[This review may contain ever so slight spoilers]
If you took a group of teenagers or young adults, and mentioned the word Transformers, they’d probably start jumping up and down, shrieking like little Twilight fan girls. It is literally the biggest, most talked about movie this summer, in fact, this year. But really, when you take Shia LeBeouf, probably the next big Hollywood action star, Megan Fox, gigantic robots, outrageous explosions, insane special effects and just throw them all together, no matter in what form or fashion, people are bound to love it. Most people. Enough of this opening jabber. My review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Lets go!
Transformers 2 takes place a couple of years after the first one. The Autobots have joined forces with the American military to create a special team called NEST. This team travels the globe in the hunt for the remaining DecepticonsMegatron, as you' probably already know, gets brought back to life. And we’re introduced to a new Decepticon called The Fallen. He got screwed over millions of years before so now he’s back for revenge, hence the title. that are hiding out on Earth. From there stuff escalates, I don’t really know how, I wasn’t really paying attention.
It’s very simple, really. I did not like Transformers 2. It let me down. I had such high expectations for the film. So you might say, “easy, just don’t have high expectations”- like my friend Kevin. But its not that simple. The first movie was so mind-blowing because I had never seen this kind of Transformers before. But now that I have, and I watch the sequel, its like “meh, its just more of the same”. So really, its all about improving from the first one. And that just didn’t happen for me. Question is, could the sequel have been any better than the first one? I don’t think so. But enough of the comparisons, what did I think about just the sequel?
The start of the movie was cool. I wished that they had kept the robot action minimal in the beginning, then brought the thunder towards the end. But that isn’t the case. There is robot action all through the entire movie and still managed to bring the thunder in the last quarter of the movie or so. So it was enormous amounts of robot action in the first three quarters and even more than enormous amounts of robot action in the last quarter. As for how the story flows, it doesn’t really. Its stagnant and static. This is how it goes- this thing happens, which means this will happen, so then Sam and Mikaela must go to this place with the help of Autobots and find this person to help them out while being hunted by Decepticons. There was not a lot of mystery or suspense that kept me interested. In the middle of the movie I was starting to get bored and felt the movie was dragging on too long. It only picked up slightly, like any other movie, right before the climax. There are so many little things that are just redundant and added no extra comedy or purpose to the movie. Like the part where Jetfire was brought to life and was limping around with his cane. That was such an unfunny and a useless scene. Another part of the movie I thought it could have done without was the twins, Skids and Mudflap. I could tell they were part of the comic relief, but it just does not work for me.
I’m not a Transformers junkie. I don’t know much, maybe nothing at all, about the original story and historical background stuff from the cartoons. So I can’t really comment on how I think true Transformers fans would like this. But there was quite a bit of history on the origins of the Transformers and how they came to be, how their war started, stuff like that. Honestly, when those details were being explained, that was when I enjoyed the story a little bit more. After seeing this film, only did I realize that Shia LeBeouf will probably be the next Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis or even the next Matt Damon. I really liked his performance. I hated him in Indy 4, but not in this film. I’m actually excited to see more of him, possibly in Transformers 3 and Indy 5.
I have come to the conclusion that Megan Fox cannot act to save her life. If I was Sam, I’d just slap her across the face and say “stop following me, you’re only slowing me down”. Then throw her into the path of a raging Decepticon. Yes, I do not like Megan Fox. So hate me. She looks like a man some of the time, mostly off the big screen. Jon Turturo does a splendid job as former Agent Simmons and is one of the funnier characters in the movie. Ramon Rodriguez who plays Leo, is annoying as hell. For all I cared, he could have joined Mikaela under a Decepticon’s foot. The rest of the cast is just OK. Tyrese’s performance isn’t really that convincing but Josh Duhamel makes an awesome Captain.
Something brought over from the first movie is the cheesy lines. Especially from the big man Optimus Prime. He would make Japanese anime characters sweat all day long and have butterflies fly over their heads in circles. If you watch Japanese anime, you know what I’m talking about. Not only are things cheesy in the film, it felt as if there was so much effort put into the start and middle of the movie, that they ran out of time and Michael Bay didn’t really care to finish the movie properly. It felt very rushed and the bad guys got killed easily and stuff got destroyed so quickly. I’m sure Michael Bay didn’t really do that, but it just felt that way to me and a couple of other people. By the way, Michael Bay is still the man.
For me, at the end of the day, one thing saved this movie from complete disaster, apart from Shia LeBeouf. Three letters- ILM. Industrial Light & Magic. They are the company that did the special effects for the movie. They are one of the foremost special effects houses around. Owned by George Lucas’ Lucasfilm, ILM have done the effects for such epic films as all the Star Wars films, Harry Potter films, The Day After Tomorrow, Pirates of the Caribbean films, Star Trek films including this year’s, which was epic by the way, Terminator Salvation and Transformers. The CG for the film is close to flawless and close to perfect. Although I spotted a tiny, tiny flaw when Sam was touching Bee in the beginning, the rest of the movie was pure art. Not only do the robots blend in so beautifully with the live-action scenes and background, but they also interact with the actors and is integrated into all the scenes so realistically. The robots’ transformation from their vehicle form into their robot form and vice versa is still a little messy like in the first movie, but still incredible nevertheless. If I were to compare this movie to Wolverine, it would make Wolverine seem like it was done by a pre-schooler. I could go on about the CG even more but lets not.
At the end of the day, if you’re a fan of big explosions and stuff getting demolished, then you should be watching this movie. It is simply an incredibly jaw-dropping pyrotechnics spectacle. Unfortunately, where the movie lacks in a good story, it does not make up in great effects. The whole plot of the movie really let me down and nothing, not even mind-blowing CG, could make this film anything more than average for me.
The first one was a huge hit at the box office. Will the sequel be as popular commercially as the first? Yes. Actually, it will probably do much better than the first. Will it do as well critically as the first? Not a chance in Cybertron heaven or hell. Having said all that I have, go out, book your tickets and see the film. Ultimately, this is the epitome of action films. You cannot ask for anymore action to be stuffed into two and a half hours. And I guess that’s what people want and enjoy- action, action, action. I just wished there was more emphasis on the quality of the story. One thing good has come out of this for me- at least I’ll have low expectations for Transformers 3.
I give Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 5 out of 10 Popcorns.
Special mention: I give ILM 9.5 out of 10 Popcorns. =)
