Date Released: June 24th, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Ramon Rodriguez, Isabel Lucas, Peter Cullen (voicing Optimus Prime), Hugo Weaving (voicing Megatron)

    If I could sum up Revenge of the Fallen in one word, it would be "more". More action, more wacky humor, more Transformers, more CGI, more explosions, more backstory, more robot carnage, more plot details, pretty much more of everything. This doesn't always work in a few cases, but for the most part it makes for a thoroughly entertaining, must-see movie that will practically blow you out of your seat from start to finish.
    Since this isn't a plot summary but a general review, I'll tackle one aspect of the movie at a time. First up comes what sticks in most people's minds-- the robot action. Quite simply, it's incredible. If you thought the first movie's action could be beaten, prepare to be surprised. It's totally engrossing, and the fight scenes are totally engrossing and the best parts of the movie-- I mean, this IS Transformers, after all. Occasionally the fight scenes were shaky-cam in the first movie where you couldn't tell what was going on, but that's really been fixed in all but a few of the briefest of shots in this one. Director Michael Bay has no doubt learned that he needs to film bigger, larger scenes that will eventually be filled by CGI robots duking it out, and this movie definitely shows it. This makes the action leaps and bounds-- and this cannot be emphasized enough, leaps and freaking bounds-- above ANY other action movie. Ever. Optimus Prime's fight with Demolishor near the beginning-- well, "everything blows up" would be a literal explanation of how that fight went. It's amazing. And no holds are barred, either-- arms are shorn off, holes are blown through Transformers, parts fall off of them, internals are torn out, and faces are ripped apart in slow motion. It's a good thing these are robots fighting, otherwise this movie would be rather sickening to watch. The visible human carnage is minimal, on the other hand, with one soldier getting sliced in half in a darkened room and a tad of blood "splurting" onto the camera being about as bad as you'll regret, so if you're queasy over that kind of stuff, you've got nothing to worry about. However, many MANY humans do die over the course of this movie-- both in battle, during chase scenes, and especially during a worldwide Decepticon attack near the middle of the movie-- but little is shown of the deaths. This movie is undeniably a little darker than the first because of the escalation of the conflict, however.
    The CGI is also incredible. The original Transformers was robbed of an Emmy for best special effects in '07, but there's no denying this one deserves an Emmy and then some. The Transformers can emote incredibly well, mech fluid and the like spurts out of them as certain parts are cut off, all the parts move in sync-- with the exception of odd lighting in a few very short shots, they look realistic. No ifs, ands, or buts. And if you've improved on the incredible CGI from the first movie, well, that's saying something. Devastator in particular is truly a sight to behold. Especially given the sheer amount of robot models they had to create for this movie-- dozens, definitely. A few minor shortcuts were taken because of the scope of the project, though, such as reusing the Blackout and Bonecrusher models as cannon fodder troops (though the Blackout redo-- Grindor-- has been confirmed to be a different character who just happens to have the same design, and Bonecrusher's appearance was VERY brief). "Repaints" are quite literally used on the models to make the scale of the robot battles in the movie feasible-- there are also many Decepticon protoforms that land that all look very similar, as well. Although totally understandable, this may be a little confusing for individuals who aren't familiar with protoforms and Transformer "templates", and unfortunately this aspect isn't explained in the movie at all, one of my few beefs with the writing.

    Speaking of the writing, action scenes obviously need a plot to string them together, and Revenge of the Fallen does its job fairly well. It's gotten a lot of flak in this department from professional critics and fans alike, but quite frankly I don't see it. It's not a perfect plot, but it's more than adequate, if you ask me. The problem with Revenge of the Fallen-- if you can call it a problem-- is that it overwhelms you so much with all of the action and fighting, the first time through you quite frankly forget a lot of the plot details. It's like it's too much awesome for your mind to take in in 2 1/2 hours. As I left the theater for the first time, I was iffy on the movie in this department, but after subsequent viewings nearly all of my questions were answered-- I had just missed them the first time because of all the action and whatnot, whereas now I know what to expect when I watch the movie and can pay attention to plot details. Some of them are thrown at you pretty quickly-- particularly the backstory-- but it's still just about all there. And this is what I think is at the core of most of the complaints about the plot-- people were just so overwhelmed by the action they didn't remember all of the plot, came away thinking there were holes when there really weren't, and thus didn't want to see the movie again. Perhaps Revenge of the Fallen, in this aspect, IS "too much of a good thing". However, there are a few legit plot holes that I see-- for one, it seems rather silly that the Primes sacrificed themselves to create a cage for the Matrix of Leadership to hide it from the Fallen, when such a cage could be broken into so easily. Why not just take it off-planet and not kill yourselves in the process? It's also not made clear enough, from talking to others, that the Prime's essences were stored in the Matrix-- there is a shot of the Matrix dust in Sam's hand before he has the vision, but many people thought he went to some sort of "robot heaven", when he in fact merely had a vision (that's why on the Primes were there), and then the Prime's essences reanimated the Matrix and jolted Sam back to life. And finally, the Fallen just sort of "shows up" as the big bad in this movie-- we're not really told why he was never mentioned before, and why Megatron is so subservient to him, nor why there's a big hollow spaceship on one of Saturn's moons. There's a story there that needed to be fleshed out a little more.
    The dialogue snaps. There are VERY few "groan-worthy" or cliche lines in the movie, and Optimus', Starscream's, and Jetfire's lines in particular are very quotable. The robots have considerably more speaking time this time around, and thus we get a greater sense of their personalities, though with a cast this big you're obviously still going to get several background characters who are merely there to fill out the ranks on both sides. One of the most brilliant exchanges comes between Sam and Mikaela when they're hiding in a college library from Alice, a Transformer whose alternate mode is a human female, and who's hunting them. It's fast-paced, it fits both of their movie personalities to a tee, and it's brilliantly done, not even leaving you with enough time to laugh before the next exchange comes your way.
    Speaking of the humor, it's one of the few topics in the movie where I can get a bit conflicted. Much of the humor is quite funny and helps to break up the darker moments of the movie-- the Twins and the "Doctor" Scalpel in particular have some hilarious, knee-slapping lines--sometimes more in how they're delivered than the actual lines themselves-- and Sam's mother is generally a hoot as are some of Jetfire's senile moments. There are a few bits, however, that are a bit crass and crude or just awkward, such as one shot of Simmons standing underneath Devastator, who just happens to have two large wrecking balls dangling around between his legs (only in this one brief shot, thank goodness) that are obviously meant to be "testicles". The sexuality-- particularly with Alice-- also gets a bit out-of-hand even for a PG-13 movie. I'd take the rating literally with this movie and only let kids 13-14 or older see it as a blanket rule, whereas with the exception of one bit of one scene I thought the first movie was watchable by kids in the older single-digits.
    The pacing is also one of the few areas where I feel this movie is slightly inferior to the first. The first two-thirds or so of the movie is paced perfectly, but the last third drags some, particularly when Sam, Simmons, & Co. are searching for the Matrix and some of the army lingo scenes in the final battle. I felt that a lot of that could be cut out without really detracting from the movie, and replaced with a bit more explanation of the few legitimate plot holes I described above. Optimus Prime's final fight scene with the Fallen and Megatron, while incredibly awesome, still should have been a bit longer as well-- after the long fight scene in the Egyptian ruins against the Decepticon cannon fodder 'bots, he deals with both of them pretty quickly. This is especially disappointing for the Fallen, given how demigod-ish he's supposed to be, I was hoping for a bit more of an epic showdown between those two in particular.
    The acting in this movie is a bit better than in the first. Sometimes some of the characters' interactions-- particularly Megan Fox's/Mikaela's-- seemed way too forced and "fake" in Transformers, whereas in this movie all the actors seem to be in top form and are more familiar with their roles. Shia/Sam's performance in particular can be very well-done at times.
    The music, as is the case with the first movie, is spectacular. I'm listening to the musical score as I type this, and each of the tracks has a very distinct theme to it. I particularly like the Fallen's theme music, it's creepy and ancient-sounding but also has a bit of a "robot-y" sound in there as well. Many themes also are similar to the first movie's, but expanded, to provide a sense of continuity. All in all, they really set the mood and do a fantastic job.

    In summary, Revenge of the Fallen is an excellent, excellent movie that surpasses the first Transformers movie in almost every way, and that's really saying something. A few (very short) bits of humor are cringe-worthy, and as I said the pacing can be a tad off now-and-then, but overall it's an incredible movie worthy of not seeing in the theaters just once, but multiple times. And the fantastic action cannot be over-stated-- you'll notice some of the subcategories of the ratings I gave to the movie below are actually ABOVE maximum. I almost never do this, but stuff like the action and CGI are just SO GOOD they actually can OVERCOME weaknesses in other areas. Go see it!

Plot: 16/20
Characterization: 9/10
Dialogue: 15/15
Action: 23/20
Humor: 12/15
CGI: 12/10
Musical Score: 10/10

Overall Rating: 97/100 ...Wow.

(Pictures from Yahoo.com.)

Back to Storage Closet