Megan Fox's dry humour is a better reason to watch her than the action roles that made her famous. We rate her most when a part lets her be funny about the sort of woman she is usually asked to play.
Fi1m perspective
In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), the camera looks Megan Fox over while the screenplay struggles to give Mikaela Banes anything worth saying. We found that wearying: the attention paid to her appearance made the lack of interest in her character harder to overlook. Michael Bay's sequel is a poor film, and Fox does not make its pauses between battles more engaging. It is also a poor place to look for evidence of what she can do.
Her breakthrough had come with Transformers (2007), also as Mikaela, and the sequel makes the limitations of that casting plain. Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger and Roberto Orci give Fox and Shia LaBeouf too little that feels particular to either character. The script has complications to spare, but few reasons to enjoy their company. There is plenty to keep track of, but little in their conversations to make the effort worthwhile. We would not claim a neglected comic performance is hiding in there; the film gives us too little to support that.
The more promising direction was already there in Jennifer's Body (2009), with Fox leading a horror-comedy. Her self-aware humour gives her something to do with the sex-symbol image that the action films are content to repeat. The attraction is the dry wit, and the sense that she can recognise the absurdity of the woman she is being asked to play. We rate that more highly than another appearance as the attractive, capable girl in an action film.
The move was not permanent. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) put her back in a major action franchise as April O'Neil; New Girl (2016–2017), in which she played Reagan Lucas, made room for dry humour and sharp timing. That is firmer evidence of her comic ability than anything we could rescue from Mikaela's dialogue. Start with New Girl if the robots have put you off.
Biography
Megan Fox is an American actress. She made her screen debut in the direct-to-video film Holiday in the Sun (2001) and appeared in supporting roles in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) and the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2004–2006).
Her breakthrough role was as Mikaela Banes in Transformers (2007), which she reprised in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). She starred as the title character in the horror comedy Jennifer's Body (2009) and as April O'Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016). Fox has received two Scream Awards and four Teen Choice Awards.
