Transformers 2 Reviewed

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Michael Bay's sequel to Transformers. In the movie, we pick up two years later. Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox) are still together with Bumblebee still watching out for Sam. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullin) and Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) have started a military organization called NEST to hunt down and eliminate the remaining Decepticons. In the beginning of the movie, we discover a couple disturbing bits of information: 1) Optimus Prime and Megatron were not the first of their alien kind to visit Earth and 2) there are two small shards of the Cube remaining on Earth - one is being kept under military guard and the second was found by Sam in the jacket he was wearing during the last major Autobot / Decepticon face-off.

The Primes set out to planets across the galaxy to take the energy of their sun, under one condition: the planet could not be inhabited by intelligent life. The Fallen broke that rule when he found Earth and decided to try to take the power of the sun. It is because of this decision to break the rules that this Prime was dubbed The Fallen.

When Sam finds the piece of the Cube in his jacket, he is zapped by its power and his brain is filled with alien codes and images. We later find out that the images are a map to find the machine built by The Fallen to steal the sun. The Decepticons have re-organized and gathered in greater numbers to find Sam, get the chips of the Cube, find the map to the machine, revive Megatron, start a new Decepticon army under the direction of The Fallen and take over the Earth.

But Sam doesn't want to have any part of this. He is 18 now and heading off to college. He even tells Bumblebee to stay at home so he can try to have a normal life. His first night away, he attends a party which is soon cut short by Bumblebee who takes Sam to Optimus Prime. Optimus tells Sam the bad news that Decepticons have stolen the Military protected fragment of the Cube and that the government is now questioning whether or not the Autobots are just as much to blame for the chaos and destruction going on. Sam still doesn't want to get involved and tells Optimus that it's not his war. Optimus ominously predicts that it soon will be.

The Decepticons use the Cube fragment to bring Megatron back to life and he meets with The Fallen. Since The Fallen is a Prime, he can only be defeated by another Prime. Since Optimus is the only one left, the plan is to get to Optimus and destroy him so that The Fallen and the Decepticons can take over the Earth. The Decepticons go after Sam to kill two birds with one stone: getting Sam will bring out Optimus, and Sam has the map to the machine in his brain. The plan works. They captured Sam, Mikaela and Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), Sam's college roommate. They are about to dig into Sam's brain when Optimus comes to his rescue. During their escape, Optimus gets into a battle with three Decepticons. He manages to kill Grinder and dismember Starscream, but then Megatron kills Optimus Prime. During the battle, Sam overhears that not only is there a machine on earth, but there is another power source like the Cube that can animate their race.

With Optimus out of the picture, The Fallen and the army of Decepticons make their presence known on Earth and demand Sam Witwicky. It seems all hope is lost: Optimus is dead, Autobots are severely outnumbered, they have lost the backing of the government and Sam is a wanted man. Sam thinks his only option is to turn himself in when it hits him. The map in his brain can be used to find the power source before the Decepticons find him and they can use it to revive Optimus to defeat Megatron and The Fallen.

A journey across the globe begins with the Decepticons in hot pursuit. Sam, Mikaela, Leo and Bumblebee enlist the help of a couple rogue Decepticons and ex-Sector 7 Agent Simmons (John Turturro) to decipher the alien codes. Once they figure out where the power source is, they call Major Lennox for reinforcements and to bring the body of Optimus. The race is on and the Decepticons, the military and the Autobots all converge on the power source's location at the same time and the battle begins.

This movie was non-stop action from beginning to end. The plot was pretty simple: Autobots wage the battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. The quality of the CGI Transformers was done just as brilliantly in the sequel as it was in the first movie. Shia is great again as the leading man: brave, sarcastic, witty, loyal. Megan Fox is gorgeous, but don't let her looks deceive you. She plays a strong leading woman who can take on the Decepticons just as bravely as any military officer did.

I did have a couple issues with the movie. First of all, Bumblebee is back to talking to Sam via the radio in audio clips to get his point across, but in the first movie, his vocal processor was fixed and he could talk just fine when he told Optimus that he wanted to stay with Sam. Second, the Twins (a pair of well-intentioned but juvenile Autobots) were a bit annoying with their antics. But, when you take into consideration that they learned how to speak based on our World Wide Web as mentioned in the first movie, you can see that each one would have a different personality. They weren't as annoying as JarJar Binks of Star Wars who nearly ruined the entire movie, but they were still annoying. And finally, The Fallen tells Megatron that only a Prime can kill a Prime which is why they need to get rid of Optimus. So then how is it that Megatron is the one who kills him?

Other than that, I thought it was thoroughly enjoyable. And they weren't too subtle about the option for a third Transformers installment. This movie will definitely find a home in my DVD collection and I'm already making room for the third one as I'm sure they have to be working on it right now. So what's the next movie that will be on my mind? We shall see . . .