To begin with, Transformers 2 is, in scope at least, a bigger movie than it's predecessor. Everything is much more global this time around. There's more robots, more locations, more plot, and about the same amount of human cast members. This struck me halfway through the film perhaps as the first biggest flaw. With such a loaded slate, none of the aforementioned elements gets its due attention and thusly the movie doesn't ever carry the expositional weight of the first film. Now, while it may seem foolish to associate the Transformer movies with "expositional weight", the main draw for any film to be successful is a story that works and resonates with the public at large. The most successful elements of the first movie as far as I was concerned were twofold. Firstly, the human cast was accessible for the most part and relegated to a reactionary role. Once the big robots came tumbling in, the humans were along for the ride. At the climax of that film, Sam (Shia LeBeouf) is given a pretty daunting task in the robot civil war. This was a smart move as it essentially took someone from the audience and put them in the thick of it. We liked the humans, but they didn't get in the way. They did the talking for the movie and left the robots to do the dazzling. The second element of success in Transformers was the sense of closeness with the robots. We cared about Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jazz, and Ratchet. They were the last of their kind and they kept together. This allowed the audience to associate with them and root for them in a real sense.
Ok, so where does the second movie mess up? The problems stem directly from the decision to stray so far from the elements I just outlined. Because the movie is so large, the human stories are stripped down to accommodate everything going on. The filmmakers are attempting to assign much more weight and "epic" to what's happening, but they don't take the time for us to care. Perhaps it's a play on the good will accrued from the first film; that we'll care about the characters without being shown why we have to in the first place. Unfortunately, even though I knew and liked the characters coming into the film; I felt like I never had a chance to reconnect with them. While I did just say that it was good that the humans were peons in a war beyond their comprehension, this movie makes them seem almost too 'equal' if it's possible. Perhaps its a tug of war. Each side needs its moment in the spotlight, and the sequeal suffers because both sides are in the same limited spotlight trying to garner attention. This is not to say that I found every human plot line in the first film to be a success. Certainly, less time could have been devoted to the hot teenage hacking team or the military grunts discovering the new threats. The point is that they helped ground the movie in its way and kept it from feeling like spectacle. This movie pulls back just enough to let that problem seep in. Transfomers 2 misses the mark again by missing it's next previous success. There are a lot more robots in this movie. Cool. More action, more explosions. But wait. Oh, there's Ironhide and Ratchet! What are they up to? What? They're hardly on camera for more than a few seconds. They say only a handful of lines the whole movie? The movie has become so concerned with more that they've removed the relatable elements from the Transformers themselves. There sure are lots of cool robots motoring around, but aside from Optimus Prime they're just pretty flashing lights. That's really unfortunate. Gone is the feeling that the core autobots from the first movie were brothers in arms. They're basically as important as the human soldiers getting blown up every few minutes. Bummer.
This all leads me back to my initial argument of balances and ratios. Certainly there are more scenes between exclusively Transformers. The problem with these, specifically the scenes shown of the Decepticons plotting their next moves with the Fallen, is that they feel entirely cold. The Decepticons, and largely the Transformers in general, should be there to do the entertainment equivalent of heavy lifting. A dash of expositions, a smidge of one liners, and enough attachment for us to care what happens. When it comes to the above mentioned moments with the Decepticons, I felt the menace they projected in the first movie is gone. I don't care why they're being evil. I just need three sentences of dialogue to show that they're bad robots. That being said, it was also slightly boring to see the exploits of the military characters (Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel) as they essentially sat around without much to do before the final act. This all seems to fly in the face of what I said earlier. There were admittedly lots of scenes with humans and autobots, but they felt hollow or tonally wrong. The humans were just kind of there and the autobots had too much to say and too long in the spotlight.
I guess what it comes down to is that a movie that is such a conceptual long shot like Transformers is a bitch to get right. I don't even know if the formula for success can be diluted to a pure enough form to be copied and work. Logically, more of everything from the first movie would equal more satisfaction in the sequel. Sadly it doesn't work out this way and as a result it all feels meaningless. And so I found myself in the theatre with my mind on everything in my life besides the struggle on my screen. Because the movie decided to quadruple its scope, none of the things that happen feel anywhere near as intensely personal as they did in its predecessor.
So here I am questioning my interest in movies in the first place and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen doesn't give me much of a reason to keep caring. If you're in the market for effects and action as a form of escapism; you're in good hands. If you're like me, seek no solace here.
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