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'Transformers' is a smash hit

'Transformers' sequel: no plot, but a lot of wreckage and Megan Fox

By Rob Lowman Los Angeles Daily News

Young children — boys especially — like to smash things up. Give them a pile of blocks and they'll send a toy, or a fist, crashing into them. Some of these kids grow up to make movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

At times, the action sequences from director Michael Bay remind you of kids jumping around in those colored-ball pools at Chuck E. Cheese. And it's almost as loud.

Give Bay credit, though. Many people look down on his work, but he does dumbness with panache and a certain sense of fun. And there is something to be said for that, considering how many soulless vehicles Hollywood produces.

Revenge of the Fallen brings back Shia LeBeouf as the awkward Sam, who has gone off to college, but before he can even get to his first kegger, he and his improbably hot girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox), are off to save the world, aided by the Autobots (those cool-looking robots that turn into cool-looking trucks, autos and planes). Considering the product placement, we wonder how much General Motors invested in this movie while they were going bankrupt.

Their foes are the Decepticons, which are similar except with some kind of grudge. (I'm sure the filmmakers understand this silly mythology.)

But nobody is watching this box-office smash for the plot. Fans like watching either things get smashed up or Fox run around — acting doesn't come into it — or both.

For those who care about the Transformers and Bay worlds, the two-disc set and Blu-ray edition supplies added features, which I haven't seen, including a featurette called "Deconstructing Visual Bayhem," which sounds pretty self-explanatory.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen retails for $29.98, $34.98 for the two-disc special edition and $39.99 on Blu-ray.