Thursday, 23 July 2009 15:51 | and posted in Movie Reviews
It was Thursday night at five past midnight and I was in a packed cinema with 400 others sitting in eager anticipation of watching the first UK screening (bar the premiere) of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I must confess that attending midnight showings of movies is not a habit for me (I think Spiderman is the only other one I've gone to see), but such is my love of the first Transformers movie (and that I had a day off on the Friday) that a friend and I couldn't resist the allure and excitement of seeing Transformers 2 at a crazy time of night!
The novelty factor of the first Transformers movie has obviously gone, but I still found myself with my jaw hanging open at the incredible special effects. This movie is the original movie super-charged! The number of robots has increased to 42, the transformations are even more spectacular, the explosions and battles bigger and louder and to be really honest it's just plain cool! In the early hours of the morning this is a movie that grabs your attention and doesn't let go.
However, it's the story which lets Transformers 2 down. For some unknown reason the movie focusses on a back story of Transformers having been on Earth before and leaves the movie moving from one clue to another. This is interspersed with robot battles and Sam's (needless) attempt to go to college. Some of you may say the first movie didn't have much of a story, but my response has always been it was simple and it worked. Revenge of the Fallen is too intricate, needed much more explained and really didn't add anything to the film. One of the main ploy details is that the lead Decepticon (the Fallen - imagine a Star Wars Emporer like figure) can only be killed by a Prime, of which Optimus is the last. Why no ordinary transformer can do this is left completely unexplained. There is also a Terminator esque sequence in the Sam goes to college sequence which to me went against the spirit and the point of transformers!! In so many ways the story didn't work.
Sam's character (Shia LaBeouf) I thought was really good once more, but everytime Michaela (Megan Fox) was on screen it was like (as one reviewer I read put it) a teenage boy was operating the camera! Sadly Michaela's character never develops beyond a sex object to be ogled at.
I found the first Transformers movie genuinely funny, but this time the laughs are either bad-taste or miss the mark. The sidekicks in particular were out in force (there were too many to name here) and were annoying rather than funny. The movie would have been better if these sidekicks had been missed out all together.
I'm up for watching Transformers 2 again, just to see if my over-expectation of it has led to this mixed review. But even though I have issues with it, I did still enjoy the movie. It's nowhere near as good as the first, but it's not a disaster, just disappointingly average. 3 out of 5 is my vote. Though if you don't like transforming robots then this is probably more a 2 out of 5.
