Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 變形金剛：復仇之戰

Though the prequel can mainly be described as an action movie, "Revenge of the Fallen" does start off with some action scenes, but humor has a bigger role in this film.

For instance, right in the middle of an action scene with everything exploding, the filmmaker suddenly makes a transition to two panting dogs. Does it make sense? No, but it's funny.

Once again, the plot outline doesn't seem too complicated. Decepticons are trying to destroy the world once again, while the Autobots cooperate with the humans in order to save the planet.

In order to be powerful again, the Decepticons are after some silver shards with special powers. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) happens to have one of the parts from the adventures in the previous movie.

Somehow the shard is activated, and when Sam looks into it, the shard's power transfers to him, making him see all kinds of strange codes. Apparently these will be important in defeating the evil Decepticons.

Sam goes berserk all the time because of these codes. For example, when he is in his first class at his new school. He starts to draw a lot of strange characters that he sees on the blackboard, after finishing on entire book in several seconds. "Anyone else care to have some nerve breakdown?" the teacher asks after he kick Sam out of his classroom.

Megan Fox plays the second lead as Mikaela, Sam's girlfriend, and although she does a good job being all pretty and saying her lines without spitting, John Turturro definitely steals the show in the second part of the film. "They fired me because they thought I was paranoid... paranoid! Me! Can you imagine?!" after summing up all sorts of conspiracy theories. It is a pity that his appearance is clouded by the weakening of the movie after his entrance, as all the refreshing scene changes make way for endless action scenes at this point.

"LaBeouf gets little chance to show what charm he might have. Meanwhile, Fox has little to do except look great in a tank top and tight jeans while running in slow motion through flying sand," said Ray Bennet from the Hollywood Reporter on the matter of the lead role actors that are basically not carrying the film.

"The true stars here are the Transformers themselves, who continually steal the spotlight from the flesh-and-blood cast, even in scenes of tragic death or comic relief usually reserved for real actors," explained Jordan Mintzer from Variety.

In terms of getting the bots – or aliens – alive, this film reminds us of the original Star Wars saga, in which we have R2D2 and C3PO, as bots with feelings and fear. Also the humor and action mix, and the way that these two are combined, reminds me a lot of the sissy bot C3PO.

It wouldn't be too much of a guess, as Steven Spielberg had an important role in the making of both movies. Still, this movie misses the refined touch and feel of a far away science fiction universe which the viewers can be dragged away to.

Michael Bay clearly realized that for the sequel to Transformers, he needed more than just action scenes and showing off how cool the Transformers can be. However the Transformers still limit the capabilities of the movie, and it seems to have more potential than it uses.

So we can say that on one hand, the movie is more than just a sequel, and it being commonly known as "Transformers II" is an insult to the film. Yet, is was not a wise choice to use Transformers at all, as the storyline is very thin and the size of the Transformers especially undermines this movie's possibilities.

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