JASON JOHNSON:

The key to a successful sequel isn't making a film that's bigger and louder than the original, but intriguingly different from the original.

Will Bay -flush with success on the first Transformers movie - give fans what they deserve, or try to beat them into submission with a cacophonous OTT spectacle?

Duh.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is basically the same movie as Transformers, but with dials turned up from ten to eleven.

There were a lot of robots in the original? Now there are even more robots.

Megan Fox hot? Now she's hotter.

Funny parents? Now they're funnier.

Confusing plot? Now it's incomprehensible.

It might seem strange to say this, but the thing that made the original Transformers such a wonderful summer blockbuster was that it had a certain degree of restraint.

Bay, chastened by failures like The Island and burdened by fan expectations, crafted the original movie with paranoid precision.

Here, LaBeouf and Fox hardly register (except of course when the latter shows off her cleavage).

The robots, once cool and dignified, now range from weird to goofy, and speak in a dizzying variety of corny accents.

The action, once kick-ass but not excessive, is now frenetic and non-stop.

The comedy, once genuinely cute, is now ham-fisted.

It's as if Michael Bay gave himself permission to be Michael Bay again.

None of this is to say that Revenge Of The Fallen isn't entertaining. It is.

It's just not very good. And it's 21/2 hours of not very good.

RATING: 3/5

JEANMARIE TAN:

For me, the first Transformers movie was a near-perfect, lean mean cinematic machine.

But this overstuffed, rusty follow-up is a classic case of too much of a good thing.

Will someone please stop throwing money at Bay? Because if this keeps up, goodness knows how he'll tarnish No 3.

There are so many new same-looking Autobots and Decepticons that after a while you'll be hard-pressed to tell who's who.

The unimaginative frat boy humour grates after a while, and at times you just want to tell the incessantly yakky characters to shut up and sit down.

There are also so many things wrong with how Isabel Lucas' character fits into the Transformers universe that all I can say is there's more than meets the eye, and I don't like what I see.

But Revenge Of The Fallen doesn't deserve to be sent to the junkyard completely.

The Shanghai-set opening really gets the blood pumping, Optimus Prime and Megatron duking it out in a forest is unbelievably cool, and the penultimate battle royale lasts a meaty 30 minutes.

My favourite parts - the transformation scenes - are also far more eye-popping, to the point I can't even bring myself to blink.

Oh, and John Turturro saves the whole thing - in a thong no less.

RATING: 3.5/5

THE CONSENSUS: Even though it's lost some magic along the way, fans will still roll out for their beloved bots and some serious robo-carnage. But when will Bay ever learn that bigger isn't always better?

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

STARRING: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Ramon Rodriguez, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson

DIRECTOR: Michael Bay

THE SKINNY: The Decepticons return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) prisoner, after the college-bound hero accidentally learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers.

This article was first published in The New Paper.