Collegiate Times

The battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons rages on in the sequel to the surprise hit "Transformers" from 2007.

 In "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," a short amount of time has passed since the events of the first "Transformers."

The Autobots have joined forces with the United States government to form an elite tactical squad to search out and destroy remaining Decepticons still hiding on our planet.  

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky is preparing to go off to college and try to be a normal kid, despite having an unreasonably hot girlfriend and a car that transforms into a robot who acts like his personal body guard.

Unfortunately for Sam, the war between the two robotic races will interfere with his life once more. A small shard from the destroyed Allspark from the previous movie is left behind in Sam's possession.

It causes him to have strange visions with unknown meanings that he must figure out before it's too late.

The plot of the film is fairly standard stuff as far as movie premises go. The problem the plot faces is that it jumps around quite a bit, causing some viewers to be confused by scene changes. That said, it's very easy to ignore this because the film keeps the viewer interested.

Scene changes always lead to some plot development and new action sequences. The action grows throughout the film, but peaks early.

What seems like the closing note in the battle leads to a final confrontation that is enjoyable to watch, but not as awe-inspiring as the images before it.

That being said, the film does a great job of showing us some dramatic, special effects-driven action.

It would seem director Michael Bay takes the sentiment "actions speak louder than words" a step further with astounding computer-generated graphics and live-action explosions.

There are portions of this film that are never explained that will cause casual viewers to be dumbfounded.

The storyline behind "Transformers" is very convoluted, both in the movies and in its previous mediums such as comics and cartoons.

There are so many iterations of them that it's hard to keep them straight. Bay seems to adapt material from the entire Transformers universe in order to make his films, but doesn't do a great job explaining characterstics of the new robots.