*** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Sounds a lot like Bad Boys 2, which I love dearly, despite how bad it actually really is.

Michael Bay is the ONLY filmmaker I can let slide when it comes to his indulgences and his particular style of filmmaking.

re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

We all have our guilty pleasures. Bay is not really one of mine, though I appreciate his visual flair. It is hard to get by his disdain for a coherent script or comprehensible motivation. The reviews for this aren't surprising, which is too bad. It seems to have amped up the first film, the good, the bad, and the retarded.

The man has found his niche though. Hope the fans enjoy the film. I hope my son does as well.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I have enjoyed the majority of Bay's films, with the exception of The Island. Revenge of the Fallen does have a few things in common with Bad Boys 2 - its overly long, everything is amped up from the original, there are thinner characters, more over the top 'humour', inadvertent drug taking, cameras spinning around actors and animal sex gags (rats in Bad Boys 2, Dogs and Decepticons - separately! - here).

I think the difference for me is that Bad Boys 2 seemed to benefit from being so over the top, whereas Revenge of the Fallen seemed to me to be out of step from the characters in the first film. I quite liked what Shia Labouf brought to Transformers, but felt he didn't have much character to work with this time out.

Also, if you're going to subtitle your film 'Revenge of the Fallen' you really should establish 'the Fallen' and give him some motivation. He's barely in the film and you never really get his relationship with Megatron, aside from a few mentions of master and apprentice which just brings up memories of Star Wars. Maybe I just don't have much memory of the old TV show.

It sounds like I hated the film, but I didn't. It does have its moments. I just feel that it's not too much to ask that my summer blockbuster have believable characters and consistent internal logic. This isn't as bad as Wolverine or Terminator Salvation, but I expected more.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Jim,

Not defending Bay but the title actually has a double meaning...

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Question for anyone who has already seen it: Is Beetlejuice in the movie? He was spotted on the set about a year ago but I don't see his name listed on IMDb.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Why would Michael Keaton be reprising his role for a Transformers movie?

All joking aside, I am starting to actually look forward to this. I hated the first movie, but I saw Shai Lebeouf on Conan and they were talking about the biggest real-life explosion involving the actual actors in movie history. Now I am intrigued.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Just saw it and was Dissapointed. Not crap but an average sequel. After loving the 1st one I was so looking forward to this.

Micheal Bay sometimes less is more. Just to much thrown in on this one. Didn't care about the human characters at all. John Tutturo (sp?) was one of the only bright spots. And with the action it was hard to keep track of who was who with the shaky cam and close ups, especially since most of the robots weren't properly introduced. The 1st one also had a better story to. Oh well, it is what it is.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Review Thread

Sounds like I'm going to love this film.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

It will be interesting to see how well this does at the box office. Roger Ebert gives it one star and local reviewers here give it their lowest rating. I bet it will be number one at the box office for it's first weekend.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Oh man this thing sounds like a turd. Part of me wants to see this trainwreck while another part of me has enough common sense to know to stay away. I think I'll listen to my common sense side.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I just got back from an early showing. I had a free ticket so figured why not. I should have stayed out. I went in already thinking this would be bad, but at least I'd admire the special effects.

Did someone forget, and maybe I haven't seen this but how can almost no one address the absolute crazy racism in this film(?) You've got a robot with a thick jar-jar type accent going on who they have shuffle around, be a bafoon, and with dialog that absolutely pushes PG-13 to the limit. If someone had told me I'd have a racist stereotype shuffling around as a robot saying "bitch" "p---y" "mf" at a continous pace, I would have not wasted time. I saw parents with kids walk out, and who the heck could blame them? Maybe it's the "uptight midwest" but I thought this was going to be a film that reviewed bad because it was all effects and no story. I could deal with that and say "bad film, but effects were good"

But what the heck is with messing up a film aimed at kids with dialog that makes absolutely no sense at all coming from a robot. (I mean, a robot calling someone p---- is ludicris. Do I need to walk out of a theater debating robot genitalia?)

This isn't just a bad film with good effects, this is a truly horrible film. There is almost no reason for anyone to suffer through this god awful mess.

I'm not normally all politically-correct, but the fact that I had no warning that there would be this kind of crazy stereotype presented through a set of foul-mouthed robots is mindboggling. I am absolutely puzzled that this did not get more of a backlash from the black community, because it's at least 10x worse then JarJar ever was.. at least JarJar wasn't adding to the stereotype with over the top language, libido and the like in a film aimed for the family.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Well, Bay has always targeted the mindset of a 14 year old boy in his films, so that sort of thing should come as no surprise.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

This quote from a reviewer made me chuckle -- and this is actually from one of the few positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes:

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen - WDCW

"Good when its good, but shockingly, horrifyingly bad when its bad"

I don't think I've ever read "shockingly, horrifyingly bad" used in a "positive" review before, lol.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

That review nailed what I saw.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I think it's some what sad Steven Spielberg's name is attached to this.

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Oh, I'm sure people will leap to Bay's defense, calling people who were bothered by it "uptight" or "taking things too seriously".

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I saw the first one on cable and still felt ripped off. Though I will never see this film, it is gratifying to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews. Unfortunately, it'll be a financial success. There'll never be a chance for this franchise to be done over and done right.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I saw a good chunk of the first one playing at a Walmart while looking around for other things. That was the ONLY aspect that kept me from feeling ripped off.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

Just fire up the animated movie and take a trip back to 1986. Problem solved.

The success of the first "Bayformers" always baffled me anyway, it was like "well we expected it to suck ... but it didn't suck that bad, so it's good" ... kinda like that kid in high school who told really corny jokes and was annoying but some how got a pass for all that and was semi-popular.

I think this second film will expose Bay's take on this franchise for what it is. No amount of Megan Fox or bright, over-saturated cinematography is saving this one from ridicule.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

What I still don't understand is if the Bay haters are already dead set on despising anything he does, why do they still continue to go see his films?

I liked this one as much as the first although I really liked the location of the climax in the first film more, it was the desert setting that turned me off, too bland and dusty.

For the most part I love what they did with the Auto's and Decep's, particularly Jetfire, going the elderly and wise 'Kup' route was just the way to go for him I think.

Can't say enough about Optimus in this one, he kicked ass and took names!

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I like The Rock and Bad Boys II and hate everything else that Michael Bay has done but I try to go in to his (or any) movies with an open mind and at least give it a chance.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I'll pop a review in shortly. This is easily Bay's least accomplished film. By any metric, it is a poor film. I have never been a huge Bay fan, but I would happily admit to his visual acumen...even that is in short supply for TF2.

The worst summer film I've seen since Van Helsing. And I thought the Trek script was bad (though the movie overcame that). This film makes Trek look like The Insider.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I have a hard time believing this flick, or any other flick for that matter, could be as bad as Van Helsing.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

It's absolutely as bad as Van Helsing. In some ways, worse. Since Bay is a superior director to Sommers and all that. Feel free to pay your money and make your own decision, though

I did enjoy Bumblebee, but all of his characterization is in the first film. He still remains the best design in the series.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I agree about Bumblebee, he's my favorite of the series by far. I sort of like how in this one he could speak but he chooses not to lol.

It's almost cute in a way.

Another Autobot I would like to have seen more of is Sideswipe, he was cool and only had that one scene in the beginning. Loved his line..."Punk-ass Decepticon."

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

What the hell happened to Sommers anyway? I thought the first Mummy was a lot of fun and actually is better than anything Bay has done IMO (Rachel Weisz was great). A great homage to the 30s-40s Universal monster films.

I guess maybe that film/script was a fluke.

Re: *** Official TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Discussion Thread

I liked Sommers' early stuff too, the first two Mummy movies were lots of fun and I also really enjoyed Deep Rising.