Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2 Discs)

 

 

Create your own review

Transformers Two is one of the worst sequels in recent memory and remains as one of the worst pictures I have ever had the misfortune of sitting through.Spielberg,Bay and company should be ashamed of this overly complicated,long and generally shoddy product they hoisted on an eagerly awaiting public.The first movie in this franchise was superb;the right amount of action with a very credible plot and great special effects.This movie takes all that that was built on and essentially trashes it.
Shia Lebeouf returns as Sam,as his friend Optimus Prime continues his fight to eliminate the Decpeticon threat throughout the world(and in space).Sam discovers a piece of the Allspark in his house which melts through the floor to bring to life all the appliances in his house,wreaking alot of unwanted havoc.Optimus approaches Sam saying that the Decepticons are amassing again and the time has come that he needs his help.Sam,incredulously considering all that has past in the first movie,refuses to help!!He's off to college and can't be bothered??? Sam,in keeping with all that has gone on,should have been right there,no questions.This illogical plot thread creates a rift from which the movie never recovers.
Sam goes to college but the inevitable conflict follows him,much to his chagrin(what did he really expect?).In fact he does everything to avoid getting involved.His roommates we discover even run an internet alien conspiracy theory site;how convenient!The fight eventually engulfs Sam and his girlfriend who have no choice but to join Optimus and company in their fight against the Decepticons.Their journey goes worldwide and Megatron is(of course) released and in turn releases the Fallen,the evil head of the Decepticons.In the end it is a dual to the death and just as we think Optimus and Sam are no more a material called the Matrix comes into the picture and with the help of ancient Primes Sam is sent back to bring Optimus back to life to finally defeat the evil horde.
This is just a tip of the iceberg breakdown of the plot,because it is a long,ponderous and over complicated thing that I could never do justice to anyway;nor is it WORTH repeating or trying to do justice to(may I recommend a look at [...],to see just how complicated it really is).One autobot we are intro'd to is a souped up ice cream truck which turns into two "homeys" at will who constantly argue over nothing and are there for supposed "comic relief" but offer nothing but annoyance.
At 143 minutes this special effects driven leviathan slowly weaves its' way along and doesn't really get moving until the last 20 minutes or so,and by then everything is anti-climactic and you are just wishing the whole mess a speedy and quick ending.
This two DVD set contains featurettes,deleted and alternate scenes and a music video by Linkin Park.The film has been transferred beautifully and the sound as A-1.However it is like trying to dress up a corpse;there is no life here so why bother.
This movie goes on my all time Turkey list for two reasons:what the film IS and for what it SHOULD have been.Unless the next one can dig itself out from under this massive failure somehow,this might have essentially killed the franchise in just two pictures.The producers lost sight of the ball big time and the proof is painfully here for all to see.But I recommend you save your money and DON'T!

First, let me preface this review by saying that I am a Transformers fan and have been for 25 years. Contrary to what another reviewer has said, I don't believe that anyone who going into Transformers 2 expecting a decent script has a "serious malfunction". Orci and Kurtzman wrote this, and also wrote Star Trek. Obviously they are capable of a good script. For a movie with this much budget, you'd think they could come up with a plot that makes sense.

This is a movie to make you say "wow". Not because it's great, or the special effects are any good (they're not) -- just because Transformers 2 messes things up even more than the first one did.

For example, the dialogue is geared towards kiddies, just like the old cartoon was. Then, mixed in the middle of all that kiddie dialogue, is Megan Fox wearing a tank top, then Megan Fox wearing leather chaps, then Megan Fox stripping off those chaps...just who is this movie for? It's either geared for kids with no consideration at all for throwing all this sexual imagery at you, or it's geared for adults (males) and really dumbed down.

All that would be forgivable if this movie had a plot, or characters, or even decent CG effects. The effects were so bad, clearly the crew only had so much time and budget to finish. So when you see a robot called "The Doctor" manipulate Sam's (Shia Labouf) face, it looks like something out of Roger Rabbit, or Star Wars Episode I. When robots are getting blown apart, you see little pieces of junk flying off them, but they don't look real at all -- it looks like little cartoon pieces of junk. Everything just looks fake, completely fake. Except the explosions. Those look real (because they were real) and there's a lot of them.

So many opportunities squandered. The death of a beloved character has no emotion to it, even the 1986 cartoon movie had more emotion to the scene in question. The Fallen -- one of the all time great Transformers characters -- is just another bad guy, not the awe inspiring menace he should be. And don't get me started on the hip-hop-bots. Why does Devastator have genitalia? Was that really nessesary?

There are some shining lights in this movie. John Turturro, as Simmons, is better and funnier than before. There are lots more robots -- dozens. I couldn't keep them straight!

However that is part of Michael Bay's problem. His design team makes the robots essentially all look the same, particularly the Decepticons. There are a group of "protoform" Decepticons who arrive on Earth. Since they are "protoforms", they are actually all identical with the exact same design. Yeah, you get Constructicons -- so what? You can't keep them straight, there are multiples of several of them. Yeah, there are Insecticons -- so what? They don't do anything or have any character. The humans, in fact, do all the thinking, talking, leading, and everything else in this movie. That isn't what the original Marvel series envisioned by Bob Budianski and Simon Furman was about. That isn't even what the cartoon was about. Transformers is about the robots, and yes, they should have some characterization! If the comic book did, surely they can do it in a multi-million dollar movie. But no; either nobody thought to write interesting characters for classic robots like Sideswipe, Arcee, and Ratchet, or they just didn't have the budget to give them the screen time. Sad.

I liked that there was a Pretender included, I liked that we saw a lot more robots, and some with interesting robot-modes, but at the end of the day this movie was just more of the same.

The humour was pretty terrible -- Sam's parents are more annoying than ever, especially his mother (who gets high accidentally) and his roomate is one character that either should never have been written, or killed off in Act 2.

Plot holes big enough to drive a Peterbilt truck through:
1. A bunch of mini-bots attack Sam in his kitchen, requiring Bumblebee to barely save him. Two minutes later, Sam is telling Bee that he's all grown up and doesn't need his protection anymore. Then, 20 minutes later, Bee comes to save Sam from a Decepticon pretender...but doesn't actually do anything. He lets the pretender into the car, and then he just plays annoying songs on his radio and sprays the Pretender with lubricant instead of...I dunno...driving off? Seriously.

2. The tomb of the Primes! Jetfire finishes explaining that the original Primes sacrificed themselves to create a tomb out of their bodies. Then he explains, "Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen." Well, maybe they shouldn't have sacrificed themselves?

3. The tomb that they sacrificed their bodies to create doesn't actually do anything. It's opened with one simple blast.

4. "Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen." Not sure why. They just had a normal-type fight. Nothing special that any other 'bot couldn't do. And Prime needed Jetfire's help anyway!

Since you're going to buy this movie no matter what I say, please heed just one piece of advice. Go out and buy some reprints of the original Marvel G1 comic series. Please. Just to prove to yourself that Transformers are not intrinsically stupid. Just that Bay keeps screwing everything up.

This movie is a prime example of how society is declining. People actually don't give a toss for acting, dialogue, or plot anymore. As long as there's plenty of eye candy on the screen. And yes there is a lot of eye candy in the second Transformers movie. Megan Fox (I think she's overrated personally), explosions, giant robots beating the tar out of each other just like some gigantic version of WWE, I see lots of eye candy here. However the story is just plain unbelievable and stupid, the dialogue is insipid and juvenile and the acting is pathetically bad. I just saw another eye candy movie called Avatar and while it wasn't even close to being a great movie, it sure was a lot better than this crap. At least it has a story and an allegory. This has nothing, part of the plot was in fact ripped off from an earlier movie called Alien Vs. Predator. (An even dumber movie at that.) The thing is that I used to like the Transformers cartoon when I was little but this movie doesn't even attempt to make Transformers anything more than a cartoon or a toy movie. All the characters are stereotypes, every single one of them, no kidding, go watch and see for yourself. Also I'd like to know why Bumblebee can't talk all of a sudden.

I guess to sum up, I want to know why people watch stuff like this AND consider it "good" or "great" or whatever the comments here say. Do people not know how to think critically anymore? Are we that brainwashed by TV that we actually want to just "turn our brains off" and watch images on a screen? Think about that for a second! Just give that thought one second of your time, please!

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 9 customer reviews...

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Just for Geeks
Some times the sexual innuendo and references are a little much but all in all it is wonderful. Nice ratio of explosions and intrigue.

Published 19 months ago by MasterEducator

3.0 out of 5 stars where's the humor from the 1st one?
The thing is a mess. Sure the action is still killer, no filler. The problem is the 1st Transformers was done with a wink-in-the-eye sense of humor. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Brian Maitland

5.0 out of 5 stars a more complete movie than the first
while i gave the first movie perfect marks for sheer entertainment,this sequel is actually a more complete film,in my opinion,as much as this type of movie can be. Read more

Published on Mar 7 2010 by falcon

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Movie
This is an awesome movie definetly gotta have it if you've seen the first one, this movie is not as good as the first one(like many sequals) but definetly 5 stars, good story, new... Read more

Published on Jan 18 2010 by Shane

4.0 out of 5 stars Transformers 2, lots of fun, enjoy
I really enjoyed Transformers 2, it was definitely a fun movie.

Great special effects, lots of big action, very cool robots, a sexy female lead, a cool male lead and... Read more

Published on Oct 22 2009 by D. Inlow

5.0 out of 5 stars Such great entertainment!
This is the kind of movie you don't want to miss because it is truly entertaining with it's non stop action. Read more

Published on Oct 13 2009 by D. Landry

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 9 customer reviews...

Search Listmania!