Written By: Dan Geer

Two years ago, we witnessed a well done, “check your brain at the door” live-action movie based on the original Transformers cartoons from the 1980s directed by Michael Bay and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Today, they bring us the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and it is bigger, louder and much more intense than the last film. For some people this is a warm welcome. For others, they may have a headache at the end of this two and a half hour-long popcorn movie.

The plot is a bit convoluted, but nevertheless comprehensible to fans of the first movie if one pays attention. Without going too far into detail, this movie takes place two years later after the events of the first film, and the Autobots are working with the American and British military to combat any Decepticons remaining here on Earth. In the midst of battle, they find out that an ancient Decepticon known as “The Fallen” (voiced by Tony Todd) is seeking revenge on the Autobots, particularly Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), as well as the entire human race for something that happened long ago that the current Autobots were not even aware of. In short, this revenge requires reviving Megatron (Hugo Weaving), the leader of the Decepticons from the first film, and harvesting energon by destroying our sun to power the AllSpark – thus eliminating mankind as we know it.

Our friendly nerd, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and his beautiful girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) are once again thrown into the middle of this whole war when Sam discovers a shard of the AllSpark cube from the first movie. By merely touching it, it implants vital information into his mind which The Fallen needs to spark his revenge. You will just have to go see the movie to find out what is in his mind that is so important to The Fallen. No doubt that fans of the original 1986 cartoon movie will love this plot element.

Of course, this means ultimate robot wars ensue that dwarf the action in the first movie, sometimes even too much. The first half of the movie runs rather smoothly, and the action is quite focused – particularly with a scene in a forest where Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, kicks some serious booty! However, towards the end of the film it becomes a bit too overwhelming and cluttered. Admittedly it is exciting to watch, but gets old after a while. The reason being because the story is leading us to a final showdown between Optimus Prime and The Fallen and, while it is very thrilling, it ends way too quickly. After two hours and fifteen minutes of build-up, we really needed more than just a couple of minutes of battle between these two. About ten minutes of screen time with other Transformers could have been easily sacrificed to serve this more important scene between the main hero and villian.

Saying all this, the film is quite entertaining and is sure to please most fans of the the first movie. ILM did an amazing job with rendering these robots to feel real and making the action incredibly thrilling. This movie should win the Academy Award next year for Best Special Effects. Lastly, there are many homages to the original TV series as well as new revelations that will make Transformers geeks drool.

What it all comes down to is that this is not a movie to be taken too seriously. It is a Michael Bay action film about transforming robots from outer space based on a cartoon TV show from the 80s. The plot is simple, and the action is over the top. Perhaps this movie is a bit too juvenile in areas – particularly with the Autobot characters “Skids” and “Mudflap” who are basically the robot versions of Jar Jar Binks. They are funny at times, but are ultimately in the movie too much and get in the way of the story flowing smoothly. They really served no purpose to the plot other than to try and make the audience laugh. Their screen time could have been at least cut in half, if not completely removed from the get-go.

This movie is fun and light-hearted, but at the same time darker than the first in many areas. If you are a fan of the first film and are looking for more Transformers in action and a fun time at the movies again, this is definitely the movie for you. If you’re looking for something more serious like what we found in The Dark Knight last year – well – did you even see the first Transformers?

Rating:  (out of four)