Revenge of the Fallen picks up two years after the first film, pretty much in real time. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is out of high school and heading off to college. Bumblebee is still serving as his protector, but since the battle for the Cube, the war has been pretty quiet in terms of the big picture. While Sam and Mikaela (Megan Fox) have become a genuine couple, Optimus Prime and his newly expanded team of Autobots have formed a special forces team with the US military, where they hunt down Decepticon signals and proceed to terminate the intruder.
In order to have a movie, this status quo needs to be shaken up a bit. Things get underway when a shard of the Cube, or All Spark if you prefer, falls out of one of Sam's old sweaters, he touches it, gets zapped, and it starts turning the household appliances into killer robots. This brings him back into contact with Optimus, who was warned that "the Fallen will rise again." These two happenings are a precursor to increased Decepticon activity, the resurrection of Megatron, and the introduction of The Fallen, who is something of the Emperor to Megatron's Darth Vader. Together, the newly expanded team of bad-bots set out to find a new source of Energon... I think.
Anyway, the movie tells that Transformers have visited us a lot earlier than two years ago. Our shared history dates back to ancient Egypt where the Decepticons, led by The Fallen, tried to farm Energon, but were defeated. In the present The Fallen is attempting a comeback and it is up to Optimus, Sam, and the whole team to beat them back and save the day. At least, that's what I am pretty sure the story is. There is not a whole lot of that story stuff here. Michael Bay is much more concerned with getting to the next explosion.
There is a lot of running and clanging in this movie, plenty of yelling, and not a lot of anything else. The story can be followed, but after a few minutes you really won't care because there is no reason to. Yes, there are characters getting beat up, bloodied, and threatened, but none of it feels real. I never felt anyone was truly in any danger. I guess when it comes right down to it, the story doesn't matter much, evidenced by the lack of one being told here.
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