SPOILERS

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Ladies and Gentlemen: It is June 24th, 2009. This means that after three days of waiting, I can finally post my review on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen without spoiling it for too many of my American buddies! ;]

I'll give the positive points about it first, and there are many positive points indeed. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the sequel to the hands-down best movie in the world. It was well worth sitting there in the cinema for two and a half hours, even with my ex-boyfriend wolf-whistling in all the Sam/Mikaela scenes. The special effects were beyond mind-blowing, like in the last one – I mean, God, each and every battle scene was so flawlessly constructed that it makes my mind boggle to think of how Bay does it all – and I was thrilled by the fact that the Decepticons got so much screen time. There was lots of Starscream and Megatron squabbling that was absent from the first film, and Starscream is much more like his G1 self, gutless and sycophantic. It had me grinning no end, especially when Megatron bellowed “Starscream!” when he got beaten by Optimus. Ahaha. *grins* And for once, ‘Screamer didn’t die! The Twins were a fun new addition (if somewhat annoying, and they had far too much screen time), even though they can never beat the Lambo Twins, and many of the new characters, like Alice and Leo, were very interesting . . . and freakish, in Alice’s case . . . *thinks of the tongue scene and shudders* The human and Autobot collaboration at the beginning, in Shanghai, was great - the entire opening sequence was fantastic, and it gripped my attention from beginning to end. The music was great – Steve Jablonsky strikes again – and the visuals to go with it were pure magic. I found it to be a real sensory overload; you feel breathless just watching it, as you’re being carried all over the world and back again every minute, and it got such an emotional reaction from me at one point that I cried – you know, when Mikaela tells Sam she loves him . . . *goes gooey-eyed*

There were several scenes that I could watch over and over again, especially the Autobot arrest scene – damn, no-one pulls a gun on Ironhide! I loved Ratchet’s little “this fool is misinformed” remark in that scene, too. Hehe. Simmons coming back was great, and I thought the way they portrayed Jetfire was quirky and interesting, if a bit unorthodox compared to his G1 form (from which he differs massively, to the point where he isn’t the same character at all and isn’t really worthy of the name Jetfire). Looks like I’ll have to pair poor Jade off with Jolt in my Revenge of the Fallen fanfiction instead, but as a character in his own right, he was fantastic. Loved his Scottish accent to death.

However, I do have some criticisms of the film, the major one being that there simply isn't enough Autobot interaction. Characters like Jolt, Arcee and Sideswipe would have been really great – their weapons were unbelievable, electric stingers and blades and so on – but they weren’t developed at all. Those three in particular barely spoke (Jolt and Arcee had one line each, I believe). Ironhide got quite a bit of dialogue, and Ratchet got about four lines. That disappointed me, I’ll admit – as you all know, I’m a rabid fangirl of movie Ratchet, and was hoping for a bit of wrench-throwing in there somewhere . . . but I’ll be grateful that he at least got that, rather than not speaking at all. I shall record and treasure his lines. He also had the chance to show himself as the team’s medic, when he instructed Jolt in how to salvage Jetfire’s parts. In general, however, I felt as if I was having to comb through the scenes with a microscope just to find some decent Autobot interaction and dialogue, which isn’t the way it should be at all. They felt like minor additions. The focus, as with the first Transformers, was on Sam, Mikaela and Optimus (though I found that Bumblebee, who received a tonne of media attention for TF2, was overshadowed by the Twins). I will also confess to being bitterly disappointed by the lack of close-up shots of the majority of the ‘bots, with the exception of good ol’ Ironhide, who got . . . like . . . one. I think it had less of a charm than the first film, and it didn’t give me shivers in too many places, whereas the first one had me in rapt awe from beginning to end.

In general, I’d give it a commendable 8 out of 10, and I think it come up to scratch as a decent sequel. I look forward to the third instalment, and hopefully, Michael Bay will decide to give us some more screen time for the Autobots . . . and not add a mute character purely to promote the Chevy Volt . . . and possibly give Ratchet one, tiny close-up . . . *invisible hand moves over Blackwing’s mouth to shut her up*

Go see it!

P.S.: Did anyone else giggle when The Fallen called Megatron “my apprentice”?