TRANSFORMERS
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

"There is much we haven't told you Sam"

As Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) heads to college and has to think of a way of having a long distance relationship with girlfriend Mikaela (Fox), Captain Lennox (Duhamel) and Optimus Prime are hunting down the last of the Decepticons. Back on Cybertron, the true leader of the Decepticons is planning his revenge against the Autobots and the people of Earth. With Soundwave coordinating everything from orbit, the key to their success is an ancient weapon and the only person on the planet who knows where it is, is just about to start his first class.

As the Autobots won the day in the first movie you should have known that the Decepticons would be back for revenge but they forgot to bring the story with them.

When Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg got together to bring one of the biggest toy franchises of the 80s to the silver screen the fans went crazy but when the first film became a massive hit all around the world in 2006 a sequel was inevitable. The first movie set new standards in visual effects, returning that wow factor to computer generated characters after they have become such a common factor of big budget movies over the last seventeen years since Steven Spielberg himself set the standard with 'Jurassic Park'. Now two years later that standard is rising again but this time they have forgotten to include much of a story to give us a reason to have these amazing set sequences.

The story is extremely slight. With Starscream escaping at the end and returning to Cyberton, the remaining Decepticons, who can't fly away, are been hunted down by the US Army and Optimus Prime and the Autobots. Our hero, Sam Witwicky, is on his way to college and having a long distance relationship with his stunningly beautiful girlfriend Mikaela. While packing, a piece of the All Spark falls out of a jacket and fills his head with a map to a huge source of Energon on Earth. Of course the Decepticons are looking for this but with Megatron dead and at the bottom of the ocean, the true leader of evil Transformers is now pulling the strings. That is basically it but it is used to try and hold together a movie that last 147 minutes. This is made even more disappointing when you realise Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote the script and they did some much more with J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek'.

What the movie does well and what the fans wanted to see more of was huge robots fighting and the sequel delivers that in spades. This movie is filled to the brim with Transformers and some firm favourites make their first appearance in live action form. Sideswipe, Arcee, Wheelbot, Jetfire, Ravage and Soundwave make the step up, as well as the Constructicons coming together as the Devastator and the new bad guy, the Fallen. Each of these is amazingly brought to life with some stunning CGI to join Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, Ironhide, Ratchet and Optimus Prime.

There are some major problems however. Disappointingly twins Skids and Mudflap are stereotypic representations of ethnic minorities to the point that they could even be interpreted as racist. Even though this is a 12A (PG-13 in the US) there are a lot of sexually oriented jokes that are inappropriate for younger Transformers fans. While the violence between fighting robots is fine, there are a lot of human casualties caught up in the fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Shia LaBeouf is starting to get really annoying and can we please give Megan Fox more to do than just run a lot and look stunningly beautiful, but most men wouldn't make that complaint. Finally Michael Bay has rediscovered his complete love for the revolving camera and the slow motion combination that will make you completely dizzy by the end.

While 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' is filled with problems and not as good as the first film, it still delivers on the big robots fighting each other. As a brainless, massive budget blockbuster it is good fun, just don't expect a story that will get you thinking or change your life. The Transformers are back but just don't expect to have a good reason why.

Not Available

Transformers

---

The Usher Home | Hush, Hush... | The Big Story | The Usher Speaks

Stuck @ Home | Coming Soon | Links | Contact the Usher

2009