Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Those battling alien robots are back, still using Earth for their battlefield, still embroiling a nice teenage boy (Shia LaBeouf) and his luscious girlfriend (Megan Fox)—and still critic-proof and director-proof (and a good thing that, since the director is again the flailing, ham-fisted Michael Bay). Fans will love all two-and-a-half endless hours. For the rest, it’s just more of the same CGI Destruction Derby, the same sloppy script (by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) with its barely connected scenes, its disregard for physics and geography, and its incomprehensible gobbledygook back story about Autobots, Decepticons and AllSparks. The design of the robots is as impressive as before, but Bay’s control of the action is so poor that it’s often hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones.