I know folks come here for G.I. Joe news and perspective, but as regular visitors know, I delve into other things from time to time. Considering that last night I devoted 5 hours of my life to drive down to the nearest IMax theater and spend 2.5 hours with Michael Bay’s most recent Transformers film, I figured maybe it was worth a few more minutes of time to talk about it, since I’m sure many of my regular readers have an interest in this property as well.
As I’ve already documented, around the country this movie has been getting pretty harsh reviews, and it currently sits at a measly 20% (out of 100) on RottenTomatoes.com, but many of my peers who have seen it have given it fairly decent reviews. I’ve heard lots of comments like “check your brain at the door”, which generally I don’t mind doing when it comes to the summer popcorn flicks. However, for Revenge of the Fallen, you not only have to check your brain at the door, it’s best just to leave it at home in bed, or else you’ll find yourself scratching your head many times throughout the film just trying to figure out what the heck just happened, why it happened, and how it got past the editing stages.
That’s not to say I hated the film…I actually didn’t. It was an entertaining 145 minutes (well…a lot of that time was entertaining, some of it was downright bizarre), and I felt like it was a fun movie to watch, but by the end I just felt…I don’t know… unfulfilled? I had no emotional attachment to any character in the movie, robot or otherwise, hell I didn’t even know who many of the characters were, and by the end, it just felt like a somewhat empty experience. I mean, I knew I spent a considerable amount of time witnessing the world in peril, lots of explosions, death, and huge robots whaling on each other, yet after the film, it just didn’t feel like any of it really left an impact. This is considerably different from the first film, when I felt goosebumps and anxious anticipation almost around every corner. This time around, it seemed very “ho hum” which is really saying something, considering the spectacle of the whole thing.
I didn’t even really care about the bathroom humor, which is what a lot of folks are kind of complaining about… the twins didn’t offend my delicate sensibilities (hell, I laughed out loud when one of the called Leo a pussy before fist-bumping the other one), Wheelie was annoying, but not much else, and I think the whole bruhaha over Devastator’s “wrecking balls” was pretty overstated, after actually seeing the film. To me, the problem is more systemic, and it’s something that carried over from the first film. The issue is that the screen writers and Michael Bay don’t seem to see the Transformers as characters. They’re scenery…props…nothing more. They might as well just be tanks or hummers that walk and talk. And when they try to give the Transformers character, they just end up making them charactitures instead. “Oh look, those Twins! They’re the “hip hop” guys!” “Jetfire! He can be the stereotypical old codger!” “Wheelie will be small, wise-cracking sidekick!” Bay promised us more robots with this second film, and he delivered, but the only problem is in this case “more” does not equal “better”. Sure, we got more robots, we got bigger robots, we got more elaborate set pieces, explosions, and events, but for crying out loud, some of the new characters weren’t even named, you only saw them for the briefest split-second, and in the end they were just as meaningless as the first film, there were just more of them.
As a perfect example of this, we see Demolisher in the beginning of the film get pretty brutally taken down by Optimus Prime…however, then he shows up again later in the film to form Devastator with no real explanation or reason for doing so. Then there’s this cement truck (who’s name I don’t know because we never heard it in the film) who combines to form Devastator, yet then he shows up again a few minutes later in a separate scene acting as a gun turret. Along with that we have Rampage, who actually was called by name, who is a bulldozer and appears in a separate scene while Devastator is doing something else. Is Rampage a part of Devastator? I have no idea…I honestly can’t remember what kinds of vehicles were used to form it, but it would have made sense considering he’s a construction vehicle.
The battle in Egypt was really frenetic with a team of Decepticons bearing down on NEST and the Autobots, but besides Megatron and Starscream, none of them are ever named, or even shown in clear view. We have Blackout making a new appearence, only apparently he’s Grindor now, but no one in the audience realizes that. Hell, “Devastator” from the first film comes back again, even though Prime cut his head off in the first one, yet again he’s not called by name, nor is any explanation given as to why or how he somehow returned.
And this is the essence of my problem. To the filmmakers, the film really is about Sam and Mikaela. They are the main characters. The huge robots are merely set-pieces to compliment them, which I guess is okay, but considering the film is really supposed to be about the robots, it would make sense to me to make it more about the robots.
Of course, this doesn’t even get into the various McGuffin devices like the Space Bridge or the Matrix, or the fact that Agent Simmons can call an Aircraft Carrior with a random Jordanion walkie talkie and order a rail gun strike on a target even though the guys on the ship have no clue if he’s even who he says he is. Or hell, how it is that Jetfire can basically rip himself apart, and his pieces just sorta magically attach to Optimus Prime and make him super powerful. I know, I know, “Jolt” charged them up with strange electricity, but who the hell is Jolt and where did he come from? For that matter, was I the only one who was really confused at the beginning when it seemed like the Autobots were all chasing Sideswipe, only it wasn’t Sideswipe because Sideswipe started chasing him too, and since I’m a toy nerd I know it was actually Sideways who they were chasing, but as I looked around the audience, no one had any clue whatsoever what was going on. To the unintiated it was silver sports car versus silver sports car, then one silver sports car cuts the other one in half with his kick ass sword.
I mean, really, almost the entire film was spent like this for me, and I’m a diehard toy nerd. Yet even I couldn’t figure half this stuff out. I can’t even imagine your basic 10 year old walking out of the theater. “Who was your favorite character, Son?” “Umm… I don’t know, dad, none of them had any names”.
Yet, even with all of these complaints, there were still aspects of the film I enjoyed. Pretty much every scene with Optimus Prime was awesome. The battle in the forest, the fight in Shangai at the beginning…the culminating battle and the end. It’s quite obvious in this film franchise, Optimus Prime is the MAN. He’s not just a good leader, he’s a pretty kick ass soldier, and it’s also obvious that the label “Prime” really means something here.
I LOVED Soundwave and Ravage. They were probably my favorite characters in the entire film. Soundwave’s updated alt mode made a lot of sense, Ravage kicked some serious ass, was quick and stealthy, yet he met a pretty brutal and vicious end at the hands of Bumblebee…another very cool scene.
The Fallen was pretty cool as well, though I was surprised at how subservient Megatron was to him…that struck me kind of odd. Speaking of Megatron, he, too was a huge improvement over his previous incarnation. Somehow he’s now a Triple-Changer, which was never explained either except to show the Decepticons beat a poor Constructicon to death deep below the ocean, then use his parts to rebuild their leader. I do love Megatron’s new look, which retains much of his sinister appearence from the first film, but with some cool as hell bulky tank-like pieces as well.
Starscream and Megatron played off of each other much better in this film than previously told, too, which was cool to see.
So yeah, overall, the experience was a bit tough to describe. On one hand there was plenty of spectacle, action, and kick ass robot battles. On the other hand, pretty much all of that was rendered meaningless by the fact that I didn’t care about any of the characters involved or the outcome of the event. At times I smiled and laughed, at other times I scratched my head, so here it is, nearly twenty-four hours later, and I’m still not entirely sure what to think.
I know the film will rake in the cash, it already has, but ultimately time will tell whether it can be considered a “success”. All I know is the bar has been set at least somewhat lower, at least in my mind, for what the G.I. Joe film will have to meet. As the days go on, I get more and more optimistic about what August 7th might bring.
great review! very fair, hopefully i’ll take the film the same way as you did when i see it later tonight.
Totally understand. I left only knowing characters just because I knew the toys. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the film for the same reasons you did: kick ass robot fights. I did feel, however, that the robots got some more “character” time, at least, more than the first movie (even with all the unnamed ones). I guess my expectations were set with the first movie…I knew he wasn’t going to really make the Transformers “real” characters, so I wanted him to at least show them more often and give them more to do the second time around, and I got that! I knew this wasn’t gona be an amazing flick, but I was hoping for crazy robot fighting entertainment, and this time around it was way better than the first! It’s tough to say how I feel when I agree with everything you said. It’s also tough to take the movie at face value when (as a good fan) I should be asking for more from movies based on age old franchises that I grew up with. Thing is, I kinda expect the same from G.I. Joe, and I’m really looking forward to it! I’m not sure what to ask from them, honestly.
Like I said, though, I do agree that the TFs should have been the characters from the beginning. We weren’t gona get it from Bay, though, so I took what we got, and it was fun, at least! Man, I guess I’m just as torn.
Anyway, in terms of Megatron’s form: He’s not a triple changer. His tank form is just a crazy jet/tank. I posted pics of the voyager figure (really accurate to the movie, as opposed to the leader figure) and that displays what you’re seeing in the movie.
http://www.joebattlelines.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12315
I do agree however I feel the fight scenes were better but the story not so much. I did get what I thought I would with that being said not a great movie and I hope that GI Joe will be at least this good.
I enjoyed the film my self but wasn’t great film I think it could be but it was a dicent filkm compared to the terminator movie which I did not enjoy
Demolishor does not “show up later”.
There are many Constructicons in the film, and they happen to share body types a lot. Demolishor dies in Shanghai, Scavenger forms Devastator’s torso.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scavenger_%28ROTF%29
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Demolishor_%28ROTF%29
Bonecrusher (not Brawl/Devastator, he was the tank!) and Blackout’s model reuses were simple budgetary reasons… the movie did have a higher budget but it still didn’t allow for an infinite amount of robots. I mean, the Rumble/Frenzy and F-15 bodies were reused countless times in the old Generation One cartoon (not to mention Sideswipe/Red Alert, Ironhide/Ratchet, Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen…) and no one seemed to mind, yet despite Grindor’s different coloration (not to mention the fact that he’s a CH-53E Super Stallion and not a discontinued Pave Low) people seem to conveniently forget this aspect of Transformers.
And honestly… you can’t tell the difference between an Audi and a Corvette? I know some people mixed Sideways up with Barricade because of some similar robot mode aesthetics but seriously.
Overall, I dunno. Maybe thanks to my status as a Transformers über-nerd I had no problems with the things that confused you so… but I loved the film from start to finish. It’s obviously not Transformers: Animated (the greatest thing to happen to Transformers in its 25-year history) but it’s a fun movie that pleases my action movie side and my Transfan side.
Those are all fine, valid excuses, Jay, but the issue at hand is that the Transformers “uber-nerd” is a minority when it comes to the film-going public, so many of those reasons, while they make sense, still make the film a jumbled mess to the mass of people who will see it.
Sure, in the G1 cartoon those models were all recolored for different characters, but they were actually on the screen for more than a few split-seconds so you could actually tell they were different. And no, when two silver sports cars are flying through the streets of Shangai, transforming quicker than my eye can follow, transforming back, then driving some more, I really can’t tell that one is a Corvette and one is an Audi. Hell, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because I didn’t know that Sideswipe was a Corvette and Sideways was an Audi before hand. They were never even named in the film itself.
You can write off any excuses or reasons you want, but considering the Transformers SHOULD be the main characters in the film (instead of just background scenery) I think these faults are glaring.
Never even named in the film? The NEST team clearly identifies the first car as a Decepticon… and then after Arcee and the twins fail to apprehend him, they say “Bring in Sideswipe!” and then you see a drastically different sports car. That’s about as clear as it gets without the characters shouting their names to introduce themselves.
i havnt seen it…may not. but i was kinda pissed when a friend of mine who did see it, told me of how soundwave never takes robot form much less fights on earth.
I completly do agree, great review.
I agree with you.
It was a big mess and really hard to follow at times.
I can give you my son’s perspective who is 10 years old and is a fan and knew the bots names and forms before hand, we saw them all at BotCon. And he was confused and was pissed that Devastator’s pieces were in TWO scenes at the same time. He was pissed that Devastator Sucked hard, literally. He was mad that they made him out to be some terror bot but if a little Twin could knock out his teeth while getting sucked in then he is kinda harmless.
He didnt get confused in the beginning scene but was thinking how are they going to make Devastator with Demolishor dead.
The last Egypt last stance fight is a GIANT pile. MESSy to say the least. Its just dumb. How did they not get killed. At one point they had like 3 Decipticons on top of them when the roof was torn over them, WTF! Were the Decepticons Stupid not to kill Sam, how is it possible that they made it.
And yeah, my son was happy at the end but very confused and wanted several explanations that I sadly could NOT answer for him.
Plothole-rific.
I am now WAY more excited for GIJOE!
Back when you linked to Latino Review, I read that site thinking, “Boy, these guys are negative…and who died and made them experts anyways?” So I took what they said with a grain of salt.
However, I know enough about you to know you’re generally a positive guy who is pretty well tapped into the 80’s toy scene, so if you liked or didn’t like something, chances are I will probably feel pretty similar about the whole endeavor.
I’ve really been on the fence whether to see Transformers 2, and I guess I still am. Your review punctuated the reasons for my indecision: I love the Transformers and want to see the cool stuff, but if the movie is going to be sub-par in areas of plot, excecution, and just general common sense, then I’m not sure I want to plunk down the money to see it in the theaters, especially since I’ll probably be getting the DVD for Christmas this year anyways. With money tight now, it’s not as easy for me to just say, “Screw it, I’ll go see it just for mindless entertainment.”
Getting really pumped up for GI Joe now; this is the first movie I’m seriously considering attending a midnight premier for. I may even go in costume, if I can summon up the courage to ignore how uber-nerdish that is.
My only real gripe about the movie was how Ravage was taken out. There is no way in heck that Bumblebee should have beaten Ravage.
just saw it today. to me it seemed bay was just trying to hard. in general people loved the action and humor in the first film, including me, but in this film he over did it on both. it was kinda funny seeing the dogs humping the first time but then a few minutes later we see it again, and the later on we see wheelie humping miss fox.
the bathroom humor is also over done this time around. first it’s with the kitchen bots, then with jetfire, then with leo. i thought for a second we’d actually see a transformer or leo go to the bathroom, if that’s even possible for a transformer. the mom getting high was funny for a minute but that scene kept going and going. it should have ended when the mom revealed she heard sam losing his cherry. and the thong scene was funny but it felt so out place.
when prime died no one seemed to care that much besides sam. there was more grief shown for jazz in the first film then for prime. also there wasn’t much screen tome focused on the transformers besides prime, wheelie, bumblebee, and the twins. and the twins yeah they sucked but there weren’t in it long enough to ruin the movie.
there was a ton more action then in the first but more doesn’t mean better. the action scenes in the first film were interesting, easy to follow, shot with some great angles by bay, and most important fun to watch. the action in this one was just a mess. now it wasn’t hard to follow at all, it was just kinda dull, at least for me.
all the above i could forgive if the plot was interesting, but it wasn’t. when i think of mindless but fun blockbuster flicks i think of a movie with a simple but interesting story with some nice action set pieces, this was not the case here. the plot was just boring and dull and the stiff acting didn’t help. if bay can learn some moderation maybe the third transformers film will be just as good as the first.