Comrade Weismann

Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen In this time of repeating lockdowns, I found myself revisiting the second installment in the Transformers series from Michael Bay. Although over 12 years old, this movie still managed to entertain me quite nicely. The movie marks the return of the cast from the first movie, while also adding some new members. The main antagonist is different but our well known "bad guy", Megatron still plays a major part in the story, although as a side antagonist. For me, the movie shines in it's really good action scenes, a fantastic soundtrack and a fine direction from the one and only Michael bay. The CGI rendering of the Transformers and camera scaling, together making the robots appear much more realistic, a theme shared from the first movie. The action scenes are well directed and the new transformer characters introduced have their own quirky personalities, especially a certain old rusty plane. The subplot of the main human character having a sort of destiny with Optimus Prime, our hero, and ultimately saving him from death, is also an interesting take although it could have used some more depth and details. However, the movie also shares some glaring flaws common to most Transformers movies, namely excessive and unnecessary amounts of juvenile humour, over the top hints of patriotism and potrayal of stereotypes. The plot is rather plain, and could have been fleshed out some more especially regarding the main antagonist. A lot of important parts are just told like a story, which could have been shown in a more explicit and interesting way. But where the movie truly shines is in its climax. The final battle between the autobots and the decepticons and the main fight between Optimus Prime and the main antagonist. The most impressive scene to me was the part when Optimus Prime takes the parts of a dead transformer and obtains flight abilities. I loved that segment and the subsequent final battle. Last but not the least, the movie ends with a qutoe from Optimus Prime which as usual sounds quite badass. All in all, for me this movie is hands down the best Transformers movie among all the ones released so far. While it has its downside, the pros more than make up for it, if not for the story, one can just watch it for the robots duking out and thats enough to enjoy it.