Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

aka: Michael Bay Hates Black People

I have mixed feelings about this movie...

First, the positives: everything good about the first movie has been improved. The special effects and battle scenes were amazing. Sometimes they were over the top, but I didn't mind. Megan Fox running in slow-mo with nothing but a tank top... epic. And some of the jokes were pretty funny. The story was OK, but it could have been delivered better. And in every "robots fuck up human technology" scene, there's always some poor random dude that falls from a very high location into his probable death, which is always a nice touch to that kind of scene.

Now, the negatives: 30 of the first 45 minutes of the movie could have easily been cut out, making this 2 and a half hour movie a lot shorter. Sam Whi... however you spell his last name moves to college. Great. Let's spend 20 minutes on that. Great for the character development of his roommate, who turns out to play an absolutely insignificant role in the overall story. And they try so hard to make it funny with his mother. Loooooots of very unnecessary sexual references which was more awkward than comedic. And the twins are just... not... good characters. No matter how hard Michael Bay tries to make them funny/retarded. I didn't mind the transitions between army/robot battles and the Sam's normal life like they did in the first movie, but the whole romance between him and Megan Fox was so cheesy. I felt like I was watching some lame teen movie. "Omg, it's my first internet date with Sam! I'm so excited!" Seriously... some scenes I could tell Megan Fox smokes a lot of weed. And everytime a transformer transformed, the camera had to do two laps around the body during the transformation sequence, or it was slow-moed from some crazy angle like directly above or below. The first couple of times, it was like "yeaaah, look at Optimus go!" or "Man, Ironhide kicks ass!". Then, it was "not again... time to relax my eyes for 30 seconds".

*spoiler*
The one thing I really didn't like about the story was how they keep referencing Starscream as some sort of sly backstabber who is betraying Megatron. Yes, it was a major thing in the original cartoon, and yes Megatron has always been suspicious of it. But they don't really show Starscream actually doing anything in the movie that would warrant any type of betrayal outside of his lack of participation in major battles except for one in the forest. So pretty much, the impression the audience has is that Megatron is just some paranoid guy who likes to beat the shit out of Starscream for no apparant reason. "Dammit Starscream, you betrayed me!" "But sir, I built this giant army for your return!" "Screw you, I'm gonna beat you up anyways!"
*end*

For the little details: no I didn't stay after the credits... they had some tidbit scenes before the credits started scrolling (like, after they introduced all the main actors/actress), but I did not stick around for the entire thing to finish.

Despite all that, I'd have to say I'd give this movie at least a B. It was fun to watch, if you can handle the insane amount of cheesiness in Michael Bay comedy/romance. Was it worth watching the midnight showing? Probably not. Luckily there's a theatre near my apartment which is never crowded, so I didn't have to wait in a ridiculously long line. If you really liked the first movie... you'll either be disappointed or in love with the second one because it was pretty much an amped up version of the first. In short, the action sequences were so great that it more often than not took your mind off (temporarily) the fact that the last pointless scene you watched 5 minutes ago was so horrible. If you absolutely hated the first one or Michael Bay, both of which would be very understandable, avoid this movie at all costs.