How LOW Has The Mighty "FALLEN"

The first “Transformers” film may not be faithful to the original animated series and not even to the comic book by Marvel comics in the 80's. Seeing as how Hasbro only utilized those mediums to promote its toy line, I can forgive its inconsistencies to the beloved animated series. The original film by Michael Bay was fun, it utilized a simple formula with little room for a real intricate plot; it was just a popcorn film. After the huge box-office success of Bay’s rendition of the “Transformers”, of course there would be a sequel and “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” fulfills that promise. Bay's main goal would have to be to make the sequel bigger while going deeper into the mythos of our transforming robots. In this sequel, for one thing, Michael Bay proves once again is the fact that he is a good director of action sequences but the skill of great storytelling still ELUDES him. “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” may be louder and bigger--but it is definitely NOT better.

Sam (Shia LeBeouf) is off to college. Life couldn’t be better for the young man, he has a hot girlfriend named Michaela (devastatingly sexy Megan Fox) and his parents are very supportive. The Autobots led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) had joined forces with the U.S. military to hunt down the remaining Decepticons still on Earth. On the day that he is supposed to leave for college, Sam discovers a shard of the ‘Allspark’ from an old sweater, the supposed source of life in Cybertron and his brain ends up being encoded with strange symbols. Prime and his companions come to the aid of the young man, and an encounter with the Decepticons end with a revived Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) sidelining the heroic Optimus Prime. Now it is up to Sam and Michaela to uncover the secret of the Transformers whose history spans hundreds of years on Earth. Aided by his roommate, Leo (miscast Ramon Rodriguez), former sector 7 agent, Simmons (John Turturro) and some old military friends (Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel), Sam must thwart the Fallen’s machinations to bring about disaster by stealing the powers of the sun to make Energon through the powers of the “leadership matrix” key.

I did not love the first film, but I thought it was fun and somewhat entertaining. It was a popcorn film that relied on slick hyper-editing tricks, CGI mayhem and visual disarray. “Tranformers” wasn’t anything special but it was a crowd-pleaser, it appealed to mainstream audiences. Somewhere along the way, Michael Bay messed up an easy formula with “Revenge of the Fallen”. This sequel is a display of pure undisciplined execution. One would ask; “How can Bay mess up a simple formula?” Well, it seemed like the director is trying too hard to outshine the original film by exercising the utmost minimum in restraint that relies mostly on rehearsed special effects and overbearing humor. I’m not sure whether he was trying to be funny or to be offensive.

The problems with “Revenge” come mostly from its script. I am not expecting a masterpiece or something that resembles an original plot, but the plot in this film was totally uninspired. It’s not that it didn’t have some aces in the screenplay but somewhere along the way, Bay and company decided to opt for a comedic experience. The history of the robots is somewhat fleshed out, with the “Fallen” concept being brought into play. Unfortunately, any relevance to the film’s main plot is downplayed by overdone annoying stereotypes in its characters; I am not just talking about the human characters, I am talking about the newer supporting cast of robots. (I will further elaborate in a minute) The Matrix key and the whole thing about the shards may hold some viability in the transformers mythos but sadly, the script falters, the film should be about the robots with the humans as the supporting element not the other way around. I would buy into the human-robot relationship and its significance but the film fails to fully realize this potential; it tosses in the idea but never develops it with emotion. I guess Bay thought that while the audience love to see robots fighting, they also like to laugh, so Bay and his writers puts a lot of emphasis on comedy; not just comic relief but actual comedy.

The film brings a lot of comedy into the screenplay that it makes no emotional or narrative impact. The life and death stakes of saving the planet feels more like a backdrop than an actual inherent part of the screenplay. Any aces from its limited concept are diverted to useless detours from its narrative. The new robots feel like they’re mere caricatures of certain stereotypes and the designs aren’t impressive either. Most of the newer supporting robots act like they’re rejects from some gangster comedy show. The twin ‘jive-talking’ robots, Mudflap and Skids act like they’re degenerates and play a usual ethnic stereotype. I found their designs and behavior rather unnecessary and quite frankly they may raise some racial flags. There is also a small Decepticon spy that behaves like a dog that it began to hump Megan Fox’s leg. The film’s script falls to many inadequacies and useless devices to try to entertain--to try badly. Using laughs as the central focus of the film diminishes the film’s concept. I was NOT laughing at all.

The question remains, does “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” deliver on the “Heavy Metal” combat scenes? Yes, it does. The fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron with two other Decepticons was real fun to watch. It was a testament to Optimus’ heroic qualities. There are plenty of robotic battles and while some of them are good, some are pretty mediocre. The final encounter between a "maxed-out" Prime and the "Fallen" was pretty nifty but it does put another monkey-wrench in the screenplay; Prime can defeat Megatron's master but cannot defeat Megatron himself? It does try to evolve the areas of robotic combat and violence, but most of the new faces such as Sidewinder are ignored. The idea of a human-like Decepticon is sadly also abandoned and not fully fleshed out. We see classic Autobots, Iron Hide, BumbleBee and Decepticons, Soundwave and Rampage. An Insecticon and the Constructicons also make an appearance but their “Devastator” looks like a washing machine on steroids. Megatron’s master, the Fallen one does look menacing but looks too reminiscent of the Japanese mecha designs. There is also an old Decepticon defector that uses a cane? The battles are good, but most of them feel too routine and a practice in rehearsal--lots of explosions and CGI mayhem does not make the qualities of an epic battle. Peter Cullen does a great voice-acting as Optimus and Hugo Weaving sounds menacing as the sinister Megatron.

The film also features returning characters into the mix. Familiar faces John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel reprises their roles from the original film. Turturro is somewhat entertaining but I really thought that Ramon Rodriguez was definitely a miscast as Leo. Shia LeBeouf is his usual over-acting self, that all he did to express emotion is to widen his eyes with his mouth open. Megan Fox is indeed a Fox! The actress is so seductive as the sexy Mikaela that even a sexy Decepticon (played by Isabel Lucas) almost couldn’t compete. Sam’s parents played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White weren’t funny and the pot joke is the type that has been overused by other films.

Maybe I’m being too harsh to the film, but I think I should try to tell the truth. While the film does have some decent gags, the comedy just overstays its welcome. This is a film that assumes that comedy is gold and a scene with two dogs humping the other is a viable plot device. Michael Bay further cements the impression that he DOES NOT care for the franchise at all, and that any success the original film may have enjoyed was a fluke. I am rather at a loss as to what target audience this film is geared to, that I cannot give it a recommended rating. I suppose to be optimistic, those who just want a mindless summer film, “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” may prove to be a minor diversion--but at 150 minutes the film proves too long. Bay isn’t going to elevate this once-beloved franchise to new heights, and sadly, there are already hints at another sequel.

It is a “FALLEN” sequel.

RENT IT [ 2 Out of 5 Stars]