Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review
Jun 24, 2009 by Vic HoltremanHow does Transformers 2 compare to the first film? Find out here…
Short version: Just like super-sizing a McDonalds meal doesn’t make it taste any better, neither does giving us more of what was in the first film improve Transformers 2.
Screen Rant reviews Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Regular readers here at Screen Rant are familiar with my disdain for the first Tranformers movie. While many agree with me and others disagree vehemently – both sides have been expecting me to skewer Michael Bay’s Tranformers 2. I didn’t go in expecting much, and that may have actually caused me to not judge it quite as harshly as a lot of other reviewers are doing.
The (very thin) story here is that of Sam (Shia Lebouf) heading off to college, trying to go back to a semblance of a normal life – where you don’t have giant, talking robots that turn into cool cars. He’ll be leaving behind tough biker chick Michaela (Megan Fox) but they’ll continue a long distance relationship through the wonders of the internet.
Before Sam leaves, he discovers a shard of the “All Spark” is still in his possession – when he touches it, it has some sort of effect on him and is shown to still have the power to animate mechanical objects. Thinking he has it safely secured, Sam heads off to college where he meets his roommate Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), a guy who runs a website dedicated to robot sightings which is not nearly as popular as he imagines it to be.
It turns out the Autobots have been working with the government trying to track down the vestiges of the Decepticon robots that are still on Earth. It looks like the Decepticons have been searching for something, but no one (not even the Autobots) know what that might be.
Of course the last thing that will happen to Sam is a “normal” college experience, and he is soon drawn back into the world of the Transformers. He’s joined by his reluctant roommate Leo and of course soon enough by Michaela and the buffoonish (now ex) government agent from the first film, Simmons (John Turturro).
From here the whole point is to stop the Decepticons (led by the ancient robot called “The Fallen”) from getting their claws on a device that is of course a danger to all of humanity.
And it takes a really, really long time.
In Revenge of the Fallen there’s more of everything that was in the first film: More robots, more explosions, more soldiers, more battle scenes, more juvenile (and inappropriate for kids) humor and more foul language.
In the end it doesn’t make this film any better than the first one – it just makes it feel longer. I was surprised to learn that this film is only 6 minutes longer than the first one… it feels a LOT longer than that. Thirty to forty minutes could have been cut pretty easily – it’s a movie about giant robot battles, does it NEED to be two hours and twenty minutes long? Even the scenes most people go to see, the battle scenes, drag on far too long.
So what was good? I liked the scenes involving the military, great stuff. I liked that Bay pulled back the cameras on the robot battles so you can actually tell what’s happening (although the shots were too tight once again at the end of the film) – and about the best robot fight took place in the forest. Not “awesome” but probably the best thing in the film.
On the bright side, I actually liked Kevin Dunn as Sam’s dad in this one, although the mom annoyed the heck out of me again. Aside from the “humor” I’ll describe below, I thought some of it was actually OK – even Turturro wasn’t quite as annoying. The CGI was excellent, although at this point for a film like this that should be a given.
What wasn’t so good? Well, beyond “everything else,” a big pet peeve of mine about the first film was the juvenile humor that I didn’t think fit with the action. In the sequel, most of the “humor” happens during the first third of the film and thankfully it’s not as prevalent later on (although it still pops up from time to time). In this film, instead of masturbation jokes, robots “peeing” fluid on people and acting like teenage girls hiding in a back yard, we have dog humping (twice), a robot humping Megan Fox’s leg, gigantic robot testicles, farting robots and a college professor who’s introductory lecture is limited exclusively to veiled sexual references.
There’s also TONS of inappropriate language for the under-10 crowd that is sure to show up for this movie – including but not limited to a**hole, pu**y, ball sack, b*itch and sh*t. And of course in addition to the lingering shots of Megan Fox, there are suggestive scenes with actress Isabel Lucas, including an obviously carefully crafted “peek” shot of her rear/crotch.
I only mention all this because over and over and over again I’ve heard in defense of the first film: “It’s a kids movie!!”
Right.
And despite all the action I found myself kind of bored… I actually almost nodded off at one point. Again: TOO LONG.
Oh, and yes, there are a couple of robots in the film (the “Twins”) that talk and look like something out of an old minstrel show – that was pretty hard to fathom. I could possibly see if they acted like rappers (due to absorbing what they’ve seen on MTV or something), but ignorant, Southern, gold-toothed robots who can’t read? It was reminiscent of the two black crows from Disney’s Dumbo (which was made back in 1941). Of course one of the actors providing the voices is black, so I’d be curious to hear his take on all this.
So, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is more of the same. If you thought the first one “rocked” you’ll probably think the same of this one; if you thought the first one was terrible, you’ll probably think this one is even worse. Me, I had such low expectations going in and already knew what to expect based on the first film. I didn’t have such a violent reaction to it – although I certainly don’t intend to ever watch it again.
If you plan on bringing kids, I would highly recommend you check this out yourself before bringing them.
Our Rating:
2 out of 5
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well said ken, i agree with that.
groups can go negative though too
we all did at ultra violet
thats my number 1 piece of trash to grace the big screen, and it looked so cool 2.
Well, but ultraviolet just sucks so much, I don’t think anything could have saved that…
“I don’t think anything could have saved that…”
Canceling the project would have saved it, lol.
No, that would have saved us, not it, lol.
beyonce , alba , and berry pop up on screen half naked doing the shakira shuffle for like 5 min of that movie.
hell id buy the dvd
As long as Beyonce and Alba don’t try to act them I would enjoy that.
1 funny little add on i just found, looking for the worst reviewed movie while still relevant and made it to theaters.
its disaster movie. kinda ironic eh?
lol
i just saw it.. and completely agree with your review, every dumb joke, every shot and scene which could have been cut, every time those twins were on..i cringed.. but i still give it a 3.. cause optimus prime was amazing in that forest scene.
Ratchet was like in there for 1 line…they didnt expand on cool autobots like the arcee (the bikes) or sideswipe..but on the twins (throw up), and the ending was too fast for a final bout. And yeah those dick and fartjokes just took me out of the whole movie.. maybe im just getting old or if i wanted to pay for actual comedy; ill see one… hopefully bruno will have me rolling.
rich look no further than what Ken said to see my point. Explosions and eye candy make money. It’s not about being a good film. People had fun watching transformers because some people enjoy simple explosions. That doesn’t make the movie good because by no means is it good. It’s simply not good. I don’t like overly simplistic idiot eye candy. I like to think I like movies that require at least a 40 IQ to enjoy. A rock could enjoy transformers because ohhh explosions and Megan Fox.
Exactly Daniel,
One might as well just substitute explosions and leering shots of hot chicks with rocks and trees. The only thing that separates them is that the former triggers base physiological reactions, and the latter does not, but in both cases it’s just an exercise in “stuff watching” instead of getting involved in a story or characters you care about, which – unless you’re dealing with straight up parody, is kinda the point of most movies.
Or so I thought, at least.
I saw one critic (and I’m not sure he wasn’t entirely being dryly sarcistic), who compared Bay to Jackson Pollock, laying down paint randomly without organization,form, or idea, – like some kind of art movement where traditional notions of good film are deconstructed, then obliterated utterly and completely. Kinda like the DaDa movement in art. It’s anti-art, art.
I think that gives Bay a lot more credit than seems likely for someone such as him.
I did however, give a moment’s thought to the idea of Bay using his films as a sociological experiment.
“How incoherent and disjointed can I make a film and yet still have millions of people gobble it up like it was veal tenderloin on sale at $2.00 a pound?”
This whole review is pointless. Why dont you have a different Screen Rant Dude that actually liked the first Transformers movie and review Revenge of the Fallen? Vic, you hated Transformers 1, so why would you like the 2nd one? This movie was created for the fans of the first movie. The movie was not created for the people who hated the first movie. This doesnt tell anything to the fans. It just annoys us to hear the people rant on and on, on how they hate both films.
a horrible film.
what was bays audience? too crude for the kids (there was 2 rows of families with under 10′s sitting in the row in front). and too stupid for anyone over 15. the series has one swear word in the pilot and that’s it.
i won’t even bother mentioning the crudely done sexism or racism as they are so blatant
defenders of this movie tend to say “but what did you expect?” well i expected characters from the first movie to be explored more deeply, i couldn’t even tell you if ratchet was in this movie or not. i only know iron hide was because he got a line, maybe 2 at the most.
I expected a plot that was driven by the robots I’d paid to see, not one that used them as set pieces and defiantly not an advert for the army.
i can see bay was going for a more decepticon angle on this film, but that doesn’t mean you have to cut out nearly every single line for the autobots. The fallen just made megatron look weaker in comparison which will be bad for the franchise.
the whole plot still felt human driven, most of the scenes were filmed from the human perspective looking up, not from the bots perspective looking out and down. this grates with me.
putting a voice over on the intro that says “we have some new allies” and then not exploring them further is a travesty.
the sound was ok and i’m glad they still made soundwave competent but thinking about the toy will any kid really go “ooh, a geosycranous orbit satellite” when unwrapping their new soundwave toy? why didnt they explore the cool characters like devastator more?
SPOLIER ALERT
the plot was inane. why didnt they all just focus fire on the pyramid at the end? why did they need to get sam to optimus, what made him so special? nothing he’d already gotten his ass kicked by rank and file cons before this point.
I won’t be getting the dvd or watching it again at the movies
burningeko…. because only an optimus can defeat the fallen..lol.
although thinking back i really liked that he used his guns more.. and the sound of them…during the forest scene really sounded cartoony… loved that.. zap zap.
isnt bay producing the remake of nightmare… lets hope for the best.. and fear the worst
@burningeko
yeah maybe try watching the movie. you missed obvious things that they explained like only Optimus could kill the Fallen. you talk about no plot or story but you really have no clue what you’re talking about. get your info straight before you go bashing something for the wrong reasons.
so now we’re not allowing comments that don’t meet your approval? very mature to post just what you want on your site.
@Soundwave – What are you talking about? The only posts we block are one filled with vulgar or profane language and posts that are downright personal attacks of someone else in the comment section.
Did the post you are referencing meet any of those requirements?
“the series has one swear word in the pilot and that’s it.”
watch the first one again buddy
“get your info straight before you go bashing something for the wrong reasons.”
finally! someone else who understands
@Paul
no it had one curse word in it – the s word and it wasn’t a personal attack at all. i was saying that many people come to this post over and over and say how much it sucked. why keep coming and posting on this thread if you hated it so much. and they sure do know so much about the movie for haters. i will laugh extremely hard if RotF passes TDK for first 5 days. It most likely won’t but it is very close.
McG – hate to break it to you pal but this battle was like Tyson vs Spinks 90 seconds and poof you lost.
Look at the list of the biggest money makers of all time. They are some pretty good movies. Only one stands out to me that wasn’t great and that’s The Revenge of the Sith. And that wasn’t even that bad. I enjoyed it.
another thing is a lot of people like to say “watch it fall off the cliff in the second and third week”. well duh, obviously people want to see it right when it comes out because they are excited so of course the numbers drop in the following weeks.
112M on opening weekend.
Soundwave,
Numbers always drop (unless it’s a sleeper). The question is, by how much?
An average drop is about 50%. An extremely good drop is 30-40% and an abysmal drop would be over 65%. If film-goers feel on the whole, burned by the experience, expect a sharper drop than not.
And Episode 1 is on the top B.O. list too, and Titanic is #1 (which in spite of it’s critical success, has actually suffered in reputation since). It’s hit and miss. I mean, “Pirates 3″ wasn’t horrible, but it’s hardly great either. It’s way too long and over-plotted. It’s only marginally good, as are several others in the top 20. Spider-Man 3 is on the list too. “Shrek the Third” is #19.
A few films there can be said to have been great, but certainly not all but the one exception (Sith).
Greatness is more than Box Office results. It is only one measure of several. Longevity is another. How many people who saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” still re-watch it and remember it fondly today? Back before the DVD age, my family ended up buying at least two replacements for that film because we WORE OUT THE TAPES, and I own it on DVD now.
Will people remember ROTF the way they remember films like Raiders, Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, or The Shawshank Redemption?
Take a look at what films people vote on at the IMDB top 250 and compare it with the ones on the top B.O. list. Offhand, I saw only “The Return of the King”, “Star Wars” and “The Dark Knight” on both lists.
B.O. does not equal longevity. The Transformer films will likely be forgotten in ten years time, relegated to side show attractions that made a ton of money, but which few will remember well. In order to be great, you’ve got to be remembered. To be remembered, you’ve got to reach a lot deeper than “Transformers”.
“In order to be great, you’ve got to be remembered”
I agree.
Just saw the film. I’d give it about a 3 out of 5. The twins didn’t bother me as much as I thought they would; they were annoying though. The forest scene was great, with Prime showing how much of a hero he is. But I liked the battle in Egypt more because it was longer and, of course, more action. This film will get the honor of being the greatest money maker this year but it is not the best movie this year.
I thought Passion of the Christ was great. As a Christian, it showed me just what my Saviour went through for my salvation. It was very hard to watch though.
I love it when people seem to need to know that others agree with them in order to feel good about their own opinions. Seriously, who cares if this does well or not in the BO, like it or don’t like it based on your own opinion, that’s it. If someone doesn’t like the movie, and it does well in the BO, so what? If a movie sucks it sucks, doesn’t matter how many people it fools. Not saying this movie sucks, just making a point that BO doesn’t actually mean anything other than how well they marketted the movie…
I did see the trailer Gamer before ROTF started. I remember reading about Gamer here but didn’t see the trailer. It looks like it could be a pretty good action flick about convicts being used as avatars in a real-life game to the death. Sounds like a mixture of Bruce Willis’ movie and Death Race.
There are a lot of different ways for a movie to be great … we always want to point to the tangible (box office receipts) or something we can assess critically (plot or lack thereof), but then how much weight do you give one quality vs another? You’re right back in subjective territory, just as Ken has pointed out.
Kind of funny that The Passion of the Christ has found its way into a Transformers thread considering they are about as different from each other as it is possible to be … good old stream of consciousness. Amazing piece of work, that movie (the Passion) is.
mehhh. the best christ movie by far is
jesus christ superstar..
that bass line when hes getting whipped is sweet
i somehow found that old lp. i just need a record player