Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Big old bots do punch me-shoot me in front of beautiful sunsets. Part 2. Quite fancied a second look at this so did just that tonight and it was exactly as I remembered. I also remember the ferocious slagging this got on its cinema release and I think whether you side with that angry mob depends a lot on your worldview. They've certainly got no end of ammunition. The story is nonsensical, the increased focus on 'comedy' is nail-grindingly bad (the buck-toothed Autobot twins. Seriously. Was no one brave enough to say how shit they were?) and the ill conceived logic of some of the plot points (human transformers? The all powerful rail gun that hasn't been used before or since) is painful. And those are just three of the stand out examples of bad.

However, I still quite enjoyed the thing and am quite happy to admit it. I grew up playing with Transformers toys and would have traded an entire summer's holiday, my Fighting Fantasy books and my goalie gloves for the chance of seeing my clanking heroes on the big screen. I could never have imagined back then just how well the robots and transformations would be realised and brought to life. There are some staggeringly, insane action scenes in this and I feel I would be betraying the 9 year old version of me if I started analysing and attacking it now I'm a grumpy, critical adult. Besides, everytime the badness appears like Sam's mum being wacky or John Turturro revealing his unpleasant backside, all you need to do is breathe deep and wait a bit and then you'll get a perfectly framed shot of a helicopter exploding above a pyramid whilst Megan (hubba bubba) Fox screams in slo-mo and Optimus Prime leaps onto the back of an evil transforming fighter plane as the sun sets beautifully in the background. And it will look awesome.

I'm really looking forward to Transformers 3D next year. I see that there'll be no more shameless, gratuitous shots of Ms Fox now that she's left the series. Just the sort that a grumpy, critical adult wouldn't like at all.