Movie Review: Transformers 2

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Main Players: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Megatron, et al.
Calling the shots: Michael Bay
What's it about? Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers. – from imdb.com

What did I think? ~Transformers, robots in disguise. Transformers, more than meets the eyes!~ C’mon, sing it with me. Who didn’t see the first one? And who wasn’t looking forward to this one?

This second installment is the first’s bigger, dumber and more expensive degenerate brother. It’ll entertain you through out the whole 2 hours and a half. It’s your quintessential Blockbuster movie. It’s everything you’d expect from a big, dumb, Hollywood action movie and it’s great!

It is however not the smartest movie you’ll ever see. I missed the first five or so minutes of, what I’ve later been informed as, jibber-jabber and it pretty much ends in the same manner. It’s almost like Michael Bay decided that scripts weren’t necessary and just used most of the budget on explosions and CG. The final face off between the über amped-up Optimus and The Fallen ends quicker than it took Optimus to amp-up. Though by that stage you’re so over all the explosions and robots fighting, you just want to get out and go to the bathroom.

There’s also the sappy factor that I’m not a big fan of. The whole “Don’t leave me, I need you” thing. As touching as that might have been under “real” circumstances, it feels sooooooo out of place in this movie. Not to mention that it’s not exactly carried out by the most talented actors. In fact, the humans in this film are almost irrelevant and play completely to stereotype. See Tyrese spurting out token black guy lines like “We’re about to get our asses KICKED!” and…“Damn!” (Okay the last one I just threw in, not sure if he actually said it but it wouldn’t surprise me).

Did anyone else think the sound was a little off? The explosions and action scenes should have literally “blown us away” but it didn’t have that “umph” that it should have. Also when that old ass robot started talking, I couldn’t understand half of what was being said (and why did he have an accent?) No? No body else felt that?

It also tried a little too hard to be funny. The robo-twins got annoying, the mum high on “special” brownies, the annoying roommate and the know-it-all from the first one (the one played by John Turturro). Or lines like, “do you need a tighter shirt?” “There isn’t a tighter one, we looked.” Now, some of it was genuinely funny but most got overused.

Other than that it is very entertaining and the seamless integration of humans and robots using CG is something to behold. It is actually quite amazing. It’s the type of movie that movies were invented for; A blockbuster that lets your imaginations appear on screen. Between the robots, explosions and Megan Fox (every girl paints bikes like that, right?): it’ll tickle the little boy in all of us. (That didn’t sound right, and no disrespect to the recently deceased MJ. Rest In Peace.)

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