Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen Decent But With Many Flaws

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2009)

Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen is decent but the film suffers from an overlong running time, a rushed finale, abrupt ending, and the lack of character development especially the Autobots and Decepticons. The dialogue wasn't the greatest at times and some of the humor didn't work either. Director Michael Bay is an okay director but this isn't his best film because there's more of everything (robots, action, special effects and humor) in this one but it ended up hurting this sequel instead of making it better. Shia Labeouf reprises the role of Sam providing his usual comic relief and he's decent as the character. Megan Fox is all right as Mikaela but she isn't given much to do except to be eye candy. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are back too but even they seem to have less to do in this one. John Turturo is also back and he does a good job as Simmons . The special effects are top notch but it sort of becomes overkill after a while and the robot action/fight sequences are well executed for the most part. The only fight though that had any emotional to it was between Optimus and three Decepticons in a fierce forest showdown that leaves the Aubobots leader ready for the scrap yard because after that battle the action/fight sequences kind of become repetitive. This sequel definitely seemed to be more about the action and special effects than the story and characters. The biggest flaw this movie has is the treatment of not only the new autobots and decepticons but the returning ones as well because most of them with the exceptional of maybe Optimus, Bumblebee and Megatron don't get nearly enough screen time. Many of the new Decepticons introduced (like The Fallen, Devastator, Soundwave, Grindor, Sideways, and Demolisher among many others) only show up for a few minutes before either being killed or disappearing with no explanation. Except for Megatron, The Fallen, and Starscream the others have little to no dialogue who serve no real purpose besides one maybe two action/fight sequences. Some of the new Autbots including Arcee, Jolt, and Sideswipe aren't even given the proper treatment they deserve because none of them are in it long enough to leave an impression. Returning ones like Ironhide and Ratchet are MIA for the most of the movie. They both make a few appearances with little to no dialogue. They're not in it nearly as much as the first one. Even fan favorites like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are MIA for large parts of the film but they're effective in their limited screen time. Megatron and Starscream get a little more to do than the first one by not by much. The two characters I was most disappointed in were The Fallen and Devastator. They both get at the most 5 to 8 minutes of screen time. The Fallen is an interesting character but he's killed off in his fight near the end by Optimus way too easily to be that much of a threat and he could've been a much more worthy adversary (His fight with Optimus lasts 8 to 10 seconds if that). The character Devastator had promise and looked like cool but the joke with the wrecking balls for his well you know I didn't find that funny. Devastator doesn't even show up until near the end and is easily defeated like The Fallen. Scorpnok makes a blink and you missed it cameo in the desert climax before being killed off five seconds later making the characters appearance rather pointless. There were simply too many robots on both sides. If they focused on the returning one mores and gave them more screen time while introducing some new robots it would've been better because some character development is better than none. The only two characters to get any sort of development were Jetfire and the Twins. I didn't find the Twins racist like some people did but the movie could've easily done without them giving more screen time to Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet, or some of the other characters. Jetfire was another interesting character but I don't know why they had him speak with an accent. The abrupt ending left you wondering about what happened to many of the characters like Megatron and Starscream to name a few. There was also a part late into the film where Sam gets hurt and then a second later his hand is bandaged up so this seemed like an error from the screenwriters for not coming up with a better way to put Labeouf's real life injury into the story. For those of you who have seen it already you probably know what scene I'm talking about. The ending does leaves the door open for another possible sequel but I just hope if they do make a third film it's better than this one. The music also didn't really seem to sync well with the movie like it did with the first one and the raunchy humor was often funny while others no so much. The running time of 2 and half hours did make the movie feel a little long especially toward the end. Overall despite it's many flaws Trasformers Revenge Of The Fallen is a decent sci-fi adventure with plenty of robot action, some humor, and good performances by the cast but this sequel could've been a lot better.