MICHAEL BAY

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   B.5. 

USA, 2009.  DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures.  Screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman.  Cinematography by Ben Seresin.  Produced by Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy.  Music by Steve Jablonsky.  Production Design by Nigel Phelps.  Costume Design by Deborah Lynn Scott.  Film Editing by Roger Barton, Tom Muldoon, Joel Negron, Paul Rubell.  

What should have been an even more exciting sequel to the rather formless original is just more of the same garbage, with a plot that piggybacks its predecessor so much that it feels like a collection of deleted scenes with slightly better visual effects. Shia LaBeouf is going off to college and leaving his beloved, transforming Corvette Bumblebee behind. Unfortunately he’s only two days into class when the Decepticons launch an attack on the Earth that is meant to be revenge for something terrible that happened to them long ago that is never explained particularly well (at least not to me, but I was having trouble staying awake). His girlfriend Megan Fox, who works in an auto mechanic shop but stays surprisingly clean (other than the fact that she’s pure trash) visits him at school and they team up to fight the bad guys, hoping that the noble Autobots will come to their rescue. There’s some really impressive action that happens throughout the entire film, and the entire crew should be commended for how well its technical aspects are achieved, but there’s no denying that for such a loud movie it is impressively boring. Julie White gets to do more as LaBoeuf’s mother in this one, and she makes the most of her scenes.

Academy Award Nomination:  Best Sound Mixing

Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination:  Outstanding Stunt Ensemble