Transformers 2 Review: More Than Meets the Eyes?

Transformers 2 is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the Summer 2009 season. Transformers 2 follows the story of the original movie, and continues the story of the robots which disguise themselves as vehicles on earth to accomplish their goals.

The original Transformers movie raked in the big bucks when it first came out, and became a favorite for many. The original blended a good dose of action, humor, drama, and nostalgia for those who grew up with the popular kids cartoon in the 90s. Michael Bay looked to continue that same feel in Transformers 2.

But does Transformers 2 live up to the enormous hype surrounding it?

Maybe. Transformers 2 is a showy movie, to say the least. There is much flash and flare as the Autobots tear up the screen, and most of the known world, in their dramatic battles against the Decepticons. There are more explosions, crashes, fires and transformations in Transformers 2 than in the original, by a lot.

At some points, however, Transformers 2 attempts to do too much. There is a plot to Transformers 2, and an ambitious one at that. The two and a half hour running time of the movie is nowhere near enough to tell such a plot satisfactorily AND include the copious amount of action that Michael Bay's team sought to pack into Transformers 2.

At its end, the viewer is left feeling like he has watched two movies condensed into one. Transformers may have actually benefited from dividing this movie into two separate stories. The division would have helped to ease the exposition and keep the chunks of plot from hitting viewers on the head like meteors from the sky.

Characterizations also fail slightly in Transformers 2. Whereas the original movie did a good job of allowing viewers to connect to young Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf), the second turns his character into merely the vehicle to get from one loud (albeit extremely entertaining) action scene to the next.

Transformers 2 also adds in an unusual amount of racy dialogue and sexual innuendo for a movie of its type. It is one thing to hear crude jokes in an adult action movie; it is another entirely to hear them in a movie after watching 15 minutes of previews specifically targeted to children. Transformers 2 is a movie based on a children's toy, not an adult one.

The bottom line: Transformers 2 is not what the first was. The movie suffers from a rushed plot and delusions of being another type of movie altogether. It does, however, give viewers an incredible amount of exciting action sequences and more eye candy than you can shake an 18-wheeler at. Watch at your own peril.