Click to play videoCast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox
Direction: Michael Bay
Two years after that jaw-dropping first installment, director Michael Bay – or the guy who makes a living blowing up stuff on the big screen – returns with more eardrum-splitting action in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Unlike the earlier film which married spectacular visual effects with a witty plot, the sequel raises the ante in the effects department, but fails to deliver even a half-comprehensible storyline.
Shia LaBeouf returns as teenager Sam Witwicky who, you may recall, saved the world in the previous film by teaming up with those shape-shifting Autbots against the evil Decepticons.
In this film Sam is heading to university after saying goodbye to his fretting parents and his red hot girlfriend (played by the sizzling Megan Fox). In Washington, meanwhile, the Pentagon is hunting down and eliminating the remaining Decepticons. But when Sam discovers a piece of the mythical Allspark, an ancient artefact that gives the Transformers life, a new battle erupts, with Autobot leader Optimus Prime taking on the Decepticons’ boss Megatron.
To be honest, the plot and the human characters in this film are mere excuses; Revenge of the Fallen is nothing if not an orgy of big, loud explosions and relentless metal-on-metal action. For the most part you can’t even hear the dialogue because it’s drowned out by all that awful noise; and very often you struggle to tell the good robots from the bad ones as they hurl themselves at each other and crash to the ground as massive lumps of metal.
The action scenes are bigger, and the effects are remarkable, no question about it. But judging by the complete disregard for continuity or common sense, and the repeated slow-motion shots of Megan Fox running from explosions in a tight halter-neck top make it clear that this film is aimed specifically at teenage boys.
Clocking in at an insanely long 149 minutes, and culminating in a ridiculous climax in Egypt, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is ultimately for those with a high threshold for pain.
I’m going with one out of five and a thumbs-down. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better; that much is clear.
Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
 |
|
 |
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.