Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Transformers II)
Revenge is a deeply flawed, but an entertaining movie. Sure it has more action, but the plot is a little confusing, in a Michael Bay way. Revenge is fun and in some ways better than the first movie and in some ways worst.
The movie is set two years after the events of the first movie. The Autobots are working with the world governments to bring down the Decepticons throughout Earth. Sam Witwicky goes to college and starts to lose his mind. Things get blown up and robots fight.
You don’t go into a Transformers movie for the plot. You go in for the big f’ing robots that fight each other and turn into cars and jets. That’s part of the problem with the movie. There is certainly 50% more badass moments in this film, but there are some moments that are so bad that even Michael Bay should have put a stop to it. I shook my head more than a few times in disgust.
When the movie works, there are some amazing action scenes, but when it falters, everyone can notice it. All the Megan Fox scenes are painful and you will wish they’d end. She certainly looks great, but she can’t act.
Some of the other weaker points were the comedy scenes. There are characters in here that might give Jar-Jar a run for his money. (But, I loved Jetfire!)
The CGI is breathtaking. They’ve reached new heights with the special effects in this movie. One scene that really stands out is a fight between Prime and a group of Decpticons in a forest. Tree and robots are thrown around and you can feel the weight of the characters. You’ll be going for the FX.
Steve Jablonsky’s score is certainly more structured than the first film and some of his main themes from the first movie do carry over. Steve also adds some new themes as well. As far as sound effects go, this is one loud movie. It is probably Bay’s loudest movie to date.
(The Skids and Mudflap thing: I’ll get to that in another post.)
Shia LaBeouf has a bit more to do in this movie. Shia does a good job playing a kid that’s starting to lose his mind. One of my favorite scenes involves him in a classroom. Actually, most of his college scenes are well acted. Josh Duhamel is fine as Lennox; they probably should have cast him as Duke in the upcoming GI Joe movie.
Tyrese Gibson is fair in this movie, certainly an improvement over the first movie. He has one great moment involving his throwing arm and a smoke bomb. John Turturro is actually much better in this film. His character is a blogger now. But, did we need to see his ass?
Anyway, the movie is a bit long and the final battle is drawn out. The movie isn’t for anyone expecting a thoughtful movie. Like sports fans, it is loud and dumb. If you want to see ‘stuff blow up real good’, this movie is for you. With some stupid comedic moments and a few weak plot points, this second movie doesn’t have the charm that the first movie had. But, it is still fun on a basic level. It is certainly closer to the original show from the 80s, and that’s a good thing.
Grade: B-
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4 comments:
It was so painful watching this movie, and then at the end lots of people clapped! I wondered if they'd seen the same film as me.
The FX were very good, but I couldn't get into it. As someone said the other day, it was like a high tech version of robot wars (a show where teams create strange robots to fight eachother).
The film was way too long too, an hour could have easily been cut without affecting the main plot.
And don't get me started on those twins!
I rolled my eyes every time the twins came onto the screen. I found myself shaking my head every time they were on screen. Jar=Jar all over again.
I probably enjoyed the movie a bit more than you did, but they should have cut out an extra 30 mins.
Last week I met a guy who was planning to see it at the IMAX for the 5th time! Bizarre - people like that are why Michael Bay can still make movies.
I'll probably check it out on IMAX only because there are extra scenes in that version. But there is no way I could sit through 5 times of this movie.
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