Throwback Thursday Review: 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'

This week I'm continuing my series of Transformers reviews, once again well in advance of the correlating film due to the number of installments in the franchise and sequels that will be released this year. Next week I'm taking a break from Transformers reviews till April and in the following four weeks I will be reviewing The Matrix trilogy and John Wick to coincide with John Wick: Chapter 2 since it will see a reunion between Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Reviews of new (or wider) releases you expect over the course of January include Patriots Day, Live By Night, Split, The Founder, A Dog's Purpose, and Gold.

'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' Review

Nominated For: Best Sound Mixing.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen picks up two years after Transformers as humans and Autobots are now working together to track down and destroy the remaining Decepticons while the Deceptions seek to find the remaining shards of the Allspark and resurrect Megatron. Meanwhile Sam Witwicky is off to college and gets wrapped up in the Transformers war again after encountering an Allspark fragment that causes him to randomly see cryptic symbols.

Michael Bay returns to direct, upping the ante of the action and daring to deeply explore Transformers lore. Revenge of the Fallen is almost universally regarded to be worse than its predecessor. However I do think a case can be made that for every dumb moment or failed attempt at levity, there's a cool action sequence between Transformers or compelling concept to balance it out. Yes, there are plenty of Bay-esque elements (explosions, portraying women as two-dimensional sex objects, and dumb crude humor) throughout Revenge of the Fallen, but the film as a whole is not quite as bad as everyone remembers.

Arguably, I'd say that the cinematography, visual effects, and spectacle are improvements over the first. Some of the cooler action moments include a feline Decepticon's infiltration of a covert base, a sequence in which Optimus Prime wields two sword arms to take on a host of Deceptions in an epic last stand, and the battle bot bonanza at the end. Other than that, there's not much to take away from Revenge of the Fallen.

The script written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman gets too caught up with trying to explain Transformers lore that it doesn't even really attempt to deepen the already lackluster characters or tell a worthwhile story. It's telling when a screenplay is able to make the robots the most likable and lifelike characters in a film. Occasionally, the film is almost self-referential to a point where characters voice the audience's opinion such as when Agent Simmons tazes Sam's obnoxious tag-along room mate or Bumblebee throws the two Autobot twins out of the frame. It's a relief but a reminder that these characters are more an annoyance than an asset to the story being told (they literally add nothing except maybe a pitiful attempt at comedic relief).

If you didn't think it was possible, the performances in Revenge of the Fallen are even worse than those found in the original. Shia LaBeouf is a total klutz, spazzing around with what I guess is his imitation of a seizure and failing to make a confident lead the audience or surrounding characters can put faith in. It almost seems that Megan Fox is around purely to run around the desert in a tight low-cut shirt and look attractive on motor vehicles because she has little else to offer in terms of acting ability.

Other returning cast members include John Turturro's rash Agent Simmons, Kevin Dunn and Julie White playing Sam's idiotic parents, and Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as military personnel. Peter Cullen, Mark Ryan, Robert Foxworth, Jess Harnell, Hugo Weaving, and Charlie Adler all are terrific voicing their respective Transformers, bringing the appropriate demeanor to each one, while Tom Kenny's voicing of the twins Mudflap and Skids verges on the edge of being a racial stereotype. Ramon Rodriguez joins the bots as the single most annoying tag-along character but thankfully his character didn't stick around for the next installment.

Overall, the narrative presents challenges for the characters but none of them stick and there's no consequence for characters and no lasting impression on the viewers mind. The visuals don't exactly make up for the flat story, but do come to the blockbuster's aid rather than hindering it, making some parts of it watchable. In conclusion, Revenge of the Fallen is everything you expect from a Bay production, but dialed up to an eleven.

Film Assessment: D