Lacking Substance, but style outshines

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2009)

This movie is way bigger and better than the first. Let's just get that out of the way. If you're wanting more of what the first one lacked, i.e., the transformers (whichever ones that may be) being in the movie more and fighting more, YOU WILL GET THAT IN SPADES IN THIS MOVIE. Steven Spielberg coming on knew what to add and Michael Bay outdoes himself with action, and ILM once again raises the bar for CGI. This is, however, all surface.
Once you get beneath the surface, ROTF starts to have problems. The first hour of the movie is unfortunately focused on Sam's parents, who, though their stupidity had a place in the first movie, as it was worked in mostly around the transformers being in and around their house, this time is for some inexplicable reason given its own spotlight. It's somewhat funny, but almost seems unnecessary especially given that the second half of the movie turns polarizingly grim, touching on topics such as the end of the world, Sam's potential death, and even featuring stronger robot violence that culminates with Prime ripping The Fallen's face off. No lie. Therefore, this kind of stupid humor, which infects several other characters, both robot and human, seems like a waste of screen time. It should have been refined or even curtailed to allow for as few groans as possible. However, there is one point in which I'm willing to forgive the stupid humor: Jon Turturro's Agent Simmons. His character actually works. Changing NOTHING of the wacky, over-the-top nature of his character keeps him consistent with who he was in the first movie and actually puts the other stupidity around him in check as if to say, "this is how it's done". It's also a breath of fresh air when Sam's parents are captured in France by a Decepticon, something that shouldn't necessarily be true.
However, being that there isn't a TON of excess story, four groups of people running around like in the first, allows for the transformers to shine. And, GOD, do they shine. From a sequence where a human-transformer tries to kill Sam to Optimus Prime fighting Blackout, Starscream, and Megatron all at once and almost winning. However, once Prime leaves the movie, a lot is lost until the final act. With him goes his gravitas, and it's replaced with the silly antics of Mudflap and Skids along with excessive and almost pointless ramblings by the Fallen, who does nothing until the last 15 minutes of the movie. This is a major weakness of the movie, but due to awesome shot after awesome shot, is glossed over. There is one scene in particular towards the end that really annoyed me. As Sam arrives where Prime's body is with what he believes to be the Matrix of Leadership, there is still 45 minutes left in the movie...yep, you probably guessed it. It takes him almost a half an hour of screen time to reach Optimus' body while a haphazard battle (though awesome) takes place to protect the same body between the same Autobots who have been on screen since the beginning and eight new Decepticons who aren't even named.
This is also something that weakens the movie. Unlike in the first movie, where the viewer could connect in one way or another to each recognizable transformer (Decepticon or Autobot), there are so many in this movie that a lot of the important ones from the first movie, like Ironhide and Ratchet, are practically sidelined in terms of screen time and others are poorly introduced if at all. If you're willing to forgive this because the battles are awesome, then that's fine, but you are rewarded when a nonpresent Scorponok re-emerges to attack Jetfire as he's wiping out various Decepticons. Further rewards come when a revived but almost lethally weakened Optimus fuses with a dead Jetfire to battle The Fallen, who is trying to use his newly activated device to kill all humanity and harvest the sun for Energon. This sequence is spectacularly satisfying, as this new Optimus battles Megatron, Starscream, and The Fallen, a reference to the scene earlier, all by himself, but this time comes out on top, and Megatron and Starscream flee as they are half destroyed and The Fallen is dead.
In all, there is just way too much screen time. The movie plays out like this: there are a million small bad things that progressively pile up over the course of the movie like a turning tide, as the lesser number of awesome scenes turn the tide with each one's progressively bigger quality, edging out the bad in the end. In all, it is actually really enjoyable, but it feels like a schizophrenic journey as you enjoy the same movie at different times for completely different and often contradictory reasons. For example, a lot of Skids/Mudflap's lines are really funny so you enjoy them because they're silly, but you enjoy Optimus' moments of seriousness and violence too. In the end, it's a great popcorn flick, perhaps the best of the summer, but it never rises above it. I went in expecting this movie to do to the first movie what TDK did to Batman Begins: Dwarf it in scope, quality, and action. Instead, it delivered a lot of the same things from the first movie, just more of them. However, if you are looking for big robots beating the oil out of each other, you won't find a finer example then ROTF, not for a long time.