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If I followed my own rules, I'd be railing against Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Michael Bay took a big eraser to established Transformers canon and several character bios as well.

Having said that...I thoroughly enjoyed it and will see it again on an IMAX screen. Then I'll buy it when comes out on Blu-Ray.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW - STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING***

I'll start with the things that I could have done without...

1. Skids and Mudflap. There's already an article about these two and how they can be perceived as racial stereotypes. That is a bunch of crap. I found them to be funny sometimes and annoying more times than not. It had nothing to do with their slang.

2. The Fallen. It seems that Bay just made this guy up to fit the plot. But having Megatron be subserviant to someone within the Decepticon ranks would almost be as wrong as having Optimus be the number two guy within the Autobots. It just felt wrong. Megatron could have filled that role nicely.

3. The female Decepticon/Terminator. I have no idea what the heck she was doing in the movie. She would have been better served to star alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Terminator flick...not a Transformers one.

The things I liked...

1. Optimus Prime. He could be the greatest fictional hero of all time. If not...he'd better be in the top three. Peter Cullen's voice may be the most perfect pairing of voice and character ever. James Earl Jones as Darth Vader would be the only duo that could eclipse it.

2. Bumblebee. If he were as cool and as awesome in the cartoon as he is in this movie, he'd easily be second in command of the Autobots. He's a beast. A hawse.

3. The U.S. Military. These guys also stood out in the first movie. I loved the fact that the humans charged to protect the rest of us weren't treated as cannonfodder for the Decepticon assault. Sure, they were hard pressed to contain the threat and survive, but by God, when the time came to "bring the rain"...the rain was broughten. As the movie came to a conclusion and the battle was raging hard, our Special Forces team was right there kickin' ass and takin' names.

4. Starscream and Megatron. Their true characters were highlighted more in this movie than the last. Megatron has a lot more lines and you finally get to see the cowardly conniving Starscream in rare form. His last line in the flick is perfect.

5. Earth's past. In the original cartoon, the Autobots and Decepticons crash landed on Earth millions of years ago. They lay dormant until the ship computer repaired itself enough to reactivate them. Bay's tie-in to Transformers being on Earth thousands of years ago, while not perfect, was a good tie-in.

5. The Obama gut-shot. What can I say? I didn't know that Bay had it in him...or if he even planned it this way. But regardless of his intentions, the result was perfect. Through the film you get the sense that the American President is going to do any and everything to try and get the Autobots off Earth and when the Decepticons make their move, he's going to try and "diplomatically" solve the issue. When Obama is actually named as the President, I howled with laughter. The President is made to look like a weak idiot.

6. Megan Fox. She's rapidly approaching Eliza Dushku on my list. That's saying a lot. There's rumors abound that she's going to be the next (younger) Laura Croft. Cheers to that!

So there you have it. My two cents. This was a great flick. I think as long as Bay translates the heroism of Optimus Prime to the Big Screen this well, the Transformers movie line will continue to prosper. It amazes me that the awesomeness of Optimus seems to alleviate the rewriting of canon. Go figure.