You know, the first time I heard about a live action Transformers movie, I had some relatively low standards going into it. I knew it was going to be an over glorified toy ad, but surprisingly I thought given the material they had to work with, they did a good job with the first movie. Two years later, we get this sequel, Revenge of the Fallen. Michael Bay made a lot of promises with this movie that I feel he did not live up to, but at the same time surpassed my low expectations. The end result is a bit of a mess of a movie doing things right, but at the same time doing things wrong. Yes, it's a two and a half hour toy ad, but if you're expecting something more like an Oscar worthy movie, then you are sadly looking at the wrong movie!
The movie picks up two years after the events of the first film. Decepticons are everywhere on earth, and the Autobots have learned to co-exist with the military, creating a special ops team called NEST. NEST's job is to investigate and stop any and all Decepticon activity on our Earth. Sam is on his way to college, trying to get away from his past with the Autobots because he just wants to be normal. If you thought this was an excuse to write Sam off the movie, you clearly have no idea how the mind works. In fact, Sam seems to do a decent job getting away from the Autobots for a few minutes, but is unfortunately unable to avoid what I like to refer to as stupid humor. If you thought the first movie's humor was unbearable, it's actually worse than before. I know some of you will probably call me heartless for saying this, but I couldn't even force myself to laugh or crack a smile. Terminator 3's humor was better than this, and that my friends, is saying a lot.
Moving on from there, the movie turns into a journey to discover what the Decepticons are after and why The Fallen has returned to our Earth. I could give the big reveal, but all I will say is the Decepticons want to, in a nutshell, take over the world. Of course! From there on, it's mostly Sam running from Decepticons as he tries to find out how he can stop the Decepticons from accomplishing their goals. Michael Bay had said a while back that there would be more involvement from the Transformers, but all I see in this movie is only a little more involvement from the robots. Sure, they are there, but a good majority of them are just shoved in the background because they're of no use to the story, but are simply there to sell their toys. Sure there's more action scenes with the Transformers, and they're beautifully animated, but Optimus is out of action for a good half of the movie. After Prime's absence, the movie is suddenly all about Sam and how he is somehow reciting symbols after coming in contact with a shard of All Spark, which leads to a bit of a gaping plot hole. If Sam touches a piece of All Spark causing him to recite a bunch of symbols, then how come when he touched the giant cube he wasn't projecting the symbols?
Plot issues aside and too much human storyline, the new Transformers in this movie were one of my problems going into it. I didn't know how I would feel going into this movie, but my expectations for these characters was low, especially a certain someone named Wheelie. Surprisingly after the movie, he wasn't annoying in the slightest because he didn't talk in rhyme and had a Brooklyn accent. The twins, Skids and Mudflap were also done rather well, being legitimately funny! However, my favorite of all the new characters was Jetfire. He was a typical old guy, being a Smithsonian Museum relic, but he got to kick ass for a while and played a major role, but it makes me wish he was there longer. Also, Sideswipe makes his debut as well as the new Corvette Stingray concept, but he barely has any dialogue and is like many of the new characters, shoved into the background just to sell a toy. Even Ratchet was shoved into the background, AGAIN. However in this movie, you barely notice him there, because when the Autobots roll out, HE'S NEVER THERE. I will say, the effects are severely upgraded from the last movie, because the Transformers look so good, I could swear they were using real robots, and human interaction with said visuals was spot on. TAKE THAT GEORGE LUCAS!!
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is an enjoyable movie if you enjoy it for what it is; a two and a half hour toy advertisement. The action is much better compared to the first movie, but the stupid humor strikes back and is worse than the last movie. Plus a good chunk of the movie is devoted to human plot, which was a complaint in the last movie that should have been adressed, but thankfully there's no stupid hacker subplot. I wouldn't say go see it right away, but if you liked the first movie any bit, you'll like the second movie. If you didn't like the first, but had high hopes for the second, go see it. If you're looking for a real movie of an Oscar worthy caliber though, you're not going to find that here.
The movie picks up two years after the events of the first film. Decepticons are everywhere on earth, and the Autobots have learned to co-exist with the military, creating a special ops team called NEST. NEST's job is to investigate and stop any and all Decepticon activity on our Earth. Sam is on his way to college, trying to get away from his past with the Autobots because he just wants to be normal. If you thought this was an excuse to write Sam off the movie, you clearly have no idea how the mind works. In fact, Sam seems to do a decent job getting away from the Autobots for a few minutes, but is unfortunately unable to avoid what I like to refer to as stupid humor. If you thought the first movie's humor was unbearable, it's actually worse than before. I know some of you will probably call me heartless for saying this, but I couldn't even force myself to laugh or crack a smile. Terminator 3's humor was better than this, and that my friends, is saying a lot.
Moving on from there, the movie turns into a journey to discover what the Decepticons are after and why The Fallen has returned to our Earth. I could give the big reveal, but all I will say is the Decepticons want to, in a nutshell, take over the world. Of course! From there on, it's mostly Sam running from Decepticons as he tries to find out how he can stop the Decepticons from accomplishing their goals. Michael Bay had said a while back that there would be more involvement from the Transformers, but all I see in this movie is only a little more involvement from the robots. Sure, they are there, but a good majority of them are just shoved in the background because they're of no use to the story, but are simply there to sell their toys. Sure there's more action scenes with the Transformers, and they're beautifully animated, but Optimus is out of action for a good half of the movie. After Prime's absence, the movie is suddenly all about Sam and how he is somehow reciting symbols after coming in contact with a shard of All Spark, which leads to a bit of a gaping plot hole. If Sam touches a piece of All Spark causing him to recite a bunch of symbols, then how come when he touched the giant cube he wasn't projecting the symbols?
Plot issues aside and too much human storyline, the new Transformers in this movie were one of my problems going into it. I didn't know how I would feel going into this movie, but my expectations for these characters was low, especially a certain someone named Wheelie. Surprisingly after the movie, he wasn't annoying in the slightest because he didn't talk in rhyme and had a Brooklyn accent. The twins, Skids and Mudflap were also done rather well, being legitimately funny! However, my favorite of all the new characters was Jetfire. He was a typical old guy, being a Smithsonian Museum relic, but he got to kick ass for a while and played a major role, but it makes me wish he was there longer. Also, Sideswipe makes his debut as well as the new Corvette Stingray concept, but he barely has any dialogue and is like many of the new characters, shoved into the background just to sell a toy. Even Ratchet was shoved into the background, AGAIN. However in this movie, you barely notice him there, because when the Autobots roll out, HE'S NEVER THERE. I will say, the effects are severely upgraded from the last movie, because the Transformers look so good, I could swear they were using real robots, and human interaction with said visuals was spot on. TAKE THAT GEORGE LUCAS!!
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is an enjoyable movie if you enjoy it for what it is; a two and a half hour toy advertisement. The action is much better compared to the first movie, but the stupid humor strikes back and is worse than the last movie. Plus a good chunk of the movie is devoted to human plot, which was a complaint in the last movie that should have been adressed, but thankfully there's no stupid hacker subplot. I wouldn't say go see it right away, but if you liked the first movie any bit, you'll like the second movie. If you didn't like the first, but had high hopes for the second, go see it. If you're looking for a real movie of an Oscar worthy caliber though, you're not going to find that here.
It was a good summer movie. The effects were sweet. I don't know about about the plot though. It seems a bit lacking when it comes building up the characters throughout the story line. What I love about it though, are the cars. Bumblebee and Sideswipe's alt mode are by far excellent side by side. You gotta love the sleekness of that new Stingray, whether you're a Chevy fan, or not.
Posted by: Nicole Vickers | April 07, 2011 at 07:13 PM