The movie of the day, er, weekend: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2009)

Reflecting on "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," much of the movie's imagery remains permanently etched into my memory. I remember the ear-shattering sounds of Autobots and Decepticons going head-to-head in many spectacular battles in Shanghai, later in the American wilderness and some unnamed college university, and finally in the Eyptian desert. I also remember the sounds of metal and machinery reconfiguring itself and the camera being able to catch every mechanical whir and clank. But all that mechanical wonder and glory can be drowned out by a great many explosions and crashes, complements of Hollywood's favorite go-to over-director, Michael Bay, who has also found some kind of guidance in over-direction from the legendary Steven Spielberg, breaking away from his previous long-standing relationship with producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
I also vividly remember the film's plot, where Our Hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is attending his first year at college, leaving behind girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) so she can help in her ex-con father's rehabilitation; she is also responsible for being the film's most striking image - the first shot of her, lying on a bike with her posterior high up in the air, is pure eye candy and unforgettable, and an early indication of how she will be used in this picture.
I predict that "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" will win over many hearts and minds over this Fourth of July weekend, and how could it not? It has giant robots fighting to the death, lots of epic special effects transforming sequences, lots of explosions and of course, Megan Fox (by the way, as a guy, I actually think she's one of the LEAST - least is italicized here - attractive young actresses working in Hollywood at the moment).
Bay, that Hollywood hit-maker behind big, explosive epics such as "The Rock" (1996) (my personal favorite film of his), "Pearl Harbor" (2001) and "Bad Boys II" (2003), returns to direct a much bigger, much louder sequel to his 2007 blockbuster hit "Transformers," which saw the big-screen debut of the line of toys made popular by toy company Hasbro in the '80s about massive shape-changing robots of extraterrestrial origin that mistakenly bring their centuries-old war from their home planet Cybertron to Earth, and their luring Everyman Sam Witwicky into the center of their battle.
"Revenge of the Fallen" concerns the malevolent Decepitcons' - now under the leadership of the newly resurrected Megatron - attempts to locate a mysterious alien power source on Earth so that they can drain all the energy from the sun, or something like that. And for that, they need to locate poor college boy Sam Witwicky. Meanwhile, the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, have forged a top-secret Autobot/American military alliance to hunt down rogue Decepticons on Earth. And so, we can basically resume the same "chase movie" plot between humans and robots from the first film. And somewhere in there, we also learn a little more about the history of the Autobots and Decepticons and their reasons for being on Earth in the first place.
Boy, is this film long. But, at 2 1/2 hours, the film is never really boring, despite getting off to a very slow start. There's a lot to like here, and there's a lot to not like. The good is that the movie looks fantastic, is well-acted (especially Agent Simmons, played by a scene-stealing John Turturro), and well-made; I'm really getting tired of saying that about most big Hollywood blockbusters, because any movie being made nowadays can look fantastic and can be well-made and well-acted and still be complete crap. Truly the second best thing that can be said about "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is that Shia LaBeouf is turning out to be one of the most likable Everymen working in Hollywood nowadays, since he is basically continuing the likable Everyman shtick from the first film. Also, Fox looks pretty good, but that's really all that she does for the movie: she looks pretty good.
The bad is that the movie is just too long, there are too many unnamed robots running amok (Devastator was awesome beyond words and was actually quite scary, but he wasn't in the movie long enough), and a lot of the comic elements really aren't that funny; of course I'm talking about the jive-talking twin Autobots. Much has been made about these two and their (alleged) racist portrayal of blacks, right down to one of them having a gold tooth. As a black male, I didn't find them offensive in the least bit, but I instead found them to be stupid, unnecessary, distracting, and annoying. Above all, they were terribly un-funny.
The best thing that can be said about "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is that while it's not a vastly superior sequel in the least, it's more like the 1980s cartoon series that it inspired it. And that is what will undoubtedly make this movie a winner this Fourth of July weekend.
10/10