Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Grading & Discussion

I prefer some shades of gray. Optimus shooting robots doesn't bother me -- what's he going to do, put them in a very large cell? But "Give me your face!"? Just a wee bit sadistic, eh, Op? Actually the line made me laugh. And made me want to repeat it again and again.

Yep. Check out some animated robot carnage from the '86 cartoon movie. I remember seeing this in the theater. It was a big WTF moment. Up until that time, robots got shot on the cartoon all the time and they just got right back up.

The funny thing about the Transformers animated movie is that Optimus Prime wasn't supposed to die originally. The G.I Joe guys -- who were by and large also the Transformers guys (there were some crossovers you would only notice if you were fans of both series, and one full-on crossover in a Transformers episode) asked if they could have Duke die in the G.I. Joe movie. Not only was that approved, but they were ordered to also kill off Optimus Prime in the TF movie. Well, TF ended up getting released first, and kids in theaters across the country balled over their hero getting killed. This prompted some letters from angry parents, causing the producers to chicken out and edit the G. I. Joe movie so that Duke lives at the end. It's a horrible edit; it's obvious he's supposed to be dead.

I was too young at the time to appreciate the mythological motifs present, similar to the way Star Wars used mythological motifs (Unicron is Grendel, Matrix is Sword in the Stone or the Force, Hot Rod is young King Arthur, Kup is Vergil from Dante's Inferno or Merlin).

 

Saw this movie last night and it sucked balls.


My robot lover, Soundwave, was so incredibly awesome. That was my main concern. Ravage was friggin' amazing as well so that made me happy.


Otherwise, I couldn't believe I was watching some of my childhood heroes on the big screen with the urge to get up and walk out of the movie. It was boring and stupid and the only parts I enjoyed were with the robots and, since 95% of this movie has irritating humans present, it made me want to run away and hide and never admit to actually buying a ticket for this movie.

Transformers was officially raped. At least the first movie was tolerable but this movie had no excuse.

Jetfire was annoying as hell. He wasn't funny at all tumbling around with a friggin CANE and whining about being old.

Megatron and Starscream brought back great memories from the show. They acted the way you expect them to act. At least this part was done properly.

I liked how Soundwave was pretty much the main decepticon in this one and was giving out orders. That owned.

Arcee was wasted. That pissed me off. She did absolutely nothing.


This movie was garbage, don't waste your time, wait for TV.

I give this movie a 2/10.

I give Shia an 8/10, and not for his acting.

 

The special effects were good. I liked the opening battle in Shanghai or wherever; the middle fight where Optimus is ultimately killed, and when Bumblebee knocks crap out of those annoying, hideous twins. Ultimately, I liked the scenes with Sam and Mikaela and Sam and his dad best.

 

Crap, crap, mega-crap, Optimus-Shite! Something is deeply wrong with Michael Bay. How can he populate a movie with so much wackyness and yet justify all of these super-serious epic slow-mo shots? All of those "jive-ass" comic relief robots make Jar Jar Binks look like a spokesman for the NAACP.

Terrible acting. I've always thought Shia LaBeouf was overrated (except he was good as the sidekick in Constantine). Josh Duhmel & Tyrese Gibson are clearly not even trying. I think Megan Fox has the potential for decent work. (I'm excited about Jennifer's Body this week.) But look elsewhere for it. The roommate was even worse.

The parents were kinda funny. I could have used more of stoned mother.

Whereas John Turturro was an annoying distraction in the first film, here he was, shockingly, a welcome appearance because he's one of the only decent actors I saw in all 2 1/2 hours.

And WTF is up with that runtime? How does a movie expect to hold anyone's attention for that long when it's practically a commercial for Ritalin? That was my one major note after the first one; make the sequel shorter. If you're going to be this crappy, can you at least be short?

 

Transformers 2: How It Should Have Ended

HISHE

Yeah, sorry for the -slight- necromancy, but thought I'd share.

 

The commentary clears up some of the confusion about Jetfire's voice. According to Bay, Turturro did indeed record the voice for Jetfire, as a southern preacher type. Bay says he liked it, but it sounded too much like Turturro so it ended up being rerecorded with Mark Ryan.

I was hoping they'd clear up the whole Constructicon confusion, but they didn't even mention it.

 

I finally watched this one from DVD yesterday.
The first Transformers was not the most perfect film but was nontheless an entertaining action film with OK plot and cool robots and action.
I actually thought that the second fiom would be much better thna the first one, but..boy, was I so wrong

The Bad Stuff:

- The Screeplay. The story..or more the lack of it, is pretty horrible. The GI JOE film is almost Shakespeare compared to this one. Its difficult to believe that two the writers wrote the new Star Trek. There was als just too many plot holes.
I could honestly write a better script or at least edit this one.
- Acting was quite bad. Megan Fox, who is not that hot, cannot act at all. Even Shia was bad in this one.
- Annoying humour and comedic characters. There was allready too much humour in the first film and it only got worst in this one. I sincerely hoped that a nuke would land and kill the boys parents..the mother should win the most annoying character 2009 award. Also I wished that the two babling autobots would just kindly shut up. And dont get me started with the humping dogs..
- Sexism. This film does not have any decent female characters, which is a damn shame. I somehow disliked the fact that almost all women in this film acted, talked and looked like pornstars. This film would deserve an attack by an agry feminist group, if any.
- Many parts of the film seemed more like advertisement about the US military. I know Bay loves his gun porn but this was allready bit too much.
- The National Security adviser, the jerk with the suit and glasses, was cliche. And are we expected to believe that President Obama would hire that kind of idiot?!?

The Good Stuff:

- The music was pretty good in this one.
- The fights between the robots where well done and the special effects where great.

All in all, this film left me numb because it was so dumb.
If they still make a 3rd film, please let Steven Spielberg direct, write an actual story to it..and also kill the parents and Megan Foxes characters. Thank You

 

Mrs. Witwicky is a porn star?!?!?!

 

Damn you, I took a gulp of Mountain Dew just as I read that. It was all I could do to not spew it across my monitor here at work. >.<

(on lunch)

 

Sound design of Transformers 2

Sound design of Transformers 2
video here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/18/sound-design-of-tran.html



Erik Aadahl, the sound designer for the Transformer movies, pointed me to this video about the sound effects for Transformers 2. He says: "With one single homage exception, all of the sounds we used for both Transformer films were done from scratch, recorded and designed from the ground up without the help of library or stock sound effects."

Interviews with the re-recording mixer and others with clips from the film.

 

Re: Sound design of Transformers 2

I really hope the next film is a lot more focused than this one. A film shouldn't have half a dozen McGuffins.

And I know the temptation is to continually introduce new characters, but let's let Optimus Prime actually be in the next film.