Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (Review)

Micheal Bay did it again. Only this time he did it much much better. The second installment of Transformers (Revenge of the Fallen) is, as expected, spectacular. Not only is there excessively violent, robot on robot action, and the phenomenal Megan Fox, but there is also the worlds most expensive explosion in movie history! Oh, and did I mention Megan Fox. (Spoiler Alert)

I personally would have loved to have been in the room when Micheal Bay was describing his vision to people on set. I imagine it went something like this:

"Ok, so here's what I see. Were going to have a robot hit something or something get destroyed every other scene. And when there isn't something blowing up I want to see a hot chick. We'll work everything else in around that basic idea! Cool? Cool!"

But beautiful women and blown up stuff aside, this movie had it all. Action, suspense, a sappy love story, a plot you could follow, but not easily predict, a little bit of new Transformer/Cybatron history and mind blowing graphics.

My biggest problem with the last Transformers movie was the speed. The graphic designers and animators spent months on designing every inch of those robots and we only got to see flashes of them. Micheal Bay seemed to hit the fast forward button every time two robots got in the same frame with each other. Making them grapple and roll so that we couldn't take in what was happening, just see big rolling balls of metal. Well, in Revenge of the Fallen, this is not the case. Bay gives each and every robot its due time so that we as viewers can experience and appreciate every nuance of how they are designed. Fight scenes were slowed down so that you could see the earth shattering punches and steel melting blasts. He gave you close ups and "Fight Night" worthy slow motion. You could really see the pure anger that was delivered with every rattling blow.

But there's something for everyone in this one. The movie does step away from the violence for a little bit and adds a bit of comic relief with an old SR71 Blackbird (Jetfire) the crippled, stubborn, old, robot and the Twins, a pair of street talking, gold tooth wearing, goof-ups who serve one purpose, to make people laugh! There's a love story between Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf (a little unbelievable), that focuses all around the L word. And even an appearance by the hilarious Rainn Wilson as a cocky astronomy professor.

Over all I would definitely recommended this to anyone who has an inclining of interest in Transformers. It's worth the money, but I didn't give the movie 5 stars. It was good, but wasn't flawless. It had cons:

1) A Decepticon falling in love with the Megan Fox. Yes, she's hot but does that mean she can train robots AND get it them switch sides after burning its eye out?

2) Shia LaBeouf is magic? He carries a sock full of dust across the dessert and then has to die before the original Primes tell him this was all part of the plan. Then they return him to life? Why couldn't they do that for Optimus?

3) Cybatronians live forever...sometimes? Why is the Fallen so spry and chipper, but Jetfire needs a cane (and some cube to bring him back)?

4) Autobots don't know how to do organ transplants, but Decepticons do? Supposedly you can rip out one robots "core" and put it in another robot to restore life. This works great for Megatron after he's killed (and sunk in the ocean) but not for Optimus. Optimus has to wait till after he's brought back to life by Sam, then when hes about to dies again Jetfire donates his core. Why didn't they do that before? I know I need to suspend reality, but I was (and still am) confused.

5) Lastly, I thought that the ending is rushed. Yes, Optimus is awesome and a Prime and he has old school parts that beef him up (but fall off like rags when hes done with them). But that doesn't mean that the end should have been that fast. They sent 30 min on the fight scene in the Dessert, but once Optimus is back on his feet he can break the neck of the Fallen and destroy the sun eater in 120 seconds. That was a disappointment. I expected the Fallen to put up a better fight than that! I mean Star Scream sucker punched Optimus from behind and he died! But the Fallen an original leader of Cybatron puts up no fight?

Are these really big problems? No! Are any of these things going to stop me from adding this movie to my collection? No, but I thought that I should air my grievances, because I can.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is Amazing. It gets 4.5/5 Stars in my book. And Michael Bay and everyone else who worked on this one (especially Megan Fox) did a hell of a job. This is the best movies of the Summer!