Movie Review – Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen
Before filming commenced, internet legend has it that Michael Bay challenged McG to a ‘dick measuring contest’ – equating to Terminator Salvation versus Transformers.
While it’s hard to tell who has the biggest dick from the movies alone, Bay wins on sheer balls – quite literally at one point. Revenge Of The Fallen is bigger, badder and stupider in every way than its predecessor.
Its a fantastic ride, but one that suffers from Bay’s trademark crash-bang editing, meaning you’ll remember the set pieces, but struggle to care about the plot.
If anyone cares, it turns out that our chunky metal pals have been on Earth for a looooong time and first started showing up around 20,000BC (subtly illustrated with a cavemen vs killer robot fight). When our hero, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) accidentally gets some alien knowledge stuck in his noggin, it sets up a race around the world to find something called ‘the Matrix’ and thwart eeeeevil British robot ‘The Fallen’.
Yep, it’s a biblical allegory with added robot combat and, frankly, it’s all the better for it. Obama may want to take credit for bringing the boys home from Iraq, but it looks like most of them were needed to work on this, with masses of tanks, choppers and troops blowing the hell out of everything in sight throughout.
The film’s target audience is 15-year-old boys, and they get well and truly served with the explosive combo of sunset battles, cool cars, ultraviolence and Megan Fox’s super-tight jeans.
Robot-wise, the big names from the first film are back, with plenty of Starscream/Megatron bitching and a completely insane opening sequence in Shanghai, with Optimus Prime duking it out with what appears to be a demented, giant unicycle. Optimus gets an upgrade here too, with glowing sword attachments that will bring tears to the eye of 30-something men everywhere.
The films biggest problem is its choppy style, which shows up every flaw in the exo-skeleton. The movie tries a little too hard to be funny, with the always-value-for-money John Turturro fighting to keep his secret Agent wannabe afloat, and far, far too much comic relief. The idea of twins who talk in hip-hop rhymes may have been amusing in a cartoon when you were eight, but here it feels like overkill.
Gripes aside, this does exactly what you expect from a Bay film. Explosions, hot girls, piles of military hardware and nary a thought for plot as it hurtles recklessly toward an epic, money-shot climactic fight outside the pyramids. We get to see every penny of the CGI budget onscreen as upwards of 40 robots collide. If there isn’t a part of you that doesn’t enjoy the site of an especially massive robot called ‘Devastator’, complete with two huge wrecking balls between its legs, punching the top off the Sphinx, I pity you.
Crazed, hyperactive and nonsensical. It’s also curiously lovable and a true multiplex movie. Roll out and see it now.
This slice of wonderment was a guest blog by Interceptor from the brilliant Slashing The Seats. Pay it a visit, please
i thought the movie was amazing i dont care what everybody else says i loved it, im seeing it again tomorrow with a bunch of my friends. #1 fan!!!!!!!
lol
The movie was alright, but the ending was pretty weak. Also, this movie was based off the cartoon (apparently) and that was made for kids. That being said, there was far too much sexual shots and images completely innapropriate. The movie didn’t need that kind of imagry, and it just goes to show the director and writer of the movie lack imagination if they have to put that kind of garbage into their film.
I’m ashamed to have gone and seen the film, I do not support films with unnecessary nudity in them. All in all, two thumbs down.
your a fucking moron buddy lol
you are a dick head kitkat
do u have any idea which director and which movie are u talking abt ?????!!!!!!
i have seen every cartoon of the transformer and none had the idea that the film produced…………
I think this movie was not as good as the first, and is not worth spending money to see in the theatre. The acting was overdramatic, there were too many main villans and you couldn’t keep track of who was who. There was added humor where humor was unecessary, and ruined the scene. Lots, of repeition in fighting. You should not see this movie if you’re under 13 because it has certain scenes that are not appropriate for children, and unecessary pictures of girls. This movie got a D+/C- from the critics so clearly I’m not the only one who finds this movie bad. I reccomend you rent the movie on DVD as its a waste of money to see it in the theatre.
i guess this is your opion but i think you should know that this moive was create for people whom has a brain of the age of 5, it wasnt that hard to understand it, it was a great moive. and if u havent realized children see more inappropriate things from commericals than this moive my opion………………………….
p.s a great moive for who ever likes to see fighting action, and more, and still if u dont like action ir fighting still WATCH THIS MOIVE
I can’t believe this movie. The action was cool, but the plot was completely idiotic. And what’s up with the goofy star wars reference. (Picture Darth Vader bowing to the Emperor in Empire strikes back/Megatron bowing like a pathetic loser to the Fallen). The depiction of the robot twins was just plain racist, and the language was horrific. With just a few minor changes, this movie would have been excellent, but as is, it just fails.
I like the slow-motion in the Autobot fight scene and this time I can clearly see how a autobot get killed. This is a big improvement from the last film.
I agree. Bay tried too hard to make the film funny but I did not get any. The story is a bit too long and overwhelmed by the explosive scenes. It would be great if Bay can show different talents on each autobots in details.
Overcall, I will give this film a C+. maybe I expected too much before I watched it.
Follow me on twitter @seanbun
A++++++++++++ u guys are2 fussy
Mason you hit the nail on the head. The film was unbelieve period!!!!
u guys are idiots this si the best movie eva the action is so good slow motion i love transformers and bay’s idea is amazing captured every scene perfectly.shia lebeouf is great perfect fit 4 sam and megan is jjust as good
They really ruined this movie for the younger kids with the language and sexual bits mixed through the movie…the toys are marketed to the kids but the movie is unacceptable for younger viewers..what is up with that..Very disappointed to have this movie so out of control with also language..if they would have toned it down a bit I think it would have been a bigger hit for purchase down the line. My grandson loves the transformers but we can’t take him to this one..thank goodness his mom previewed it first..stop and think about the viewers.
Hmmm, firstly, I’ll hop on to the bandwagon of trashing the movie. It was fun to watch but with all the build up to it, you don’t really feel like bay beat his own advertising tbh.
Starting with megan fox, shes good looking, apart from the slow motion running scene in the desert to make sure you stay seated (if your a 15 year old boy) there wasn’t much sexual content. Well, other then that crazy decepticon-girl which I agree was totally pointless. That was a poor choice in my oppinion. Whats the point of having that in, doesn’t add to the story 1 bit.
Then for the twins. My god, their special effects just look cheap compared to the other autobots. Big goofy cartoon eyes, obviously meant as comic relief but then again, where are all the other autobots? A few scenes with optimus, fewer with the rest of them. It was basically a story of the twins and bumblebee…with lots of humans which were also either there for sex appeal or comic relief. Sam was the only somewhat ’serious’ character in there. I mean come on, the main cast was: twins(comic relief), bumblebee(badass who got his voice back at the end of the first movie just to lose it again this movie and revert back to radioman), Megan Fox (eye-candy), conspiracy nutcase(can’t even remember his name), Sector 7 Johnie(comic relief), Shia who ofc played sam and was the only ‘real character.’ So 1 star, 4 comic relief, 1 eye candy… Makes you wonder how Micheal Bay figured out that would be a winning set-up. In the first movie at least you only had sector 7 as the comic relief, the rest were at least somewhat believable. Well, not really but still.
Then devestator. My god I was on the edge of my seat when I saw him transform. I mean omg it was amazing, then he starts getting his ass wooped by the twins and I was considering asking for a refund. I mean my god, hes the first gestalt, a combination of 5 a few decepticons, either 5 or 6 decepticons get together to become nearly undefeatable. I mean in the cartoon movie devestator is the one to bring down autobot city in the end. I mean he takes on the dinobots and more and wins. In this hes a freakin joke. ‘Ooh, lets make him weaker then the twins’ – Brilliant. ‘Lets make him even more comic relief by making his wrecking balls turn in to his testicals’ – Brilliant. Who wouldn’t want one of the biggest badest decepticons and the first gestalt in a movie to be nothing more then comic relief.
Another thing I was really drawn to this movie about was something simple – they promised lots of autobots and decepticons. From the amount of part they played in the movie, you might as well have just added a screenshot of them at the end and said, there you have them. Worst part is that they really get your hopes up at the start with that entire hunt and destroy thing. You get to meet up with 4 new autobots and 1 new decepticon and a old decepticon from the first movie and get a nice fight scene. For all the good it is in the rest of the story line. You get a angry politician trying to pull the plug, some dead nameless soldier extras and no real change in the story line. After that first fight there, it seems to just go down hill. I was really looking forward to seeing some epic fights between autobots and decepticons but when that was supposed to happen, it was just a joke.
For example movie 1: Optimus vs Megatron. Megatron owned optimus, in this movie, its Optimus vs Megatron, starscream and the helicopter which somebody told me came back at the same time as megatron but I must have fallen asleep when that happened. Optimus kicks their ass until he starts talking to Sam. Then that final fight, the last stand where the military just happens to come to the rescue, I could ask who was fighting who? Nameless robots being destroyed by the handfull by tanks. Devastator getting owned by a single shot from a destroyer. A special shot sure but I’m glad he was so powerfull…and that when The Fallen decides to make the planet go bye bye they forget about this weapon again.
For me I have a simple system to decide if a movie is worthy of praise, if you enjoy it and would watch it again. So I did enjoy it, so all in all, it wasn’t a terrible movie. Will I watch it again…even if its on TV I’ll prolly never watch it again. Other reviews said there were holes in the plot so big you could drive optimus through them, I think thats being to kind, holes that big could sink the titanic. However there are lots of things that just put me off that movie. Also another thing is, if you watch the movie again, just think, if you changed the names of the people, would you even consider it a transformers movie? If you take a franchise as huge as transformers, I mean you have billions of options to include easter eggs etc in to the movie, this movie just didn’t seem to have them.
Also a few other things I didn’t like about the movie, first movie, autobots didn’t kill decepticons, just defeat them (cartoony) but in this one they don’t just imprison them or whatever, no, they execute them. I mean optimus just beats a decepticon down, he starts to crack and tells optimus something important and optimus uses a 1 liner more appropriate to a 80’s one-liner movie like Arnolds famous for, then he executes him. I mean, really, wahts the point.
Another thing is the ‘uber security’ guarding the very last remaining piece of the cube…a steel door on an open field next to the ocean. Ooh and 2 fences…Not to mention a pipe that leads outside for ventilation. Then when the alarm is finally triggered, the massive mobilization of 2 hum-vee’s and like 8 soldiers.
I could spend all night just writing out my frustrations about this movie but tbh these are some of the big ones.
-autobots OP
-decepticons nerfed
-humans by far the strongest
-characters don’t fit and aren’t believable
-CGI was great for the 5 seconds it took for the decepticons to die
-Plot holes
-Way to many attempts at comedy, was Bay trying to make a Action/Comedy?
Nuff said. I won’t waste my money. Thanx all.
I am so sick and tired of critics who look for “a solid storyline” or “character development” in a movie about alien robots who disguise themselves as regular earthly machines. Its an action movie where robots fight, of course there will be explosions. Would you rather they put on a tutu and dance? YOU ARE A STUPID IDIOT. This is a great entertaining movie, the CGI is amazing, Megan is hot and Josh is oh so smokin.
Transformers 2 reviews are useless because no Transformers 2 review will stop people from seeing Revenge of the Fallen. A Transformers 2 review truly means nothing, for if Transformers 2 reviews could stop big
Transformers 2 Reviews More Meaningless, Dreadful Than Ever box office, Michael Bay would be out of work. Michael Bay lives on his movies being critic-proof, and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen reviews are no exception.
Michael Bay – makes awesome movies that make millions in the box office, entertains a lot of people ( otherwise it wouldnt make millions ) versus critics who… who do what exactly again?
Mason I hope you read this because you are a retard. Your probably a fourteen year old using the number 4 instead of just saying four. You only liked the movie because your probably to young and stupid to understand what a good movie requires for a average human being to be entertained. I feel sorry for you…
damn i wanna watch dis movie,coz dis reviewer says “The film’s target audience is 15-year-old boys, and they get well and truly served with the explosive combo of sunset battles, cool cars, ultraviolence and Megan Fox’s super-tight jeans.”nd wtf i’m 15.
come on guys, the movie wasn’t terrible. I agree that the attempts at humour were unnecessary and only detracted from the movie. I thought that the twin autobots were pointless and didn’t need to be in the movie at all. However, there was a lot action in this movie. I enjoyed seeing Prime waste all the other transformers, as well as Bumblebee lay them out as well. However, the human vs. transformer fights I thought were not as good in this movie. It seemed that the humans could just take down the transformers just fine, which is all right, but all you wind up with when you put that in a movie is just a lot of explosions. Sometimes it was a little hard to stay focused on what was what, especially when all the transformers (apart from the Autobots) look alike, apart from the obvious ones as well. I wasn’t sure what the point of the girl transformer was, that confused me a little and they didn’t explain her. However, actionwise this movie I thought did very well. The plot seemed to copy the first movie’s plot too much. It just seemed too similar. On the whole I thought the movie was worth the $6 and should be sold for something no more than $15 in stores.
you guys who talk about the sexual content. what sexual content is there? Oooh, they’re lying on a bed kissing. Wow, really dirty stuff. I hope you don’t let your kids play any type of organized sports, because they will hear a lot of worse stuff and language in the locker rooms. Think about it, if you let them endure that for sports (not saying you do, but if you do) why wouldn’t you let them endure the stuff in the movie for the action sequences and the comedy (even though it was nonexistent in this movie)? Ask yourselves that.
yeah me again. Just wanted to say to that retard ThaChicken that he is a brainless invertebrate. Optimus executes a deceptcon in the first movie. Remember the fight on the roads, when he pulls out his sword and stabs that transformer to infinity. Yeah, get your facts straight, and it seemed like he was the only one in the 2nd movie who did any executing. However, your other points are sound.
this film was in a class of its own ive never seen a movie like this its a new generation of special effects when you watch this movie you know its a micheal bay movie i love all his movies and im a big fan!
Irene Jane you little effing plaguerist. WTF do you think you are doing taking Robert Dougherty’s words and saying they are your own. That is illegal and I hope you go to jail for it. I agree with Dougherty though, BUT NOT YOU! My point of view on the movie is this.
The Bad
1. The Twins – The Twins transformers were unneeded. All they did was take up movie time (since the movie did drag on) and provide critics with portals to bash Bay on his stereotyping and racism. Having them fight with each other constantly was very tiring for myself.
2. The girl Decepticon – It is very unclear what the point of her was, although you can speculate. My point of view is this; she knew that Sam had dealings with the Autobots, and she wanted to contain him. However, she did take up a fair bit of time and Bay should’ve made a shorter more enjoyable way to get Sam captured.
3. Devastator – I completely agree that to have Devastator whipped by the Twins was ridiculous.
4. Railgun – As someone stated earlier, where was the railgun when the Fallen arrived. Maybe it wouldn’t work on the Fallen, someone said to me. Well, if it wouldn’t work, please show that Bay instead of having your ridiculous Twins.
4. Sam’s mother – Sam’s mother was very tedious, and I am sure she got on most people’s nerves. Her crude remarks were overdone and very aggravating as well as her pointless arguments with Sam’s father. I believe it was an overeffort on Bay’s part for comedy.
5. Comic relief – take out the twins, and you still have awful attempts at comic relief from Sam’s group. Sam’s roomate and the Sector 7 guy didn’t need to make comedy. A few bits were good, like when they were sleeping, but when it is continuous it just gets nauseating. Jetfire was also irritating and overdone. It seemed as if the knowledge that he was absent-minded was trying to be drilled into the audience’s heads, which it didn’t need to be.
6. Sexual inuendos – Completely uneeded and only mildly funny. I am not going to say they are not appropriate for younger ages, but I will say they were pointless.
The Good
1. Robot fights – Indeed we did see a lot more fights between transformers. This was mostly dominated by Optimus Prime, but we did see sequences of Bumblebee, Ironhide, and I believe Sideswipe.
2. Optimus Prime Owns – Finally we see an excellent Autobot fighter in Optimus Prime. In the first movie, Megatron completely crushed Optimus. However, in this one, Optimus levels Megatron, Starscream, and two other Decepticons in one fight.
3. Romance – Despite what people say, the romance didn’t seem overdone. Thankfully Bay didn’t try to combine genres. There was just some at the start, two spots in the middle, and a finish at the, well well, end.
4. The story doesn’t end here. Happily there is another movie going to come. You shouldn’t have expected a deeply moving movie. Like others have said, you watch this to see the transformers fight.
The Ugly (to some)
Well, some of you will not like this, but I enjoyed the movie despite its faults. The opening sequence in Shanghai for me was what I wanted to see. I just couldn’t get enough of the robot fight in the woods. I also enjoyed the strain going on between the Oval Office and NEST. And Optimus’s question to Director Galloway was a nice touch. These things, although taking up a lot less time in the movie, outweighed the Bad for me.
A couple of things.
I agree this movie had an amazing and intense opening sequence. I was super stoked to see this movie I even bought my tickets 2 weeks in advance. when I saw the opening fight I was gripping the side rests and everything. then it was over and in my head I was like: oh man, it’s only been ten minutes of the movie and it’s already great! and then the next scene came, sam moving out. about the third thing you see is a dog riding another. from the last movie i sort of expected something like this but still didn’t think it nessicary. then sam got fried from the allspark and out comes bumblebee to fight some newly made robots and that was cool. and then you find out that bumblebee’s voice modulator is gone again. at that point i was like: WHAT!?!?!? WHY’D THEY TAKE THAT OUT! from that point on they threw in waaaaaaaaaaay too much sexual content. what with the dogs at it again. wheelie at it with Megan Fox’s leg. the decepticon cleverly desgiused as a girl, as my friend likes to call it “decepticles”, and well the list continues.
another point made above me. the movie’s title really should have been called: Sam, Mikaila, Bumblebee, Mudflap, Skids and friends’ search to save Optimus. because they’re wasn’t really too much else as far as robots go. unless they had a silly little 10 minute cameo appearance.
this movie was pretty terrible, yeah it’s targeted to 15 year old boys glad to say I’m 18. unfortunatly my 15 year old friend thought this movie was the greatest thing to come this year. I just shake my head.
and the person above me with the whole “review proof” here’s some figures for you. does anyone remember the movie “confessions of a teenage drama queen”? anyone? super terrible movie. anyway when the movie came out it grossed 9.3 million on it’s opening weekend coming in second behind “50 first dates”. the reviews it got? 13%. It’s really all in the marketing. reason being that a lot of people don’t read reviews they watch the commercials and go and see it. i’m sure if a lot more people read reviews they’re would be a lot less money being made on silly crap such as this movie.