Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Premise: A sequel to the 2007 film. The battle between giant robots continues as the two warring factions compete to find an ancient artifact.
What Works: Viewers who like monster truck rallies might find something fun in the film.
What Doesn’t: Revenge of the Fallen is a failure on nearly every level. Although the special effects of this Transformers film are state of the art, the story telling is amateur at best. Admittedly, the film is intended to be a special effects extravaganza, more like a theme park ride than a dramatic film, but that is no excuse for the lazy writing on display here. The film’s plotting is aimless and largely pointless. The first sixty minutes of this two-and-a-half hour film could have been cut out or at least cut down to about fifteen minutes and it would not interrupt the story at all. There is no discernible point to all of this; exactly what the machines and the human beings are fighting for is a mystery and without any dramatic consequence. No one in the film, machine or human, has any distinguishable emotions, personality, or goals; they just go though the motions of running, shooting, and running again. The action scenes, which ought to be the payoff of this film, are actually few and far between and are terribly staged and edited; all the film shows is metal grinding against metal and it is never clear just what the hell is going on. Without a coherent story or much action to distract from the lack thereof, the film becomes, amazingly, a tremendous bore.
Bottom Line: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may actually displace Pearl Harbor as the worst film Michael Bay has ever made. The film is an excuse to make a sequel for its own sake and it even fails to be satisfactory popcorn entertainment.
Episode: #244 (June 29, 2009)