Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
I was looking forward to this movie since we had heard there would be a sequel from 2 years ago. The more it was hyped, the less...hope I had this movie would turn out to be. Overall the movie's plot actually held it's own. While I feared it would turn into Mortal Kombat II (the movie) with Michael Bay going on and on about how many Transformer characters would show up...well, he was right, but wrong. There were hardly any characters that developed ANY personality except the 'Twins', and while they were a good addition, to the 'bots, they had almost too MUCH personality. Michael Bay even mentioned how he was going to kill off RC (aka Arcee) because he didn't like her "character development"...uh, one line doesn't even allow for character development! And all those 'bots he said that would show up... yeah, they did that. They showed up and that was about it. We see more stupid Shia and Prime more than anything, at least Lennox and Epps had some more screen time.
Wheelie was a good addition too overall, except for one really...really dumb and much unneeded part. Jetfire was my favorite new character in the whole movie. I understand he's the new favorite among many fans. Devastator was awesome. His transformation was awesome...he made sense, but...there was no real build-up (no pun intended) for his character. He just combined, and banged around...and...well, sucked a bunch of stuff...he didn't talk... he just was...there. I thought for sure, all the autobots would have come together to fight the 'new menace', but it never happened. It was like they didn't know or care he was even there...and Greg even mentioned he saw constructicons fighting IN the big battle with everyone even WHILE Devastator was fighting on the pyramid!? So Bay & Co either got cheap on us, or did they had other plans that didn't pan out? Who knows...but Devastator was an amazing sight, I just wish he could have had a better delivery and fought more than just 2 or 3 Autobots. Even then Devastator ended up being shot down by someone that was NOT an Autobot....come on...only in a Bay movie...
Now my major gripe with this movie...I'd be embarassed to show this movie to my parents. I would never let my 5 year old girl see the movie in many years, if ever! (I let her see a few moments from the first movie). The language in this sequel is terrible! If I heard "kick yo a$$" one more time I was about to leave the theater... it was that bad. The sexual jokes..ugh. Once, maybe would have a little funny, and left it at that, but no, they had to drag the SAME joke over and over again. I was thinking the whole time...well, so much for letting Brianna see THIS movie...considering how MANY times she'd seen the commercial on the TV...made her want to see the movie. The parents were funny, but that whole deal at the college... was just ...(well it was funny), but was really...really...not good at all. It wasn't needed. The mother is supposed to be a looopy character, but the drug reference (and influence...) should NOT have been in the movie. AGAIN I stress they make toys geared towards FIVE year olds! And we have robots 'humping' the lead girl, the dogs "humping' each other... not once but TWICE! The language should have been toned down by 68%, back to at least the amount that was in the first (and I griped about that...) boy, nothing prepared me for this... A movie like this 20 years ago would have been rated R. Wanna take your 8 year old to see this ever gro$$ing money maker, go ahead. But I'd warn against it. Overall this could have been better than the sequel, without the college 'partner', Leo, (oh, no he's coming BACK in the 3rd? NO NO SAY IT ISN'T SO! Megatron, step on Leo...PLEASE! ), without all the bad language, and without the lame sexual jokes, and a little less Shia (though he was about the only person that did not curse!). A movie of the prequel novel might have been better than this...overall, despite what I didn't like - I loved the movie, and wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime. Maybe they'll release an "editted" DVD version so my parents and kids can see it... yeah right...welcome to the 21st Century, Gene Roddenbery it ain't! I thought we were supposed to be 'bettering ourselves'...Thanks for nearly ruining a really cool action movie with unneeded language and lewd humor Note, bad language doesn't need to be a PART of the language; it needs to be used sparringly for help with a joke effect, or when a character needs to stress their threat to their life, or when exasperated when overcome with extreme measures... not like this...though many of my circle of friends and family would rather there be none at all if possible... Question to the director and producer... just who is the movie geared towards? Naughty boys between 13 and 18? or perverts 8 - 40? There's a bigger audience that loves this franchise than that, and new fans everyday. Pray the 3rd movie doesn't need a bar of soap to clean it out also...if it comes out. At least I never heard the 'F' word, just pretty much all other vulgarities.
(Added Jan 23 2010)
I've seen the movie another time or two...and I still stand by being against the lewd nature of the movie, though it is better than the first in many ways in plot and effects, but I've realized what's wrong with it...there are too many horny (apologies to my all Christian relatives...) moments that nearly every character has if not once, twice or thrice. And it just wasn't needed for a franchise movie of this caliber and the wide audience it has gotten hold of.
My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)
Nifty's rating: 6 out of 10
Transformer 2007 -movie review
OK, as a long time fan, (something my parents will never fathom), many fans, and myself were extremely concerned about this movie coming out. Michael Bay as director and Steven Speilberg (Mr. walkie-talkie man, himself), came together to create this movie with many wondering just how realistic it was going to be without, any shape shifting taking place in the film. When all the fans at
www.tfw2005.com started seeing the production sketches and pictures, we were all... "oh, no, what has happened to our beloved franchise??" I still don't understand why, such a violent movie with all sorts of machinery and arms still won't allow Megatron to be a simple gun or cannon. We see all kinds of destruction and weaponry, straight from our own millitary in fact! Go figure.
We started seeing more things show up on the internet, I heard something about an "All Spark" and a proto picture of Shia running down the street with a white block in his arms... "Gosh this is going to be terrible...", I continued to think to myself. Then the movie came out.
Overall, this has to be one of the top 3 movies for 2007. It's not really a Transformer movie. It's more like an alien invasion film, action and comedy feature. The humor is good even a little cheesy at times, but let's get on to the meat of why you're reading this.
The movie has more 'disgusting fleshings' than Transformers. This is actually a good thing, the building and progression of the story allows some good scenes and some humorous events. When the Transformers really start to show off in the last half of the movie, it's not only stunningly fascinating, but amazingly realistic and quite satisfying as well. The incidental music is thankfully not mainstream, but 90% orchestrated! (There is a little new grunge pop thrown in once or twice, but did NOT deter from the movie.) The special effects are amazing, the action is non-stop when it starts. My only gripe is that... Transformers should be for, well... for everybody. While the old animation film from 1986 had a whole 2 or 3 curse words, this new live action film? Well, they use real military personnel and younger Hollywood mainstream actors... so there's too much language in here for really young kids, that I would not allow anyone under 10 or so to watch it. Call me old fashioned, but a little language would have been ok, but when I lose count... that's just too much. I mean, yeah, being run down my a large alien robot, I'd be running too, so much, I probably wouldn't be using energy yelling the "S" word over and over again and trying to look behind me. There's a bedroom scene with the word 'masturbation'... OK, if you haven't seen the movie, you're probably thinking, "Oh gosh! I'm not letting teenagers are looking for some antique glasses intergral to the plot, the parents barge in...the power is out because one of the Autobots has hit the power line behind the house. Sam is trying to not alert his parents to the robots outside in the backyard, nor let on he's looking for the family heirloom spectacles. The ONLY thing that saves this really sad idea of a joke is when Mikayla shows herself from behind the bed, and his dad becomes all chummy and his mother is completely embarassed about thinking he was doing something... disgusting, when we wasn't. Too much time & film was wasted here...
The movie holds itself together rather well. We get to see some really cool military action, some government FBI Defense 'trainees' (if that's what they're called) try to break the mystery behind who's gaining access to the government's files and trying to stop a Decepitcon uploaded spiderbot virus that takes down the net and ALL communication across the entire globe. I think I just got an underlying joke. They end up using Walkie Talkies by the end of the film... Speilberg, aka Mr. Walkie-Walkie, uh...anyway. We get to see Sam get his 'new' car, and there's more than meets the eye, to his custom-made-dented used car!
Now for any fans that find this review a bit critical... here's a bunch of events related to all the other Transformer series.
1 ) The All-spark is a mixture of the G1 Matrix and the Underbase from the G1 comic that takes over and destroys Starscream.
2) Sam buying a used car, was actually from a plot device from the old Marvel comic as well, but it was Buster.
3) Frenzy pulling himself together is similar to Waspinator from Beast Wars pulling himself together.
4) The Transformers each having their own scanners is similar to the scanners in the escape pods in Beast Wars as well too (not based on just the their ship's computer Teletran).
5) Seeing the hard-hat workers at Hoover Dam is like seeing all the hard-hat workers from the old G1 cartoon. Heck, even the Hoover Dam showing up is similar to the Sherman Dam fight against Prime & Megatron from the old G1 cartoon, though the fight happens at Mission City in the live action movie.
6) Prime's taunt "One shall stand; one shall fall" is actually a Cybertronian/Transformer spoken "gauntlet to the death" only said to Megatron from the 1986 animated movie.
7) Bumblebee talking using the radio is very reminiscent of Wreck-Gar from the 1986 movie and G1 season 3.
8) There's some other references hidden in the movie from the other series as well. They even made transformable figures from the motorcycle (Arcee), the military jeep (seen near the end), and the blue & white tow truck that tows Bumblebee near the end of the movie.
9) It's not really shown, but I'm pretty sure Mikala is the one who fixes Bumblebee's audio processors. The movie is a really good movie. I have many friends at work (not fans) that enjoyed the movie. So try it out, you'll be surprised. Just bear in mind some of the language, despite little toddlers holding Care Bears, and Furby advertisements on trucks in the street, it's meant for teens and up, despite they even made toys for 3 year olds. Maybe they'll re-release it with an adjusted sound audio track like the old 1986 movie. Where all they did was take out the one "S" word on the VHS tape! Overall a great ride!