Given that I hadn’t really enjoyed the first Transformers film, I was pretty sure I couldn’t be bothered shelling out any money to see the sequel. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t buy into it. Nonetheless, last night I found myself at the local opening of Revenge of the Fallen.
Perhaps I had lowered my expectations (this was not Transformers, this was Michael Bay), perhaps there was something intrinsically better about this film, perhaps it was just Megan Fox in minute after minute of slow-motion goodness, but I had a pretty good time.
I’m not going to waste anybody’s time explaining the plot because it’s a pretty simple Race to Mount Doom style scenario. Sufficie to say that there is much shooting, fighting, and references to energon.
The script is typically great Michael Bay. Full of one liners and witticisms that are delivered at a rapid fire pace to make sure that you don’t realise exactly how crass it all is. There was a lot of toilet humour — not that I mind, but not exactly what I remember from the cartoon I watched as a kid.
The robot-on-robot ninja action was awesome. Optimus Prime breaking out double swords and taking on a small army of Decepticons was nothing short of spectacular.
One thing that did bug me was the sound mix, and I guess it grated on me watching the first one as well. It’s so loud to the point that individual sounds are not discernible from each other. That makes a lot of dialogue unintelligible, and much of the traditional “transforming” sound becomes lost in monstrous but vague industrial machinery noise.
In the end, if you’re either a fan of the first Transformers film, or Michael Bay in general, you will have a great time with Revenge of the Fallen.