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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

6/10

Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Glenn Morshower, Rainn Wilson, Ramon Rodriguez, Isobel Lucas, Matthew Marsden. Voices: Hugo Weaving, Peter Cullen, Robert Foxworth, Anthony Anderson, Frank Welker

Director: Michael Bay

Those mighty machine-like aliens who skulk around in disguise as cars, vans and cranes are back for another megablast of action. Actually, Return of the Fallen would be a better subtitle for this crudely-written sequel, since the poor old Fallen - one of the original Transformers, who plunged from grace - never does quite get his revenge, as we might have guessed.

This time, it's not the Allspark that the villainous Decepticons - again led by Megatron (voice of Weaving), who is soon back from the watery depths - are after, but the Energen source which, if activated by a Matrix, can destroy the Sun and total Earth.

Good ol' Optimus Prime (voice of Cullen) is soon dispatched by Megatron and his lieutenants, and once again Sam (LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Mega - sorry, Megan - Fox) get involved in saving the world.

But the freshness has gone, and this time it's all too much, with at least half the immense runtime taken up with robots beating the daylights out of one another. Some attempt at humour is attempted in the form of the two 'bots who accompany LaBeouf and Fox, and an old autobot revived from mummification as an ancient plane, but it's overwhelmed by the bash and crash of the rest.

The 'bots all sound like either Darth Vader or Donald Duck, but special effects continue to be amazing, if no more so than Fox's ability to ensure her lips remain super-glossed throughout.

David Quinlan

USA 2009. UK Distributor: Paramount (DreamWorks). Colour by deluxe.
148 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 15 Jun 2009