In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the Decepticons (under the command of head Decepticon ‘The Fallen’) return to earth to gain revenge on the Autobots and humans that brought them to their demise in the first film. Shia LeBouf and Megan Fox reprise their lead character roles as Sam and Kayla respectively and almost everyone from the first film is back for this one (although they do not bring anything new, character-wise to this film). There are also new robots from both sides, though none of them make a big enough impact for us to care.
The film suffers dramatically in its script. The story is no where near as witty and charming as the first film, as it appears director Michael Bay has decided to focus entirely on the action spectacular that is the Transformers franchise and has left out any character development in this film. The performances from each of the film’s human characters are just watchable and some of the dialogue is laughable. The film also introduces new transformers from both sides, though aside from filling in the robot numbers in this film, the new robots fail to really help the film in its narrative, although Megatron and Starscream are fantastic (though we could have seen more of them).
The film’s graphics and effects are outstanding as expected and there is a lot of attention to detail paid to the film’s robots and their transforming functions (but again, nothing we haven’t really already seen in the first film). The battle scenes are epic and look amazing, though even they become a bit too much to bare after the first hour (in a two and a half hour film).
Overall, Revenge of the Fallen is a let down. It has a lot of mindless action with a poorly written script. It is bigger, louder and sillier than the first Transformers and just exhausting to watch. The film is a clear exploitation of the cinema blockbuster genre and let’s hope that it is not used as a standard for future blockbuster films. With all its flaws, Revenge of the Fallen will most definitely still dominate the box-office and is worth seeing purely for the entertainment factor.
Fun Fact:
John Turturro was allowed to climb the pyramids during filming in Egypt. At one point, he simply broke down crying. When Michael Bay questioned him, he said, “You just don’t get to do this in movies. You don’t get to shoot in a place that’s 4000 years old.”
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