In 2007 Transformers was released on the world as a live action movie. It wasn’t a stop motion flick with the original Hasbro toys or a longer episode of the 1980’s animated series, this was a high def, CGI action fest, directed by the king of action fests Michael Bay. The movie was a hit and it grossed something stupid like $70,000,000 in its opening weekend. Now never one to let a cash cow graze peacefully for too long, Hollywood has now given us a sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Synopsis:
The premise in RotF is much the same as the original, the Decepticons want to destroy the earth, the Autobots with the help of the army and Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) have to stop them to save the little blue planet we call home. Except this time we learn that this war between humans/Autobots and the Decepticons has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. The Fallen who is basically the daddy of the Decepticons tried to destroy the world way back when but he was stopped. Now he’s back for revenge: Big explosions, Robot on Robot destruction and supposedly zany comedy ensue.

The high gloss CGI is undoubtably impressive

Ok I’m going to be honest from the get go, some people can go and see a sequel to movie and be happy with a re-hash of the original; I’m not one of those guys. You need to bring something to a sequel other than just more of the same. RotF has more robots than the original movie, it has bigger robots than the original movie but other than that it really doesn’t deliver anything new.

The CGI in this movie is undeniably awesome, combine that with the gunfights and explosions and we have exactly what Michael Bay has become renowned for, a great action movie. The acting isn’t great but to be fair there isn’t really much screen time dedicated to it. Shia LeBeouf does a very decent job again as Sam Witwicky. Megan Fox is gorgeous as always but let’s face it not really here for her acting chops. John Turturro and  a new guy who i’d never heard of before called Ramon Rodriguez really do a great job as a double team of brave, over the top, wannabe hero and cowardly college kid. They really work well together for the most part and while at times it can get a little tedious generally it’s a good pairing.

Optimus tearing it up

But the robots are really what this movie is all about and this unfortunately is were the problems start. I’ve already said in terms of plot and over all feel, this movie doesn’t bring anything new. However the few things that are different aren’t improvements. In the first movie there was a relatively small band of robots and they each had a personalities that weren’t really too grating but at the end of the movie Optimus prime, sends out a message inviting any other Autobots to come and seek refuge on earth with them. Unfortunately the robots who have arrived since then are all either pointless or extremely irritating. Top of this list are two robots called “the twins” who are a the stereotypical “black-ghetto” robots. It’s amazing how two 10ft tall robots can be so similar to a tiny splinter just underneath your skin, but both can aggravate you to the point of distraction. The dialogue between these two is so stupid and ridiculous it really takes away from the film and isn’t even remotely funny. There is also an annoying little “New Yorker” robot and a geriatric plane from the good old days who also seem to do more damage than good to the movie.

By trying to inject more personality into the robots in this movie, the director has almost effectively killed one off the major selling points of this movie; the likability of the robots. Fortunately, the action tends to make up for this, there is one fight scene with Optimus tearing apart a few Decepticons in a forest that left me very impressed. This movie does action very well just not much else.

And So…
Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen really doesn’t do anything that the original doesn’t. If you enjoyed the first Transformers installation then, by all means go and check this one out. All it will be is a high octane copy of the original, but hey, some people like that and I can almost guarantee it will make a killing in the box office and Transformers 3 will be out in few years. Like most Cash Cows, there isn’t really much good in it, it’s not very healthy but it’s Big, Barbecued and Beefy…the McDonalds of the movie world.