Dir. Michael Bay, US, 2009, 147mins
Cast: Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Peter Cullen (voice), Josh Duhamel, Hugo Weaving (voice), Kevin Dunn
Review by
Matthew Rodgers
Michael Bay doesn't care much for the opinions of critics, and justifiably so, when some can't reduce their levels of false pomposity sufficiently to acknowledge that what they are watching is a big budget event movie about alien robots that transform into various automobiles and then fight a lot. Those that do form a line of dissent might want to cast their minds back to their own childhoods and imagine the unadulterated joy they might have garnered from Pinky and Perky: The Movie or The Woodentops take Afghanistan , had they ever been made. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” does exactly what it says on its shiny, expensive, vehicular tin. Only this time Bay isn't concerned with tentatively establishing the mythos of nostalgic memory, so for better or for worse there are more ‘bots, bombs and boobs than a hip-hop video. Is it any good? Yes. Is it better than the first? Not an Autobots chance in Cybertron…….that's a no.
In a plot that's lazily not that dissimilar from the first instalment, the Decepticons (that's bad guys to the uninitiated) are returning to Earth in order to capture Sam Witwicky (LeBeouf), the reason being he has a shard of the Energon cube, the same Macguffin they pursued to glorious effect in 2007's buster of blocks. Sam is about to head to college and as well dealing with the demands of higher education, he has a long distance relationship with Megan Fox's Mikaela to contend with, plus the unwanted attention of an amorous new classmate, all whilst the threat of the mysterious Fallen begins to loom larger.
It's obvious from the start that Bay has fallen foul of his own boastful “more, more, more” mantra. Everything is that much bigger, stretched from corner to corner of the cinema screen. Saying that, he does get the major grumbles from the first film corrected in fantastic fashion. The whip-pans and fast edits are few and far between, so making out the intricate details of the battle scenes is much easier. The major set-pieces are also bravely positioned during the day, so effects work has to be that much more flawless. All credit to Industrial Light and Magic - the robot work is truly amazing, hopefully ensuring that they don't get robbed again come awards season, as they arguably did with “The Golden Compass”.
We also get much more from the titular robots. Gone are the heavy reliance on the Prime voiceover (still given notable gravitas by original cartoon fave Peter Cullen), and the personality establishing quips, meaning that Bumblebee, Starscream and co. are no longer simply soundbite vending machines but get fully developed sentences to deliver. Take the Cybertron based conversations between a resurrected Megatron (Weaver) - the Christ analogies are rife throughout - and the enigmatic Fallen It's not Shakespeare, but at least it gives the threadbare plot time to breathe and allow us a glimpse into the “robots in disguise” extended universe.
The improvements are nearly suffocated though by Bay's over indulgence in terms of trying to fit too much junk into the trunk, while some new additions to the Autobots should have been considered for the scrapheap, most notably Mudflap and Skids, two jive talking “twins”, who, while intermittently funny, bring to mind a certain Mr. Jar Jar Binks. Similarly a giant war plane with a Scottish brogue tips the comedy scale a tad too far. The Decepticons though fare much better. More of the Starscream/Megatron power struggle will no doubt please the fans and notable new members of the 42 debuting robots are the huge unicycle type thing that dominates the brilliant, Shanghai based opening twenty minutes and the sand-sucking juggernaut that scales the Egyptian pyramids in the bloated finale.
In amongst the CGI carnage and slow motion plane shots (tiresome trademark, Bay) you will find a few characters of the fleshly variety. LaBeouf is fine as Witwicky, even if the larger role played by his family for ultimately ridiculous plot mechanics does begin to grate. Fox, who was so promising in the first film, is reduced to gratuitous cleavage shots and very little else and the uneven distribution of actor screen-time is without doubt the most crushing aspect of the movie. Turturro returns, attempting to shout his lines progressively louder in each scene and Duhamel and Gibson appear to have been loitering on-set without anybody telling them the first movie had ended.
This is though an exhilarating cinematic spectacle, the likes of which you have no right to complain about should you choose it over the latest period drama. What may seem like a negative review in terms of its body work is in fact just a response to a lack of detail under the hood and a reflection on “Revenge of the Fallen”'s inability to match its predecessor.
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