It’s been two years since Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf) helped Optimus Prime and the Autobots in thwarting the plan of Megatron and the Decepticons to conquer the world. The Autobots now form an organization with the US military called NEST, a secret government unit aimed to hunt down renegade Decepticons that hide on our planet. A rogue robot is then detected in Shanghai and they find out that something diabolical is headed for planet Earth called The Fallen, a very powerful transformer.

The Autobots need Sam’s help again for him to decipher some symbols that will lead to the Matrix of Leadership, an ancient source of energy that Megatron wants to possess. Sam is now a college freshman who leaves his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) at home. In school, he is seduced by an aggressive campus beauty, Alice (Isabel Lucas). He also starts having trance-inducing visions that warn him about impending evil.

The story is not really the come on here but the sight of new robots from the transformers universe.

With the state of the art CGI technology now available, Director Michael Bay does succeed in making these giant metal shape-shifters spring to life like they’re the real thing. The movie shows a lot of them. They even have their own version of “Wall-E” called Wheelie, a mischievous Decepticon. Then there are the annoying Autobotwins, Skid and Mudflap, who speak like Egoys. There are also the Insecticons, the human-shaped Pretenders, the Combiners, the wacky Jetfire, the turncoat Decepticon called Wheels, the cowardly Starscream, and the monstrous giant Devastator. The cute Bumblebee is also back as the sidekick of Sam.

Among the human members of the cast, those who catch attention providing comic relief are Kevin Dunn and Julie White as Sam’s wacko parents, John Turturro who’s back as the hilarious Simmons now working as a butcher in a deli, and Rainn Wilson as a rock-star astronomy teacher. 

Truth to tell, there’s no chemistry at all between Megan Fox and Laboeuf  who, for us, is an unlikely leading man with a head that looks quite big for his slight build.

But all of them take a backseat to the eye-popping lifelike CGI effects that make you wonder how they did it so seamlessly, including the destruction of the ancient temples in Egypt.

Really, the wonders of technology. The opening scene alone in Shanghai is already so much fun showing Optimus Prime (voice by Peter Cullen) fighting a destructive unicycle that’s running amuck. Then there’s the scene of Devastator going up a pyramid and we’re even given a shot of its balls! One giant vehicle is shown changing into a collosus by bolting into a concrete mixer and other trucks to form a super giant uber monster robot than then starts eating up everything on its path.

As a director, Bay is best known for his adrenalin-fueled action flicks like “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” and the “Bad Boys” flicks. His sequel to the first “Transformers” movie, that he himself also directed, will surely not disappoint action lovers, particularly those who have remained kids at heart. He certainly knows how to get the viewer’s attention and entertain them with ear-splitting explosions spiced up with arresting visual gags and physical comedy.

The sequel is indeed a super-sized second serving of the hit “Transformers” flick that grossed $700 million worldwide. We won’t be surprised if it becomes the biggest popcorn hit in the current US summer season. It’s more spectacular but after a while, it gets to be numbing viewing since you cannot even distinguish anymore which is which among the fighting behemoths who are punching and kicking each other. Also, the movie is needlessly long at two and a half hours. Some characters can actually be deleted as they don’t contribute much to the story, like Sam’s irritating roommate, Leo (Ramon Rodriguez.) After the fast-paced beginning, it starts to drag towards the middle and the last half hour becomes an extended pandemonium battle scene that turns it into a war flick in the desert.