More of the same old Michael Bay- All effects, no fun.

Rating: 4/10 (13 July 2009)

I really enjoyed the 2007 film Transformers and was disappointed it didn't win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. When I heard of the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, I was ready for an even better sequel. I heard it wasn't all that good via RottenTomatoes(19% rating currently), but I brushed that off. I even bought an IMAX ticket(this was my first non-zoo IMAX visit). What I got was 2 and a half hours of time lost and $13.50 as well. The critics were, right: this was one BIG disappointment.
It follows Sam(Shia LaBeouf), who is now in a big relationship with Mikaela(Megan Fox), going to college while the Autobots, including good old' Optimus Prime(voice of Peter Cullen), have sided with human soldiers to take down all of the Decepticons on Earth. After touching a piece of the AllSpark, Sam's mind is filled with symbols and this information causes Sam to become a target of the Decepticons. Apparently the Fallen, a prime who really hates Earth. It's a basically another clash between good bots and bad bots. Oh yeah, and Megatron(voice of Hugo Weaving) has been revived and he's looking for a little revenge.
For the positives. The film has great effects. It also has plenty more bots than the first film. And pretty much you have almost all of the major original characters(John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhammel and even Kevin Dunn and Julie White as Sam's parents) from the first film, except for Jon Voight(good move on his part).
On the negatives, it's mostly same old Bay, with a weak plot and lackluster performances. One of the film's new humans, Sam's college roommate and later companion Leo Spitz(Ramon Rodriguez), is utterly annoying. And that's just an example. Unfortunately, I didn't care much for the effects after the first 20 minutes, as the excessive running time really annoyed me(I checked my watch like 20 times). The film has plenty of moments that didn't need to be put in, and I even think some of the fight sequences were unnecessary. If I had my way, I'd shave out the useless bits, which would reduce the running time to 100-105 minutes. And what's with you, Michael? It's like he said, "Okay, we need to focus mostly on our effects. Forget acting and story, get those effects guys on the hook now!!!!!!" I thought the first film was his chance for a great comeback, but this just destroyed it. In fact, aside from Transformers, Bay hasn't done a decently good film since 1998's Armageddon. If they do a Transformers 3, hopefully they'll look on this film as what they should NOT do.
Overall, I give Revenge of the Fallen a 4 out of 10. What a shame. And it's still going to make oodles of cash($672 million worldwide and counting).