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Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (2009)

Director: Michael Bay

Time Out rating

Average user rating

99 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

With this cash-cow sequel to his widely derided, hugely succesful original, Michael Bay comes closer than any director in history to boiling the blockbuster down to its most basic components: PG-violence, safe sex and special effects. And while it would be hard to make a case for ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ as ‘good’ in any normal sense of the word, it possesses such brute force that the viewer is left with two options: surrender, or suffer in silence.

The first hour is essentially ‘Maxim: the Movie’, a parade of sweaty denim, product placement and gadgets, punctuated with eardrum-rupturing action and increasingly tiresome gags. The story is largely absent, as Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky heads to college, only to find himself suffering spasmodic, brain-scrambling visions which seem to have some connection to the ongoing Transformer war.

Somehow, a total absence of narrative logic doesn’t feel like an insult to the viewers’ intelligence: it’s not that the writers believe their audience are too stupid to notice the gaping holes in the plot; it’s just that they know they don’t give a damn. And Bay’s direction offers sparks of genuine invention, including a stunning break-in involving a metallic cougar and a herd of smart ball bearings.

Then somewhere around the mid point, it begins to come together. A smash-and-plunder forest battle ups the action ante, and the return of John Turturro adds a lightness of tone which is totally lacking in LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Perhaps it’s just that the sheer volume and ferocity of the thing becomes impossible to resist, but by the climactic desert conflict, in which the entire Valley of the Kings is razed to the ground, the film has become so utterly lunatic, so breathtakingly, boneheadedly brazen, that it’s easier just to give in.

Author: Tom Huddleston 2009-06-16 12:09:28

Time Out London issue 2026, June 18 - 24, 2008

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User reviews of this film

D said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 14:55 Without a doubt the best movie I have ever seen . Went to see it with my oldest son , superb mixture of action , effects , feeling , and humor .. I have never seen a finer movie ...

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gaztheroofer said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 14:20 oh, and i an watching it for the 3rd time in cinema today!!!!!

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Gaztheroofer said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 14:19 what film have you been watching,........... i enjoyed eveything about this film, the polt was great, characters were great, and it even had a bit of comady,

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Filmwatcher said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 11:54 pedro, i find you're comment very unexceptable on such a public website. This comment section was designed for people too share their opinions of films with others.

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Shawn said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 03:54 Ever since Transformers 1 came out I have been completely changed, in the good way. This movie is perfect prettymuch everyone you can think of.... except for idiots who give this movie a rating lower than a 4, people under the age of 11, and........ people with no taste in movies. Way better than the first

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walle said...

Posted on Jun 26 2009 03:28 I just saw the movie an hour ago and it was incredible. If anything, this one had much more of a plot than the first, with the fallen trying to return and devour the sun. The battles were intense, and the one at the end of the movie was the hilight of the film (bumble bee kicks some major ass). Some things i would like to see is the involvement of the new autobots. The blue chevy volt did not have a fight scene, and the corvette stingray only had a small one in the beginning. Second, starstream and megatron looked very similar, and in fast paced battles, it was hard to tell who was who. At the end, optimus shuold have wrecked megatron and starstream but that leaves it open for another movie, which i hope there is. For the new movie, michael bay definetly needs a train transformer that turns into a snake, and a some sort of water bot because all the bots in both movies were either land or air. Finally, the construction monster was absolutely amazing. It looked so cool, and i like the idea of different machines joining together.

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Steve said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 22:38 Transformers revenge of the fallen is the best film i've seen in a while, you've got 50foot robots pounding the hell out of eachother in some of the worlds most beautiful places, i mean come on!!!! so the plot might not be perfect, but i think it held together well, and follows on well from the first film.
its nice for a change aswell to see the good guys (the autobots) actually beating crap out of the bad guys...just when you think optimus prime is down.....well, i wont ruin it for you but!! makes a nice change from the good guy winning by some stroke of fate, here they win by out and out BALLS and ofcourse the partnership with the military. The CGI is second to none, i might have to go and see this film again, just to appreciate the action scenes!! and by the way, megan fox is hot as hell!
so we got huge powerful robots seriously knocking the crap out of eachother, fit cast members and a good story to match up with the action....does it for me!! top marks!!

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Gary said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 22:32 I loved the film. It was a fun action movie. To all of the people that always knock movies like this, Just stop going to them if you don't enjoy fun movies. And to everyone that is saying "Why didn't Sam try the shard on Prime". It was because it disappeared or whatever when they woke up the old Transformer. Even if he still had the shard. Who cares it's just a movie and that's how it is. Let it go!

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jjuma said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 21:16 First off, i would like to say that some reviews are a little misguiding. This is not a movie that you see to witness incredible prrformances by the actors. this movie is about action. It is about grate fights and stuf blowing up. I have yet to see a movie with the same caliber action and the same caliber CGI. Even if megan fox was awful, she is not the focus of the movie. The focus is the battle between autobots and decepticons. The fight scenes were great and the new bots on both side made it interesting to watch. There is no way that a movie that shows giant robots pounding on eachother should get 1 or 2 stars.

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laura said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 20:46 The sfx were awesome however the plot seemed too hard to understand.love simmons once again but yo can't just bring characters from the dead every movie it would be boring. The first one was my fave film of all time, this one sits in my top five I must say though.

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James said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 19:38 This movie was pretty baddly made. As a purist, the autobots never made an alliance with the US army. That was kind of cheesy... the president's liason, the college kid were both out of place in the story.
Meagan Fox needs an acting lesson. This movie played out as a cheesy romance instead of a decent action film.
i'm fairly dissapointed at this film - the 1st movie was not that great, but at least it had a premise and it didn't focus on some stupid kiddy romance.
michael bay kinda insulted the movie -- not paying homage..... *sigh* not a good movie to watch

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stephen said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 15:49 I loved this film and in my opinion depending on how harry potter and other films turn out may be in for the film of the year or at least one of them. I ohpe they make a third as i will definatley go and see it and the robot fighting and the explotions in this movie are unmatched by ant other. L OVED THE MOVIE GIVE IT 3 THUMBS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

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Dan said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 14:59 Saw it in IMAX opening night, 12:01 AM. Usually Michael Bay is too much and too little at the same time: too much special effects and too little plot. I can understand why this movie might get bad reviews, but c'mon people. It's good for what it's designed for; sex, comedy, and kick-@** robots. Don't go see a movie starring Megan Fox if you want to see good acting. She's gorgeous, but the second you look past her beauty and into her character, it's painful to watch. If you went into the theater expecting academy award-worthy acting, you shouldn't be allowed to go to the movies.
This movie's good for kids (maybe not 5-year-olds...) and parents. I give it 1.5 thumbs up instead of 2 for these reasons:
1. Front row in IMAX strains your neck. Get there early if you're going to watch it.
2. Megan Fox skipped acting class.
3. A couple of unexplained holes in the plot. How did Shia somehow randomly read an astronomy book cover to cover in 30 seconds? And after that, how did he come to the conclusion that Einstein was wrong??? HE HAS NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF ASTRONOMY OR PHYSICS!!! IF HE DID HE WOULDN'T BE IN A COLLEGE CLASSROOM!!!!!
(These were worked out by mind-blowing action sequences and witty comments by Dwight Schrute)
That's my review. If I drove you away from Transformers 2, I'm sorry. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as should you, but don't give the film 1 out of 5 stars because it wasn't as good as Forrest Gump.

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KRISTIN said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 14:49 Overall I think the movie was good however for me personally and for kids it was a tad too long. I recall several people leaving the theatre commenting at how long they had been there. This film was definately directed more for the adult crowd than kids. It very closely bridged what is considered appropriate for a kid with a PG-13 rating. I know we see a lot more these days in advertisement and regualar television than ever before but its Transformers (made for kids!).There was a lot more sexual appeal than the first one. And I found myself laughing quite a bit but having to explain to my son why I was laughing at some of the jokes. There was so much to follow that I'm not sure a kid could possibly grasp the story or stories of the movie as they could with the first film.The action was outstanding. I give that a definate thumbs up! I think they could have taken some of the story lines and possibly used them for another movie rather than cramming so much in to one. That may be part of why it was so long..had a lot of history to cover in a small amt of time. I'd be a little nervous for the third film since it seems that it could trickle off in to a really off the wall theme but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. I would recommend seeing the movie and taking it as your own.

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sam said...

Posted on Jun 25 2009 11:19 i think just based on the first movie i went onto watching this movie and u know what loved it. definetly the best movie for along time i just can't wait to see what more has michael bay got up his sleeves.

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