bad taste in disguise (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (DVD))

Member Name: SaveFerris

Product:	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (DVD)
Date:	29/06/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great effects, lots of pretty explosions

Disadvantages: absolutely nothing else going for it

Starring:
Shia LaBeouf
Megan Fox
Josh Duhamel
Tyrese Gibson
John Turturro

Directed by:
Michael Bay

Written by:
Roberto Orci
Alex Kurtzman
Ehren Kruger

Release date:
19th June 2009

Running time:
150 mins

Sam Witwicky is heading to college, something that would be hard enough for most, but Sam has other problems. Implanted in is brain is a map to a powerful energy source that draws Sam back into the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, a war that just got even more dangerous with the return of a powerful Decepticon known as The Fallen.

Sigh... For a while there it seemed like film makers had moved beyond the notion that a sequel has to be like the first film only bigger and louder. After the success of the first film, the second opens optimistically enough, dutifully re-introducing familiar characters and unleashing a manic action scene within the first few minutes. However, 150 minutes later (more on that later), the novelty has well and truly worn off.

Gone is the fun family charm that the first film exuded and what we're left with is a lazy rehash that crowbars in bad taste jokes and over the top action scenes.

It would be unfair to expect this film to be anything more than giant robots kicking the bolts out of each other, which it is, only in the most insultingly self indulgent way.

Michael Bay it would seem has been given free reign and as a result we have dogs doing the deed (twice!), grown men in thongs, robots humping legs and the now well chronicled testicles.... seriously.

The only time that the comedy works is from the lead human characters, but they don't get to do much else beyond dutifully moving the thin plot onwards towards the next robotic showdown.

Megan Fox in particular is given nothing to do except run around in slow motion wearing tiny outfits... all very nice once or twice, but something that soon becomes embarrassing.

One of the few gripes about the first film was that once the brawling began, it was near impossible to tell the robots apart. Not only has this not been fixed, but the large scale frantic nature of this film takes that problem and ramps it up to annoying levels, and as a result, the action soon becomes tedious. After 150 minutes, most will have long lost interest.

Characters from the previous film aren't given any room to grow, and the supposedly big bad, The Fallen feels like nothing more than a token bad guy, rather than the looming threat that the films title promises.

Not to say that the film's totally without merit, with impressive CGI and a strikingly bold execution of set pieces. But with virtually no plot to talk of, most cinema goers aren't going to sit through over 2 hours of something that was handled better the first time round.

All in all, the film basically seems to boil down to a list of things that Michael Bay thought would be cool, audience be damned.

Summary: If you like big bangs and pretty girls, this is the best 2 and a half hours of your life