Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the sequel to 2007’s Transformers, and had many fans of the classic franchise anxiously awaiting its release, but did it live up to the hype?

Out of all the movies I have reviewed thus far, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the one I feel the most indifference with. The film is a completely mixed bag for me, being a lifelong fan of the Transformers franchise I almost feel morally obligated to like it, but there is a lot more to dislike about this film then the original.

First off, the coolest Transformer to have ever existed, Soundwave, makes an appearance, complete with his original voice actor. Unfortunately though, Soundwave is given very little time on screen and doesn’t do anything to really standout in the film (I suppose he does set the course of events of the film in motion, but I would have really preferred Soundwave  to have a more prominent role in the movie). In fact Soundwave never appears onscreen with Megatron, and his famous and ever simple quotes of “As you command, Megatron!” and “Yes, Megatron!” are never heard, much to my chagrin.

I know that is a tad bit off subject and shouldn’t reflect on the film itself, but being a fan of the franchise I felt it was okay to have a little fun and let off some fanboyish steam.

Now let’s focus on the bigger aspects of the movie.

To start, the action sequences are way too fast paced and cluttered. Seeing Optimus Prime and the Autobots go toe to toe with the Decepticons may seem satisfying for a Transformers fan at first, but once you realize the fights are nothing but loud, ostentatious train wrecks not even a Transformers fan could put up with it. The various action scenes also seem to have even more of those waaaay too close camera shots from the first film. Of particular note, the last Forty or so minutes of the film (it’s annoyingly long) is virtually one mindless action sequence after another. This is especially a travesty in a movie like this, which you definitely didn’t see for the story.

And as for the the special effects in the film,  all the Transformers may appear even more realistic looking than the first film (at least as “realistic” as giant robots that transform into cars go), but once you realize all of the new Transformers have bowling shoe ugly character designs, it probably won’t matter how shiny Optimus Prime is.

And those are the better parts of the movie…

The most prominent flaw in the film is the lack of characterization, particularly that of the Transformers. The film focuses far to much on the flat and uninteresting personalities of the human characters and we never actually get a chance to really appreciate the Transformers as characters and they instead only seem to be there for the action sequences. Director Michael Bay promised we would see more of the Transformers this time around, but apparently all he meant was that there would be more Transformers from the franchise incorporated into the film, but we’ll see and get to know even less about them then in the original film.  At least in the first movie we understood the personalities of the Transformers (at least the Autobots and Megatron), this time around though we get no depth to the Transformers and the few that we get a chance to see any personality (namely the “twin” robots Mudflap and Skids) just end up being quite aggravating after a while.

There’s just far too much of a focus on the humans. I know they’re supposed to be the “main characters”, but quite honestly I don’t think there is a living being on this planet that would see a movie about the Transformers franchise for the human characters. Sure, Shia LaBeouf  is a decent enough actor, but quite honestly this movie gives him absolutely no moments to show any talent. The ever dreadful and disgustingly overrated Megan Fox also returns with her “anti-acting” and, true to her role in the first film, adds absolutely nothing to the movie and if anything just holds it back.

Another problem is that there are too many human characters added for the sake of comic relief, and of course even though it should be painfully obvious that adding too many characters for the sake of humor will only make each one less funny and defeat their personalities, Michael Bay sees fit to make the film as ridiculous and overblown as possible and fill the movie with such characters (and each one of them gets more screen time then any of the Transformers).

First of all, the characters of Sam Witwicky’s (Shia LaBeouf’s character for those who forgot) parents are made to look like a couple of bumbling idiots, with not a funny moment in sight and for the most part they get more time in the movie then they need and even make an unnecessary appearance in the climax of the film.

And then we have a new character in the form of  Shia LaBeouf’s (or Sam Witwicky’s, I honestly don’t care about using the characters or actors names for this movie) college buddy, who is a completely superfluous character who serves no purpose then to take away even more time from the Transformers. Having this character in the movie made me miss Anthony Anderson’s character from the first film, as he actually brought some humor to the table.

And you would think the saving grace of the human characters would be John Tuturro’s  character (former agent of sector Seven Agent Simmons from the first film), given Tuturro’s acting ability, but you would think wrong. . His character is lowered to yet another source of comic relief , and the humor centered around him is not much better than that of the rest of the film, but at least he makes sense being in the movie.

But once again, this film should never have focused so much on the humans, we should have had more time dedicated to the Transformers.  Once again, there’s a total of four Transformers who have any  kind of personality traits, and three of those four are tremendously annoying. The one that is bearable goes by the name of Jetfire (remember him?), who has a fun “I’m an old man Transformer” motif going on, but his personality is still too limited to make him stand out. The other three Transformers that get any noticeable time on screen include the aforementioned “twins” Mudflap and Skids, who are probably the two most in-your-face annoying characters in recent movie history. They just come off as loud, obnoxious, stereotypical and all around unlikable. The remaining robot “personality” is the dreadful time waister known as wheelie, who provides the film with some unnecessary  extra crude humor.

Speaking of crude humor, I have to say the “humor” of Revenge of the Fallen is dumbed down on just about every level from the first film. The original had a kind of sitcom-esque flair to it’s humorous moments, but this film decides that crude humor and innuendos make for better comedy….They don’t.

But back on the subject of the Transformers, of particular note I have to bring up the character known as The Fallen. For having the movie named after him, he has to be the most superfluous villain I can remember. The movie is named after him yet his presence in it is completely void of any real meaning. Anything and everything that is done by The Fallen in the film could have just as easily been done using Megatron, who has been resurrected after the events of the first film.

The thing that really bothers me about The Fallen is that not only is he superfluous, but his presence in the movie completely demeans Megatron because of it. Apparently, despite being the “leader” of the Decepticons, Megatron appears as nothing more then The Fallen’s lackey to the point where I honestly couldn’t take Megatron seriously as a main villain again in any further films unless he has the proper build up (which at this point would be difficult to pull off). So the most iconic Transformers villain plays second fiddle to a completely pointless character. Megatron should have been the main villain again. Period.

On a side note, I thought I would also comment that The Fallen repeatedly claims that “only a Prime can defeat him” (Prime as in Optimus Prime). Why this is the case is left vague and unclear. Is it because of some age old prophesy that claims that only a Prime can beat him? Or is it something more simple like “the Primes are stronger so only they are strong enough to keep up with him in a fight?”  The fact that the details of this were left so vague irritated me slightly.

Yet another waisted Decepticon comes in the form of the Devastator, the result of several “smaller” Transformers (the Constructicons) conjoining together to form one massive monster of a machine (try saying that ten times fast). Devastator himself could have had something of a powerful presence, but it seems like the film went out of its way to take away any powerful impact by the character by having him injured at the hands of one of those ever annoying twins (I have given up trying to remember which is Mudflap and which is Skids), having him take his leave from the film via a deus ex machina, and even fitting in a slight innuendo with him (darn it Michael Bay!).

On a more Autobot note, I thought I would comment on how Bumblebee inexplicably is once again unable to speak and once again communicates via radio, despite the fact that he regained his voice at the end of the first movie. Even if they would have said something like “his voice flairs back and forth” or something of those lines I would have been okay, but instead all they say is “his voice is still giving him trouble?” Excuse me but it wasn’t still giving him trouble when the first movie ended. They should have explained that his voice wasn’t completely fixed after all, instead of brushing off the fact that his voice was indeed fixed. This cheap cop out just seems insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

On another note of annoyance (once again revolving around a Decepticon) is the fact that in an early part of the film there is a Decepticon disguised as a human female (or should I say disguised as Michael Bay’s perception of a human female). No Transformers ever transformed into humans. Transformers turn into cars, trucks, military vehicles, dinosaurs (I’m not sure how) and boom-boxes, never do they turn into humans.  This is just a blatant example of Michael Bay wanting to make the movie as ridiculous and shameful as the majority of his films (save the original Transformers) even at the expense of the source material.

And whilst I may have said no one obviously isn’t going to see a film like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for it’s plot, I will say they still could have done better. The first movie’s plot centered around the Decepticons trying to find the All Spark to bring human technology to life and build an army of Transformers large enough to conquer the galaxy (or something of those lines) while the Autobots were out to prevent that from happening. It was a nonsensical plot, but it was all harmless fun. Revenge of The Fallen, on the other hand, centers around The Fallen trying to seek revenge on the Autobots for preventing him from blowing up the sun thousands of years ago by coming back to Earth (because I guess the Transformers vacationed on Earth a long time ago or something) and firing his sun-blowing-up machine back up. Now what I don’t understand if Megatron was intending to have The Fallen come back to Earth to do so all along (which they make apparent in this film), then why was he even bothering with his plot from the first movie to begin with? It seems like destroying the sun would kind of ruin the plans of using human technology to build an army of robots I would think. Oh and not to spoil anything (don’t worry I wouldn’t spoil the plot to a movie, even when it’s hard to find), but I thought I should also mention that the sun-blowing-up machine is located inside the pyramids of Egypt. The plot is just so thrown together and really seems a bit insulting to ones intelligence, especially when you remember the first film and all it’s lighthearted fun.

So I know by now it must sound like I have nothing but disdain for this film, and you wouldn’t be too far off. Too much of the film is too much of a Michael Bay film, something that the first Transformers somehow avoided. The human characters are uninteresting and the Transformers are never given a chance to be interesting. The humor is dumbed down and juvenile. And the plot is…kind of…sort of there.

The thing that concerns me is when the showing of the film I was at ended, it met with resounding applause. More so then most films I go to. For the sake of those who cheered so wildly I hope they’re just very dedicated Transformers fans (such as myself, though I didn’t join in), because the film really doesn’t deserve that kind of applause for any other reason. Actually, it doesn’t deserve applause even for that reason!

So if I could sum it all up, I would say Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is an awful action film combined with a terrible comedy. The more I think about this movie, the more I just don’t like it. It didn’t deliver on anything good, and seemed to want to focus on the bad.

Since Soundwave’s character wasn’t done justice and he never said his famous line I’m going to have to say it….

As you command Megatron!

(1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 10, rated)

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