Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Jun 2009, Michael Bay, 150 mins

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a big, pretty, metallic, 150 minute long piece of crap. That’s it, that’s the whole review.

I should stop there, but that wouldn’t be fitting for a film that itself was about double the length it should have been. Once you get past the first hour or so, the robotic action runs its course. Not to mention the million new robots that enter the fray this go around. I’m sorry, but I was exhausted just trying to follow the paper thin romance of Megan Fox and Shia LeBouf… by the way, come on... come on! Who is the casting director?

Let me take a step back; I liked the first movie and I liked some of the action in the second. It was entertaining but the story was absolute junk. And I know, I should have “checked my brain at the door” – and I did that, I swear I did that. I just don’t like the idea that a movie with such a huge budget and marketing campaign couldn’t have come up with anything better than what stuck when it was thrown at the screen.

There were so many lame jokes and unfunny characters that the second half of the film really became an endurance test. What was fun became old and boring. By the time the final showdown occurred, there were so many robots trying to run through the hole-ridden plot that I can’t even remember who won. I think Megatron and Optimus Prime were there but I’m not sure.

With all this said, Transformers Revenge is a big summer movie with a lot of effects. There will be another one I’m sure. Hopefully the writers can take enough of a break to write a draft or two and get it right next time. It feels to me that this script was rushed into production shortly before the writers’ strike of last year. When a studio cuts corners like that, you get movies like Transformers Revenge, Spiderman 3, and anything staring Miley Cyrus.