Transformers II • Revenge Of The Fallen • Reviews 2009

[SI]

• Revenge Of The Fallen • Spoilers Thread
• Revenge Of The Fallen • Collecting Thread

yo gents I'm off to the IMAX screening of ROTF in about an hour. It screens at midnight at Darling Harbour in a little over 3 hours. I haven't been keeping up with the spoilers but from the trailers I've seen it looks like there's gonna be plenty of shit being blown up and lots of noise. I'm keen to see the scenes shot in IMAX footage.

[SI]

I'm way too tired and overwhelmed to get into anything detailed suffice to sat T2:AVBE was the goods. Obviously T3 is on the horizon but I dunno where this will be set can't see the Autobots chasing Megatron around Earth again.

Need another viewing that is for certain it's information overload and my eyes are hanging out goodnight zzz zzz.

[Benovite]

Roger Ebert has chimed in and he says it's fun, smart and probably the most important American film in 30 years.

Ok not really.

[darthpsychotic]

The first hour is not very good thanks to the actors. The second hour begins with the forest battle and it's a great ride from there. The end Eygptian Battle may have had one too many sand-filled air explosions but exhilarating nonetheless.

While "The Twins" are not that bad thanks to knowing how they were going in, Ramon Rodriguez's Leo was horrible and was given way too much screen time. The parents were as bad as some of you may read (In the first movie I found the parents quite amusing). The lowlevel "humor" is very forced with way too much doggystyle. There were Star War-esque lines throughout (How is that possible?). Jetfire was fuckin

Following this thread and keeping up with the spoilers, I was worried that I would be over-spoiled for the movie. This was not the case. Seeing how all the trailers, videos, and commericals tied together was part of the experience. One thing to keep in mind while going in is that this is a live-action movie of 1980's Hasbro cartoon informercial. And not unlike Transformers Generation One, Megatron and Starscream get away.

[Obi-Wan Starkiller]

Haha, nice Benovite.

Really from what I've read so far this movie is the same as the first one only bigger and louder. Almost all reviews I've seen have said that it is a bit too long. I'm up for it.

[CoGro]

That Massawyrm absolutely hated it has me pretty concerned. ROTF was never going to be a world beater with reviewers, but 30% on RT? Even critics know good escapism and mega action when they see it but this flick appears to be failing at every turn.

I'm catching the midnight show tonight, so I'll update my thoughts then. I seriously hope they didn't shit the bed with the tremendous opportunity they had with this franchise - especially because of how good some of the stuff has looked in trailers, etc.

If it does suck, I think this might be the worst summer for movies I can remember...maybe ever.

[darthpsychotic]

The weak aspects (for me) of the film was frontloaded: The Parents with Sam and Mikaela. One turn-off for some (obviously not for some of us) during the first hour and particularly during the college sequences, were the numerous and gratuitous background actresses. Alice has a face down-ass up scene with Sam before she reveals herself. During Sam's astronomy lecture there was a Indiana Jones-type scene with girls fawning over the professor who was not as attractive.

Going in, I wasn't expecting much from Kriss Kross (The Twins), Wheelie, or even Jetfire. In fact I was sorta irate that yet another original Transformer was re-imagined by Bay. Jetfire has a awesome face and The Twins were barely in it (at least it seems to me) to get on my nerves. Wheelie came off as Joe Pesci. In fact, instead of a $100 Devastator Supreme vehicle, Hasbro should have made a scale Radio Controlled Wheelie.

I need another viewing (or two) to judge it more. There was so much.

[Benovite]

I couldn't believe some of the clips and trailers I was seeing from this movie. It seemed like a step back not a step forward in terms of where they are taking this cinematic leap into the world of Giant Fucking Robots. Some of the stuff like Devastator seemed interesting...and then I saw the Wheelie clip. And then read about and saw some of the shit with the twins. And then another clip such as the old man robot with the beard and cane, and another and another.. Nothing I saw gave me that 'cool' feeling of wanting to see it, more like 'oh shit this looks really bad' so I'm not surprised that most of the reviews are bad.

But with that said, I'm often a champion of films that are dissed and despised. Spiderman 3? Loved it. X-Men 3? Loved it. First Transformers? Loved it. So when I get around to seeing TROF, I might like it.

I wish as someone said out there(can't remember who) that Bay would have directed or will direct a GI Joe movie. Seems like his style and fondness for everything military would be even better suited to that property rather than Transformers, but whatever.

[Thundercracker]

I'm going at midnight. I'm looking forward to it and not at the same time. I already have a laundry list of things I'm not cool with but I still think (and hope) that it be entertaining enough like the first one to make me overlook most of my sheep criticisms.

[SI]

Even critics know good escapism and mega action when they see it but this flick appears to be failing at every turn.

I don't see why unless people really want it to fail. It's escapism at it's best with shit being blown up at a rapid rate and some fairly hot women littered throughout - there's even time for huge fucking robots.

I'm just glad I wasn't spoiled I probably would have expected too much.

[CoGro]

I don't see why unless people really want it to fail. It's escapism at it's best with shit being blown up at a rapid rate and some fairly hot women littered throughout - there's even time for huge fucking robots.

I'm just glad I wasn't spoiled I probably would have expected too much.

This comment from the very negative CNN review eased my concerns.

Memo to Michael: It's a toy movie. Your audience is predominantly teen and pre-teen. My kids don't need to see your salivating soft-porn fantasies or your reactionary militaristic politics.

Wrong dork. As a late 20s alpha male that doesn't sip tea and use words like Sartre in ordinary conversation, seeing half naked hot bitches and things explode at an uncanny pace is EXACTLY what I want to see from this film; especially when said movie is based on a line of toys and a cartoon show I watched WHEN I WAS 5 FUCKING YEARS OLD.

I'm expecting the plot to be thin like the first and the story silly (like the first), but as long as the ass kicking moments fill my corneas faster than a slut can munch a hot dog, then I'll be chomping my popcorn with a grin on my face as giant as the fucking robots smashing each other on screen before me.

[Joe1138]

If it does suck, I think this might be the worst summer for movies I can remember...maybe ever.

I think this has been a great summer (and year) for movies. It's just that the tent pole flicks (which we nerds heap loads of hype and expectations upon) have turned out to be duds. But for every mega-picture that fizzled under the geek microscope there have been a lot of great smaller films that picked up the slack. Either way, I won't be shedding any tears if "Transformers 2" fails to move me.

[Cryostar]

Wrong dork. As a late 20s alpha male that doesn't sip tea and use words like Sartre in ordinary conversation, seeing half naked hot bitches and things explode at an uncanny pace is EXACTLY what I want to see from this film; especially when said movie is based on a line of toys and a cartoon show I watched WHEN I WAS 5 FUCKING YEARS OLD.

I'm expecting the plot to be thin like the first and the story silly (like the first), but as long as the ass kicking moments fill my corneas faster than a slut can munch a hot dog, then I'll be chomping my popcorn with a grin on my face as giant as the fucking robots smashing each other on screen before me.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

[darthpsychotic]

For those who can see the Film Forum, I have brought the rain

It's a strange that some Internet reviewers are using the movie to take a swipe at the military or project a pseudo-psychological profile of someone who might be interested in the film. For me I view pre-release reviews as reports and read them only to get a feel for what a film is about and what to expect. Internet reviewers that use reviews to try out their writing chops or use it disect the studio, producer, directors, writers, actors, etc - I don't bother with.

As for Revenge Of The Fallen upon second viewing and yes I'm watching the telesync as I type this, the comedy and characterizations were not up to the first. However both aren't the real attraction of this series. It would have been preferable to see some of the cooler Transformers such as the corvette or the original cast in lieu of the actors or the new comedic Transformers. Instead we got intricately detailed extended fights and cool Constructicons.

Red Rampage was

[Joe1138]

Damn that was quick, I'm still holding out for IMAX though. Got my tickets for tomorrow night.

[CoGro]

Just got back from the flick, but it 3:30 a.m. so I'm too tired to type an extended review. I'll do that tomorrow.

First impression was that this movie is enormous and too much to take in on one viewing. I don't think it's a better movie than the first, but there's plenty to enjoy. The best way I can sum up my thoughts at the moment is like this - TF1 had the makings of something special in a Spielbergian sort of way; TF2 is purely and simply a Michael Bay film. I like Michael Bay a lot, but I think the TF series loses a lot of its charm with this installment.

I'll check back in tomorrow.

[501ST]

Some of the "comedic' dialogue with the twins was a waste of time but still I guess keeps the younger minded viewers interested.

All in all the action,CGI,character and plot development and general tones of the movie were good in my view.

Enjoyed it and will be back for 2nd viewing on big screen to take it all in

[SI]

Damn that was quick, I'm still holding out for IMAX though. Got my tickets for tomorrow night.

yes yes yes I cannot stress enough if anyone has the opportunity to see this in IMAX I strongly urge you to do so.

Just got back from the flick, but it 3:30 a.m. so I'm too tired to type an extended review. I'll do that tomorrow.

First impression was that this movie is enormous and too much to take in on one viewing. I don't think it's a better movie than the first, but there's plenty to enjoy. The best way I can sum up my thoughts at the moment is like this - TF1 had the makings of something special in a Spielbergian sort of way; TF2 is purely and simply a Michael Bay film. I like Michael Bay a lot, but I think the TF series loses a lot of its charm with this installment.

I'll check back in tomorrow.

I was the same way last night at 3.30am in no fit state of mind to write anything coherent about the movie I just witnessed, suffice to say it felt "immense" like there was waaay too much to digest in a single sitting. I personally think I'll need another couple of viewings to take it all in and process it properly.

I don't believe it was "better" than TF1 either but I get the feeling it was on par.

The twins didn't concern me too much because I reckon younger kids would have got a kick out of them. I found a couple of lines actually got a decent chuckle out of me.

Without doubt this is a BD purchase the moment it hits the shelves. cha-ching!

[CoGro]

I've gathered my thoughts a little but I'm going to see it again at some point so consider this a first draft.

In my book there are three kinds of summer movies:

1. the 'good film' summer movie, which transcends its target demographic because of the quality of the story telling and/or the weight of the experience. Star Wars is obviously the first thing that comes to mind, but even this summer's Star Trek can be put in this class. Jurassic Park too, obviously. The film is reviewed well even by people who don't care for the source material. People who don't like the movie can still appreciate the craftsmanship of the narrative (or they just probably have terrible taste - this is that stubborn friend you have that you think doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and you're right to think that). Though we're dealing with an art form here, there's still objectivity about what is good and what is bad.

2. the 'good summer movie', which shares elements from both the other classifications. Essentially, it's the type of movie that scores 60% percent on RT. There are moments of 'wow, this is actually a pretty good movie; what were the critics thinking?' but also the moments where you're rolling your eyes or watching gags on screen that simply hurt the tightness and quality of the film. Most people forgive this kind of stuff in summer movies and the good usually outweighs the bad. Transformers is a film firmly placed in this category of summer movie. The first film surprised a lot of people because amidst the explosions and promises of robot Bayhem there was innocent fun, good character and a clean, easy narrative.

3. the 'mindless summer movie'. This is the one that's either beloved as a guilty pleasure or completely hated by everyone else. You usually don't go into this movie with any expectations and you're checking it out because you have nothing to do and it's the last summer action flick you haven't seen. Fast and the Furious, Fantastic 4, xXx, and this summer's upcoming token shit summer movie G.I. Joe are all these types. At an artistic level, they're horrible if not laughable attempts by hack directors. However, there is probably some fun to be had here even though it's forgotten the moment you leave the theater.

What bothers me about Transformers: ROTF is that Michael Bay reduced the film to the kind of schlock we expect from category c).

Special FX:

This is a guy who professed during the filming of the first movie how much he hates CGI how fake it looks. ..how it ruins movies. Including the Star Wars prequels (and I'm absolutely dead serious when I say this), I have never seen so much gratuitous use of CGI in a movie ever. I felt like I should have paid twice as much for my movie ticket based on how expensive this movie looked. But you know what? It hurts the film. A lot.

The charm of the first Transformers was that there's so much build up to seeing the robots transform that when it happens it feels magical. There's a sense of wonder and discovery and all sorts of awesome when we watch Blackout transform or Bumblebee emerge the first time or Optimus and the autobots reveal themselves.

While I understand that first film was an 'origin' story of sorts and a set up to introduce us to these alien robots, ROTF still does everything it does to kill the magic of watching a plane or car turn into a giant robot. No transformation feels special and rarely did I say to myself "wow, that is fucking awesome" like I did in the first movie.

The artistry is great and some of the shots are cutting edge, but it all just seemed like a giant waste of money from a story standpoint. Overall, I was more impressed with the effects work in the first film - it felt more seamless and more revolutionary. ROTF feels cartoony.

Characters:

There are moments in ROTF where I'm reminded of the charm of the Witwicky family and Sam in particular. For the most part though, Sam's character is completely boring and I found myself pissed off that they reduced him to a paper stand in. The only human character that feels alive is Simmons and he's the one regarded as one of the weaker elements of the first film. That says something. There's absolutely zero character development in this movie. None.

Optimus is heroic and cool when he's on screen but Bumblebee is completely forgettable and the Twins are, well, I don't know; but I sure as hell know that people aren't exactly clamoring over their role in the movie. I'm not offended by their characters and I even laughed at a couple of their blasts, but Michael Bay couldn't have made a worse decision by including them in the story. They're not charming or funny or interesting enough to even be the Anthony Anderson of this movie.

If there's one character I was happy with, it was Starscream. Going in I knew that Soundwave's role wouldn't be huge, but I was actually surprised by how much screen time he has and his involvement in the story. I love the Frank Welker voice too even though it's less Soundwave than it is Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget (who Welker also voiced). Lennox and Tyrese don't even have characters so they aren't worth mentioning. They hardly earn the 300 bucks they should have been paid for being in this movie.

Story/plot:

It says a lot when even I'm bored of writing this review. I hate to have to agree with those that felt that the plot and story is TOO mindless, even for this type of movie. I just think the screenwriters and Michael Bay got too carried away with the budget. There's nothing that interesting about this story (even in the same way that TF1 was interesting).

The plot moves ahead at a slow crawl and nothing really happens or gets done despite the running time. For a movie with so much, it's like there's nothing in it at all. Sure, I didn't go for the story in TF1 (or TF2) but I was at least pleasantly surprised by TF1 - it's fun, it's a tight narrative and it's engaging. This is just...I don't even know. It's like I've never seen anything like it on this big a scale before. It's the ultimate retarded summer movie.


I can't believe I'm writing this negative a review of ROTF when I walked out of the film rather amused. I just hate when people lie to themselves about how they feel about a movie, or anything in general. I wish I could say how the second improved on everything bad about the first but it's actually the reverse. It's a less charming installment, a much weaker film, and while there's a lot of cool shit to be seen and hot asses to be awed at, the movie couldn't be more hollow.

I wish Spielberg wasn't that much of a prophet when he said regarding the series "the first one will be the best...(and basically the rest will be mediocre to bad)." I think it's a missed opportunity for the franchise and while it will make a lot of money and a lot of people will enjoy it, anybody with a brain won't be as excited for Transformers 3.

[Hokusai]

ouch... wasnt there an idea somewhere that had this movie real dark... a script or something? I remember reading it somewhere.

[CoGro]

I think IGN's Review sums up my feelings best. It's a 3/5 star movie (for what it is) but just isn't as good as the first. This movie makes me think that Bay overstayed his welcome with the series when a week ago I was saying how the franchise would be doomed without him. It's clearly a series than needs more of Spielberg's influence.

[Benovite]

As much as people are ragging on GI Joe without having seen it, I hope it turns out to be the best movie of the Summer(because it's actually good! If it sucks it sucks).

[darthpsychotic]

Saving my second theater viewing for the IMAX theater at the nearby World Golf Village in St. Augustine, FL. While looking up how long the theater run for Fallen was (a month!) I was reminded of the smaller IMAX Digital theaters popping up at the multiplexs. According to the IMAX wikipedia, the largest IMAX in the world is in Sydney @ 1,051 m² (11,315 sq ft). SI - I take it that you must have seen it there?


During the run-up to Fallen, the people involved in the film mentioned how there were that many more Transformers in the film. There was also mentions of how world records were broken in terms of special effect renders and data-storage. On the other side, there was one of the initial viewing reports indicating that footage was re-used from from the first movie. Then came the fan reviews that said there was still not enough Transformer presence.


Then there is this: How the giant-robot F/X in Transformers 2 nearly broke ILM @ scifiwire.com.

---

How the giant-robot F/X in Transformers 2 nearly broke ILM


Visual-effects supervisor Scott Farrar was in charge of turning Industrial Light & Magic's computers up to 11 to create the new characters and told reporters that the sequel features 40 new characters. That and the increased resolution of the characters for new IMAX footage nearly exhausted ILM's render farms: After one hard night of rendering computer-generated footage, some of the hardware actually exploded.

"We did, we lost some machinery that night," Farrar said in a press conference on last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Little puffs of smoke, just like in the movie."

The largest sequence in Revenge of the Fallen was also the biggest in ILM history: the climax in which Devastator tears apart one of the great pyramids in Egypt. "We're trying to hit new levels of realism in every single thing we do, whether it's the render of the robot or the physical environment that they're reacting with," Farrar said. "It's just like upping the game on every level, so it was a pretty complicated show."

To give you some sense of just how big Devastator is, Farrar said that Optimus Prime has 10,000 moving parts. The computer algorithms actually manipulate each part to go from truck to standing robot. Well, Devastator is made up of upwards of 80,000 parts. The only thing that saves time is the camera position. The animators only have to transform the parts that are visible on screen.

"Every shot is dressed to camera," Farrar said. "We have a lot of moving parts and a lot of pieces that are all finished up, but every single time that we set up a new camera position, the cameras swirls around to the back, and doggone it, there are some pieces that are unfinished. We have to repaint them and get them so they can be animated. They only move if we need them to move, so it's a logarithmic jump to try and get all those pieces to move, and it's all up to the animators, frankly, to lay down the movement first. We tried to free it up to be creative."

Revenge of the Fallen also required the visual effects artists to figure out how to put big metal robots underwater. You've seen snippets in the trailer of Decepticons diving to bring up Megatron's carcass. ILM developed a plug-in to their software that adjusted the animation to look like it's underwater.

---

From above (click the link for the full article), one can extrapolate why there were only what seemed as brief cameos of many Transformers - is perhaps due to ILM not having enough firepower. The article also indicates the film's load was blown on the breathtaking Devastator Pyramid scene.

[Thundercracker]

Saw it last night. Bay's action can be tough to follow on its own but try it with crappy seats like I had. It was entertaining but ultimately I walked out of the theater feeling very empty. Once again CoGro sums up the film's issues perfectly. I feel TF1 is the stronger film.

Rants forthcoming:

The biggest thing I was disappointed with going in and now having seen it is the complete lack of characterization or development. New characters get no introductions, little screen time and next to no lines. Pretty much defeats the purpose of new characters. This was really Optimus' movie but even he didn't evolve much at all other than becoming more of an ass kicker compared to TF1. Ironhide and Ratchet who had a lot of potential to be great characters from TF1 are reduced to the background. The Decepticons are still are treated as monstrous cannon fodder rather than attempting to give any of them other than Megs & Screamer any personality.

The Fallen, for being the title character turned out to be a pointless and unnecessary new villain. He really didn't get much revenge did he? Tony Todd was excellent as the voice though.

I didn't care for Megatron being reduced to a lackey. That's just not his character. I would have preferred that he was only following the Fallen to further his own agenda and was maybe plotting to overthrow him at some point. Didn't like all the "Master/Apprentice" jargon either, save that shit for Star Wars.

The Megatron/Starscream relationship was great but still felt Starscream was lacking some of his other traditional character traits. We saw the suck up, lackey side of him but not his treacherous backstabbing conniving side. At least he survived like the coward he is though. I love the part where Megatron slaps him with his own arm.

I liked Soundwave's role in this film and I really didn't mind that we didn't see him come to Earth or transform. It would have been nice if they could have added just a little bit of the vocoder effect to his voice but it still worked well with the Dr. Claw voice. Very sinister. (According to Robert Orci, Bay would not go for the vocoder effect at all) I also wish he had said his classic line "Ravage eject. Operation: ---" when he dispatched Ravage. And Ravage was very cool too.

Pacing is a huge issue in this film overall and in individual scenes. One such scene is the resurrection of Megatron. Should have been a slow paced and very creepy scene but it's over in a blink. The Doctor asks for parts, they kill a Decepticon and next shot Megs already has his new body and he's blasting for the surface.

They seem to also have a problem keeping track of characters. Wheelie disappears shortly after they get to Egypt. The Twins are MIA after they take on Devs. Not sure what happened to the Arcee triplets. Did they die? One of them did get shot. Barricade was MIA (again). Then there was the CG model reuse. Bonecrusher is clearly seen in both truck mode and robot mode in the final battle. Then there's Grindor/Blackout.

On to Devastator and the Constructicon conundrum. Devs was spectacular from a FX standpoint but was disappointing overall. No real buildup to him, his combination sequence is awesome but then they cut away from it killing the suspense. It's a shame he wasn't used in the final battle more but considering how incredibly complex and difficult his model was for ILM (it melted a workstation!) I'm not too surprised of his screen-time.

Jetfire (aka Mr. Exposition) was awesome. Loved his character. Only problem was he talked way too fast and his voice seemed to change between sounding british or sounding like an angry pirate.

Wheelie I also loved (except for the leg humping scene).

I didn't have a problem with the Twins. I don't think they were really spotlighted as much as some people say. I think it might have been more fitting for their characters to have kept the Ice-Cream truck forms. There was really no explanation as to why they took on the Chevy modes.

I really enjoyed the opening and Shanghai sequence. I thought those were well done. Too bad Sideways was killed so quickly albeit in a very cool manner.

Optimus vs. Megs/Screamer/Grindor was awesome. Probably the best set piece of the film.

I think that's enough from me for now. So overall, entertaining but hollow. Lacking much of the soul from the first one. Despite my long list of sheep complaints I still can't say I hated it. I will be going to see it again in IMAX and certainly look forward to the Blu-Ray.

[CoGro]

I was thinking about this as I left the theater but forgot to write it in my review: this film feels more like an actual episode of the original Transformers TV show than the first film, which actually felt like a movie. It was packed with robots - most of which are recycled models - and most of them do nothing, the story is paper thin, there were recycled shots from the first movie...etc. So basically, one might say this was an homage to the original show. Dorks of the original show should rejoice: they got the most authentic big screen representation of the prized (and completely mindless) 80s cartoon.

[Emperor's Prize]

I gotta say that I disagree that T2 is worse than T1 -- I think it's better. Not highly superior, but it's a much more consistent film. The first film was a tale of two movies: it was fantastic until the Autobots arrived, and then it simply devolved into a mindlessly chaotic morass by the end. T2 film featured solid, iconic moments throughout its runtime and nicely built toward its climax. On the whole, I do agree about the lack of character development (what development there may be tends to be lost in explosions) and the film does run too long.

It's also implausible as all hell that any human would survive the Decepticon onslaught. But I felt the story beats solidly hit their mark. I still have a problem with the overall design of the Transformers -- but a) it's the design that will last until this movie franchise runs its course and, b) it's obvious that the film made an effort to make the important robots more readily identifiable. Also, I found the plot surrounding the Matrix, the Primes, The Fallen and the superweapon to be much more engaging than the one about the Allspark.

[SI]

that's right DP I saw it at the IMAX in Darling Habour Sydney. I was unaware it was the largest in the world, certainly the biggest here in Oz.

I'm gonna go see it again at the local theatre maybe next week - looking back it was all a huge blur. IIRC TF1 was the same experience for me I needed multiple viewings before it sunk in.

[Joe1138]

My verdict... *shurgs* it's okay, I guess.

It's the same movie, two years later. ROTF lacks the charm and innocence of the first, namely Sam's school boy pinning for the girl of his dreams and his coming of age but that's to be expected otherwise this new film would be an outright remake rather than merely a retread. I also don't think the IMAX format suits director Michael Bay. Too often the action is just a jumbled mess and he lacks the patience and respect for his audience to just slow down and allow the audience to appreciate his compositions rather than assault with quick edits and jarring jump cuts.

If the story itself is lacking then the storytelling is on par with the first, which is to say: all payoff and no setup. The best parts remain the more outrageous aspects of the film. Also, the screenwriters seem to go out of their way to assure the audience that none of the Transformers (good and bad) are ever in any real jeopardy since they can just invent some asinine means to resurrect fallen robots (no pun intended). I imagine this is more a problem with the actual Transformers universe than anything else though.

[ETandElliott]

I'm not a fan of the Transformers, I absolutely skipped that growing up. That said, I think the first movie would have been better if it had focused more on the actual Transformers.

It seemed like 75% of that film or more was all this boring, tedious stupidity involving the U.S. government/military and some Australian chick with an annoying accent/voice upstaging everyone as I awaited some Decepticon to gag and rape her. That John Turtorro or whatever his name is was not funny or even remotely entertaining, neither was the fat black guy from The Shield and The Departed. Shia was okay some of the time but he was given a role of absolute silliness, running around yelling and acting scared/goofy.

I'd rather have seen the backstory showing how Optimus Prime and the other guy he fought knew each other, and for the other characters to be fleshed out a bit as opposed to being set dressing. The actual scenes with those guys honestly felt like toy commercials.

[CoGro]

I'm hearing from everyone I know that saw it in IMAX that it's a complete waste of money to see it that way. For 4 extra bucks you get a handful of IMAX shots intertwined with non-IMAX shots. That's bullshit if you ask me. Either film an entire sequence in IMAX (like DK did) or don't do it at all.

I've been thinking a lot about the movie - mostly my disappointment by it - and I'm mostly pissed off by the missed opportunity in the story department. I honestly wouldn't have minded another 'aliens built the pyramids' retread if it was done interestingly and right. There was a picture released a while ago during production of a hieroglyph in the pyramids that looked like a helicopter. Why not expand on that sort of thing to tie existing legend to the Transformers mythology? I was most looking forward to expanding the mythology and story with this installment and Bay completely dropped the ball. It fell so flat it's embarrassing Spielberg called this Bay's best movie. What happened to the 13 original Transformers thing? Is this something I completely missed in the intro monologue? The movie sounded so much more interesting from spoilers than what it ended up being.

[Joe1138]

I'm hearing from everyone I know that saw it in IMAX that it's a complete waste of money to see it that way. For 4 extra bucks you get a handful of IMAX shots intertwined with non-IMAX shots. That's bullshit if you ask me. Either film an entire sequence in IMAX (like DK did) or don't do it at all.

Yeah, the IMAX shots (and I mean shots, not scenes) are just so sloppy and infrequent that I all but forgot they were even in this thing. The action is just so haphazard that a larger screen is actually a disservice to anyone hoping to follow what's happening.

[Benovite]

I would think with a belly full of ILM's robotic vomit on the screen that seeing it on a smaller screen helps rather than seeing it magnified via IMAX. I remember when the first Transformers movie hit HD cable it was easier to watch the clusterfuck fights.

But not by much.

If they simplified the robot designs then 1) it would make it easier for audiences to keep up with the action and 2) ILM's computers wouldn't explode because they're trying too hard to render overly-complicated robots.

[Thundercracker]

What happened to the 13 original Transformers thing? Is this something I completely missed in the intro monologue?

I don't think it was stated in the film but I guess the 7 Primes or however many there actually were are supposed to be considered the original TFs. That whole backstory about the original TFs seems like it was just fodder for the prequel comics.

[CoGro]

I would think with a belly full of ILM's robotic vomit on the screen that seeing it on a smaller screen helps rather than seeing it magnified via IMAX. I remember when the first Transformers movie hit HD cable it was easier to watch the clusterfuck fights.

But not by much.

If they simplified the robot designs then 1) it would make it easier for audiences to keep up with the action and 2) ILM's computers wouldn't explode because they're trying too hard to render overly-complicated robots.

I think the designs are interesting and impressive from a technical standpoint, but I think cinematically they out-thunk themselves. I mean, who really gives a fuck that every moving part actually transforms from car to robot? Audiences really just care that it doesn't 'look' fake and that it's cool to watch. They could have taken some liberties with the robot designs, but I still think they work if they just made the colours brighter or gave each robot character defining characteristics.

Not to mention, there were a lot of places in this movie where I though the animation was unimpressive. I'm an ILM honk but there was far too much; and the more you bomb the screen with CGI the more chances there are for it to be distracting because it's bad.

[ETandElliott]

Looks like ILM had a lot of work during Transformers production, including Star Trek, Terminator, Avatar, possibly Harry Potter and Iron Man II. Too many blockbusters overworking them and probably assigning "b-teams" to projects. This would explain some things from Star Trek appearing to be recycled from Star Wars prequels and unpolished Transformers.

[CoGro]

Other random thoughts:

- Sideswipe was awesome. Actually one of the more kick ass characters in the series so far and was completely underused in this movie. They should have substituted Skids and Mudflap for Sideswipe and another Autobot on Sam's journey or just had Sideswipe and Bumblebee. At least this way we'd get the idea that each movie in the franchise would be about developing different characters and giving them their own story arc/journey.

- If the first movie was about 'a boy and his car' this movie is about 'nothing'. None of the characters develop or change or learn anything this entire movie. There's no small scale arc of the film like there was in the first and it literally kills the pacing and excitement.

- Skids and Mudflap ruin the movie. This is 100 times worse than Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar at his most stupid doesn't even approach how annoying those two characters can be in their 'lighter' moments. Even "it's upgrade time" followed by wrestling over who gets what colour of the same car is painful.

- I would consider myself politically incorrect. I laugh at any type of joke as long as it's funny and not blatantly malicious. That being said, I can see how people could have a big problem with racism in this movie. I'm not personally offended by any of the shtick, but it's so over the top (including black guy at the deli that needs new teeth) that I'm actually surprised a lot of it was OK'd by the producers. Seriously, it's not something I thought I would see in a movie with Spielberg's name on it - especially considering his sensitivity to racial matters.

- I have a feeling that a lot of this movie was made up as they went along. There's just such a haphazard feel to the whole production/script that it's impossible they went to shoot with this plot structure. They were a draft or two away from a very good Transformers movie; they wanted to rush this one out.

- Devastator has a role in the movie, which is to destroy the pyramid, but I wish they could have tied it into the greater plot. Like, the constructicons land on Earth on different continents and part of the 'race against time' is to get somewhere before they assemble to become Devastator. At least this way there would be some sort of build up to this massive event that destroyed ILM's computers. As it stands, it's just an exercise in computing muscle that the audience doesn't appreciate as much as it cost to produce. That's a big problem with this movie: the audience doesn't care about the special effects. At least I don't, and I couldn't be MORE their target audience.

- The movie is going to make a ton of money so this point will be moot, but I wish a movie like this would signal the decline of using obnoxious amounts of CGI/visual effects in summer movies to any effectiveness. The first Transformers was at its best when there was a healthy interplay between practical and computer effects and there were only a handful of robots on screen at the same time. No transformation in this movie felt special or cool - the magic of cars turning into robots was lost.

- Re-using Sam's cry for Bumblebee towards the end of the movie from his earlier one when he called for help at his house was distracting to me.

- Steve Jablonksy's score didn't have as much balls as his previous effort.

- Megan Fox had no role in this movie whatsoever. At least make her a damsel in distress, come on. That should have been the easiest fucking thing to write in the entire world. Then at least you'd give Sam some motivation to save her and make the story more personal. Why the hell would you use the parents for that (not to mention Sam never even knew they were being used as bait - sloppy filmmaking)?

- The parents' role should have been kept to an absolute minimum. I'd even go so far as to say they should have always been kept in the dark about the Transformers. When too many people know about a secret, it loses its charm and magic. The audience can only relate to so many characters in the 2 hours or so they have with the story. BIGGER IS NOT BETTER. The mystique was ruined by letting more 'personal characters' in on the Transformers.

- Michael Bay may have been born to make Transformers, but he was not born to make Transformers 2.

- Aside from the leg humping, I really liked Wheelie. I laughed out loud when he said "tell him he's tall".

That's all I got for now.

EDIT:

- The first transformation of the movie - the close up of Ironhide - matched with the music, might be the most 'kick ass' of the entire film. It's a great way to set the stage of 'oh yeah, i'm back in a world where cars turn into ass kicking robots'. Unfortunately, this thrill of seeing a transformation isn't really topped in the next 2 and a half hours.

- I don't think Ratchet says a word the entire movie. Anybody remember? So, Ironhide gets a handful of throwaway lines, Sideswipe might say a combined 10 words, Arcee says a couple words, Bumblebee 'says' none. By far, the twins have the most dialog of any good transformers besides Optimus Prime (who's dead half the movie) and Jetfire (exposition). Didn't anybody in production see this is a GIANT red flag?

- Ravage was pretty awesome and I thought the spy he deployed was also well done. That whole scene was cool. I loved the sound of his machine guns. The only thing that would have made the Ravage sequence better is if Soundwave said the line before deploying him. That's a minor gripe to what was one of the things the film got right.

- The final battle was pretty boring to me, but the forest battle was great. I expected more moments like the one we saw towards the end of it , with autobots and decepticons helping cover retreats with cover fire. The whole open plain thing really helps the robot action. The sand/city landscape makes it very difficult not only to tell who's who but to appreciate the action. There were a lot of wide shots in the forest and just after, which made it feel just right. Also, it sucks how we see about 5-6 shots of Sideswipe in vehicle mode (alone too, which makes you think that he's ready to do something awesome) and barely ever see him fight except in the first 3 minutes of the movie.

[Hokusai]

one of my fav moments of the first film was the first transformation... the high is never the same.

[Topeka]

I was typing up a longer reaction, but I think CoGro has summed it up much better than I care to. The most important thing to realize it that this movie just doesn't have the heart its predecessor did. I loved the first Transformers film but I was bored throughout this one.

[bearvomit]

who would've thought Terminator Salvation would be the best action movie of the summer after seeing it?? ! bring on Public Enemies

[Obi-Wan Starkiller]

For me this summer is over. Public Enema's hasn't been too far up on my list of must see movies this summer. Truly a horrible summer for movies.

[Ackbar]

What, no Harry Potter 6? Eh, never mind. The reviews here were all extremely accurate. I thought the movie was decent, but ultimately underwhelming. Too much random junk from a drugged mom, Wheelie's humping, twins, Simmons' deli, even hot girls got in the way of my enjoyment of the film. I agree that the movie felt like a stretched-out episode of the original cartoon.

By the end the CGI just didn't impress me and I was stunned how underwhelmed I was by Devastator, one of my all-time favorite toys/characters. It just appeared out of nowhere and within a few seconds I was already expecting to see it get blown up. Geez, personally I thought the story and heart behind the animated movie "Up" makes this movie look like a kindergarten book: worth seeing once and probably never again.

[Benovite]

Ok so after having seen it, it's pretty forgettable.

Basically it's Michael Bay immitating Michael Bay. It's desperately trying to be as fresh and fun as the first movie but it's just not. It's trying to capture what the first movie had but ends up looking like a mockery of it instead. It's such hack and slash job, even by Bay's standards. The plot is essentially the same as the first one.

This is what happens when you rush to get your album or movie out while you think you're still hot(or in this case when the impending writers strike was shaping up last year). I mean why not release a new Transformers movie every year for that matter? The money would still be flowing in.

I could go into detail about a lot of the wacky stuff, but most of it has been covered already. One of the more laughable scenes involved Sam going to heaven? Or was it a vision he had whilst dying. I dunno, but it was very convenient and provided a weak sense of purpose to his entire life. The revenge of the Fallen aspect was incidental, they could have ditched that entire storyline(all 3 minutes of it) and concentrated more on the growing relationship between the Autobots and the family or GFR in general and society for that matter.

The visual effects were rather impressive, I wanted to see a lot more of the hot hologram chicks on the Arcee's? Bikes whatever.

That's where the first movie went into more detail about these things, proving creepy/scary holograms of the piltos, cops and such. There was basically none of that here except for the brief shot of the hot biker chicks.

Also, as its been pointed out the returning Autobots get dissed in favor of heckle and jeckle, the parents, etc. Good to see quite a bit of satellite soundwave and the interaction bewteen megs and starscream. Those were probably the coolest parts to me. The first transformation of Ironhide wasn't that impressive. I got sicks of the camera circling around the transforming robots- that got old REALLY quick.

I hate it with special effects-driven movies like this in which the CGI scenes are much more dynamic than the static live shots. It only serves to clearly separate the two and provide a distinct difference, thereby ruining the seamlessness of the respective world/story.

And WTF was up with Scorponok? He was like "Hi I'm back! Ok forgetraboutit I'm dead." geez And don't even get me started on Megan Fox's whiney and useless character.

This movie can be summed up with this graphic-

TIME FOR A REBOOT

[CoGro]

I was just thinking - this is the second new franchise I had high hopes for that was probably killed by the writers' strike. Quantum of Solace sucked and ruined any momentum started by the reboot Royale and now Transformers.

Fuck the union. Next time call in the Pinkertons.

[bearvomit]

killed?? it's made over $200 million in 5 days! there will be 10 more of these things made. Bay has already said he's on for the 3rd. plot schmot, it's big fighting robots and tight asses and cool military jets and tanks. what do you want?

[Hokusai]

I agree. I am amazed at the insight on this board and how well you guys critique movies. As a professional musician, your commentary on scores is top notch. It seems some too cool factor is emerging with the most recent movies. I just came home from T2 and thought it was a solid B+. It was what I wanted from my big robot movie. Big robots fighting. The length is due to the gratuitous "the military loves Michael bay" shots. It is certainly a cluster at times but the fighting between OP and whomever was awesome. Bumblebee skinning ravage was killer. I wish sideswiped had been more of a ninja and the parents could have dissapeared after the college scenes but evrything else was very exciting and intense. As far as offensive characters, are all crotchety old men offended by jetfires portrayal?? At some point we have to realize that stereotypes are exaggerations only... Did anyone feel that they portrayed Obama as a run to the bunker pres that cancelled the most effective program for dealing with the threat at hand to the point that they had to disobey direct orders to save the world from total destruction??

Due to my years in the music world I have become unable to enjoy music due to my critical ear and burnout. Don't let this happen to you.

... Not speaking to anyone in particular. All statements are truly just blanket statements.

Forgot to mention... Every ball/twins/outgas moment that made me roll my eyes had the ten year old boy in front of me giggling like a little girl.

[CoGro]

I think the fact that most of us posting in this thread were big fans of the first giant robot movie should say a bit about our ability to tone down our critical eyes and ears when the situation permits. Personally, I'm willing to forgive (and even enjoy) quite a bit of silliness in my summer action movies, but when things either go too far or the film itself becomes incomprehensible because of it I think it's fair to critique it for doing so - even if the premise is of giant robots from outer space battling each other on Earth. People around this world bashed the SW prequels - again, mythic stories about space ships and laser swords - to death for their lack of artistic/narrative merits and they did so because of expectations of quality established by the first set of films. I'm not saying Transformers is Star Wars, but I am saying it wasn't 'Fantastic Four' or some other B-movie shlock. The first did have a sense of wonder to it (especially the first half) that this film loses. If I walked into this film thinking it was going to be 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' then I would have enjoyed it just as well, but I expected something worthy of bearing Spielberg's stamp of approval and this film does not. It's not like the trailers or promotions made us believe that this movie would be more dumb than the first. If they set out to make a stupid movie with a dumb story, they wouldn't have spent 2+ hours trying to tell it.

10 year old kids laughed at Jar Jar Binks too - it's easy to make a fart joke and a cop out to use outdated ethnic slang to garner laughs. Good storytellers can appeal to kids and adults alike without taking either audience out of the film. See: Pixar.

When I say the franchise is 'killed' I don't mean financially; obviously this movie is going to own the summer B.O. I just think it lowers the standard of quality established by the first installment and that's a shame to me. I don't care what anybody says, Pirates II and III sucked in comparison to Black Pearl and those went on to destroy the B.O. marks of the original.

[juicemonkey]

Have to agree with everything CoGro stated above and I feel the same frustration. Bay had something magical going on here reminding me of the OT & IJT days and he just threw it out the window with this release.

It's really simple.. focus in on the developement of SS and Megs (& Fallen for this installment), Optimus and BB (& Sideswipe) instead of wasting the first half of the film on Sam's idiot parents, pointless MF scenes, ridiculous college\roomate scenes. The 2 brothers was just a mistake. Cool cars but wrong attitude. Not everything in this movie had to be made a mockery of. Literally every scene was a goof, no seriousness at all.

I won't be looking forward to T3 and doubt I will even by the dvd at this point. Bay just killed this thing, dammit!!

[Benovite]

I wouldn't doubt that Bay turns this into the Star Trek franchise of GFR movies, meaning as they progress they'll look cheaper and be even lamer because they wanna rush'em out to make the most money the fastest. Paramount doesn't give a shit and no one[executives] will as long as the transforming dump trucks of money keep rollin' in.

Transformers 3! With cameo appearances by the Autobots and Decepticons.

You gotta hand it to Bay though, didn't take long for him to ruin the concept of GFR's.




Btw I would be happy with a movie/tv show that focused on the arcee holo chicks.

[bearvomit]

as long as I get my Dinobots or some giant thing like Omega Supreme somewhere down the line, I'll be cool. You guys are still projecting your expectations on this thing that is based off a cartoon and toy line. Have fun with it and be proud it's not some abortion like the DragonBall movie was earlier this year!

[juicemonkey]

This was a missed opportunity to have a something great here. Granted it will make a ton of money, but Spielberg should have chimed in early on to clean it up a bit. Unless he lost his mind as well...