Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Nobody went to the first
Transformers for Shia LaBeouf. Nobody went for Megan Fox either
(well, maybe some of us did). Everybody who saw that summer blockbuster
two years ago went for the robots — the shape-shifting,
ass-kicking, totally awesome robots. In this overblown sequel, director
Michael Bay wisely keeps the camera on the Autobots and Decepticons for
most of the movie, shoving aside what little plot there is to make room
for big, explosive set pieces where tons of shit blows up. This time
around, the “story” has something to do with a reborn and
revenge-minded Megatron returning to Earth to kidnap LaBeouf’s Sam and
then take over the planet. But who really cares? It’s all about bigger
and badder battles that span Sam’s front yard to the Egyptian desert.
At two and a half hours, there’s plenty of time to get to know
Revenge of the Fallen‘s bots, but Bay is more focused on
big bangs, cheap laughs and having his metal heroes call opponents
“punk-ass Decepticons.” LaBeouf and Fox are back (our first glimpse of
her is a slow-mo shot of her cut-offs-clad ass); so are Bumblebee,
Optimus Prime and a bunch of little Gremlin-like Transformers. Sam is
in college now, giving Bay the opportunity to cause some major property
damage on campus. He also introduces a horny coed who’s a literal
man-eater. It all spills over into one of the movie’s best scenes. But
too much of Revenge of the Fallen is loud, plodding (does
it really need to be two and a half hours?) and totally obnoxious.
There’s also an ages-old alien conspiracy thrown into the mix, just in
case all the other noisy stuff happening onscreen isn’t enough to wear
you out.
**1/2
(Michael Gallucci)
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2009.