"Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen" is truly, "More than meets the eye." Or maybe not, now that I think about it. Outside of a few sexy poses by Megan Fox and cool fight scenes by the Transformers, this film just plain sucks. The film takes place a few years after the Autobots have defeated their arch enemies, the Decepticons. Where the Autobots now work together with the U.S.A. Air Force, on a daily basis, to eliminate the surviving Decepticons. Unaware that an even greater threat is about to emerge, an ancient being known as the Fallen awakens to lead the surviving Decepticons into destroying the Earth. The fate of the world once again falls into the hands of Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) and the Autobots to stop the Fallen, in his devious plot to destroy the world. Michael Bay manages to cover up another mediocre script with plenty of special of effects galore, and a lot of suggestive cover girl style poses of Megan Fox, throughout the film. Unfortunately, the story leaves a lot to be desired, as it's drenched with cliches and plot holes. I know many have argued saying that since this film is based off a toy franchise, then plot shouldn't be a huge factor. I beg to differ. If that were true, then you can say that for any film like "Master of the Universe", for instance since that was based off a toy franchise too. Yet that film is openly condemned by fans, so why should "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" be any different? My point is, no film is excused when it comes to coming up with a decent storyline, regardless of what it's based on. Overall, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the most over hyped film of the year.

As I said earlier, the story leaves a lot to be desired. Heck, even Michael Bay's writers admitted in later interviews, they literally didn't finish their script until they shot the last scene of the film. The basic premise of the story pretty much has our heroes running through an open desert to find the matrix, so they can resurrect Optimus Prime, whom gets killed at the beginning of the movie. What strikes me as weird about this movie, is that the prophecy states that the "matrix of leadership" has to be earned and not given, in the film. If that's the case, then how come Sam is able to give Optimus the matrix, so he can become strong enough to defeat the Fallen. Shouldn't Optimus have to earn it and not Sam? In the various scenes when Optimus and Bumble Bee are fighting the Decepticons, where were the other Autobots? In fact, it seems like the only times the other Autobots show up in this film is to get shot at and killed. Sadly, none of this was ever explained as it creates too many plot holes. Plus, the Autobot twins, Wheelie and Skids (Tom Kenny), were just flat out annoying.

Sacrificing a lot of story content in favor of special effects, which is sadly the only positive thing that stands out in this film. The special effects not only managed to meet the previous film's standards, it exceeded it. In the first "Transformers" film, I thought the special effects looked realistic whenever the Transformers were interacting with the human characters, but looked obliviously fake as they were shown fighting each other, where you could rarely tell what was happening during their fights. In "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", that's not the case. As it seems Bay has managed to make the animation of the Autobots and the Decepticons battle scenes, look more realistic and less shoddy. Allowing the viewer to see what's going on in the fight.

Plus, John Turturro and Ramon Rodriguez were pretty comical to watch. In the scene, where Ramon has to distract the guard, at a museum, while running around in his underwear, was just too freaking funny. Sadly, their performances were overshadowed by a mediocre storyline and poor character development.

Indeed, outside of the obvious eye candy of the Transformers and Megan Fox, this film leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, it has a lot of special effects and action sequences, but it still lacks story and character development. Two things, special effects cannot replace. "Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen" is the most over hyped film of the year.