Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) (1 Viewer)

[Charles Knox]

Because if we start listening to critics and other trusted sources, we all would have a couple extra dollars that could be better spent on something more meaningful.

 

[Steve_Tk]

What I find amazing is how many people disliked the first movie, knew the reviews were bad for the second movie, then went to see the movie anyway in the first two days of release!

 

[Charles Knox]

Doesn't say a lot for the fate of humanity. It kind of makes one wonder if we are not moving towards the future depicted in the movie Idiocracy.

 

[TravisR]

I didn't pay a dime to see it so I just wasted my time. I'm sure Charles Knox will have something superior to say about that.

 

[Charles Knox]

Lucky for you, unlike others that it was only your time.

[edit] Before everybody paints me as some kind of snob, I am really bummed about the quality of the Summer movies this year, vs's last year.

 

[Stephen Orr]

Okay, my wife, sister-in-law and I (all of us are 50) went to see T2:ROTF at an afternoon matinee. All we were looking for was an action packed popcorn movie, and that is exactly what we got. My wife declared it as "awesome". Outside of the unnecessary sexual humor, we really liked this movie a lot, and we had just rewatched the first film last Saturday.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I don't allow reviews to influence me for one reason, sometimes you've got to wade hip-deep in shit to find the hidden and overlooked treasure.

Like when you were growing up, did your mother ever ask you "How do you know you don't like something if you haven't tried it?" same applies to movies for me.

Even when the majority hates a film it is still very possible that i'll like it.

If that makes me "snobbish" then so be it but I like to try different films, even bad one's, to find those gems that are universaly hated but turn out to be not so bad for me. Almost my entire catalog of favorite horror from the 70's and 80's came as a result of me renting anything and everything that the video store had, yes 85-90% were pure crap but there were some gems in there that I wouldn't have discovered if I had listened to people telling me that it sucks or to avoid it.

Life's too short? What the hell else am I doing that so important? I'm single, i'm not a big bar hopper or club goer...i've got time to watch crap and see if I like it or not.

I read reviews (they're fun to read) and if the majority of them state that a film sucks than I will take it under advisment but I will never let it stop me from seeing it for myself.

As for me not understanding what all the fuss is about with the twins i'll put it as plainly as I possibly can, it just simply did not bother me.

 

[Todd H]

Yikes. My brother-in-law was NOT happy. To put it nicely, he basically said he's tired of African American's being depicted as illiterate, ebonic speaking ghetto thugs gangsta's. For those of you telling everyone to just "relax a little," tell that to the people these stereotypes hurt. You'd think after electing an African American president we'd be beyond these idiotic stereotypes. Apparently not.

And with that I'm done.

 

[RobertR]

I don't think someone in your particular demographic is what people had in mind when they think it could be offensive, John.

 

[LynxFX]

Personally I thought the twins were rednecks. Which makes me ask, did people complain at the way Tator talked and looked in the movie Cars? This is just making much ado about nothing. Guess some people can't go a day without having some sort of conflict in their life. Moving on....

Watched it in Imax and was impressed by the scale. Just non stop. I liked the humor more this time. It did have its flaws. I thought there were too many transformers and way too many that looked alike. I couldn't even tell who Megatron was in the final battle. I also wish that we could have seen the transformations from a wider angle this time. The closeups just make it way too complicated to understand what is going on, and it felt like a lot of money was wasted on some of that CGI.

I liked it about as much as the first but it did lose a bit of the magic and awe of seeing a realistic transformer on the big screen for the first time.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I agree.

As for me not being part of the demographic that they had in mind, I can honestly say that i'm the kind of person who would really give two shits one way or the other if I were.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Did someone seriously compare Mater from Cars (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy and written by Pixar) with the twins from TF2, as conceived by Michael Bay? To specify some sort of equivalence?

Wow.

 

[RobertR]

Thus further demonstrating that you're not part of the demographic.

 

[Jeff Rogers]

(Comes in from Posting retirement to defend the film)


Hi all. I have to say I think this film was great. After all the reading and reviews I went in to the theater with my head down, thinking.." can it really be that bad?????"

And it wasnt. It was quite the opposite.


Basically it just took the first movie and gave it an energy drink and let it go wild. not much more to say.

Sure its stupid.. and loud.. and ridiculous....

But so was the material its based on. I would think that kind of spirit of being true to its source would be rewarded.

If I went in to the theater and Optimus and the fallen were in a coffee shop like in Heat.. I would be pretty dissapointed.

Loved it. Lots.

In my opinion its the movie of the summer..

I understand why some dont like it though....

If you didnt like the first there is no hope you will like this one.

Every single person Ive talked to loved it.

Boys.. girls.. wives.. mothers...

Peace out. See you all in 2011 for # 3 !!

 

[Chris Will]

Well, just got back from seeing this and I was a little disappointed.

I loved the first one, it brought back memories of playing with the toys and was a lot of fun to watch.

Revenge was just too much. I love action and explosions and loud movies, I love turning my brain of for summer movies but, this one just beats your head over and over with mindless action a little too much. What story was there was okay, about as good as the story in the first movie but, it was the stuff in between that got boring. 30 - 45 minutes could have been cut and we would have still gotten the point. When we finally get to the big climatic final battle, and 15 minutes into it, I was like "I get it already, robots and humans fighting with explosions and Sam running again, just end it and conclude the story please." I know what to expect in a Bay movie but, he indulged himself a little too much this time out. The editing was just tiresome as well; few minutes of dialogue followed by 10 minutes of action, then 2 minutes of dialogue followed by 15 minutes of action, repeat for the remainder of the film. It got old and ruined the battle at the end IMO. Terminator 4 was edited better IMO and that is not a compliment. The twins didn't bother me except that they were just horrible characters, almost Jar Jar level, and the movie didn't need them.

The other thing that really bugged me was the female decepticon robot. Now, it has been over 20 years since I played with the toys and saw the cartoon but I don't remember human transformers. I thought transformers could only imitate technology, not human forms. This was even stated in the first movie. I thought it was a really weak plot device and a cop out as well. Low point of the film for me and it never recovered much.

Not as bad as T4 but, unlike the first movie, I have no intentions of seeing this again in theaters (saw the first one 3 times). I'll probably still buy the BD because I'm a sucker and have to have all the movies in a series. Plus, it will play better at home when I can pause it to take a break or skip some of the pointless action. Of course it will sound amazing at home, will be a great sub workout movie.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Again, I wouldn't care if I were, just how I am.

 

[MickeS]

That's what I expected too. And about 30 minutes of this movie IS that. Unfortunately, there is another 2 hours of utter dreck attached to those 30 minutes.

I really like the first one, have seen it many times at home (looks splendid in HD DVD

), but seriously, "Revenge of the Fallen" is crap. Not because of the story, acting or anything else specifically - it is simply a movie that is mind-bogglingly incompetently made. It has scenes that don't even fit together, and make no sense whatsoever. The biggest star of the movie is arguably Optimus Prime, and he's out of commission for about 45 minutes or so in the middle of it. The first half of the movie has almost nothing to do with the second half. There's a TEN MINUTE scene with nothing but exposition where Sam & co talks to a geriatric Decepticon. There are way too many useless transformers with far too little screentime for each. And I won't even go into the stupidity of "the twins".

But worst of all, this movie committed the biggest sin an action-movie can commit - it is really, really dull. It went on and on and on with long stretches between real action and then scenes that were virtual carbon copies of the first movie, only less imaginative.

If you think "well, I just want explosions, fighting robots and humor" I suggest waiting for the home video release, because then you won't have to suffer through the rest of this mess. Or better yet, watch the first one again. The story is virtually identical anyway, and it's a better movie.

 

[Charles S]

I'm surprised by all the hate for Transformers 2. With the exception of some of the out of place comedy, which indeed was over the top, I LOVED it. (the theater I was in did laugh at every single joke, I suppose on a second watching it really won't be that funny)

It seems like people were expecting LOTR, or for these movies to get into some of the deep allegorical and typological aspects of transformers....but come on, this is Bay we're talking about...LOL!

The first transformers is my favorite movie since LOTR, and I loved ROTF just as much as the first one. (though not more) The non transformers fanboy buddy of mine who went with me, really enjoyed it, his only 2 complaints were that it was about 15-20 minutes too long, and that the first half of the movie had too much "juvenile humor" for a movie that had such a serious and dark tone to the last 30 minutes. I guess I agree with that once I think about it. However I think they got SO much right with this movie, from a transformers G1 fan's perspective (though I admit I haven't followed transformers since the 80's) that I guess I just over looked what bad there was in the movie. I mean I wanted to see transformers, with more of their backstory and mythos, and I feel like I got it. Not just Megatron and Starscream, but SoundWave, Ravage, transformers bleeding energon, and heck....ENERGON being what the war was really about in the movie. I really felt like I was seeing transformers, not not "giant F-ing robots".....

The twins were "cute" but I'm sure on a second viewing, I'll find them annoying so opinions might change. I also didn't get any racist elements out of but thought they were red necks as well, after all they had "buck teeth"...and that tends to be something we think of when we think of red necks. Again, yes, kind of stupid I guess now that I think about it, and it did have too much comedy (my friend said that yes, it was a really good movie, but it felt like 2 different movies)....but none the less, all the "trasnformery" stuff out shined all the rest. And yes, Optimus Prime was awesome in the movie. I'm sure I could pick it apart if I tried, but I really, really thought it was a great movie. Is it what I originally wanted as a transformer movie? Well, I suppose I guess not, but if I want an allegory for energy consumption, civil war, power, and a 'savior' I'll have to wait for DUNE, because we'll never get this out a transformer movie. This is as close as we'll ever get at least in my life time, and I can live with that. Again, maybe I just "fanboyed" out at seeing so much of the robots and even characterization, especially of Prime, that I over looked the negatives. As for the few plot holes, and the Fallen not being used much, I just assumed that was a build up to a 3rd movie with Unicron (where it would be revealed the fallen was basically taking a "Galvatron" like role of being a slave to unicron, and so was only a puppet himself, but maybe that's just my imagination running wild).......

In the end I loved the movie. And can't wait for it to come out on DVD. If I had the money to see it a second time in the theater I would.....but I'll save my $$$ to own it.

I do wish more people had enjoyed it more and am disappointed so many were disappointed, but it did have a lot of positives, but maybe only for us transformers geeks, who knows?!

 

[MickeS]

Total strawman arguments. Nobody went in expecting a deep drama. We went in expecting a kick-ass action movie that wasn't dumb, dull and incompetent, but that's exactly what this movie was.

Even you are constantly making excuses for the movie in your review. Why? You don't HAVE to.

There are plenty of talented filmmakers out there, directors and screenwriters, who could have EASILY put together a fun, action-packed Transformers movie that had heart and was entertaining. Hell, Bay & Kurtzman/Orci got pretty close with the first movie. Instead, we get this crap. The waste of potential is the thing that makes me the most disappointed.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

MickeS, your speaking as if your hated aspects of the film are hard facts when the mere fact that some enjoyed the movie proves otherwise.

Not everyone saw a "crap" movie made by a "talentless" group of filmmakers.

That's what gets me about the haters, they seem to forget that just because they think it's a bad film doesn't make it so. You saw it and thought it sucked and others saw it and thought it was great...it's all subjective.