First, a quick plot synopsis:

Two years after TRANSFORMERS, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is heading off to college. The world knows nothing about the havoc the giant transforming robots have wreaked upon the earth, calling it an urban legend. The few remaining Autobots are working with a top secret agency, hunting down any remaining Decepticons. While trying to adjust to college life, Sam starts having visions and writing down strange symbols. With his girlfriend Mikeala (Megan Fox), his crazy roommate Leo (Ramon Rodriguez) and his old enemy Agent Simmons (John Turturro), Sam must uncover the secret locked in his brain that could be the key to saving the world from it’s newest threat; the ancient Decepticon, The Fallen.

Now, On to the [Spoiler Free] Review…

Wow, the entire film looked spectacular! The Bots seemed much more detailed this time around and their transformations seemed a bit more clear than the last film as well. The entire scale of the film, from the sheer amount of genuine Military hardware to the locations and Pyro are all really off the charts this time around. I have to say, the amount of pull and access that Bay has with the American Military will never cease to amaze me and the access that he obtained from Dr. Hawass in Egypt to access the Pyramids was both unprecedented and shocking.

While some critics complain about the plot, I first have to say to them “ahem, this is a Michael Bay movie” but I was pleasantly surprised that the plot was as rich as it was.. this is Transformers for god sakes, what did they expect?

Much like the first movie, Megan Fox is little more than window dressing, yes really hot window dressing but that’s about it and while Shia LaBeouf has never really impressed me, his ability to act with so many things that aren’t really there at all has to be applauded to some extent.

Julie White who plays Judy Witwicky was insanely funny and probably the best comic relief I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. Ron Witwicky played by Kevin Dunn was also really good in both the comedic scenes as well as some of the more dramatic moments and I really wish there had been more of them. Josh Duhamel was decent, although his screen time is pretty limited, as is Tyrese Gibson’s. John Turturro was funny but has some really absurd lines here and there that just make you roll your eyes. Isabel Lucas was close in beauty to Ms. Fox but really stretched herself and showed off more acting chops. Ramon Rodriguez had his moments but nothing very memorable. Rainn Wilson got a few laughs but his screen time was (sadly) way too short.

The new bots are all pretty cool, Devastator is huge and watching him assemble is pretty awesome. Jetfire was cool as well, some people have complained about his accent and his cane but I thought it made him seem old, wise and ‘Yoda’ like, plus he has a really kick ass secondary purpose towards the end of the movie that is a very ‘Hell Yeah’ kind of moment. The Fallen was really kind of lame and the way Megatron seemed so subservient to him seemed odd to me, but it didn’t effect the movie overall (just a Fanboy nitpick I suppose). I really wish there had been more time with ‘Sideswipe’, he has a really cool moment in the opening of the film during a chase scene but we don’t get much more than that and it’s really a shame.

Review Continues After the Jump

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I’m going to say very little about ‘Mudflap’ and ‘Skids’ (The Twins) voiced by Actor Reno Wilson and Tom Kenny respectively (Tom Kenny is the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants). The ‘Politically Correct’ Police around the world have already taken care of being ‘offended’ by them and saying that they’re an awful racial stereotype with ghetto accents. All I will say is, If you’re one of those people that says ‘Well…one has a gold tooth, they’re stupid and they and they can’t read.. so Michael Bay must be making fun of African Americans’ “You” are the one who immediately thought of that, so what does that say about how you view race?’ I personally thought they were damn funny and I didn’t see ‘race’ in their characters at all. What I saw was two pretty stupid, clumsy bots who thought they were cool but really weren’t, though their heart was in the right place.. they are Autobots after all.

Peter Cullen as the voice of ‘Optimus Prime’ was fantastic. I would be hard pressed to say anything critical about his voice acting, considering that he has the uncanny ability to transport me to when I was 10 years old watching the cartoon, so my level of nostalgia prevents me from being objective.

The bot fights are not only 10 times more intense and larger in numbers but they are also (thankfully) clearer than the first film and easier to interpret, Industrial Light & Magic really did an amazing job.

Overall, I thought the movie could have used a bit more dialogue from humans and bots alike. Something that I feel has been lost in translation from animated series to the films has been ‘Prime’ talking to and teaching the other Autobots as he is their ‘Superior Officer’ so to speak, there was more of that in the first film and I did miss it in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’.

While the explosions and the millions of rounds of ammo expended were off the charts and really cool, I also thought it made some of the ‘Bot’ dialogue impossible to understand at times. Speaking of explosions, did I mention that the movie is really loud? Yes, that is probably the one thing I will agree with most people on, it is both visually and audibly relentless from beginning to end which has it’s pluses and minuses.

I give Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 4 out of 5 Stars

Did you see it?.. What did you think? Let us know in the comments section