Bigger isn't better for new 'Transformers'
By: Rossiter Drake
Special to The Examiner
June 24, 2009
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| He’s back: An injured Shia LaBeouf battles the ’bots again in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” (Courtesy photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Loud, long and utterly incomprehensible, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is an exquisitely painful experience that pummels the senses as it confounds the intellect.
What is John Turturro doing here? An accomplished actor (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) and director (“Romance & Cigarettes”), he is hardly alone in being reduced to a hysterical stereotype in Michael Bay’s latest affront — Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, among others, return for a second tour of duty on the Transformer front — but he seems the most out of place as an eccentric conspiracy theorist on a mission to defend the world from notoriously cranky Decepticons.
It’s a worthy mission, I guess, since the Decepticons, led by a Voldemort type known as The Fallen (voiced by Tony Todd), are determined to destroy the sun. Why? Who knows? Possibly because they regard mankind with the same contempt Bay seems to reserve for his audience.
Once again, Bay’s reliance on shaky camerawork and needless slo-mo — particularly as his characters race from one explosion to the next — proves a distraction, as does the deafeningly bombastic score that accompanies much of the action. The movie doesn’t look good, and the effects, which have long been the director’s strong suit, are unconvincing.
Of the first “Transformers” movie, I wrote that the story seemed inspired by a desire to sell toys and video games. Nothing has changed the second time around, except that the characters are more divorced from reality, the robots are dumber than rocks, and LaBeouf, who famously injured his hand during the shooting, is wearing a cast that the movie never bothers to explain.
Does it really matter what I or anyone else has to say about “Revenge of the Fallen”? Of course not. The audiences will be there regardless, whether they’re drawn by the epic CGI spectacle, fond memories of a childhood cartoon or an inexplicable belief that 2007’s “Transformers” was somehow incomplete.
Here, Bay has given those audiences less than they deserve, in the form of a singularly wretched piece of work punctuated by adolescent jokes and mindless mayhem.
MOVIE REVIEW
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 1 star
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro
Written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Directed by Michael Bay
Rated PG-13
Running time 2 hours 29 minutes
