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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen plays into nearly every complaint about Hollywood that has ever been made. It is loud, a sequel, contains countless specials effects, blows a lot of things up, and uses sex appeal and violence in tandem. It embodies every cliché about the movie industry.
Not that this is always a bad thing. 2007's Transformers was among the most prototypical summer blockbusters ever made, and received mostly positive reviews. It contained all the same things that its sequel does, but avoided the mistake of taking itself too seriously, a pitfall which Revenge of the Fallen dives into headfirst more than once.
Most of the characters aren't any different than they were the first time around; Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is getting ready to go off to college, which means leaving behind Bumblebee (his own personal bodyguard Transformer), his unusual parents, and his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox). Mikaela, of course, is a Native American name meaning "cut off jeans." Sam's put together a long-distance relationship kit for her so they can have video chats while he's away, leading to the inevitable scene where something Very Strange happens to him and he misses their appointment. Alien robots I can buy, but standing up Megan Fox?
In order to chain clichés together more efficiently, this leads into another scene where Mikaela walks into Sam's dorm room just as he's being seduced by another girl, and immediately walks out again without demanding an explanation. To the film's credit, all these tired plot devices are quickly swept under the rug (why introduce them at all?) when it becomes clear that all of their lives are in danger.
Of course, Sam has good reasons for everything that happens: he finds a sliver of the "Allspark" (the device from the first film which turns machines into sentient beings) in an old sweatshirt. After touching it, he finds himself scribbling strange, ancient symbols against his will. The symbols, it turns out, can be found in any number of older photographs (yes, history itself is retconned), and when deciphered they produce the kinds of esoteric clues that are confusing and overly metaphorical for no good reason. Just once, I'd love to see an ancient clue translated directly into an address.
Revenge of the Fallen bounces back and forth between brief attempts at generating real drama and tension, and huge swaths of comedic relief, each undermining the other (though one wonders if it can be called comic relief at all when it makes up the majority of the film). The humor is extremely broad and reasonably amusing, but is of the dispensable type that leaves you the moment you leave the theater.
The film's subtitle would seem designed to invoke the same kind of tone as The Empire Strikes Back. But while that sequel contained real loss and revelation, Revenge of the Fallen only pretends to have either. It tries to make us believe that characters in peril are genuinely expendable, even though we all know better, and its most significant disclosure is in the film's first three minutes. It fancies Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, whose voice work stands out once again) as a modern-day Gandalf, and Sam Witwicky as Frodo, but it just can't generate any actual fear for its characters' safety.
One surprising bright spot in Revenge of the Fallen is Steve Jablonsky's score, which is equal parts epic and exhilarating, and by itself invokes far bigger ideas than the movie is prepared to deliver on.
It is difficult to overstate the overwhelming silliness of what happens during the film's conclusion, but it's no sillier than caring about such things to begin with. This movie contains many, many images of giant robots turning into cars and jets and trucks, fighting each other, and then transforming back. It makes these transformations look about as real as can be expected, and only has sporadic aspirations to do more. Ultimately, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen promises very little, and delivers exactly that.
Not that this is always a bad thing. 2007's Transformers was among the most prototypical summer blockbusters ever made, and received mostly positive reviews. It contained all the same things that its sequel does, but avoided the mistake of taking itself too seriously, a pitfall which Revenge of the Fallen dives into headfirst more than once.
Most of the characters aren't any different than they were the first time around; Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is getting ready to go off to college, which means leaving behind Bumblebee (his own personal bodyguard Transformer), his unusual parents, and his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox). Mikaela, of course, is a Native American name meaning "cut off jeans." Sam's put together a long-distance relationship kit for her so they can have video chats while he's away, leading to the inevitable scene where something Very Strange happens to him and he misses their appointment. Alien robots I can buy, but standing up Megan Fox?
In order to chain clichés together more efficiently, this leads into another scene where Mikaela walks into Sam's dorm room just as he's being seduced by another girl, and immediately walks out again without demanding an explanation. To the film's credit, all these tired plot devices are quickly swept under the rug (why introduce them at all?) when it becomes clear that all of their lives are in danger.
Of course, Sam has good reasons for everything that happens: he finds a sliver of the "Allspark" (the device from the first film which turns machines into sentient beings) in an old sweatshirt. After touching it, he finds himself scribbling strange, ancient symbols against his will. The symbols, it turns out, can be found in any number of older photographs (yes, history itself is retconned), and when deciphered they produce the kinds of esoteric clues that are confusing and overly metaphorical for no good reason. Just once, I'd love to see an ancient clue translated directly into an address.
Revenge of the Fallen bounces back and forth between brief attempts at generating real drama and tension, and huge swaths of comedic relief, each undermining the other (though one wonders if it can be called comic relief at all when it makes up the majority of the film). The humor is extremely broad and reasonably amusing, but is of the dispensable type that leaves you the moment you leave the theater.
The film's subtitle would seem designed to invoke the same kind of tone as The Empire Strikes Back. But while that sequel contained real loss and revelation, Revenge of the Fallen only pretends to have either. It tries to make us believe that characters in peril are genuinely expendable, even though we all know better, and its most significant disclosure is in the film's first three minutes. It fancies Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, whose voice work stands out once again) as a modern-day Gandalf, and Sam Witwicky as Frodo, but it just can't generate any actual fear for its characters' safety.
One surprising bright spot in Revenge of the Fallen is Steve Jablonsky's score, which is equal parts epic and exhilarating, and by itself invokes far bigger ideas than the movie is prepared to deliver on.
It is difficult to overstate the overwhelming silliness of what happens during the film's conclusion, but it's no sillier than caring about such things to begin with. This movie contains many, many images of giant robots turning into cars and jets and trucks, fighting each other, and then transforming back. It makes these transformations look about as real as can be expected, and only has sporadic aspirations to do more. Ultimately, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen promises very little, and delivers exactly that.