This is where it jumps the shark

Rating: 4/10 (29 February 2016)

I must say I was kinda surprised that I sort of enjoyed the first "Transformers" movie from 2007, but sadly I cannot say the same about this Oscar-nominated sequel and second of so far 4 films. The first half is utterly forgettable. The second half has a couple decent moments mostly thanks to John Turturro, who is fun to watch as always. And you have to say about the franchise that they have a lead actor in Shia LaBeouf, who is almost too good for the material. This certainly does not apply to Megan Fox who returns as the female main character, but adds almost nothing to the film apart from one scene perhaps when she wants to train a little evil robot to become good. Labeouf's character in the mean time wants to sleep with another chick, which sort of puts a heavy question mark behind his character from the first film who is totally in love with Fox', but luckily his mating partner here is just an evil robot in disguise and it's not elaborated on any further. That scene was fun though, but yeah, this is not really drama movie in terms of the relationships between characters and the whole "I Love You" part felt really cringeworthy at times, partially because of Fox, partially because of the script.
The second half of this film here is certainly better than the first and the desert is a nice setting for all the battled depicted in here. Also the comedy from Turturro, but also the good robots, works on many occasions and it is a shame that the film tries to be so much more beyond pointless action fun with huge special effects. Because if it had been a little less ambitious in certain areas, then this could have been as good as the original. But it is not and director Michael Bay unsurprisingly does not have the talent to deliver in any areas that go beyond what we see. Then again, you have to say in his favor that he is not one of the writers here and they did the worst job I guess, which is particularly disappointing as you'd expect three people to come up with something better. Nonetheless, this was again a huge box office success, so it's no surprise that several more "Transformers" films followed this one. As for me, I do not have a lot of interest too see them, even if I hope they maybe can take the best parts from this very long 150-minute movie and elaborate on these in the next films. If that is the case, I will once again have a good time watching I guess. But I do not recommend "Transformers 2". Thumbs down.