Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Grading & Discussion

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Agent Richard07, Jun 17, 2009.

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Grade the movie...

  1. Excellent

    10.2%
  2. Above Average

    21.6%
  3. Average

    28.4%
  4. Below Average

    17.0%
  5. Poor

    22.7%
  1. Twilight

    Twilight Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Jan 13, 2003
    Saw it last night.

    You know, a TRANSFORMERS movie is supposed to be about giant fucking robots beating the shit out of each other.

    And this is a film about giant fucking robots beating the shit out of each other.

    So, check.


    Too bad watching said action is totally incomprehensible, and massively unexciting. You just sit there, eyes glazed over, watching millions of dollars worth of pixels flash on the screen, without the slightest sense of what is going on or why you should care.

    It's the most expensive, loudest, prettiest boring film I've ever seen. You'd be astonished at how bland and uninteresting GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING EACH OTHER can be.

    Other than that, the script was an absolute disaster.

    Its main feat is managing to come across as ridiculous and childish even for a film about giant robots that transform into vehicles, which is ridiculous and childish by definition.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2009
  2. Cky

    Cky Captain Captain

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    Watched it for a second time, things made a little more sence, but the best thing about the evening was that it was free. That should not be the best bit about the film.
     
  3. Twilight

    Twilight Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Also, I'd like to add:

    The designs for the transformers in this film franchise are utterly incomprehensible. They're rendered and animated absolutely brilliantly, don't get me wrong - but they're so mind-bogglingly haphazard and complicated-for-the-sake-of-being-complicated that it's very difficult to make out where their face is, let alone recognize who is who at any given moment.

    Ebert is right in saying that the transformers in this film look like a junk yard threw up.

    But I digress.
     
  4. Jim Steele

    Jim Steele Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Twilight, you hit the nail squarely on the head sir. Absolute agreement from me.

    Would you mind if I tweeted a link to your review? 'Cos you pretty much summed up my feelings better than I did.
     
  5. God Magnus

    God Magnus Commodore Commodore

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  6. God Magnus

    God Magnus Commodore Commodore

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    See, I agree with some designs but not others. It really depends on which character you're talking about. I think certain characters are very well defined such as Ratchet, Optimus and Bumblebee. The overuse of jagged bits and pieces gets to be excessive at times (more so on the Decepticons than the Autobots) and the lack of colors on most of the 'cons really doesn't help.
     
  7. Tulin

    Tulin Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well then, he should definitely NOT be listened to!

    :rolleyes:
     
  8. Dar70

    Dar70 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    :lol::lol::lol: 7 would denote a recommendation not "Do not watch this film if you like the first one" :guffaw::guffaw:To funny.
     
  9. Mr. B

    Mr. B Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Even though I have not and will not see this movie, I still thought I should post here and commend this film for the entertainment value. I've been reading some of the reviews including Ebert's and I've been laughing my ass off. Thanks Michael Bay, you made my morning. :lol:
     
  10. INACTIVESamusAranX

    INACTIVESamusAranX Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Let me start off my review by stating that I am not a Transformers fan, at least a big one. I played with the toys when I was younger, saw a few episodes, but those are vague memories. Basically, when the first film came out, I had nothing emotionally invested in it.

    The first film had its faults, but I thought for what it was worth it was a respectable film. When the sequel was announced, I was actually excited for it, unlike the first film. I hoped that the flaws that plagued the first film would be eliminated or at least downplayed, and we get more Transformers (meaning we got mroe of a focus on them).

    Alas, it was not to be.

    I walked out of the midnight showing (this indicates how excited I was for the film; I've only been to one other mindight showing for a movie) at the end of the film, shaking my head, disappointed. Everything that was wrong with the first film, they magnified it, and added more. The humor was often forced, relying on crudeness or stereotypes (althought the old guy Transformer really gave me some good laughs); the film was dragged out soooo long, feeling like a three hour movie. Titanic had better pacing. Titanic! The fights were brief, hard to follow, and for a Transformer noob (relatively) trying to learn about all of the new Autobots and Decepticons, I got confused and could only identify characters from the first film mostly, except for the twin ones and the old one. Again, the fights were short and underwhelming. The only fight that was long was between humans and Decepticons, and that seemed like an hour! Not to mention the fact there was no way those puny humans with machine guns could have lasted that long against the bad guys until the remaining Autobots showed up.

    The plot was okay, and surprisingly made a bit of sense in the end when it came together. I liked the fight in the forest with Optimus and Megatron and his minions. The space shots they did had a good aura or feel to them and I liked when they showed the Fallen in his lair. The ending fight between him and Prime was sorely lacking though. Honestly, I think it lasted thirty seconds before Optimus easily disposed of him. To put this in perspective, Megatron and his minions gave him more of a fight. I know Optimus had a huge upgrade, but for all the 'badness' hype given to the Fallen, he had his butt kicked pretty fast. Oh well. The humans once again got the bigger focus with the Transformers often relegated to the background, especially Bumblebee, my fav Transformer from the first.
    In the end, not the worst I've seen, but very underwhelming. I hope the third is better. A 4/10. :borg:
     
  11. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Anyone who has seen the difference between Bad Boys and Bad Boys II should have seen this coming.
     
  12. T'Baio

    T'Baio Admiral Admiral

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    That's a great point. Bad Boys was a pretty decent, funny action movie. Bad Boys II is what watching a rape must feel like.
     
  13. Doggeh

    Doggeh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    You know...I actually enjoyed this movie. Not as much as I wanted to, but it was still good. I am also, by no means, a fan of Transformers. I didnt watch it as a kid or play with the toys. My first experience with it was the 2007 movie.

    My biggest complaint was that it was far too long. There were some scenes that coulda just been cut out.

    Too many robots. I know this is Transformers and that was this movie is all about but still...too many! Bay got complaints that the first one didnt have enough but now hes gotta deal with the fact that people are complaining that theres too many.

    Some of the "jokes" were just...ugh! Way too many unnecessarily perverted jokes.

    Overall, I enjoyed it. I'd probably see it at least once more in theaters or just wait for the DVD.

    The first was much better.
     
  14. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Nevertheless, it was him.

    I liked the film, but I did agree it's too long.

    And Starscream sounded like a complete pussy. At least in the first film, he sounded vaguely menacing.
     
  15. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

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    Me, my brother, little sis and my mom went to see it. All of use loved it. Yes, it's stupid. Yes it has too many characters. Yes the twins could easily have been substituted with Arcee. But I still enjoyed it very much and thought it had some cool stuff.

    It is to be noted that I enjoy pretty much every Michael Bay movie except the majority of Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II.
     
  16. MPH

    MPH Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Talking to people who have seen this and they weren't impressed! They said there was no story and the robots fighting was incomprehensible, pretty much echoing the critics and people on here.
     
  17. Tyson

    Tyson Fleet Captain

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    I'm disgusted that so many people praised Star Trek and then bash Transformers over the same retarded problems.

    Really people? Get over yourselves.
     
  18. Thrall

    Thrall Commodore Commodore

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    It reminded me a lot of Pirates 2. Alot of stupid, mindless, meaningless, but extremely gorgeous crap thrown in there to make up for a muddled and shaky script. Twilight is exactly correct though. You're not really sure what is going on, why you should care, or why it is happening. Because you have little to no empathy or relation to the plot or characters, you just don't give a shit. So scenes that should be exciting, are boring because of it. You just get tired of the explosions and just want them to move along with the fucking plot. Which, because it gets dragged down by all this stupid bullshit, moves along at a snails pace.

    Micheal Bay must just think he's the King of Comedy. All of his films are full of this stupid, immature brand of comedy. And sometimes it works. Like in Bad Boys 1 or the first Transformers. And it works becuase it doesn't distract from the plot or story, and is secondary to everything else. But then he goes overboard with it, like in this film or Bad Boys 2 where it becomes a central point and it distracts and drags down the film and slows down the plot. I mean, did you really have to show 2 rats fucking like humans in Bad Boys 2? Did I really just pay money to see Devestator's nutsack and the Sector 7 Guy's taint? If I did, then fuck you Micheal Bay. This is Transformers not Bruno you moron.

    Sam, Mikela, Mom, and Dad are all parodies of themselves. Sam has shown no growth in character at all from the first film and is still the akward teenager trying to get the girl. Only this time she's already won, so his character arc is pointless. Mikela has become Sam's version of Harley Quinn. She's obsessively clingy and borderline stalkerish. And her whole world seems to revolve around him, as she has no character development of her own to speak of. (Honey, you're 18. You are NOT in love. You're just easily impressed.) Dad still gets the job done I suppose. But I'm convinced now his Dad has a fetish for retards, because no mother is has stupid and naive as his wife is. "Brownies from some nice white boys with dreadlocks.". Where you homeschooled or something Mom? Did you ever go to college? God, could you fall for a bigger cliche?

    All the new characters were annoying, stupid, and pointless. Grandpa Autobot and The Roomie especially. The Roomie had no reason to be there. And Gramps obviously is senile becuase he could have just gone with them and teleported them to where they needed to go or just flown them there. And how is an SR-71 old btw?

    The Chicken and Watermellon Twins just stole Jar Jar Binks's title as the most annoyingly racist CGI characters ever. The only way they could get more racist is if the RC tripplets were fat and white so Clevon and Sharnell would be in love. Why were cool characters like Ironhide, The RC Tripplets, Sideswipe, and The Doc confined to minor roles and these stupid, insulting characters made to be the stars of the show? I dont' mind un-PC humor at all. But this ain't fucking South Park. And Micheal Bay ain't Trey Parker. No matter how much he wants to be. Who thought this was a good idea? Did they not remember the fallout from Jar Jar? And with Jar Jar, it was just implied. They didn't even try to disguise the racist humor here.

    Megatron and Starscream are reduced to the roles of the incompetent hired muscle. The Fallen is cliche, boring and completely underwhelming. Jesus Optimus was a tired concept 20 years ago. And The Army Guys basicly do exactly what they did in the first movie, except in reverse. So I think I about covered everything.

    The action was well done though. They got rid of the shakey-cam, which I hated. So every scene is right out there in the open. The Sector 7 Guy is still funny. The tech used by The Decepticons is amazing, but they never do anything remotely cool with it. The Fembot was awesome, and they really should have done more with the Transformers looking like humans thing. Seeing the US Army kick ass is always fun as well.

    I really can't recommend this film. It's stupid, pointless, and crude. And this is coming from someone who usually likes those 3 things. It has it's moments here and there I guess. But there's just too much mundane crap that drags the film down for it to be totally enjoyable.
     
  19. Trippy

    Trippy NaNoWriMo Victim Admiral

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    My review:

    Meh. I just couldn't get even wound up enough to have my intelligence insulted (humping dogs and robots...are you serious?)

    My son wasn't even as excited after as he was with the first film. (he probably didn't get all the ball sack humour either)

    :rolleyes:
     
  20. INACTIVESamusAranX

    INACTIVESamusAranX Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Care to elaborate?