'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'

Though Sam's trying desperately to fade into the background of the college scene, it isn't really working out. There's that new blond Alice (Isabel Lucas) who's got him in her sights, the ominous warning from Optimus Prime in that deep, really convincing synthesized voice of his, that little mess of an unexplained "toxic spill" in Saigon that opens the movie and the massive metal carcass that's been dredged up from a thousand leagues under the sea. As is his lot in life, Sam is needed, the one person on Earth who can possibly beat the Decepticons to the matrix.

"Revenge" is strictly a man's world, really, a boom, boom, bang, bang fever dream of special effects. Yet in all this macho mayhem, it is LaBeouf's young Sam, slight of frame, sensitive and smart, who makes it all work.

Although there are female Autobots and Decepticons in the Transformer universe, they are rare and none make it into the movie, which is too bad because "Revenge" could sure use a woman's touch. The only significant female presence comes from Sam's slightly crazy mom (Julie White) and Fox, who despite wearing white skinny jeans as she stumbles across the desert and jumps through any number of crumbling buildings, manages to stay remarkably clean except for that fetching smudge on her cheek.

Machines and their machinations are clearly where the director's affections lie, leaving the emotional side of "Revenge" to flatline again and again. Still, the film, written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, is filled with enough of the familiar to likely satisfy many "Transformer" fans. John Turturro as the now disgraced Sector 7 agent is passing his days working in the family deli and gathering data on the Decepticons in his survivalist-style basement, and Josh Duhamel's Capt. Lennox is still heading his Special Forces troops. We've got big, bad Megatron in cahoots with the towering fearsomeness of the 10-story Devastator. Meanwhile, try as he might, Optimus Prime just can't keep things civil. Neither can Bay.

"Revenge" is in-your-face, ear-splitting and unrelenting. It's easy to walk away feeling like you've spent 2 1/2 hours in the mad, wild hydraulic embrace of a car compactor -- exhilarating or excruciating, depending on your point of view.

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betsy.sharkey@latimes.com

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'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'

MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Playing: In general release