Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

This was rushed into production against the writers' strike with an unfinished script, and the finished film is the clearest evidence in modern blockbusters of what that costs. Nothing connects. A boy has ancient symbols downloaded into his head, dies, visits a robot afterlife, returns, and the plot resumes as though none of it happened. Egypt, Shanghai, a Smithsonian aircraft and a Decepticon buried under a pyramid are assembled without any logic beyond the next location.

Skids and Mudflap, twin robots given gold teeth, illiteracy and a minstrel patter, were indefensible on release and are worse in hindsight. The Devastator sequence includes a joke about the machine's anatomy that tells you exactly how seriously anyone was taking it. The forest fight, Optimus alone against three Decepticons in dappled light, is a real piece of action direction and the only reason to keep the disc. Bay has since said the film was a failure and that he should have walked. Believe him.