This film is prototypical big budget Summer blockbuster movie. If you like Michael Bay films such as Armageddon, The Rock, Bad Boys, or Con Air then you definitely need to see this Transformers film, and certainly the one before it. In fact, it’s the perfect movie for the Fourth of July weekend. It’s very patriotic incorporating the U.S. Military and a cavalcade of GM concept cars. Just like the first one.
And the $201 million box office take since its release on Wednesday the 24th is nothing to laugh at. It made $60.6 million in one day. But for deeper storylines and rich character development, you’ll be wise to go elsewhere.
The Autobots and Decepticons are back in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a revenge story as the title suggests but with no real development of the Decepticon called Fallen to really understand the motivation of his revenge. Sure, Megatron, the antagonist the Autobots defeated in first film is one who might have reason to seek revenge, and we can understand that if we’ve seen the first film. Fallen, a sort of cross between one of the long headed monsters from the Alien films and Sauron from the Lord of the Rings films, doesn’t, however, have a sufficient amount of back-story for us to care for him.
We do care about the humans though. The humans, especially Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam Witwicki, take precedence in this film. He goes off to college which is an entertaining twist on the Transformer tales, his girlfriend Mikaela played by Megan Fox staying behind. This opens the door for plenty of conflict, the first of which in their long distance relationship is the temptation presented by Sam’s co-ed dorm life. But who could be tempted by any other girl when Megan Fox is your girlfriend? Sam and Mikaela try some internet dates that don’t go off as planned and when Sam discovers a chard of the Allspark, the cube device that gives machines life, the Decepticons find out and send a “terminator” in for the job. Problem is, this Decepticon is pretty damn hot. And wouldn’t you know it, Mikaela shows up just in time to save her man.
Since it’s a Michael Bay film, all of the production value and large budgetness of his films are utilized here. The photography is sharp and contrasty; lighting is spot on, with colored filters on the lens, or a post-production effect to cheat colorful skylines no less; and sensitive camera movement toward characters to emphasize emotional moments. Tons of explosions and huge fight scenes between Transformers. Most of which is obviously taken from martial arts films. It’s also the second film this year to involve The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
The best parts of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen involve Sam’s new roommate, Leo Spitz played by Ramon Rodriguez (TV’s Day Break and The Wire), and John Turturro. Both actors add a surprising bit of comedy to the film. Especially when the plot goes a National Treasure or Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade route. And instead of a multi-onslaught of robot fighting and transforming like we had in the first film, this one pairs down the fighting, reduces the chaos, and focuses on Optimus Prime as the main Autobot protagonist. This goes a long way to making this film better. Of the two films, this one is an improved effort. The only insensitivity in this film might be the fact that Bay attempts to draw humor from characters, robot or other, that have missing or buck teeth, odd shaped eyeballs, or funny body features (more so than how a character talks).
Rated PG-13, at a whopping two hours and twenty minutes which is way too long. Shia LaBeouf is a real star. He does a fantastic job and continues to prove me right when I say he’s the next Harrison Ford-like big action star.