Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Director: Michael Bay

Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro.

When the film opened on 24 June in the USA it felt short by couple of millions to create history earning US$ 201 million in the opening weekend standing next only to The Dark Knight (US$ 203) in all time big openers. When Michael Bay (Bad Boys, Armageddon, Pearl Harbour) is at the helm of direction, Steven Spielberg (ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones series) at the executive production and already a hit prequel, the expectations are bound to go high. Surprisingly it released in India this week without much hype as I didn’t find a single ad on newspapers prior to its release.

The film takes the story forward from the first part of the planned series. It’s been two years since the last encounter with the Decepticons where Optimus Prime, the leader of Autobots came out victorious. Now Optimus heads a military organization with human beings where fellow Autobots have also joined in. While hunting a decepticon in Shanghai, they come to know that the Fallen is planning to take revenge. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has graduated from school and is going to join college to learn astronomy while trying to lead a normal life. But his destiny is intertwined with the aliens as he possesses what they seek, much unknown to him. Soon he is drawn into a conflict which apparently is not his. But as the story unfolds it is discovered that the so called aliens are not new to earth as they have been living here for thousands of years. In this grand battle of Autobots Vs Decepticons, the humans must take side with the Autobots to stop the Fallen and save the earth from annihilation.

As it happens with all sequels, the narrative structure of the film follows the trend of the earlier one. Innocent human beings who are going about their lives are affected by the larger than life events and soon they are in the middle of a war and secrets start revealing itself. The best part of the story is that it has been able to camouflage with the real history of Human race over the years. In the film, the main action takes place in the cradle of all civilizations, Egypt and it is wonderfully shot.

Although there could be hardly any scope in this kind of adventure films to show histrionics as an actor, it can be seen that Shia LaBeouf is maturing as an actor. The ‘boy’ is fast growing to a Man and is heading to be a prominent star in Hollywood. Megan Fox’s role is less defined than the previous one hence loses its significance. Josh Duhamel reprises his role as the Major who leads the fight against the awesome aliens and is fairly competent. But the man who steals the show is John Turturro as Agent Simmons who causes much of the trouble to Sam Witwicky in the first part. When things become too formidable for Sam to carry on, Simmons shows the way and indeed seizes his moment to stand out for his country. Also, his comic timing is of top grade.

The aspect where the film is outstanding is its action and visuals. The scale is huge, locations breathtaking, and greatly executed. I am personally fond of aerial shots and the film has a galore of it. It is one of the most extravagantly shot films in recent times. To the film’s discredit, some of the characters which played significant roles in the prequel were not developed properly. Add to that the first part of the film lacks the flow in narration and hence fails to thrill. But as the story progresses the film picks pace and leads to a grand finale.

At the end, the film deserves to be seen for its brilliant action and grandeur. The experience could be awesome. And for all those Transformers fans, the 3^rd installment is already announced. Cheers!