← Back to Reviews
in
Transfromers II: Revenge of the Fallen
This was the very bad summer film of the year. Michael Bay falls into the Spiderman and X-Men three syndrome, just one film too early. Michael Bay doesn't like stories and he proves it in this film. Every bit of cheesy story that was in the first one, which makes it entertaining, is squeezed out for more action and more robots.
This film does what Michael Bay does best. It is full of explosions and action more explosions and more action. In that way, it isn't a terrible film, you expect that from him, but most of the time you expect something more, like someone actually writes a story that Michael Bay puts his explosions and action to.
The acting in this film lives up to the failure from the first film. Megan Fox still really can't act, but she is very hot to look at. Shia LaBeouf also isn't all that great in this film. I haven't found him all that great in any films, but he knows he can phone it in for a film like this and he does that. He comes off as whiny and annoying, as in the first film. John Turturro is probably the only good thing when it comes to acting in this film. He is a little whiny and annoying at time. However, he provides some much need comedy.
Now, onto that somewhat cryptic statement about Spiderman and X-Men 3. Those two movies, thirds in their respective series, have too many characters to focus on. Spiderman 3 flits between three bad guys without really building up any of them. X-Men 3 has more superheroes and super villains than what knows what to do with. Transformers II has too many robots, to put it simply. We like the classic characters from the first, we don't care about all 25-35 others Bay and company add in. Keep it simple, stupid. Sure, you can add a couple of new ones in, develop them a little bit, but don't drown us in new characters that we just see and don't care about at all.
Overall this film doesn't do justice to the first film, or summer films in general. It wallows with no plot and terrible acting, in a summer film you need a simple plot, see GI Joe and Transformers. This one doesn't even have the comedic timing down that the first one had. Overall, it was a disappointment to the first film.
Overall Grade: D
Acting: D-
Story: F
Audio/Visual: C+
This was the very bad summer film of the year. Michael Bay falls into the Spiderman and X-Men three syndrome, just one film too early. Michael Bay doesn't like stories and he proves it in this film. Every bit of cheesy story that was in the first one, which makes it entertaining, is squeezed out for more action and more robots.
This film does what Michael Bay does best. It is full of explosions and action more explosions and more action. In that way, it isn't a terrible film, you expect that from him, but most of the time you expect something more, like someone actually writes a story that Michael Bay puts his explosions and action to.
The acting in this film lives up to the failure from the first film. Megan Fox still really can't act, but she is very hot to look at. Shia LaBeouf also isn't all that great in this film. I haven't found him all that great in any films, but he knows he can phone it in for a film like this and he does that. He comes off as whiny and annoying, as in the first film. John Turturro is probably the only good thing when it comes to acting in this film. He is a little whiny and annoying at time. However, he provides some much need comedy.
Now, onto that somewhat cryptic statement about Spiderman and X-Men 3. Those two movies, thirds in their respective series, have too many characters to focus on. Spiderman 3 flits between three bad guys without really building up any of them. X-Men 3 has more superheroes and super villains than what knows what to do with. Transformers II has too many robots, to put it simply. We like the classic characters from the first, we don't care about all 25-35 others Bay and company add in. Keep it simple, stupid. Sure, you can add a couple of new ones in, develop them a little bit, but don't drown us in new characters that we just see and don't care about at all.
Overall this film doesn't do justice to the first film, or summer films in general. It wallows with no plot and terrible acting, in a summer film you need a simple plot, see GI Joe and Transformers. This one doesn't even have the comedic timing down that the first one had. Overall, it was a disappointment to the first film.
Overall Grade: D
Acting: D-
Story: F
Audio/Visual: C+