Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen --- review!
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Dir: Michael Bay
Stars: Shia Lebouf, Megan Fox
1st admission: I hate Michael Bay. He’s a Hollywood hack --- great at making big actions scenes work, which is cool, but terrible at finding the balance of action and story.
2nd admission: I really enjoyed the first Transformers movie. Yes, it was the same big action of a summer popcorn movie, but it had a story, fun characters, a sense of humour, and best of all, it moved along quickly. The only truly good Michael Bay movie.
I had heard Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was getting bad reviews, but I had no idea how bad it could really be. This movie is a real mess.
For starters its, like, 2 and a half hours long. You could have easily cut an hour out of this movie. The action isn’t handled well --- half of it is over-elaborate scenes of things transforming. I get it. They transform. I don’t need to spend a half hour watching it happen from different angles with spinning cameras throwing me into a seizure. The rest of the action is loud and incomprehensible. You just hear metal clashing and see metal clashing --- you can’t tell what’s going on.
They tried to recreate the fun characters from the first movie, but it comes off as pure hijinx. There are a ton of scenes that don’t move the plot forward and are just excuses for jackassery. “Oh man! First these killer robots are after us and now Mom ate some pot brownies! Bummer!” As individual scenes, there’s nothing really wrong with them, but spliced together, it’s an hour of scenes where characters are hamming it up and it stalls the motion of the movie. I never felt more restless.
Megan Fox --- a pretty lady, to be sure. So why do they cover her in chicken grease? She wants to be taken seriously as an actress, but her scenes are just excuses to have her bend over a motorcycle while slathered in baby oil. It’s not helping her complexion. It probably sounds mean, but I can’t wait for her star to fade, leaving her to appear in straight to video sci-fi movies.
The first movie had a cast of Transformers that they focused on, but in this sequel, there are hundreds of robots doing hundreds of things all in one confusing palate. And who is this new top bad guy (basically a rip off of the Emperor from Star Wars)? He actually had the line, “vengeance is mine.” I threw up in my mouth a little when he said that. Bad dialogue gives me hives.
Notice there’s no synopsis at the top of this review --- it’s because I’d be hard pressed to even tell you what this idiotic movie was about.
1 Dork out of 5 on the Geek-o-Meter. It’s too bad that Michael Bay uses his considerable technical talents for evil.
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Comments
Has any movie ever got 5out5
Has any movie ever got 5out5 on ur meter??? Seems like it is unattainable
I believe he gave Wall-E a
I believe he gave Wall-E a 5, which was deserved.
Really?
If you are going to a Michael Bay movie hoping for enrapturing plot and academy award winning performances...you are probably one of the few people going to Hooters for wings.
Some movies are just meant to be fun, and not taken seriously.
Maybe stick to art house foreign flicks?
Just because something is a
Just because something is a Michael Bay movie doesn't mean it gets a free pass to be horrible. He did say he liked the first one, didn't he? I like some Michael Bay, but I'd have to agree, this movie didn't make much sense and the action scenes weren't good. Did you ever think YOU might need to raise your standards a little? lol.
I think my standards are
I think my standards are just fine.
But my original point stands, some movies are not meant to be anything but fun escapes.
This movie is what it is. Pick apart the action scenes..dialogue..effects..plot whatever...all you do is ruin it for yourself setting the bar too high for a movie brought to you by Hasbro.
No, your point stands as
No, your point stands as your opinion, which is fine. To me, you are pretty much admitting that you don't have standards ("some movies are not meant to be anything but fun escapes"). I disagree. Some of us still measure the quality of our entertainment, even if its meant to be light. Just because its meant to be a big fun action movie, doesn't mean it should insult our intelligence.
Mindless escapades are fine,
Mindless escapades are fine, but if you're going to make the viewer sit there for 2+ hours, you need SOMETHING to tie it from one scene to the next, or you end up going "is it over yet?" about 45 minutes in, and keep asking it every 10 minutes after that.
Otherwise you end up with a movie that you might as well have rented and watched in 30 minute increments, because there's nothing you need to remember/care about from the previous scene.
A mind can only take so much action without reason, before it gets bored, and wants to think about something else for a while. Even if it's just "how does this tie to the previous explosion I just saw?"
I've heard the same type of
I've heard the same type of stuff from nearly every critic. Michael Bay is a hack, yet I still had high hopes for this movie. Even a simple plot would have been nice, but this was just a whole lot of nonsense.
FYI if a movie shouldn't be taken serious, then it shouldn't be made in the first place.
I have 112 million reasons
I have 112 million reasons why this review out of line. Look at the take at the box office. I did not go see this movie expecting Oscar calibur but the look on my kids faces and their imagination after this movie was well worth the $$$$$$
People like you that think
People like you that think that box office = good movie are the people that are fodder for this kind of trash. Your kids won't have much of an imagination if this is the only mindless garbage you shovel into their poor brains. No one expects Oscar calibre from the transformers but it shouldn't seem like it was put together by a 5 year old.
Dont be so shallow. There
Dont be so shallow. There was hundreds of spaghetti westerns that spawned a generation of "cowboys and indians". War movies, et al. So what if was a piece of trash. Stallone and Arnold would not have lasted a generation if it was not for mindless entertainment. Where does your kid get the imagination from: Not sure your age or sex, but who was your "pin-up"? Shaun Cassidy, Bay City Rollers, NKOTB, Barbie Twins, etc. I think these were all trash too.
Um...I'm saying that we
Um...I'm saying that we should have standards, you're saying we shouldn't. That makes you the one being shallow. That being said, don't put words in my mouth. There's nothing wrong with trash. But it's like eating candy. You can do it for a treat, but if you lived on candy you're teeth will fall out and you would be malnutritioned. Watching an Arnie movie is just fine, but you have to fill your world with more than that. As well, would you rather watch Raw Deal or Predator? I'd rather watch Predator, because it's a more entertaining movie than Raw Deal (to me, anyway). Under your argument, one can't be better than the other so no one should even discuss it. Did you ever think that dicussing movies might be fun for some people? Heck, you're doing it right now, so quit being such a hypocrite.
We will see how it...
We will see how it fairs in weeks to come. I have seen lots of films in recent years have great opening weekends (mainly because of hype) fall off the map after 2 weeks. I find that most action movies are more concerned with CGI than plot. Why can't there be both?
Just my $.02
I couldn't agree more Craig.
I couldn't agree more Craig. I loved the first Transformers, but this was just an excuse to blow things up and watch Megan Fox run for half the movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but had I known I would have never seen it in the first place.
Really???
You are going to see a movie about a bunch of alien robots that turn into cars and beat each other up...what did you expect?
Obviously a few of us
Obviously a few of us expected a good movie about alien robots that turn into cars and beat each other up, though that wasn't delivered.
The Rock was one of the
The Rock was one of the greatest action movies ever made and was directed by Michael Bay. Nothing he's done since or before has come close. He should have quit while he was ahead.