TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (Rated PG-13)
Turning a popular children’s cartoon series into an exciting live-action blockbuster is hardly a novelty. Even transforming Hasbro toys into a full-blown cinematic adventure is not a stretch, particularly if you are using the directorial services of Michael Bay, whose films are characterized by his aggressive visual style and high-octane action sequences.
Going from “Bad Boys” and “The Rock” to the “Transformers” franchise is a logical leap for a director keen on dazzling the audience with the greatest amount of commotion unleashed on screen.
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a sequel that obviously seeks no higher ambition than to cash in on the built-in audience for toy robots beating the daylights out of each other. Frankly, the fact that Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and all the evil Decepticons have returned is of little interest to me, since the story is often puzzling and needlessly complicated.
My attention is drawn to the gorgeous Megan Fox, often seen running for her life while wearing tight-fitting clothes. She’s only in this film because star Shia LaBeouf needs a hot girlfriend handy with mechanical objects. A couple of years ago LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky was busy, with the help of the Autobots, saving the human race from the invading Decepticons.
Now Sam is preparing for the challenge of going off to college and leaving behind his goofy parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White), who seem clueless, particularly when mom accepts brownies from a Rastafarian during a campus visit.
Despite his extreme heroics, Sam can’t shed the image that his involvement in the battle of Mission City is nothing more than an urban legend believed only by conspiracy theorists. But he still has his guardian robot, Bumblebee, who happens to be a fancy yellow sports car capable of converting into a fearsome robot.
Meanwhile, something called the Allspark was destroyed, and the Tranformers planet of Cybertron is uninhabitable. As a result, the Autobots make the best of their lives on earth, working in league with the military as part of a Top Secret team called NEST.
Operating alongside their human counterparts, field commanders Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Master Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson), the NEST team seeks to hunt down whatever remaining Decepticons are lurking about on earth.
The Autobots may fit in with the military, but the president’s national security advisor (John Benjamin Hickey), the biggest jerk in the movie, is driven to prove the friendly Transformers should be banished from earth, believing the Autobots’ very presence may endanger the human race.
Naturally, this officious government clown is completely wrong, and ignores all the blaring warning signs.
Optimus Prime cautions that the departure of the Autobots will leave humans defenseless, and sure enough, the Decepticons launch an invasion of earth which has a dual purpose: revive Megatron from his undersea grave and destroy Optimus Prime.
Meanwhile at school, Sam has trouble adjusting to his astronomy class when visions flash across his brain. Then, he’s got to deal with his pushy roommate, Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), whose fascination with conspiracies is cause for some comic relief.
Unfortunately, there is no time for Sam to enjoy college life, since the Decepticons figure out that he alone holds the key to the outcome of the struggle between good and evil.
If that’s not enough pressure, his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) arrives at the school just as Sam is being seduced by an aggressive temptress.
While “Transformers” may be lacking in coherent story, its shallowness is revealed by the unleashing of a fury of robot-bashing that seems to run forever.
The metal-crushing violence is somewhat relieved by the comic presence of former agent Simmons (John Turturro), who joins Sam and Mikaela when the action shifts to the pyramids in Egypt. Indeed, the big climactic showdown is a robot rumble in the desert.
The trouble with keeping track of what’s going is distinguishing the good robots from the evil ones, but apparently the bad guys have bright red eyes.
At a running time of two and one-half hours, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is an action film badly in need of tighter editing. The action is so relentless that it becomes unduly repetitive, which leads to a certain amount of ennui.
Likely, Michael Bay was working with a budget that rivaled the GDP of a small country and decided to throw it all up on screen. Sometimes, less is more, but action junkies that loved the robots in the first film will probably disagree.
DVD RELEASE UPDATE
Tokyo is an exciting metropolis that lends itself to spectacular realization on film. The DVD release of “Tokyo!” allows three visionary directors to come together for a triptych that examines the nature of an unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the disparate, if not strange, people living and working in a densely populated environment.
Michel Gondry’s “Interior Design” looks at the ambitious and rootless behavior of a young couple struggling to maintain control.
Leos Carax’s “Merde” features a strange creature from the sewers who spreads panic in the streets. No, he’s nothing like Godzilla.
Bong Joon-Ho’s “Shaking Tokyo” is about a guy who’s lived for 10 years in his apartment, shut off from the outside world. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, he falls in love with her and faces a dilemma about crossing the threshold that separates his apartment from the rest of the world.
As you can imagine, “Tokyo!” is a combination of a grotesque, surreal and fantasy take on one of the world’s most fascinating urban centers.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
