At a loud and aggressive 147 minutes, the Transformers sequel is pure Michael Bay, and is a critic-proof megabuster: despite pointing out any of its many flaws it's bound to be one of the biggest hits of the summer. The target market (young men, retro-toy lovers) will flock to it in droves, while the rest of us will probably scratch our heads in confusion, and wish for earplugs.
It should be remembered that this is a franchise built around a child's toy: a very successful toy, but still a toy. It doesn't really matter if you have seen the original film or not as the song remains largely the same. It's a battle of good (the Autobots) and evil (The Decepticons) with Shia LaBeouf still caught in the middle and rejoined by starlet of the month Megan Fox.
There's some unoriginal backstory involving ancient ruins (and ancient runes) and John Turturro increases his bank balance as a boffin who explains all of this to LaBoeuf's character. They have even thrown in a plot twist this time around, although whether it will have the desired dramatic effect or not is probably doubtful.
Otherwise it's classic Bay: noisy, full of explosions and exotic locations. To be fair the special effects are impressive, particularly a bridge-top battle between the bots. Its budget is also worn on its sleeve with some exotic locations, but it's hardly much of an acting stretch for LaBoeuf who, for me at least, has still to prove why he is regarded as the hottest young man in Hollywood.
Paul Hurley
