TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

US, 2009, 150 minutes, Colour.
Shia La Boeuf, Megan Fox, Isabel Lucas, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Rainn Wilson, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunne, Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey.
Voices of: Hugo Weaving, Anthony Anderson, Robert Foxwirth.
Directed by Michael Bay.

Demolition. Destruction. Devastation. These are some of the words that come to mind when asked what Transformers 2 is about. The film is a two and a half hours Heavy Metal bash – and each of the words is relevant. The Transformers themselves are literally metal – and gigantic and heavy as well. And the predominant action in the film is bash.

The first film was not always easy to follow – unless you are part of the target audience. That seems to be boys and young men (of all ages) who are passionate Play Station devotees, experts on the conventions and skills required for computer games (a bit like the hero's college room-mates in the film itself) and are intent on action following action rather than highly developed causal links between the actions or character motivation.

After a brief introduction (that could have gone on longer) which is a touch like 2001: a Space Odyssey with transformers entering into the lives of primitive peoples, the action moves to showing an alliance between friendly transformers and a secret US task force prepared to do battle (and they do) with rogue transformers. Shia LaBeouf? and Megan Fox, from the first film, find that their more tranquil suburban lives (and Shia going to college) are interrupted by emergency calls which leads to their mission to take the transformer matrix to a wounded Transformer Prime so that he be resurrected and confront the evil power grabbers who want to destroy Earth's sun and conquer the humans. Since this involves a trip to Egypt and a showdown near the pyramids, there is some spectacular desert location photography. (And John Turturro returns from the original film for some patriotic heroics.)

Of course, the special effects, especially for the mechanics of the transformations and for the fights are state of the art with reverberating boom sound engineering to accompany them.

Michael Bay continues his reputation for loud slam-bang action shows rather than for characterisation and plot. Perhaps it is he who should be blamed for the year's most frantic and annoying performance, from Julie White as Shia LeBeouf's whining and screeching mother – whom we would willingly sacrifice to the evil transformers if they wanted her.

Apart from the target audience and devoted fans of The Transformers, most audiences would need to warned about what they were letting themselves in for.

1.The target audience for the film? Young, male? Computer game and Playstation experience? Transformed to the big screen? How successful a film – for the wider audience?

2.The Japanese tradition, the Transformers and the animation films and television? The initial Transformers film? Loud, special effects, spectacle?

3.The production values of this film? The wide screen, the big budgets, the special effects, the action? Musical score? Impact?

4.The visual style, the sound engineering, loud?

5.The work of Michael Bay, action films, less interest in plot and development of characters?

6.The background of the good Transformers versus the bad Transformers? The prologue and the echoes of 2001? The early invasion of Earth, the response of people on Earth? The presuppositions from the first film? The focus on Sam and Mikaela, Sam’s parents? The military, Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps? The protector Transformer in the home? The evil Transformers infiltrating society? The experience of their transforming? Their wanting to destroy the sun, to destroy the Earth? Sam and the mission, the matrix, the search for the good Transformer and inserting the matrix into it?

7.The battles, the visuals, the distinction between the good and the evil, the good overcoming the evil?

8.Sam, his character, the past, relationship with Mikaela? Going to college, his parents, his possessive mother and her weeping, the father and his letting him go? Their reappearing in the Egyptian sequences? The father forced to let his son go?

9.Going to college, the roommates, the various geeks and nerds, their computer set-up? The attractive girl? Her luring Sam? The revelation that she was an evil Transformer? The battle?

10.The mission, action, the matrix, the information, the army background, seeing the army in action, Washington and the generals, the surveillance? The trip to Egypt, the pyramids, the danger?

11.The military unit, Lennox and Epps? The personnel? Confronting the Transformers? Tactics, strategies?

12.John Turturro and the comic touch as Agent Simmons? From the first film? His collaboration with Sam? Going on a mission, his patriotism, the pyramid? His success?

13.The locations in Egypt, the desert, Sam and Mikaela and the struggles, Sam’s parents? The finding of the good Transformer, inserting the matrix? The resolution of the situation?

14.The Playstation ethos, Playstation sensibilities and mentality?