Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen

Written by: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese, John Tuturo, Ramon Rodriguez, Kevin Dunn, Julie White

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.


Boom. Fight. Fight. Laugh. Fight. Laugh. Autobot history. Full on battle. Laugh. Love. Boom. That is the plot for Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen. Is that not informative enough? I will try and keep it short as the whole plot itself is a little?convoluted.

Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) is leaving his parents (Dunn and White) and heading to college. He promises to stay with his superhot girlfriend Mikela (Fox) and asks his alien car, Bumblebee, to leave him and go join Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots because his dads garage is no good place for him to be. Sam?s mom is heartbroken her baby is leaving and the dad can?t wait for him to go so they can start a super vacation. While going through his closet, Sam digs out his old Transformer 1 clothes and a piece of the All-Spark falls out, goes through the floorboards, and lands in the kitchen igniting the electrical gadgets into crazed?robots.

Meanwhile Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel), Optimus Prime, and the other Autobots/military guys are under scrutiny for their allegiance. Apparently the government is mad because the robots won?t share their technology. The Decepticons have been spotted in different countries around the world and they have to be looking for something. Maybe something to re-animate Megatron, who is down in the bottom of the ocean, heavily guarded by all types of Navy personnel.

Sam goes off to college and ends up with a conspiracy theory website runner, Leo (Rodriguez) as his roomie. Maybe Leo knows a thing or two about aliens who hide among us as cars.

Soooo then some Decepticons rain down on us and free Megatron and Megatron goes back to whatever planet they live on and talk to his master and his master is all ?find me the life force for our kind!? and Megatron is all ?aye aye sir?. But at the same time Sam is going nuts and seeing symbols because he touched the all spark then Megatron hunts him down and they both end up looking for the life force at the same time. I think that is the plot.

I was a little worried about Transformers 2 after the gazillion bad reviews that had been written, but after I learned from my midnight screening viewing friends that it was in fact awesome, I felt a little better. But the critics aren?t necessarily wrong about the movie. The plot is not air tight. Some things just do not make sense. I do not care about Sam and Mikela?s teenage love nor the fact that they can?t express it. I don?t care about Sam?s college life. I don?t care about the parents vacationing in Paris. I don?t even care how hot Megan Fox is (and yes she?s hot, but do they have to make her look so pouty. What kind of lip gloss lasts through an all out war in the desert?). I don?t care about governmental bureaucracy and conspiracy theories. I don?t even care about the history of the Autobots and Decipticons. All I want to see is robots kicking ass.

And that they do. Michael Bay gives plenty of action in this flick. The two ten-year-old boys and I had a blast. We literally all had the same expression when Optimus Prime goes ?King Kong? on a few Decepticons out in this field. Total awe. Like I almost reached over and high fived the kid. But Michael Bay also gives this movie the Bad Boys 2 treatment. It?s like take everything you loved from the first one; the humor, the action, and you stretch it out and double it and put so much into it you forget what happened the first hour of the movie. I won?t rant about Bad Boys 2, but you get my point. That?s what happens in Transformers 2. Yes the parents are inappropriate and funny but the whole time? There are quite a few cheap laughs (and yes I laughed at them). And there are more robots which is a plus, but these two little Chevy Aveo (I think) twin cars were sooooo annoying. It was like two Jar-Jar Binks? running around. I don?t think I?ve ever wanted cars to wreck so badly. There?s lots of travel in the movie too. Unexplained teleporting-type travel. And it gets confusing on the time span of the movie in some places too. But at least the mystery of the pyramids gets explained.

All in all, this is a total popcorn flick. Transformers was created when I was little to sell toys. I had quite a few of them in the 80s. Now I want the toys and the cars to go along with it. As a whole its not on level with the other action movies of this summer (see: Star Trek) or even the first Transformers movie. The adult in me gives it a C- but overall I give it a B- and that?s because the awesomeness of Optimus Prime gets an A alone.