Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.

Director:

Michael Bay

Writers:

Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci

Stars:

Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 15 wins & 27 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shia LaBeouf	...	Sam Witwicky
Megan Fox	...	Mikaela Banes
Josh Duhamel	...	Major Lennox
Tyrese Gibson	...	USAF Chief Master Sergeant Epps
John Turturro	...	Simmons
Ramon Rodriguez	...	Leo Spitz
Kevin Dunn	...	Ron Witwicky
Julie White	...	Judy Witwicky
Isabel Lucas	...	Alice
John Benjamin Hickey	...	Galloway
Matthew Marsden	...	Special Air Service Forces
Andrew Howard	...	Special Air Service Forces
Michael Papajohn	...	Cal
Glenn Morshower	...	General Morshower
John Eric Bentley	...	Aide

Storyline

A youth chooses manhood. The week Sam Witwicky starts college, the Decepticons make trouble in Shanghai. A presidential envoy believes it's because the Autobots are around; he wants them gone. He's wrong: the Decepticons need access to Sam's mind to see some glyphs imprinted there that will lead them to a fragile object that, when inserted in an alien machine hidden in Egypt for centuries, will give them the power to blow out the sun. Sam, his girlfriend Mikaela Banes, and Sam's parents are in danger. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are Sam's principal protectors. If one of them goes down, what becomes of Sam?

---

Plot Keywords:

optimus prime character | megatron character | toaster | ratchet character | man wearing a thong | 

---

Taglines:

They have returned. They have evolved.

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material

Did You Know?

Trivia

Optimus Prime was originally going to appear with his iconic truck trailer, and would have combined with it as well. However, changes to the script caused this concept to be scrapped. He finally got his trailer in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011).

---

Goofs

(at around 1h 20 mins) Before heading into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, when Simmons pulls the taser out of his bag and turns it on he holds it in his right hand, but in Leo's close-up as he starts to freak out, the taser's in Simmons's left hand, then it's back in Simmons's right hand, between shots.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Optimus Prime: Earth, birthplace of the human race. A species much like our own, capable of great compassion and great violence. For in our quest to protect the humans, a deeper revelation dawns: our worlds have met before...

---

Crazy Credits

The DreamWorks and Paramount logos are accompanied by a series of robotic sounds.

---

Alternate Versions

The mainland Chinese release censors all mentions of the name "Shanghai" (where the opening battle takes place). Galloway's line "You guys made a mess at Shanghai" is edited to remove the last two words, while other uses of the city's name are bizarrely overdubbed with something that sounds like "Shanghaish."

---

Connections

Referenced in WatchMojo: Another Top 10 Actors Who Hate Their Own Movies (2018)

---

Soundtracks

21 Guns
Written by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, & Tre Cool
Performed by Green Day
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Still didn't transformed me into a Transformers fan.

Actually I'm a person that is always quite fond of Michael Bay movies. I like how he brings some overblown action entertainment to the screen with basically all of his movies. His Transformers movies however have never really appealed to me.

But having said that, I actually have to admit that I liked this movie better than the first. It seems like they learned from some of their mistakes of the first movie, which also makes me somewhat more hopeful for the third movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". If they improve even more, the movie could actually turn out to be quite good, as well as entertaining.

Cause by saying I liked this movie better than the first one, I'm not saying at all that this is being a very good movie. It's entertaining enough to watch but that is it really. Everything about it is quite bad and simplistic but I'm of course not talking about the special effects though.

The special effects are basically what Bay's Transformers movies are being known for. They are top of the bill and with each movie they keep pushing to the limits of what's possible and come up with new unseen stuff. They are innovative movies special effects wise and that's also why I often enjoy watching a Michael Bay movie; they are big budget ones but you can always see the budget back on the screen. Not only with its computer effects but also all of its action in general.

And yes, there obviously is plenty of action in this movie. But too much though in my opinion. At times the movie is really nothing more than the one big action sequences after the other, which quite frankly can get tiresome to watch. After a while you stop caring what is happening, also because you often don't even understand what is going on. Not because the story is hard to follow but just because of the way the movie got shot and told. The movie is definitely too long as well, also because the last hour or so is being like one big action piece, that could had wrapped up things far sooner.

But strangely enough the reason why I still liked this movie better than the first one was its story. This actually might sound strange because this movie its pre-production really suffered from the writer's strike. The story had to be finished in a hurry, while Michael Bay had already come up with some big action sequences to write a story around, connecting them all. So by all means, the story shouldn't work but it just all felt less random this time. Maybe it was a good thing that they had to come up with things in an hurry because when having more time, you also have more time to come up with lots of other crazy action stuff, like perhaps was what happened and was the problem with the script of the first movie.

Also all of the characters worked out better this time around. Lots of characters and actors from the first movie return in this one and the movie seems to have found a better balance between their sequence and the ones featuring the Autobots and Decepticons.

An entertaining enough overblown movie to watch but by no means a great one.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Paramount Pictures (Global site) [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

24 June 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Transformers 2

Filming Locations:

Tucson International Airport, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$108,966,307, 28 June 2009

Gross USA:

$402,111,870

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$836,303,693

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Tom DeSanto/Don Murphy Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

149 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1