Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey, Ramon Rodriguez, John Turturro
Running time: 147 mins
Rating: ★★★

THE first Transformers movie was an unexpected delight for those of us not expecting much from a film about a toy.

Especially a picture directed by Michael Bay, a man not noted for his subtlety but with a reputation for big, mindless, explosivepacked action movies like Armageddon, Bad Boys and Pearl Harbour. The same team return for a second instalment which proves bigger, noisier, louder and, perhaps inevitably, not as good. Fans of Transformers, I suspect, won’t much mind having too much of a good thing. This sequel has everything except the kitchen sink thrown in – although it does feature an army of kitchen equipment transforming into a metallic gremlin.

It’s a rare moment of humour in a film that features Autobots (good guys) and Decepticons (bad guys) knocking the living daylights out of each other like Metal Mickeys on steroids. The problem is that in the heat of battle, one Transformer tends to look like every other. The plot is anyone’s guess but seems to involve young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) heading for college a couple of years after saving the world in the war of robotic aliens that was the first Transformers movie. His parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) get tearful, while he’s reluctant to say a temporary goodbye to girlfriend Mikaela (as she’s played by the very sexy Megan Fox, you can understand his apprehension).

Soldiers Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Epps (Tyrese Gibson, from the first film) are in danger of being phased out by the government agency that mistakenly believes the robot wars are over. Former agent Simmons (John Turturro) is back working in a deli – but not for long as he soon finds himself climbing one of the Egyptian Pyramids to save the world from a fate worse than Transformers 3.

The transformations and fights take movie magic to new heights, while the director ensures more big bangs per frame than any other blockbuster you’ll see this summer.

Bay sure knows how to direct action, even if the bits in between – known, in the business, as the dialogue – rarely rises above the obvious. LaBeouf acquits himself well as the young hero, but Fox is little more than set decoration.

She’s first seen from the rear, wearing very tight shorts, astride a motorbike. Her big dramatic moment requires her to squeeze into a small white dress. Turturro’s presence lends an air of respectability to the boys-with-bigtoys atmosphere.