Review: Transformers II - Revenge of the Fallen

 

 

But if it’s respect for history and the facts of our world that we’re looking for, then I guess we learned long ago not to look to Hollywood for it. Beautiful women in shiny motor-bike leathers, and lots and lots and lots (ad infinitum) of bright and fiery explosions in exotic locations are more their raison d’etre. Attention to detail and respect for historic fact – not so much.

 

And, as per our expectations, Transformers II  doesn’t exactly break the mould. State of the art CGI, witty(ish) banter, a fast-talking lead star, and the always delectable Ms Megan Fox tick all the necessary requirements for a summer Box-Office smash, but do little more.

 

Michael Bay pulls out all the stops in this big-budget adaptation of the eighties Hasbro-toys franchise, with stunning special effects and the afore-mentioned ground-breaking access to ancient world locations. Shia LeBoeuf reprises his role as Sam Witwicky from the original 2007 outing, alongside some good appearances from the likes of John Turtorro, Kevin Dunn and Julie White, but the star of the show remains the the draw of Hollywood beauty Megan Fox, and, of course, the Transformers themselves.

 

This episode sees the original line-up of Optimus Prime and the Autobots fighting against their old enemy the Decepticons, led by a recently resurrected Megatron – who now answers to a new leader; the mysteriously named ‘The Fallen’. This new character represents the ancient-world tie-in on which the plot of the film hinges – that the races of humans and transformers have been in contact (on and off) since 17,000 BC when the early transformers – the ‘Primes’ – first came to earth in search of a new power source: our sun.

 

 

Here The Fallen is a lucifer-like creature who ‘fell’ when he tried to break the Prime’s cardinal rule never to take the energy of a sun from a planet with life on it. The machine with which he planned to do this, and the key to activate it were then hidden away from him, and he – and others like him – have been scouring the earth for them ever since.

 

Which is where our ancient-world tie in comes in. The key was hidden behind a fake wall in the Temple at Petra in Jordan, and the machine is uncovered by the partial destruction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. This represents a bit of a disruption in the historic time-line, as it is generally accepted that while Khufu’s Pyramid was completed around 2560 BC, the first settlements at Petra did not occur until the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (1550-1292 BC), and certainly neither date back as far as 17,000 BC; but then again – what’s a millenia between friends?

 

Anyway, the search for the key gets to Petra via a stop off at the Dagger’s Tip – apparently the ancient Sumerian name for the Giza Complex. Here, at dawn, Shia’s character follows a clue: ‘When dawn alights the Dagger’s Tip, Three Kings will lead the way.’ This, in turn, establishes that their destination lies in the direction where Orion’s Belt touches the horizon – thus pointing them towards Jordan and Petra.

 

 

 

 

This particularly small portion of the film represents the only point at which the film engages with anything that may be construed as Egyptology – and even then, most of the information used can be found within minutes on Google or (dare I say it?) Wikipedia. The use of the Sumerian term ‘the Dagger’s Tip’, and the reference to the theory that the pyramids at Giza may have been built in honour of Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka (the three stars which make up Orion’s belt) are the only points of reference that describe the ancient civilization as particularly Egyptian. Otherwise Bay could easily have used the Mayan or Incan ruins in South America instead and the storyline would have required little re-writing.

 

It would seem then that the main reason for choosing Egypt as a setting was one of visual attraction (and filming permits?) than of its being integral to the film’s plot. And visually it does work. The baking desert offers a stunning back-drop against which to present the arduous and perhaps overly long fight sequence in which the pyramids and The Fallen are destroyed by a concerted and joint effort by the Autobots and the military. As an aside, it is perhaps interesting to note that the ‘special relationship’ is here cemented on the silver screen with both US and UK troops being involved in the anti-Decepticon fight right from the movie’s opening sequence.

 

But that is another matter. The idea of the pyramids in Egypt (and other ancient civilizations) having been built with or by alien civilization’s is hardly a new one in Hollywood. The movie/TV-series Stargate (SG-1) was probably the most well-known and watched of those that utilised the theory, but it was far from the only one to do so; the recent Alien v’s Predator also hinted at links between the two.

 

So, as far as representations of the ancient world are concerned, Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen perhaps represents the latest chapter in contemporary civilization’s obsession with finding other-worldy explanations for the wonders that the ancient world left for us, but it hardly presents us with any illumination on the subject. Go to be dazzled, not to be educated. 

 

Reviewer: Scott Hamilton