THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Transformers was arguably the best blockbuster of 2007 as it pleases everyone at the time. With it being a financial success, there is no surprise for a slew of sequels to be made. Were they all worth making? I’m not so sure anymore
PLOT
The first sequel Revenge of the Fallen picks up two years after the civil war between the robotic factions of Autobots and Decepticons first occurred on Earth within Mission City. With the latter’s leader Megatron defeated and other followers going into hiding, the former has align with the humans and formed a task force dubbed NEST (Non-Biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty) to eliminate Decepticons. More Autobots have also come from Cybertron to aid Earth in the ongoing fight. Apart from the likes of Ratchet (Robert Foxworth) & Ironhide (Jess Harnell), the newer brethren include: Sideswipe (André Sogliuzzo) who transforms into a ‘09 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, Jolt who transforms into a ‘09 Chevrolet Volt, Arcee (Grey DeLisle/Erin Naas) who controlled three Ducatis, and the twin duo of Skids & Mudflap who share the transformation of an ice cream truck before separately transforming into ‘07 Chevrolets. After a successful mission in Shanghai, one Decepticon declares ‘The Fallen shall rise again’ before being executed. Sam Witnicky is now going to college, but trouble quickly returns for him when he finds a shard of the AllSpark. It would bring to life kitchen appliances, resulting in him and his parents being protected by Bumblebee. Wanting to keep a low profile, Sam insists the Autobot to go back to his leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and have his girlfriend Mikaela hold the shard. In space, the Decepticon Soundwave hacks a satellite to find the burial site of Megatron and another shard of the cube that is guarded in a naval base. Another decepticon dubbed Ravage, who resembles a Panther, steals the shard, whereas others would use it to resurrect their fallen leader at the Laurentian Abyss. Back from the dead, he returns to Cybertron and reunites with his second in command Starscream as well as the original Decepticon known as The Fallen. The latter confirms that there is another source of Energon on Earth and they can be lead to it with the help of Sam who has the location somewhere in his mind after contacting the shard he found. Although he settles in at his dorm and meets his roommate Leo, who runs a conspiracy website of Transformers, he would start having mental breakdowns by seeing graphics of the Cybertronian language. When he alerts Mikaela about it, she captures the Decepticon Wheelie who was seeking the shard. When she comes to campus, she unexpectedly sees her boyfriend get kissed by a co-Ed named Alice (Isabel Lucas) who ends up being a disguised Decepticon. When she attacks, Mikaela runs her over with her car, resulting in her to retreat alongside Sam and Leo. As they attempt to do so, they get captured by the Decepticon Grindor who transforms into a helicopter. They take them to Megatron, who intends to remove Sam’s brain in hopes to find the source. That is stopped when they get saved by Prime and Bee. The former take on the Decepticons at the nearest forest and despite slaying Grindor, Megatron would impale him in blindsided manner. Sam, Leo & Mikaela would go into hiding with Bee and the twins as more decepticons would invade Earth. The Fallen would join the invasion and with Soundwave hijacking the planet’s telecommunications systems, he reveals their species to the world and demands Sam to be handed over, in order to find the secondary source. With surprise help from Leo, they go to someone who is an expert on Tranformers. That would happen to be former Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons. Once Sam explains to him of his situation, he shows proof that the robotic species have had multiple encounters on Earth long before Captain Archibald discovered Megatron. With Wheelie’s help, they discover the Cybertronian language to be specifically meant for the Primes who were looking for the second source for eons. He would then direct them to an older transformer who can read the language named Jetfire, who can transform into a Blackbird. Resurrecting him with the spare shard, he explains what’s going on. It results in the veteran transformer to take them to Egypt where the source was last seen. There, he explains that the source was called the ‘Matrix of Leadership’ and the Fallen wanted to use it to destroy earth with a sun harvester. When he first tried to do so in 17000 BC, the Primes prevented him with defeat, as all vowed to never destroy stars that sustain life. After this, they chose to sacrifice themselves to keep the Matrix from being in the wrong hands. Although the Matrix was designed to be a key to the Sun harvesters, it has unlimited energy. Knowing this, Sam believes he can use it to resurrect Optimus and have him defeat the Fallen before it’s too late. Eventually, Sam’s group would find it in Aqaba before witnessing it disintegrate. Not wanting to give up, Sam collects the remains. He also has Simmons call Lennox and alert the possibility of having Optimus resurrected. Around the time NEST arrives to Egypt, Decepticons arrive as well after successfully tracking down Sam. As both sides collide, multiple decepticons form a giant transformer named Devastator, which destroys the twins offscreen who die protecting Leo & Simmons. The latter is able to radio a navy ship to destroy the Devastator after it unveils the sun harvester. With Sam & Mikaela splitting from them, they are able to reach the battlefield and meet up with Lennox. Despite avoiding an air strike that wipes out many Decepticons, Sam gets shot at by Megatron. He is brought back to life thanks to the Dynasty of the Primes who explain retrieving the Matrix must be earned and never found. Once he wakes up, the Matrix is reforged and he uses to bring back Optimus. However, the Fallen quickly takes the key still intending to destroy the Sun. Wanting to better the chances of winning the chances of saving the world, Jetfire sacrifices himself to allow Optimus to use his parts for additional power. With new power at his advantage, he uses it well when destroying the Sun harvester, crippling Megatron and slaying the Fallen. With low reinforcements, Megatron & Starscream have no choice but to retreat. As NEST returns to the States, Optimus thanks Sam for saving him and sends another message declaring that the memories of transformers and humans will live on. The film would end with a mid credit scene, showing Sam return to college.THOUGHTS
With fans like myself enjoying the first film, the hype for this sequel felt surreal before the likes of Star Trek and Avatar shook things up. And while I enjoyed the theatric experience at the time, I hate to say that this one hasn’t aged well for me. You already know that Director Michael Bay was trying to pick up from past momentum, but it doesn’t really land perfectly here. It is a given when I say Steve Jablonsky’s score is still compelling to hear and the visual effects make the action sequences just as investing as before. I personally the scenes that go from the opening Shanghai battle, to the Forest fight to the entire climactic battle in Egypt are awesome to witness, but it ain’t really enough to keep everyone else hooked. The main reason this one feels messy to get through is because it becomes so underplottable, making it filled multiple things that basically destroy the narrative. I don’t mind having comedy to an action packed adventure. The characters Wheelie and the Twins are quotable but not in a good way. I got nothing against Tom Kenny and Reno Wilson who played these characters, but every line delivery comes off annoying instead of cleverly funny. And should we really be rooting for Wheelie if he’s just randomly humping on Mikaela’s leg? Because I don’t think so. That is not the way to switch sides. Another thing that doesn’t work in a comedic standpoint is Julie White as Sam’s mom Judith. I got nothing against her either and the same goes with Kevin Dunn playing Sam’s dad Ron, but their banter didn’t fit this time in my perspective. I don’t think they had to be involved with Sam’s arc once he’s in college. Things were slowing down in a bad way when Judith ate pot brownies. That scene would work in a whole other movie. And the stakes didn’t feel real when they get abducted. If I’m feeling that way, then they should’ve been written out sooner. And I didn’t pay to see metallic testicles from Devastator. That may be funny in another standpoint, but it was pointless here. And don’t get me started with John Benjamin Hickey as Senior US National Security Advisor Theodore Galloway. I know it was the whole point for the character to pain in the ass for Lennox, but that doesn’t mean we had to like it. I did laugh when Lennox tricked him to open his parachute early, but the movie would be better if even he wasn’t in it. The whole movie didn’t have to be a comedy. As if it wasn’t upsetting enough, there are more moments that ruin the movie for me. Taking it back to the top, I already said the entire opening Shanghai battle was dope, but did it really have to go as long as it did when Optimus was able to finish it after showing up mid battle? You could’ve prevented a lot of destruction if he was there from the beginning, no matter how cool of a dramatic entrance he can pull off. And we’re all wondering why is Bumblebee still having problems with his voice when he appeared to get it back by the end of the first film? It is still creative for him to use to radio to speak, but I wish there was an explanation on why it’s an issue for him to speak. Also how did he not know Alice was a Decepticon? Ironhide was able to smell Demolishor in the opening, so Bee should’ve picked up something about her. The Decepticons definitely had an advantage with Soundwave hacking a satellite, but how come no space ship passed by and noticed him? I feel like someone should have because it’s not astronauts don’t go to space anymore. This also has me thinking why didn’t the government just destroy Megatron’s body in the first place? If they really wanted to cover up the existence of Transformers, that would’ve done it and he would’ve not been resurrected. Also, why the hell would Optimus want to talk to Sam at a cemetery? That’s the most public place to be and it makes it a massive gamble to be unseen. You want to talk more about bad jokes, how about Rainn Wilson’s professor character flirting with students in the beginning of a lecture in front of a Dean? That is bad written all over it man. Continuity errors even strike again when two different paint marks are on the Bad Boys II poster Sam paints on in between takes. That bothered me more than the airbags appearing and disappearing in the car Mikaela rented. Speaking of which, I know Mikaela had the right to be mad Sam kissed someone else, but she should’ve dropped it by the time Alice revealed to be a Decepticon. There was no need to be complaining at the library when realizing he was being seduced and was trying to resist. And how did Jetfire forget he was on Earth? His age doesn’t matter because he should’ve recognized the aircrafts around him in the museum weren’t from Cybertron. Also, why doesn’t Starscream keep tracking down Sam and company? He had no reason to dip because he could’ve kept shooting if he was missing. And The Fallen was smart to snatch the matrix, but he could’ve been way ahead by killing Optimus again. I don’t want the bad guys to win, but these villains make it easy to lose. The only reason I can gain some guilty pleasure out of it because apart from the action, the rest of the characters are generally entertaining enough to keep me interested. Optimus proves he’s the best leader not just by kicking a lot of ass but still motivating others to do the right thing. When he was briefly killed, almost all lost track of what to do expect Sam. Shia LaBeouf showed Sam as one who wanted to create distance with the adventure because he wants to be at peace. When he found that shard, he learned the hard way peace ain’t easy to achieve and the war isn’t over until the obstacles are obsolete. He knew that the threat would never stop if he kept hiding and luckily, he found a way to do the right thing. We would’ve not guessed he would’ve been sacrificed as well to earn the Matrix, but it just proves heroes gotta prepare for the unexpected. Thankfully, he proved to have a will strong enough to get through everything in his way. Optimus did prove to be a badass for killing Grindor and the Fallen on his own, as well as crippling Megatron in the process, but I gotta give credit to Bumblebee as well. He was able to defeat Ravage and Rampage simultaneously while also protecting Sam’s parents, proving again what a great guardian he is. For the second & last time, Megan Fox had us fall in love with Mikaela for maintaining her variance by sticking with Sam until the end of this journey. That proves exactly how much she loved him and it’s a shame this relationship didn’t last after this. Josh Duhamel was still a treat as Lennox because he was a soldier who stuck with his gut for having Sam’s back from afar and up close. He knew handing him over wasn’t gonna solve anything and it’s a relief he didn’t take part in hunting him down for that reason. When S7 got decommissioned, I honestly think familiar faces from that organization would return. However, that didn’t mean I would mind John Turturro’s return as Simmons. He stood out more this time for being more patriotic than before when choosing to help Sam out. With the knowledge and information he had, he knew there was no way Sam would get far without it to win the war. And luckily, he kept his drive to help. I honestly don’t blame him for keeping Frenzy’s head as a trophy because I would do the same after fighting a killer robot. Going into the new characters, I would’ve not expected the comedic relief to pay off with a whole other character. That’s what we got out of Leo. Ramón Rodriguez made it all work for owning the social awkwardness, but still presenting his own set of vigilance. That mostly went to his conspiracies, but at least he had a passion for it because it’s hard to get through life without one. And if it wasn’t for that, Sam would’ve not gotten Simmons’ help. I did feel bad for him to get tased twice onscreen because that definitely looked horrible for him as it was funny for us. Mark Ryan surprisingly made Jetfire memorable for proving age does not destroy one’s valiance. He knew the true colors of the Decepticons and saw no benefit in being in their side, hence switching sides and sacrificing himself for the greater good. Had he not done that, Optimus likely would’ve not destroyed the Sun harvester in time. It’s a given to say Hugo Weaving didn’t skip a beat in making Megatron a ferocious villain, but he dials it up by proving he’s a sadist as he enjoyed every bit of pain he caused. From stabbing Optimus to shooting at Sam, you saw and felt the pleasure he had, making you hate him more than you already were. Thankfully, he got a comeuppance that matches his actions. I mean it’s ironic to be shot by his own hand in the face thanks to Prime. Although I didn’t mind Frank Welker voicing Starscream the first time around, who ended up voicing Soundwave here and in the follow up, Charlie Adler was a worthy improvement for making clear what a conniving suck-up he is. I mean Megatron should’ve not been surprised he would leave him hanging twice. Last but not least, anybody could’ve voiced The Fallen as long as he sounded good at being evil. In such a limited time, Tony Todd didn’t just sound evil but straight up became it in every second, which frightened the hell out of me at the time this movie came out. This character was an ancient menace for being the first to want to destroy the planet, which puts us in relief on how quick he would always be stopped. To wrap up, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is indeed a guilty pleasure sci fi flick as the action is more memorable than the messy plot. If you a Transformers fan, good luck getting through this.
Comments