Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson

Two years have passed since Megatron and the Decepticons had their asses handed to them by Optimus Prime and the Autobots and the latter have remained on Earth and have formed a secret alliance with military forces to form an elite force, NEST, to seek out and destroy any remaining Decepticons. While out on one of these clean-up missions NEST encounter some Decepticons with an ominous message; The Fallen will return.

Given the success of the original Transformers in 2007 it was inevitable that a sequel was coming. What wasn’t certain, however, was if it was going to be any good. More often than not, as you know, sequels suck. I’m happy to announce that this is not the case here. This movie was great in the same way that the first one was great. It was an all-out action fest where you can just kick back and enjoy. I’m actually hard pressed to say which one I enjoyed more although I am sort of leaning towards this one.

So what was good about it? Well the special effects were outstanding! Well, you’d hope so… they spent like a billion dollars on them! There were some new Decepticons that were just cool as fuck! Also, there was some fantastic humour. It was a lot funnier than the first one with a couple of scenes actually having me in stitches! Say what you like about Shia La Beouf but he’s perfect for the part of Sam Witwicky. He’s funny and quick witted but still has some geeky about him. The cast, all round, in fact was good. Sam’s parents provide some great awkward humour, especially when Sam’s mum gets stoned off some hash brownies. Of course Megan Fox played the part of Mikaela as if Michael Bay had gone up to her and said “I’ll renew your contract and pay you $20,000,000 if, in your opening scene, you cover yourself in oil, arch your back with your ass in the air and pout like you graduated the Keira Knightley school of mouth-breathing with honours!” But hey, you have to put something in for the kids don’t you!?

On top of that, the story was actually pretty good, all things considered. Basically it revolves around the fact that the Transformers have been on earth for thousands of years, lying dormant following a great battle between The Primes, of which Optimus is a descendant, and The Fallen over a great machine that would destroy the sun and provide The Fallen with Energon, the Transformers life force. When The Fallen return to finish the job, Sam and the Autobots must get to the machine first and save the world. Corny, yes. But one hell of a lot of fun!

So yeah as low-violence action movies go, this was right on the money, but it wasn’t without it’s problems. Some of the new Autobots were soooo annoying and borderline racist, Sam’s college roommate who, for only a very tenuous and weak plot device, hung on through 80% of the movie, was seriously irritating and quite poorly acted, and Transformers who were not so hard in the first movie were all of a sudden indestructible and vice versa. But did I really care about this stuff? Nope. With movies like this you’re not meant to read into things too much, so I didn’t.

Should you go and see it? Well if you enjoyed the first movie then yes. If not, then seeing as it’s essentially more of the same (a lot more at 151 minutes) you might want to give it a wide birth. Personally, I really enjoyed it, possibly more than the first one, and can’t wait to see it again! Roll on Transformers 3!

Verdict: