Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

When the first TRANSFORMERS movie came out a couple of years ago I have to admit I avoided it, if not like the plague at least like a mild dose of swine flu. A movie based on a kids’ toy seemed, at best about as intriguing as a movie based on an amusement park ride, or a comic book. Of course, Transformers had already appeared as a comic, and a highly regarded one, as well as a cartoon series. The other thing that put me off the film was the name above the title: Michael Bay, known for his style-over-substance blockbusters. Then one evening I was given a pair of tickets to see the film at the IMAX, so I went with my teenage son. It was big and it was loud, and contrary to all my snobbish prejudices, it was a great evening’s entertainment. Fantastic special effects, witty dialogue and eye-candy in the form of Megan Fox – everything a teenage boy could ask for.

Then came the inevitable sequel – TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. Having enjoyed the first one so much I wasn’t averse to seeing it, but I started reading the reviews and the old prejudices came up again, and this time they were far more scathing than the last time, making it seem worse than the plague. When the DVD review discs arrived, I realised I couldn’t avoid it any longer. As I settled down to watch it I did think that maybe my learned colleagues were right after all. It was slow, Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky was just another miserable teen getting ready for college, despite the fact he was dating the sexy Megan Fox. It just wasn’t happening, until Bay started doing what he does best – blowing shit up, which he continued to do for the next two hours.

Now I’m not saying this is a great movie, and it’s certainly no match for the first movie in terms of snappy dialogue, or even comprehendible story, but it is still an amazing spectacle with fantastic CGI special effects – even if you can’t tell who is fighting whom most of the time (which was also a problem with the first film). If I was 16 or under, and sometimes I forget I’m not, free from understanding of story structure and the need for plausibility, within the constraints of the created universe of the Transformers, then I would enjoy this in the same way I did when I first saw STAR WARS, because that is the audience the movie is aimed at – teen and pre-teen boys. It is not made for people with sophisticated and discerning taste looking for complex character development and big ideas. We have Battlestar Galactica for that. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is supposed to be a big, dumb movie and it delivers that with expert craftsmanship, even if it lacks great writing.

While it should be watched on a huge screen in a cinema, the DVD/Blu-ray release still packs plenty of punch, especially the sound. Even on my lower-end surround sound system it had the floor and windows rumbling, so who knows what the neighbours made of it, and it wasn’t even turned up loud. It is clear that, whatever his faults, Michael Bay loves what he does, and this shows on the special features included with this release. A lot of filmmakers and studios have got a bit lazy when it comes to the making of features they include, and most of them are superficial fluff pieces that don’t give much insight into what went into making the movie, whether this is because they can’t be arsed because it’s all been shown before or because the reality that filmmaking is actually pretty boring most of the time, I don’t know. Bay, however, has put together a comprehensive making-of that goes from pre-production all the way up to the red carpet at the world premiere, including shots of him tweaking the colour grade over the Internet with his people in California, while he is in Japan, two hours before the screening. What is also surprising is how much of the special effects are actually practicals and not CGI. He really is blowing shit up.

It is a bit of a disappointment after the first film, but it still delivers on spectacle, and sometimes that’s all you want from a movie.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is out now from Paramount Home Entertainment, and is available from Play and all good retailers.