Transformers: Revenge of the Soulless Action Dud

By KATIE O’CONNOR

Summer blockbusters thrive on the boredom of the college and high school crowd who have exhausted all of their ideas of summer shenanigans and just want to turn off their brains and be entertained. Effects-heavy bits of fluff such as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” are meant to fill this gap with entertainment, but this film fails tremendously, instead filling two-and-a-half hours with bad jokes and loud bangs.

The first twenty minutes are a barrage of special effects, which are impressive and 200,000 times better than any other special effects that have ever been done before. But does this give director Michael Bay a free pass to eliminate good storytelling entirely? I certainly hope not.

The first mistake in this overwhelming waste of time is the characterization. Julie White, as the protagonist Sam Witwicky’s (Shia LaBeouf) mother, Judy, is abominable in her portrayal of a mother who is losing her only son to that terrifying beast known as freshman year of college. She overacts past the point of humor so that her character becomes a grotesque spectacle. Just watch the scene where she accidentally gets high and you’ll know what I mean. Second are the pair of sassy trash-talking go-bots who come from nowhere and expect to be welcomed as the comic relief of the film and instead become nuisances, much like Jar Jar Binks in “Star Wars.”

Action films are meant to be short, intense and entertaining. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is an hour-and-a-half too long and thus becomes boring with its continuous explosions. The only redeeming aspect of the film is an incredible fight scene between the go-bots and decepticons which takes place in a forest. Watching Sam flee from the wreckage of enormous redwoods being flung about while trying to dodge the falling metal behemoths is truly adrenaline-pumping.

This film is so over-packed and lengthy that it will leave anyone begging for their two-and-a-half hours back and cursing themselves if they spent so much as a cent on it.

Due to rain forecasts, Cheap Seats has moved their Oct. 16 screening of “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen” to Dodd Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.