Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

[Jonathan Moya]

Transformers(r):  Revenge of the Fallen
 (2009)


A Movie Review

By

Jonathan Moya

3 Out of 5 Stars or B



The Plot: (from IMDB.com)

The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has
just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command
of the Decepticons(r), and has decided to return to Earth with force.
The Autobots(r) believing that peace was possible finds out that
Megatron's dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox
and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking
revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon(r) reinforcements on the
way, the Autobots(r) with reinforcements of their own, may have more to
deal with then meets the eye.

The Review:

Halfway through Transformers(r): Revenge of the Fallen I realize why
this Michael Bay explode-a-ganza was becoming a slight guilty
pleasure. Socks: spell it out s-o-c-k-s.   A mnemonic for the Spanish
"esto si que es": it is what it is.  Bay does not pretend or ascend to
anything than directing big glorified action trailers that run way
over their five minutes.  T2 could be a choppy and loopy preview for
T3, possibly a coming attraction for another Spielberg scion of Jones
or a historical romance without the Japanese bombs.  It is all there
and nowhere at the same time.  It is what it is.

Transformers are those fiendish Hasbro(r) toy cars that morph into
robots and others things with years of patience and a thirty-page
instruction manual.   Most kids can do it in a minute or less while
their parents are still trying to assemble the one from four
Christmases ago.   Michael Bay and I count among the frustrated adults
able to get them open but not closed--and certainly not into the cool
third level planes and weapons.  The fights between the autobots(r) (the
good) and the decepticons(r) (the bad) are lumbering pinwheel bouts
filled with clanging-banging metal effects.   Think Mighty Morphing
Power Rangers with better lines and a bigger costume budget. T1 had
fourteen speaking robot parts while T2 has 46 --three times the metal
but only one and half times the pot and pan cacophony because Bay
plays funereal music and slow motions thing down on the big blows.
The eternal punches count for most of the extended 150 minute running
time- six minutes longer than T1.

The screenplay by current Star Trek reboot writers Robert Orci and
Alex Kurtzman (with additional support from Ehren Kruger) does not go
boldly beyond the original.  It sticks to its Hasbro(r) world.    The
human soldiers do their own G.I. Joe(r) thing--grunting, puffing,
shooting and running away whenever one of the big bots decide to do a
fanny fall.  The autobots(r) and Joes(r) are an elite fighting team
rooting out and destroying the last of the decepticons(r) left from T1.
A very closely-knit group of boy toys in play here.  Shia LaBeouf
seems to be grooming himself for the upcoming Indy Jones five,
practicing his snide repartee and comic fighting skills and donning an
almost classic jacket (sans fedora) when T2 goes through all the
Egyptian artifacts and sets of Indy 3 (The Last Crusade).  Yes, the
Jones action figures are also part of the Hasbro(r) universe.

In between the trailers there is almost a comic romance going on.
LaBeouf and the recently voted sexiest woman in the world, Megan Fox
generate a candlewicks worth of heat despite all the balls on action
around them.  The romance speeds by at 200 words per minute, in true
screwball style but without the precision and timing.  Kevin Dunn and
Julie White (and a manic John Turturro) as the flappable parents
provide the main laughs.

Bay lets the product placement provide the rest of the reality.
Chevrolet is still the only car on the block, the factory worth of
destruction probably keeping it viable between government funding and
chapter 11.   Still, it is disconcerting to see LG (a Korean company)
providing all the monitors for the military.

I give Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 3 out of 5 stars or a
B.

The Credits:   (From AllMovie.com)

Michael Bay  - Director / Executive Producer Ian Bryce  - Producer Tom
Desanto  - Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura  - Producer Don Murphy  -
Producer Ehren Kruger  - Screenwriter Alex Kurtzman  - Screenwriter
Roberto Orci  - Screenwriter Ben Seresin  - Cinematographer Steve
Jablonsky  - Composer (Music Score) Linkin Park  - Featured Music
Roger Barton  - Editor Tom Muldoon  - Editor Joel Negron  - Editor
Paul Rubell  - Editor Nigel Phelps  - Production Designer Brian
Goldner  - Executive Producer Steven Spielberg  - Executive Producer
Mark Vahradian  - Executive Producer Deborah L. Scott  - Costume
Designer Industrial Light & Magic  - Animator / Visual Effects

With:  Shia LaBeouf  - Sam Witwicky Megan Fox  - Mikaela Banes Josh
Duhamel  - Major Lennox Tyrese Gibson  - USAF Tech Sergeant Epps Kevin
Dunn  - Ron Witwicky Peter Cullen  - Optimus Prime [Voice] Julie
White  - Judy Witwicky Ramon Rodríguez  - Leo Isabel Lucas  - Alice
John Turturro  - Agent Simmons John Benjamin Hickey  - NSA Advisor
Theodore Galloway Rainn Wilson  Hugo Weaving  - Megatron [Voice] Tony
Todd  - The Fallen [Voice] Charlie Adler  - Starscream [Voice]



Copyright 2009 by Jonathan Moya

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