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Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is everything the first film should have been but thankfully wasn't. By some inexplicable alignment of the stars (or something) the Michael Bay Movie-O-Matic Machine™ managed to concoct a first film that was an entertaining and awesomely cool fighting robot flick (with a slightly boring middle section). With the second picture, however, Bay is back in the form that delivered such box office busting drivel as Bad Boys and The Rock.
Following on from TF1, the Autobots have formed an alliance with the humans called NEST and have become a mechanical Team America: World Police style wrecking ball, indifferently ripping up cities and ancient ruins in an effort to destroy Deceptacon sleepers who have been living on Earth for 21,000 years (apparently), searching for some kind of sun harvesting machine built by an ancient evil race of Deceptacon elders. It's never explained why the Deceptacons didn't spend the intervening years ripping the planet apart looking for said device (and exterminating its human population in the process) nor is it explained how this plot in no way impinged on the Allspark story from the previous film, but such oversights generate barely a ripple in Michael Bay.
The first film was new and fresh; we hadn't seen anything quite like it before. However, failing to recognise that you can't be dazzled by the same effects twice, this film is merely more of the same. That's not to say that there isn't any entertainment value here, it's just that it is severely depleted and when you combine that with its numerous drawbacks and excesses, what's left is a thin, vacuous shell of a movie. Even the poster art lacks the inspiration of that of the first film.
TF2's primary sin is that it pushes the comedy element way too hard! It's as if the producers said to themselves, "That was funny in the first film, so let's increase it threefold in the second." (Note to Bay et al, a joke is only funny the first time.) So as a result we have repetitive, juvenile, humping dog jokes, an over abundance of tokenistic robot sidekicks and Sam's nutty parents being brought forth into a major subplot (sic).
And the films sins continue: A pop culture reference to swine flu looks and sounds like it was dubbed in post production. In fine Dungeons & Dragons tradition, no good guy dies who can't be resurrected again. Bumblebee's character was always more interesting when he spoke via his car radio, so despite getting his voice fixed at the conclusion of TF1 it's now inexplicably busted again. And as if Optimus Prime's serious headiness may interfere with the films newfound juvenile funster image, he's removed from the plot for a large portion of the flick. The film is much poorer without him.
Attempts by the film to add faux depth to its shallowness merely results in shallower shallowness. What meaning do declarations like, "God made us in His image. Who made him [i.e. Optimus Prime]?" have in this toy-fantasy universe? Particularly when the answer is clearly "Kenworth"!
The film is not coy in gently bludgeoning its audience with its allegorical sledgehammer either, the most distasteful of which is that on the "War on terror". Meg Fox's character iconifies everything that the public considers reprehensible about the Bush administration (sans the glamourous aesthetic) and it's served up to us as entertainment! She captures one of the enemy, extorts information from him by applying a blowtorch to his eye and then confines him to a toolbox-sized prison cell. Later on she's seen leading him around on a chain. Is it any wonder the poor little guy ends up suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and is delightfully humping Meg's leg by the end. (Another humping joke!) It all leaves a rather sour taste in the mouth.
Of course this would be easier to swallow were the robots not personified to such a high degree; indeed it's a degree of personification that has transgressed to the point of meaninglessness. Old-timer robots have walking sticks, others have beards and testicles, Bumblebee is reduced to a sulking pet and a pair of clownish jive talkin' hip hop mofo robot twins is particularly cringe worthy.
TF1 treated the Transformer legacy with a measure of respect but this one exploits the franchise to the point of ridicule, cheapening the brand in the process and not even gigantic Kung Fu robots or Meg Fox's bouncy bits can atone for its trespasses.
Stuart Jamieson
Check out the Transformers review here
www.transformersmovie.com
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