Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Director: Michael Bay
Michael Bay’s second Transformers saga delivers full-bore “Bayhem” like a brick to the forehead, with some tender love on the side, making this either the biggest blockbuster of summer ’09 or history’s loudest romance.
Watching this movie is akin to lying on the tarmac at Pearson International while a revving Airbus A380 rolls over you. A decoder wheel might have been helpful, since there are almost too many characters and too much plot in this film.
The relatively modest (by Bay standards) battle of the first Transformers is now all-out robot rumpus, with many more locations and a cast of clankers that will likely befuddle anyone who doesn’t have a propeller attached to his beanie.
Optimus Prime, the 18-wheeler with a major Christ complex, still leads the good alien Autobots. But he’s sidelined for much of the movie by a U.S. national security drone (John Benjamin Hickey) who represents Obama but acts like Bush.
Optimus is still trying to convince his erstwhile earthling pal Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) to assist him in saving the universe, but Sam has other things on his mind: he’s heading East to attend college and he’s trying to get up the nerve to tell his girlfriend Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) that he loves her.
The multitudinous DVD extras include a commentary by Michael Bay, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, numerous featurettes, a history of Transformers and, for the Blu-ray, a doc called “Giant Effing Movie” that pretty much says it all.
