Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen

Rating: * (out of 4)
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro
Director: Michael Bay

With 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', Michael Bay out-done his trademark excessiveness to a new level; excessive length (149 minutes), excessive number of robots, excessive battles, excessive noise, excessive explosion. It wouldn't be a problem if they are in the film for a reason, but unfortunately they don't. All the excessiveness only added confusion and made much of the film incomprehensible.

Incomprehensible, so many aspects of it.

The battles; with movement so frantic and chaotic that I did not get a visual sense of what's going on for much of the time. I didn't get a sense of who's fighting who, and what eventually killed the good robot, or the bad robot, or whoever.

The robots; so many of them, are bewildering. I never got to know who's the no. 1 bad robot. Aren't the bad robot all look the same? Oh yeah, I do know Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee, the good robots, and Prime provided the only thin emotional core that prevent me from falling asleep, when he was killed and then subsequently resurrected.

The human characters exists mainly so that someone will be there to run slow-mo from explosions, and to provide corny dialogue that is unintentionally funny, or intentionally funny moments that is more annoying than funny.

Prime: 'Any last words?' (Pointing a gun to bad robot's head)
Bad Robot: '......The fallen will rise!'
Soldier (in a awkwardly serious expression): 'Oh no, that doesn't sound good'
I burst out laughing. Sorry, I know it is not supposed to be funny, but I can't help it.

There will be people who say that I don't get it. 'It's all about sensory entertainment' They say.

No, that's not entertainment. That's sensory overkill, a torturing experience that numbed my sensor. Special effects will only be entertaining if they come with a context, or at the very least comprehensible. How can I be entertained when I can't even have a visual sense on what's happening on screen?

For the record, I did enjoy the 'Transformers I'. At the very least, it has a serviceable plot, a fresh 'ooh...ahh' sensory effect, and excessiveness (moderate by comparison) which does not add much to confusion. It is an example of a 'dumb, but fun' pop corn movie. 'Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen' is dumber, not fun, and confusing.

Am I regret seeing this film? Yes...err no. Bad film like this does serve a purpose. It makes recent great film like 'Departures' looks all the more outstanding by comparison.