Time: 150 Minutes
Age Rating: M – contains violence
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes
Josh Duhamel as Major William Lennox
Tyrese Gibson as Robert Epps
John Turturro as Seymour Simmons
Director: Michael Bay

While the Transformers movies generally have a mixed to negative reaction, I remember that Revenge of the Fallen was particularly hated upon its release. Following my revisit of the original film, I rewatched the sequel and as expected I liked it, even though I understand the high number of issues it has.

Revenge of the Fallen was one of the films that was affected by the writer’s strike during its production, but the movie turned out better than expected. Most of my issues with the movie can be seen in the first act, its slower and not as well paced as the last movie, and you really feel the longer runtime there. The plot itself is somehow a bit too convoluted (can’t tell whether the strike affected that), but I was able to follow along fine enough. This movie is where a lot of Bay’s worst tendencies slip in, and this is where you see his more juvenile side. I am rather tolerant of it, but even I have to admit that it got a little out of control here, and at a point began to actually act against the movie. Additionally, while his humour could be hit or miss even at the best of times, in Revenge of the Fallen, it is more miss than hit. As a result, it has plenty of misfiring gags, from transformers with testicles, to transformers that are racial stereotypes for some reason. The movie really can be very grating at times, the characters can be especially annoying, there is especially an unfortunately high number of obnoxious comedic scenes focussing on the main character’s parents. Still, I was interested in what was going on in the movie, it really benefited from focusing more on the transformers since they didn’t need to be gradually introduced like they were in the last movie. It is also quite an insane movie at times and I appreciated it for that, especially with the ridiculousness of the story.

Shia LaBeouf returns as his protagonist character Sam Witwicky. I know his performance throughout the series has been criticized (especially in this one). However, I thought he was good (constant screaming and random freakouts aside). Megan Fox also returns and is good too, LaBeouf and her do feel a little more believable together in this movie. John Turturro returns as his character Simmons and is again a highlight, he’s very entertaining and funny, and his character has a lot more going on with him compared to the last movie. And as usual there are some good voice performances from the likes of Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, and Tony Todd.

Michael Bay once again goes all out with his direction, it’s far more unhinged and audacious, for better and for worse. It really does feel like a larger movie and takes advantage of the various different locations compared to the last movie. There are also some good set pieces with entertaining action, the action scenes at times are even more impressive and memorable than the last movie. The fights between transformers can get more violent and brutal to an almost cartoonish degree. It is a visual spectacle as expected, the transformers look great once again, have good designs, and the visual effects themselves are detailed.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen isn’t quite as good as the previous movie and is heavily flawed with the writing and attempts at failed comedy, but is still very entertaining with top notch visual effects and action.