So it’s two years since the evil Megatron’s death, and Optimus Prime, the other Autobots and the significantly less exciting humans have been going about their business as usual. Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is preparing to leave for college, and girlfriend Mikeala (Megan Fox) keeps bending over cars in the auto-shop in that way she does. What could disturb this harmonious bliss? Why, the discovery of a Transformer so bloomin’ evil he makes Megatron look like a Bosch iron. The Fallen – the lost brother of the Transformers – is preparing for battle on Earth And believe us, his battle is extremely explodey.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is Michael Bay at his best. By that, we mean that the special effects, CGI work and action sequences in this film are mind-blowing, and are worth spending money on no matter what you make of the Transformers franchise. However, story has never really been Bay’s forté , and we have to admit that the plot leaves a lot to be desired. Characters die then hastily and conveniently come back to life (more than once), there is a lot of business with ‘fragments’ that makes less and less sense as the film snowballs, and to be honest, the entire plot seems to serve the much greater cause; big massive explosions in cool locations. You can almost hear the production debates-

Michael Bay “We have to send them to Egypt!”
Harassed Producer: “But…Why?”
Michael Bay: “All the sand and temples and stuff look SO COOL when they blow up. Also because of another reason, probably. ”

The strengths of this film lie in the battle sequences, which far outstrip the first Transformers film. The weakness? Anyone talking. At any point. The jokes are cringe-worthy, the dialogue is lazy and Megan Fox getting her leg humped by a robot is basically the most sophisticated visual gag in it. But hell, that’s not why we watch Michael Bay films. Bang! Whap! Ka-Boom! Yeah! Keep ’em comin, Mike.

Special Features

Audio commentary by director Michael Bay and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Documentary The Human Factor: Exacting Revenge of the Fallen
A Day with Bay: Tokyo,
25 Years of Transformers featurette
The NEST: Transformer Data-Hub