Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

You can read my review of the first Transformers movie here.

T:ROTF (no, that doesn’t stand for Transformers: Rolling on the Floor) picks up two years after the end of the first movie. Optimus Prime and his Autobot crew have been working side by side with an international military operation called NEST (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and other good looking soldiers) to rid the world of the remaining Decepticons. Sam (Shia Lebouf) is heading off to college and leaving behind his biker-babe girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox.)

While packing for school, Sam finds a piece of the All Spark he used to defeat Megatron (who’s chilling at the bottom of the ocean under heavy military guard) two years ago. The cube remnant embeds some freaky alien symbols in Sam’s head. They also happen to be coordinates to an ancient energy source that will revive The Fallen, the ancient Decepticon leader who can only be defeated by a Prime. Lucky for us, we have the mother of all Primes on our side. What follows is a lot of complicated plot involving a plan to black out the sun (been there, done that) and take over the world.

Who cares? I sure didn’t. I just wanted to see pretty people blowing stuff up and kick-ass robot fights and there was plenty of both. Everyone did their jobs. Megan Fox was the eye candy and she licked her sticky-glossed lips for all they were worth… and I’m guessing that’s a lot because it damn sure seems like she had her lips done since the last movie. John Turturro is back as Agent Simmons and also providing comic relief is Ramon Rodriquez as Leo, Sam’s conspiracy theorist roommate.

Michael Bay seems to have taken what people liked in the first one and amped it up here. For instance, there’s more of Sam’s hilarious parents (Kevin Dunn, Julie White) and extended Autobot/Decepticon hand-t0-hand combat.

Of course, with any film designed purely to wow and entertain you can’t delve too deeply into the plot or else you’ll find yourself lost in a sea of, “That don’t make no damn sense.” Like, why was Megatron not melted down for parts? Also, SPOILER ALERT do not read the bold text if you’ve not seen the movie or care about spoilers…. why wasn’t there more, “WTF?!,” at the fact that Decepticons can apparently look like humans? And not just look like us, but feel so real that you couldn’t they were robots even if you had your tongue in one’s mouth? You would think Sam would have been all about telling everyone involved about this little detail.

I’m not sure how I feel about Mudflap and Skids, the new Chevy compact Autobots. They shucked, they jived, one had a gold tooth, and later in the movie they admit that they can’t read. What up with that?

Also, did the end of the movie have to be the exact same as the end of the first one? Everyone protect Sam and Makaela as they race to get something important and alien to a certain location.

But again, I can forgive stuff like that when I get to watch Optimus Prime take on three Decepticons at once and kick their ass. He is seriously da man!

Another thing I found interesting – usually, in movies like this, the president is fictional and if he isn’t seen on screen he’s never referenced by name. Twice, this movie made it a point to let you know that Obama is president in the movie. Not sure why it was done, but I noticed.

TROTF is typical Michael Bay, but better… again, if you like that kind of thing. And I do. You know you’re gonna see gratuitious shots of pretty girls crying and/or screaming as something flies over their heads. You know you’re gonna see the obligatory low shot of someone getting out of a car in slo-mo and taking in their surroundings. And of course, the bitchwalk. Every Michael Bay flick has a bitchwalk.

Thankfully, this movie also had plenty of laughs and “OMG, did you see that moments” that make it worth a viewing… or two.

P.S. I cannot wait to buy this on BluRay.