In 17,000 B.C., the Dynasty of Primes (the highest ruling Cybertronians) collect Energon, from star harvesters: machines that consume stars to harness their energy. The seven Primes have a sacred rule to never deplete a star that sustains life. One Prime violates this rule by ordering the construction of a star harvester on Earth, for which he becomes "the Fallen", the original Decepticon, and was defeated by the other Primes.
In the present day, two years after the battle of Mission City,[a] the Autobots and the humans have formed NEST (Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty), a classified joint task force to eliminate the remaining Decepticons. Two of them, Sideways and Demolishor, are defeated in Shanghai, but the latter warns of the Fallen's return before being killed. Meanwhile, the Decepticon Soundwave hacks a military satellite to track and steal the last known piece of the AllSpark shard from a U.S Navy base in Diego Garcia. The Constructicons use it to resurrect Megatron while tearing off parts from one of their own to make repairs to his body, and Megatron returns to the Fallen. The Fallen sends Megatron and his second-in-command, Starscream, to capture Sam Witwicky alive and kill Optimus.
Meanwhile, Sam, now attending college at Princeton University, has been seeing Cybertronian symbols since holding a smaller AllSpark shard; Megatron believes the symbols will lead the Decepticons to a new Energon source. The shard brings many of the kitchen appliances to life, which attempt to kill Sam and his parents but Bumblebee rescues them. Sam gives the shard to his girlfriend Mikaela Banes, who later captures the Decepticon Wheelie as he attempts to steal it. After being attacked by Alice, a Decepticon Pretender posing as a college student. Sam, his roommate Leo, and Mikaela are captured by the Decepticon Grindor before the Autobots save them. Optimus fights off Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor before Optimus kills Grindor. Megatron then kills Optimus while he defends Sam, and the Decepticons launch devastating attacks around the world, while Megatron and Soundwave hijack Earth's telecommunications systems, which allows the Fallen to send a message to the humans, demanding that Sam be handed over to him.
Sam, Mikaela, and Leo then find alien expert and former Sector Seven agent, Seymour Simmons, who reveals that Transformers had visited Earth for a long time and some known as Seekers, remained hidden on Earth. With help from Wheelie, they track down an elderly Decepticon turned Autobot Seeker named Jetfire at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They use their shard to revive Jetfire, who teleports the group to Egypt. Along with Jetfire, Wheelie sides with the Autobots, and Jetfire sends them to locate the Matrix of Leadership, the star harvester's key, which could also be used to revive Optimus. The group finds the Matrix, which the Primes sacrificed themselves to hide, but it disintegrates into dust.
Meanwhile, NEST forces and the Autobots land near the Giza pyramid complex and are attacked by the Decepticons. The Constructicons combine to form Devastator, who reveal the star harvester hidden inside a pyramid before he is destroyed by the Navy’s railgun, as U.S. military reinforcements arrive. The Decepticons are annihilated by multiple airstrikes from the Navy and the U.S Air Force, but Megatron manages to kill Sam. The Primes speak to Sam, saying that the Matrix must be earned, not found and that he has the right to bear it by sacrificing himself for Optimus. They resurrect Sam and grant him the Matrix, which he uses to resurrect Optimus. The Fallen steals the Matrix from a weakened Optimus and uses it to activate the star harvester. After Jetfire (who is wounded by Scorponok, but was able to kill his attacker) sacrifices himself to allow his parts to be used for additional power and flight, Optimus destroys the harvester, severely wounds Megatron, and kills the Fallen. Heavily damaged and distraught by his master's death, Megatron retreats with Starscream. The Autobots and their allies then return to the United States, and Sam and Leo return to college.
Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky: A recent high school graduate who is unwittingly drawn again into the Autobot cause to unravel an ancient mystery implanted into his mind by the now-destroyed Allspark.
Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes: Sam's girlfriend whom he trusts as the Allspark fragments begin to unravel.
Josh Duhamel as Major William Lennox: A U.S. Army Ranger who establishes NEST to help the Autobots in their battle against the remaining Decepticons.
Tyrese Gibson as Robert Epps: A U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant and Combat Controller in Lennox's team who leads NEST's SWAT unit.
John Turturro as Seymour Simmons: A former agent of the recently terminated Sector 7 who now runs a meat shop in New York City with his mother, Tova Simmons (played by Annie Korzen).
Ramon Rodriguez as Leo Spitz: A college roommate of Sam's who runs an online conspiracy blog and is obsessed with the Transformers. Before Rodríguez was cast, Jonah Hill was in talks to play the role but Seth Rogen advised him to turn it down to focus instead on his own projects. Hill chose to do Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian instead.[6][7]
Devastator: A massive Decepticon who is the combination of ten construction vehicles. In the Transformers lore, these vehicles are meant to be individual Decepticons called the Constructicons. In the film however, only Mixmaster, Scrapper, Scrapmetal, and Long Haul transform into robots, and they appear separate from Devastator. Concept art was created for the others, but most of them were only featured in the related toy lines. The named Constructicons are:
Mixmaster: A black and silver Mack concrete mixer truck that transforms into the head.
Scrapper: A yellow Caterpillar 992G scoop loader that transforms into the right arm.
Scrapmetal: A yellow Volvo EC700C crawler excavator fitted with a Stanley UP 45SV attachment that transforms into the left hand.
Long Haul: A green Caterpillar 773B dump truck that transforms into the right leg.
Scavenger: A red and white TerexO&K RH 400 excavator, like Demolishor, that transforms into the upper torso and shoulders.
Hightower: A yellow Kobelco CKE2500 II crawler crane that transforms into the left arm.
Overload: A red KW Dart D4661 Tractor Truck articulated dump truck that transforms into the lower torso and thighs.
Wheelie: A former Decepticon spy, later turned Autobot, who transforms into a blue radio-controlled toy monster truck, based on a Ford F-350.
Skids: An Autobot infiltrator and Mudflap's twin who first transforms into the front half of a custom-built ice cream truck, and later, a green 2007 Chevrolet Beat.
Reno Wilson as Mudflap: An Autobot infiltrator and Skids' twin who first transforms into the back half of a custom-built ice cream truck, and later, a red 2007 Chevrolet Trax.
Bumblebee: An Autobot scout and Sam's guardian who transforms into a yellow and black 2009 Chevrolet Camaro. Despite speaking in the previous film, he still communicates through radio broadcasts.
Jolt: An Autobot technician who transforms into a blue 2009 Chevrolet Volt.
Sideways: A Decepticon surveillance agent who transforms into a silver 2009 Audi R8; he hides out in Shanghai alongside Demolishor.
Scorponok: A scorpion-like Decepticon who was a minion of Blackout in the previous film.
Before the release of Transformers (2007), Paramount Pictures began developing two sequels.[8] Major hurdles for the film's initial production stages included the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike as well as the threat of strikes by other guilds. Prior to a potential Directors Guild of America strike, director Michael Bay began creating animatics of action sequences featuring characters rejected for the 2007 film. This would allow animators to complete sequences if the Directors Guild of America went on strike in July 2008, which ultimately did not happen.[9][10] When asked about directing a sequel while promoting the first Transformers film, Bay said "you have your baby and you don't want someone else to take it".[11]
Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who had written the first film, originally passed on the opportunity to write a sequel due to schedule conflicts. The studio began courting other writers in May 2007, but were unimpressed with other pitches and eventually convinced Orci and Kurtzman to return.[9] The studio also hired Ehren Kruger, who had impressed Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner with his knowledge of the Transformers mythology.[12] The writing trio were paid $8 million.[9] Screenwriting was interrupted by the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, but to avoid production delays, the writers spent two weeks writing a treatment, which they handed in the night before the strike began.[13] Bay then expanded the outline into a 60-page scriptment,[14] which included more action, humor, and characters.[13][15] The three writers spent four months finishing the screenplay while "locked" in two hotel rooms by Bay; Kruger wrote in his own room and the trio would check on each other's work twice a day.[16]
Orci described the film's theme as "being away from home", with the Autobots contemplating living on Earth as they cannot restore Cybertron, while Sam goes to college.[17] He wanted the focus between the robots and humans "much more evenly balanced",[18] "the stakes [to] be higher", and more focused on the science fiction elements.[19] Orci added he wanted to "modulate" the humor more,[20] and felt he managed the more "outrageous" jokes by balancing them with a more serious plot approach to the Transformers' mythology.[21] Bay concurred that he wanted to please fans by making the tone darker,[22] and that "mums will think it[']s safe enough to bring the kids back out to the movies."[23] Two elements were added late into the film: the Autobot Jolt—as General Motors wanted to advertise the Chevrolet Volt—and the railgun that kills Devastator, a new acquisition by the United States military.[24]
In September 2007, Paramount announced a release date for the sequel to Transformers in late June 2009.[25] The film was given a $200 million budget, which was $50 million more than the first film,[26] although Variety put the budget spend at over $210 million, after rebates.[5][1][27] Some of the action scenes rejected from the first film were written into the sequel.[28] Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura later stated the studio proposed filming two sequels simultaneously, but he and Bay agreed that the idea was not the right direction for the series.[29]
Prior to the first film's release, producer Tom DeSanto had "a very cool idea" to introduce the Dinobots,[30] while Bay was interested in including a Transformer who transforms into an aircraft carrier, a concept which was dropped from the 2007 film.[31] Orci claimed they did not incorporate these characters into Revenge of the Fallen because they could not think of a way to justify the Dinobots' choice of form,[17] and were unable to fit in the aircraft carrier.[32] Orci later admitted that he was dismissive of the Dinobots because he does not like dinosaurs, saying "I recognize I am weird in that department."[33] However, he became fonder of them during filming because of their popularity with fans.[34] He added "I couldn't see why a Transformer would feel the need to disguise himself in front of a bunch of lizards. Movie-wise, I mean. Once the general audience is fully on board with the whole thing, maybe Dinobots in the future."[35] When asked on the subject, Michael Bay said he hated the Dinobots and they had never been in consideration for being featured in the movies.[36]
During production, Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film; however, Orci confessed it was generally unsuccessful.[32] The studio went as far as to censor MTV and Comic Book Resources interviews with Mowry and Furman, who confirmed Arcee and The Fallen would be in the picture.[37] Bay told Empire that Megatron would not be resurrected, claiming his new tank form was a toy-only character,[26] only for Orci to confirm Megatron would return in the film in February 2009.[38] Bay also claimed he faked the leaking of daily call sheets from the first week of filming, that revealed Ramón Rodríguez's casting,[39] and the appearance of Jetfire and the twins.[40]
Filming
Principal photography lasted from roughly June to November, 2008. Inspired by its use in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, three action sequences in Revenge of the Fallen were shot using IMAX cameras.[22] Although screenwriter Roberto Orci suggested that the IMAX footage would be 3D,[41] Bay later said he found 3D too "gimmicky". Bay added that shooting in IMAX was easier than using IMAX stereoscopic 3-D cameras.[42]
The production moved to Princeton University on June 22.[48] Filming there angered some students at the University of Pennsylvania, believing Bay had chosen to reshoot scenes at Princeton and script Princeton's name in the film. One shot that was filmed in the University of Pennsylvania was the party scene, filmed at what students call "The Castle". "The Castle" is home to the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. However, neither the University of Pennsylvania nor Princeton gave Bay permission to be named in the film because of a scene that both institutions felt "did not represent the school" in which Sam's mother ingests marijuana-laced brownies.[49]
The first unit then shot for three days in Egypt at the Giza pyramid complex and Luxor. The shoot was highly secretive, but according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a crew of 150 Americans and "several dozen local Egyptians" ensured a "remarkably smooth" shoot.[55] Bay earned the Egyptian government's approval to film at the pyramids by contacting Zahi Hawass, whom Bay said "put his arm around me and said, 'Don't hurt my pyramids.'"[43] A 50-foot-tall (15 m) camera crane was used at the location.[26] Bay stated he found the climax of the first film to be weak, partly because it was shot across five different city blocks, making the action confusing and hard to follow. On this film, the final battle in Egypt was devised to make it easier to follow the action.[56]
A screenshot of Starscream confronting Sam. In his audio commentary for the 2007 film, Michael Bay said he wanted more close-ups of the robots for the sequel.
Hasbro became more involved in the designs of the robots than the company was for the first film.[20] The company, along with Takara Tomy, suggested to the filmmakers that combining robots be the main draw for the sequel.[61] They insisted on keeping the alternate modes of some of the returning characters similar so that consumers would not have to buy toys of the same characters.[62] Bay used a real F-16 Fighting Falcon and tank fire when filming the battles.[29] Many of the new Autobot cars supplied by General Motors were brightly colored to look distinctive on screen.[63]Revenge of the Fallen features 46 robots, while the original movie had 14.[64]
Scott Farrar returned as visual effects supervisor and anticipated moodier use of lighting as well as deeper roles for the Decepticons.[clarification needed] He stated that with the bigger deadline, post-production would become a "circus".[65] The producers expected that with a bigger budget and with the special effects having worked out, the Transformers would have a larger role. Peter Cullen recalled, "Don Murphy mentioned to me, 'Only because of the tremendous expense to animate Optimus Prime, he'll be in just a certain amount of [Transformers].' But he said, 'Next time, if the movie is a success, you're gonna be in it a ton.'"[66] Michael Bay hoped to include more close-ups of the robots' faces.[67] The heads had to be designed with more pieces in order to express emotions in a more convincing way.[64] Farrar said the animators implemented more "splashes and the hits and the fighting on dirt or moving, banging into trees, [...] things splinter and break, [the robots] spit, they outgas, they sweat, they snort." Shooting in the higher resolution of IMAX required up to 72 hours to render a single frame of animation.[68][69] While ILM used 15 terabytes for Transformers, they used 140 for the sequel.[58] Particularly problematic effects were the lighting, with scenes such as Jetfire inside the Smithsonian requiring 41 light sources, and the destruction of the pyramid, which appears in about five shots and required seven months to simulate the behavior of the blocks.[64] Orci hinted the majority of the Decepticons were entirely computer-generated in both robot and alternate modes, making it easier to write additional scenes for them in post-production.[70] Rendering the Devastator took over 85% of ILM's render farm capacity, and the complexity of the scene and having to render it at IMAX resolution caused one computer to "explode".[71]Digital Domain handled work on secondary characters, including the transformation of Alice from her human disguise to her robot self. The beginning showing a close-up of her face as the skin broke apart took five animators three months to finish.[72]
The score to Revenge of the Fallen was composed by Steve Jablonsky, who reunited with director Michael Bay to record his score with a 71-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.[73] Jablonsky and his score producer Hans Zimmer composed various interpretations of a song by Linkin Park called "New Divide" for the score.[74] Rapper Kid Cudi’s 2009 single “Sky Might Fall” appears in the extended trailer.[75]
The Chorus of the song " Super Freak " appears in Transformers 2; The scene in which the protagonist Sam is driving his Camaro.
[76]
Marketing
The marketing campaign for Revenge of the Fallen cost $150 million.[77]Hasbro's Revenge of the Fallen toy line included new molds of new and returning characters, as well as 2007 figures with new mold elements or new paint schemes.[78] The first wave was released on May 30, although Bumblebee and Soundwave debuted beforehand.[79] The second wave came in August 2009, which introduced toys such as 2¼-inch human action figures that fit inside the transforming robots, and non-transforming replicas of the cars that can be used on a race track. Product placement partners on the film include Burger King, 7-Eleven, LG phones, Kmart, Papa John's, Walmart, YouTube, Nike, Inc., M&M's, and Snickers. General Motors' financial troubles limited its involvement in promotion of the sequel, although Paramount acknowledged that with or without GM, their marketing campaign was still very large and had the foundation of the 2007 film's success.[80][81][82]Kyle Busch drove a Revenge of the Fallen decorated car at Infineon Raceway on June 21, 2009,[83] while Josh Duhamel drove a 2010 Camaro at the Indianapolis 500.[84] At the movie's launch in China, a version of Bumblebee was constructed using a Volkswagen Jetta.[85]
Printed media
Chris Mowry and artist Alex Milne, who had collaborated on The Reign of Starscream comic book, reunited for IDW Publishing's prequel to the film. Originally set to be a five-part series entitled Destiny,[86] it was split into two simultaneously published series, titled Alliance and Defiance. Alliance is drawn by Milne and began in December 2008; it focuses on the human and Autobot perspectives.[87]Defiance, which started the following month, is drawn by Dan Khanna and is set before either film, showing the beginnings of the war.[88]
After the 2007 film, and serving as a bridge between the two films, Alan Dean Foster wrote Transformers: The Veiled Threat,[89] originally titled Infiltration. During the writing, Foster collaborated with IDW to make sure their stories did not contradict each other.[90]
The first printed media directly related to the second film was a 32-page coloring and activity book by publisher HarperCollins, which became available on May 5, 2009 and was the first official source to openly give out key plot points to the film.[91] On June 1, 2009 DK Publishing published a 96-page book entitled Transformers: The Movie Universe, which intended to provide factual data on the characters of the film.[92]
On June 10, 2009, the comic book adaptation of the film, written by Simon Furman was released.[93] Additionally, Alan Dean Foster also wrote the novelization for the film.[94] Meanwhile, Dan Jolley wrote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Junior Novel, a 144-page book oriented at a younger audience than the one by Foster.[95] Lastly, a book titled Transformers: The Art of the Movies was released, documenting behind-the scenes aspects of the making of the film.
Other minor tie-in publications include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Last Prime, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Reusable Sticker Book, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Made You Look!, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Rise of the Decepticons, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Spot the 'Bots', Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Mix and Match, Operation Autobot, When Robots Attack and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 2010 Wall Calendar.
Revenge of the Fallen premiered on June 8, 2009, in Tokyo, Japan.[102] After its UK release on June 19, it was released in regular and IMAX theatres in North America on June 24,[103] although some theaters held limited-access advance screenings on June 22. Linkin Park held a special show after the premiere at the Fox Theater, Westwood Village on June 22, during which they performed "New Divide" live for the first time. The IMAX release featured additional scenes of extended robot fighting sequences, which were not seen in the regular theater version.[104]
Home media
The film was released in two-disc Blu-ray and DVD editions, and a single-disc DVD version on October 20, 2009, in North America.[105] Michael Bay has revealed that the Blu-ray release of the film, produced by Charles de Lauzirika, features variable aspect ratio for the scenes shot in IMAX format. A special “Big Screen” IMAX edition was available exclusively at Walmart.[106]
Home versions include over three hours of bonus content and several interactive features, including "The AllSpark Experiment", which reveals Michael Bay's plans for a third movie in the series. At Target, the DVD and Blu-ray versions includes a transformable Bumblebee case. Both two-disc editions are the first to include Paramount's Augmented Reality feature, which allows the user to handle a 3-D model of Optimus Prime on a computer by moving the package in front of a webcam.[107] First-week sales of the DVD reached 7.5 million copies, making it the best-selling DVD of 2009. The Blu-ray version had the best first-week sales of 2009, with 1.2 million units.[108]Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on December 5, 2017.[109] The film grossed $276 million in home sales.[110]
Reception
Box office
Revenge of the Fallen was a box office success, earning $402.1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $434.2 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $836.5 million, being the 37th-highest-grossing film of all time domestically.[111]Revenge of the Fallen grossed $16 million from midnight showings, at the time the most ever for a Wednesday midnight debut.[112] For 13 years, it achieved the biggest previews for a Paramount film until 2022 when Top Gun: Maverick ($19.3 million) took it.[113] The film proceeded to beat Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's record ($44.2 million) for the biggest Wednesday opening in history,[114] bringing in $62 million in total receipts on its first day (until The Twilight Saga: Eclipse topped this record with $68.5 million in 2010),[115] additionally ranking it as the second biggest opening day ever at the time, behind The Dark Knight.[116] The film grossed $109 million on its first weekend, the seventh-largest in history at the time, and brought in $200 million in its first five days, putting it in second place behind The Dark Knight's $203.7 million for the all-time biggest five-day opening.[117] It would hold the record for having the highest five-day Wednesday opening gross until it was taken by The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($204.6 million) in 2023.[118] Its gross from Friday to Sunday was also the biggest June opening weekend for one year, breaking Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban's record ($93.7 million), until Toy Story 3 claimed that record the following year ($110.3 million).[119]
Revenge of the Fallen remained #1 at the box office for two weeks straight by a close margin before being overtaken by Bruno ($30 million) and the second weekend of Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs ($28 million). Initial studio estimates showed a tie between it and that weekend's new release Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, but the actual totals showed Revenge of the Fallen taking the #1 spot yet again with $42.3 million.[120] Also, it was the first film of 2009 to reach the $300 million mark in North America.[121] On July 27, a month after its release, the movie reached $379.2 million in the US, which brought it into the top 10 highest-grossing movies ever in that country as of August 2009.[122] Among 2009 films, it was the second-highest-grossing in the United States and Canada, behind Avatar,[123] and fourth globally behind Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.[124]Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 53 million tickets in the US.[111]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 251 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch."[125] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 35 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[126] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[127]
According to The Washington Post, Revenge of the Fallen was Bay's worst-reviewed film at the time of release, faring even worse than Pearl Harbor (2001).[128] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "in-your-face, ear-splitting and unrelenting. It's easy to walk away feeling like you've spent 2 hours in the mad, wild, hydraulic embrace of a car compactor".[129]
Roger Ebert, who had given the 2007 film three stars,[130] gave the sequel only one, calling it "...a horrible experience of unbearable length", a phrase which later became the title of his third bad-movie-reviews collection. Later in his review, Ebert discouraged movie-goers from seeing the film by saying "If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination."[131] He later wrote on his blog about the film, "The day will come when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals. It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era. Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive ($200 million)."[132] Ebert would continue to lambast the film (and, sometimes, the Transformers franchise in general) in other movie reviews and responses to letters and emails sent to him.[citation needed]Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers called it "beyond bad, it carves out its own category of godawfulness" and did not give the film any stars, considering that "Revenge of the Fallen has a shot at the title 'Worst Movie of the Decade'."[133] He later named it as the "worst film of the decade".[citation needed] Other reviewers, while still critical, were less damning of the film, The A.V. Club gave the film a "C−", complaining about the writing and length, but mentioning the effects and action scenes were impressive.[134] Among positive reviews, Amy Biancolli of the Houston Chronicle called it "a well-oiled, loudly revving summer action vehicle that does all that's required, and then some",[135] Jordan Mintzer from Variety said it "takes the franchise to a vastly superior level of artificial intelligence",[136] and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Revenge of the Fallen may be a massive overdose of popcorn greased with motor oil. But it knows how to feed your inner 10-year-old's appetite for destruction."[137] A review from Empire said :"What saves it, just about, are the effects. At times the frame is so packed with whirring cogs and twirling cranks that you could replicate the effect by staring at the innards of a domestic appliance, but when these CGI moto-men from another world duke it out, the images are often so screwy it’s impossible to do anything but sit and stare."[138]
There was considerable negative reaction to the characters Mudflap and Skids, who some perceived as embodying racist stereotypes. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that "the characters [...] indicate that minstrelsy remains as much in fashion in Hollywood as when, well, Jar Jar Binks was set loose by George Lucas".[139] Critic Scott Mendelson said "To say that these two are the most astonishingly racist caricatures that I've ever seen in a mainstream motion picture would be an understatement."[140]Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News, went further, asking his readers "not to support this film" because "you'll be taking [your children] to see a film with the lowest forms of humor, stereotypes, and racism around."[141] Bay (the director) has attempted to defend the film as "good clean fun" and insisted that "We're just putting more personality in."[142] Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman responded to the controversy with "It's really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it. I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it's their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it's a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don't control every aspect of the movie."[143]Tom Kenny stated in a late 2020 interview that he was hired as a placeholder for the role of Skids, but that Michael Bay ended up using his voice in the final version of the film; a decision that Kenny admitted he was embarrassed by.[144]
Actor Shia LaBeouf was unimpressed with the film, stating "We got lost. We tried to get bigger. It's what happens to sequels. It's like, how do you top the first one? You've got to go bigger. Michael Bay went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie...You lost a bit of the relationship. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn't matter. Then it's just a bunch of robots fighting each other."[145] Bay has admitted his disappointment with the film and has apologized, saying the film was "crap" and blaming the 2007–08 Writers' strike, saying "It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers' strike (of 2007–08)".[146][147]
Accolades
In a year-end poll administered by Moviefone, the film won in both the best and worst categories. It was voted the "worst film of 2009" by 24% of those surveyed, while also winning the vote for "best action movie" again with 24% of the vote. Fox's performance was voted the worst by an actress that year, and she was also voted the year's sexiest star.[148]Comcast ranked the film as the 4th-worst sequel of all time.[149]Empire named the film the 25th-worst movie ever made.[150] In June 2009, David Germain from the Associated Press called the film the "worst-reviewed $400 million hit ever".[151]
^"Re: Transformers Script". Shoot For The Edit: The Official Michael Bay Forums. July 31, 2008. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |people= ignored (help)
^Willow Green (February 4, 2010). "Empire's The 50 Worst Movies Ever". Empire magazine. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2019. Redeeming feature John Turturro, who appeared to be in a different movie from everyone else - again.
Steve Baker, Ricky Blitt, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark – Movie 43 (2013)
