really isn't saying much, especially as the latter is once again recycled as a one-dimensional character delivering sex appeal for lingering shots of her body. The rest of the characters are sadly fall short of interest as well, particularly Ramon Rodriguez who's whiny personality and goofiness resembles more of an obnoxious caricature than a compelling character. Even when he lands maybe a few attempts at humor, his character can be quite a vexing device.
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a boisterous sci-fi action eye candy for those who are able to dive into the visually stunning action set pieces to distract themselves from the thinly written plot and characters. For everyone, this one may not be a your cup of tea. By no means is this big-budget sequel an abhorrent disaster. After all, there is plenty of visual heft that is destined to keep the youngster occupied. But it is a disappointing entry in this freshly born saga.