Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Just about everyone I know has booked tickets to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Michael Bay may have whined about the studio not marketing the movie, but it's still bound to be one of summer's box office hits.

OMY.sg and United International Pictures (UIP) invited some Singapore Blog Award finalists to a movie preview of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I was lucky to get tickets, and watched the show last night.



This sequel is bigger and badder, louder and longer than the original. If you love watching metal wrestle, this one's for you. Be prepared to have your brains beaten out. That is, if you even took them to the movie in the first place.

There's cheap humour, hot biker chicks, shiny fast cars, desecration of cultural icons (Princeton, Paris, Petra, the Pyramids), and most importantly, lots of HEAVY METAL crashing and clanging into each other. All the stuff that will appeal to teenage boys like Michael Fay (hmm, rhymes with the director's name)!

Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) has done a fantastic job with the CGI effects. You just have to marvel at the intricate design and choreography, although at times the action is so fast and loud, you're not sure what's happening to who or what. The movie is 150-minutes of relentless action, about two-and-a-half hours of audio-visual clobbering. Just a bit too long. The showdown in the desert, for example, is way too protracted.


There are about 50 robots to marvel at this time. There's also this crazy ancient Transformer they pluck out of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He's like a British-sounding treant or ent, from the Lord of the Rings movies, complete with shaggy metal beard. The Autobot twins Skids and Mudflap are as welcome as Jar Jar Binks, with their garrulous jibes and ethnic stereotyping.

Shia LaBeouf is once again nerdy hero Sam, who's destined to save the earth from Decepticons determined to harvest our sun and destroy Optimus Prime. I never liked Shia, but I guess he does play the dork pretty well here.

Pouty hot babe Megan Fox wears lots of lip gloss and a constantly blank expression. She's secretly a superhero cos she manages to emerge from all the explosions unscathed, dirt-free, and with make-up intact. Not a fake eyelash out of place. She and her tanned decolletage close-ups will easily line Michael Bay's pocket with another US$80 million.

John Turturro adds light-hearted quirkiness to the show, but the close-up of him in a G-string was a bit too much.

Alien shape-shifting robots are not the only action stars. Michael Bay's pulled out his favourite toys - the U.S. military and gunpower - and given them maybe just a bit too much celluloid space. Instead of exploring more of the Transformers mythology, he goes for more firepower and blasts. The scene of the aircraft carrier going underwater is just too reminiscent of Pearl Harbour.

Well, this is a summer blockbuster about boys' toys, explosives and mindless fun. Hubby's description of the movie is "putrescent" but I think you can enjoy it if you decide to.


Meanwhile, I have some Transformers goodies to give away - two sets of mini-posters, lanyards and decals. Just ask for them in the comments.