Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen

Oh how the mighty have Fallen (OK that's the only pun I promise)
For my tenth review I decided that I would write about a film very close to my heart, a film with worldwide praise but then my friend Alan suggested that I review Transformers 2 instead. 
A film with more plot holes than shots, and tries to distract us from these flaws with big ass explosions and Megan Fox. One of those films that grossed far more than it deserved through clever advertising. 
So lets dig in to find out just why this film just doesn't work.

For starters let me just say I was never exactly a huge fan of the original series, I knew it existed but never really cared for it which is why I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed the 2007 film when i was finally forced to watch it. Sure it was stupid and over the top but that's what we expected and the film was a surprisingly enjoyable film and like most people I was highly anticipating the sequel.
The result was at best disappointing with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen looking nice but the plot features more wholes than a piece of Swiss cheese, the characters are undeveloped and the film is overwhelmed with far to many Transformers resulting in none of them or the human characters holding the screen time they need for any kind of reasonable character development.

First lets take a look at the plot which follows shortly after the first film with the Autobots from having joined forces with the soldiers to form a special task force (damn the phrase "Special Task Force" is starting to appear in a lot of my reviews) to hunt down the remaining Decepticons across the globe. At the same time Sam Witwicky(Shia LaBeouf) is attempt to leave his robot fighting days behind as he heads for college, but all is not well in where the hell this is vill as Sam stumbles across a shard of the Allspark (the cube thing from the first film) which seems to scrabble his mind and begins to experience hallucination of strange symbols and the Decepticons attempt to capture Sam to learn what he knows.

Its time to play list the plot holes. Lets begin.

1. If the Decepticons can revive Megaton with the Allspark shard then why cant the Autobots do the same for Optimus since they have had the piece the entire time?
2. Why is Optimus the only one can defeat The Fallen?
3. In the first Transformers movie there was a huge robot battle in the middle of a crowded city witnessed by millions of people and now in the sequel no one knows about the Transformers at all?
4. If Optimus is the last decedent of the Primes do Transformers have kids?
5. If Transformers can look like people why do they keep changing into Veichles?
6. Sam dies and goes to Transformer heaven to meet the deceased primes? - Please explain.
7. Wasn't Bumblebee's voice fixed at the end of the first movie?

There are plenty more but I'm going to stop there in order to retain my faith in the film industry, but that's at least seven major plot holes that are left completely unexplained and where I may have been able to forgive one or two of them the sheer number of them is staggering. So what little faith that I had in the plot is gone so lets move onto the characters.
The majority of the original cast return as the characters that they portrayed in the previous installment with the only notable character that deserve mention is John Turturro as former Sector 7 Agent Simmons who seems to be acting in a different league from the rest of the cast playing his role with a apparent sense of humor that makes him far more likable than the rest of the cast. Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox fit back into their old roles nicely with a sub-plot of being unable to admit their lover to one another and trying to work a long distance relationship that is overwhelmed by the action sequences. Bay seems to go out of his way to whore out Fox as best he, can most apparent in a pointless shot with her mounting a motor bike.

The voice acting for the Transformers is good but their screen time is bitterly short with the only Transformers that get a look in are the two racially incentive robot twins that don't contribute anything to the film, are just annoying and yet seem to get more lines than any other Transformer. If you can get Hugo Weaving and Peter Cullen as voice actors you given them all the lines you can and don't replace their screen time with this films version of Jar Jar Binks. Oh an the introduction of the character Sam roommate Leo Spitz is completely irrelevant as he plays no part on the plot bar some cheap laughs and bad one liners.

The film is set across some beautiful locations spanning from China to Egypt that gives a nice backdrop to all the explosions.The graphics and effects are incredible with the Transformers looking beautiful and realistic and the fight sequence looking loud large and awesome with a fight between Optimus and three Decepticons without question being the highlight of the entire film.

So in summary Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is like a Jaguar that looks nice on the outside but then you open the bonnet and find that its full of rust. With great effects but a damaged plot and undeveloped characters.