Two years after the eardrum-assaulting first instalment, Michael Bay's 'bots return for more decibel-laden carnage in this summer's first bona fide blockbuster.
Big, loud and definitely not clever, it's a giant, lumbering idiot of a movie that, were it not for all the explosions, would send the most devoted action fans to sleep.
With a yawning hole where the plot should be, a cast chosen for their looks rather than their acting chops and nothing to offer except stuff blowing up, what we have is two hours of director Bay banging toys together.
Less a movie and more an action-figure advertorial, Shia LaBeouf returns as teenager Sam Witwicky who, you may recall, saved the world in the first film by teaming up with the shapeshifting Autobots against the evil Decepticons.
When we catch up with him, Sam is heading to university, leaving behind his fretting parents and his unbelievably hot girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox).
Meanwhile in Washington, the Pentagon is hunting down and eliminating the remaining Decepticons. But when Sam discovers a piece of the mythical Allspark, an ancient artefact that gives the Transformers life, battle is rejoined with Autobot leader Optimus Prime taking on the Decepticons' boss Megatron.
Bigger, brasher and noisier than anything you've seen, it's certainly a visual spectacle with great special effects. Right from the off, Bay wastes no time in showing us what a $200m movie looks like with a spectacular face-off in Shanghai involving a gigantic shape-shifting unicycle.
Later, when the action moves to the Middle East, there's an almighty mêlée that'll appeal to everyone's inner idiot.
Thing is, none of it really hits home since nobody's bothered with a storyline - it's just a series of battles held together with the ropiest of dialogue.
As far as acting goes, LaBeouf is reliably dreadful, while Fox wears little more than cut-off jeans and a pout. At least John Turturro brings something to the table as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.
Make sure you take your earplugs.
Release Date: June 24, 2009 (conventional theaters and IMAX)
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)
Director: Michael Bay
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey, Ramon Rodriguez, Isabel Lucas, John Turturro
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material)
Official Website: Transformersmovie.com | MySpace.com/Transformers
Plot Summary: In the highly-anticipated "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," debuting June 24, 2009, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) again joins with the Autobots® against their sworn enemies, the Decepticons®. Michael Bay directs from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman.
No comments:
Post a Comment