What do you expect out of a Michael Bay film? Explosions? Big freaking robots? The extremely hot Megan Fox? Well that is what you get from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. You get what you expect – a solid film lacking a story with a ton of eye candy. But honestly, how many of you out there were expecting a storyline at all?
The latest from Paramount, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will do well at the box office, without a doubt. Why do you ask? Its the Transformers, for Pete’s sake. While sitting in the theater, way early, my buddy and I just steeped ourselves in the talk about the upcoming screening. The geeks in the theater were astounding… the mythos behind Transformers, the newest toy line and the molds that they have seen, the price tags on toys these days – and much, much more. This is why Bay’s latest creation will do so well. There is a fan base that is beyond all imagination. The Bumblebee
With the above said, the movie was a solid movie. An action film that brought home the action by tons. A running time of 150 minutes is very, very long. Up to 35 minutes could have been cut out and it would have been a better film. The sheer time frame, the scale of the Robots, the story they were trying to tell – it was all very much over the top. It all fits together nicely, even if it seems a bit much for me. Bay does know what he is doing whether you like him or not; he put together some of the cleanest actions shots around, if you ask me.
The storyline I will leave for the movie to tell you. Its there, amongst the warring machines. Like I said, not the most substantial something, but we all could respect and agree with the premise for the most part.
The Transformers are definitely more the stars of this film than the last. As referenced in our Cool Facts about Transformers piece, there are over 40 robots in this film as opposed to the weaker crew of 14 from the first film. The action is cleaner, and to my amazement clearer to the eye. The action scenes were very impressive and as realistic as they could be given the nature of what the Transformers actually are.
The acting is on par with the first film. Nothing spectacular but overall a competent job. Tyrese and Josh Duhamel lack any distinguishing skills whatsoever in this movie. Their scenes seemed to be forced – it’s Monday, punch the clock. Megan Fox looks hot as always but in a very fake way. In every scene she was in, her breasts were very cleanly shot throughout and always the center of attention. As a guy I am not complaining, but make it realistic! You can spend millions of dollars of robots that you might mistake for real, but explosion after explosion, and still pretty in pink, come on Bay, you are missing something in your fantasy world. Maybe he outsourced directing Megan… anyway, Shia is back too doing his same impersonation, the cross between Indy’s kid and Sam, destined to (reluctantly at first) save earth.
I would like to point out two scenes to look for. I won’t go into any details, but look for the Fallen and a scene with a Decepticon in a fire. I am pointing these two out as they look like absolute crap – something that maybe ILM pushed to the their home PCs. While you can’t have everything, you need it to be 100% believable for the entire movie. A bummer to see this happen.
There will be plenty of people that come out and bash this movie, and Bay for that matter. Like I said, it suffers from a lack of character development within Robots and Humans alike. This movie is a ton of action and excitement, featuring the best from ILM and their freaking huge Robots. Car chases, super large explosions, Bumblebee crying and more. If you are there to watch a movie for what it is and leave your brain at the door, this is a great one to check it our for
