Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Admirable film.

Absolutely the worst movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An abomination of a movie even by the standards of the series, Transformers: ROTF is a joke of a movie bestowed upon us by Michael Bay. Everything that happens on the screen is so blurry and confusing you never know who is fighting who, or for that matter who is who. All the actors from the previous installment are on hand to collect a paycheck for acting in front of a bluescreen. At least the earlier film made some sense. This is an abomination. Avoid.

Nowadays almost all filmmakers believe they can only make a good movie by adding loads of special effected and lots of huge explosions

The Transformers return for a lackluster, poorly written sequel that still has some stunning visuals. The Michael Bay-directed film operates off the premise that the Transformers had come to Earth long ago. In the present, an elite military squad called NEST led by Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sargeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) works with the Autobots to hunt Decepticons. In a destructive battle in Shanghai, Optimus Prime takes down a Decepticon but receives a warning of the Fallen. As Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) readies for college, he discovers a sliver of the Allspark cube that brings household appliance to life and destroys his parents', Ron (Kevin Dunn) and Judy (Julie White), house. Sam has to leave his transformer car Bumblebee behind and say goodbye to Mikaela (Megan Fox) as they start a long distance relationship. He gives her the cube sliver as he departs. The government wants to shut down the Autobots just as the Decepticons plan to revive Megatron. At college, Sam tries to cover up his strange past as he meets his crazy roommate Leo (Ramon Rodriguez). Judy gets high on pot brownies in a moment of humor. Sam starts seeing symbols, an effect from handling the sliver and finds a girl Alice (Isabel Lucas) has taken an interest in him. Bumblebee shows up to take him to Optimus who warns him of a coming war. Sam continues to have strange visions and discovers Alice is a Decepticon just as Mikaela shows up to see him making out with her. Resurrected, Megatron confers with the Fallen and catches Sam to have a microscope transformer probe his brain in search of a source of Energon.Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

With the massive success of the 2007 Transformers entry, it is only expected that Michael Bay would continue the story. Upon facing a collision course with the 2007-2008 Writer's Strike however, Bay and a trio of writers were in a rush with the production process. The evidence of their production difficulties is greatly shown in this final product of this bombastic 150-minute metal-on-metal action extravaganza. While Bay keeps his promise of spectacular visual heft involving heavy battles of giants robots sparring against each other, the script is the bumbling disappointment. The movie is underplotted, scarce of interesting characters, and signals a decline in the spirit of what the original film is wildly entertaining hit. Of course, hoping for a firmly groundbreaking story in a Michael Bay would probably be a lot of ask for consider the director's past endeavors. This does not stray from the shallowness of his bruised continuation of the Transformers saga. Set after the events of the predecessor, Sam Witwicky (played by Shia Labeouf) has graduated high school and is now heading off to college in attempt to live a normal life away from the Autobots and Decepticons. Kissing his girlfriend Mikaela (played by Megan Fox) and his parents (played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White) good-bye, Sam embarks on his college career, only to be haunted by mysterious symbols printed on a piece of the Allspark. Soon on, Sam finds himself pulled back into the war between the Autobots lead by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and the Decepticons who set out to wreck havoc on the human race. In the process, Mikaela and Sam's geeky roommate Leo (played by Ramon Rodriguez) are along for the ride. This film cooks with roughly the same ingredients of the first entry, although it appears a plot may be the very last item on agenda. The story intends on picking up not far from the where the previous film left off and continue the epic saga between the Autobots and the Decepticons. There was some fair potential at hand. Unfortunately, the majority of that potential is squandered on a thinly developed plot that not only fails to properly explain a few elements such as why the Decepticons are still after Sam, but occasionally dives into some absurd plot elements. If you need an example, one of which propels from Sam's sexual encounter with a college girl. After all, the film, even more so than the previous entry, takes heavy advantage from some awkward sexual innuendo including some racy dialogue uttered by the robots and a shot showing John Turturro in a G-string that place some moviegoers (particularly parents who bring their kids) at heave. Some of the humor is surprisingly funny, others are just flat-out crude and out of place. On the plus side, Bay boasts a somewhat commendable aptitude in special effects and visually alluring action set pieces showcasing the autobots and the decepticons going head-to-head and ripping each other apart in a loud explosion galore. The climatic battle set near the Pyramids of Egypt where military tanks are blown up, the pyramid is nearly decimated to pieces, and the explosion racks up a number nearly impossible to count; is sets stone in the film's biggest enchantment. If there is even a minor improvement from the predecessor, it may the performances by both Shia Lebeouf and Megan Fox which really isn't saying much, especially as the latter is once again recycled as a one-dimensional character delivering sex appeal for lingering shots of her body. The rest of the characters are sadly fall short of interest as well, particularly Ramon Rodriguez who's whiny personality and goofiness resembles more of an obnoxious caricature than a compelling character. Even when he lands maybe a few attempts at humor, his character can be quite a vexing device.Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a boisterous sci-fi action eye candy for those who are able to dive into the visually stunning action set pieces to distract themselves from the thinly written plot and characters. For everyone, this one may not be a your cup of tea. By no means is this big-budget sequel an abhorrent disaster. After all, there is plenty of visual heft that is destined to keep the youngster occupied. But it is a disappointing entry in this freshly born saga.