Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (6/10)

No doubt, this is the biggest and the most anticipated movie of this summer. The first movie achieved success even though it was critically a disaster.

And with that success, producer and director Michael Bay planned to give exactly what the fans want in the second instalment, but on an epic level. How did that translate into the silver screen? Bigger robots, bigger explosions, and bigger action sequences.

In the first movie, the plot was so straightforward that the audience was able to fully enjoy the action and visuals without having to divert attention to the plot. Let’s face it, nobody would go into a Michael Bay movie expecting a heavy storyline.

However, in Revenge Of The Fallen, there was just too much going on and involved too many locations and differing agendas that constantly distracted the flow of enjoyment with their incoherence. Scenes jumped from action to comedy to melodrama whenever Bay felt like it without proper build-up or giving them enough time to reach a natural conclusion.

To Bay’s credit, this is his biggest and most explosive movie to date. There were a few set pieces which were really commendable. From the opening chase sequence in China to a sword-battle in the forest between Optimus Prime and three Decepticons, and finally to the long action sequence in the desert; the seamless CGI was at least a few steps above the first movie.

The only problem with the action scenes was differentiating the individual robots other than the more obvious ones like Optimus and Bumblebee, so what more the difference between Autobots and Decepticons. Because the sub-cast robots did not have significant roles, it’s impossible to tell who was knocking the spare parts out of who until one stood victorious. And Bay’s shaky camera movements only made things worse.

Even though we still see a few of the human actors a lot more this time, but their roles weren’t as prominent compared to the robots. In the first movie, Shia LaBeouf managed to constantly remind his audience that he was the main star of the movie – bringing the human touch, so to speak. But his character this time wasn’t allowed to flourish as before.

And those twin Autobots, “Huey and Dewey”, are irritating as hell. Why only Autobots have stupid personalities?

Bay’s signature move of swirling camera action was even more pronounced here but they were hits-and-misses at best. The soundtrack once again was cleverly inserted to emphasise the appropriate scenes. And the script has improved slightly, though tacky lines like, “I rise, you fall” still popped up one too many times.

The first Transformers movie proved that a loud, gimmicky movie can be fun. But with Revenge Of The Fallen, Bay just wanted to make things as big and as loud as he possibly could; ignoring logic and substance for flashy and style. The result, a soulless piece of machine.