Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Transformers Revenge Of Fallen Is More Than Meets The Eye

Hollywood has many so called gifted directors, Ron Howard, Mel Gibson, and Francis Ford Coppola all come to mind. Michael Bay does not have the resume of these major Hollywood players. What he has given us in the past are many loud movies with little story or plot but with lots of action, explosions and his trade mark panning of the camera. In "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" we do get a much better movie, not only do we get the action this type of movie is destined to give us, but we get insight that the first Transformers neglected to give us.

The battle for Earth has ended, the Autobots have defeated the Decepticons, Optimus Prime has brought new Autobots to Earth in order to find and destroy any hidden Decepticons still hiding on Earth. Optimus and his group have joined forces with a new United States Military unit nick named NEST. The opening sequence is action packed as the Autobots and NEST track an unknown Decepticon to Asia. The battle starts on the docks but is soon out in the streets, Optimus gets the Decepticon but is given a warning that The Fallen will return. Starscream who had assumed command of the Decepticons, when the Decepticons believed their leader Megatron had been destroyed. Now Starscream has decided to return to Earth with reinforcements. They recapture the shard that is Megatrons life force and bring him back to life. Returning to their home planet, The fallen has told them that they don't need the Allspark anymore that the human Sam Witwicky has the knowledge of the hidden power source in his brain, Megatron says he will get it if he has to peel the skin from the boy himself.

Of course we get the obligatory sadness of young Sam going off to college, his parents, Ron (Kevin Dunn) and Judy (Julie White) are scared and honored that their son is going to college, when Sam finds a shard of the Allspark he is given an insight into the history of the Autobots. Sam is pursued by Decepticons of all kinds, even ones that appear human. Sam gives his girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) the shard to for safe keeping and she is pursued by Decepticons herself. Sam meets Leo (Ramon Rodriguez) his roommate who will become a sort of partner in Sam's quest to find the power of the Autobots before The Fallen can. The power of the Autobots is strong enough to destroy the Earths sun, so its a matter of survival for all of humankind that Sam succeeds.

The battle sequences are in your face, the Decepticons, who have been shot to Earth in a sort of cocoon are forming groups to hunt and kill Sam, The Autobots themselves are grouping together to defend Sam, several new Autobots have been called to earth by Optimus, Mudflap and Skids are a set of urban twins of one sort or another. They are youngsters who don't really understand the dire need to rescue Sam. The group of three who flee the college decide to find a computer website owner who claims to have knowledge of the Autobots, this man turns out to be Agent Simmons (John Turturro) and when he learns that Sam has the information that the Decepticons are searching for they decide to go find an older robot, they journey to The Smithsonian and meet Jetfire who teleports them to Egypt where he claims the door way where the Autobots hid The Matrix of power. This is what Sam needs, to not only stop the Decepticons but to bring one of the Autobots back to life, one who gave his life in order to defend Sam's.

Sam and Agent Simmons have been able to call for help, of course a public telephone in Egypt is available to them so they can reach The U.S military, the nest team has been disbanded but they are still willing to travel across the globe to help Sam, Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) leads his unit into battle against a huge Decepticon called Devestator, USAF Tech Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) is also along for the fight. The battle sequences are long some are drawn out others are over quickly, the original Autobots are all here so if you have a favorite (Bumblebee) you are sure to see them here.The story while not Academy Award good is still much better than the first movies, we actually get a decent plot this time around and if going into the movie you understand that you are going to see a movie with huge robots fighting it out you will love this movie. Some of the early battle scenes special effects looked blurry, I was fortunate enough to see this movie on the Imax screen so that may have been the reason, quick movements in the IMAX format tend to be blurry.

I give Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, I loved this movie and a 3 may seem low but I gave the original movie a 1. This is THE action packed Summer movie that everyone will be standing in line for. Go see it and enjoy the heck out of it, I know I did.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci - Fi Action Violence, Language, some Crude and Sexual Material and Brief Drug Material
Running time is 2 hrs. 24 mins.

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