Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen goes into that category of films that I go to see with zero expectations. I’ve found that it just makes for a (slightly) better experience. Watchmen was another recent addition to that category.
To set things straight, I disliked the first film. A lot. Why would I go see the sequel even though I didn’t like the first? Because, I enjoy seeing action films such as this (crappy or not) on the big screen. Even though I can’t stand Michael Bay films, I’ll confess they are usually worth checking out (at least once) on the big screen.
I won’t waste time with fan-boy nitpicking about how this movie and the first were nothing like the show–because that isn’t the point with these films. When you’re taking a 25+ year old children’s cartoon show designed to sell toys and trying to adapt it to a mass audience film, some stuff just ain’t gonna work. Even more so when you take it from a cartoon to live action.
However, I died a little on the inside when Optimus Prime said “My bad” in the first film.
Thankfully, this film actually featured the Transformers for more than what felt like twenty minutes in the first. My feelings about the first film are brilliantly summed up in this comic.
But, I’m still not a fan of the character design for the Transformers. Not that ILM didn’t do a great job with the animation, I just don’t like the busy/cluttered design of the robots. I had heard that ILM’s idea was to make it look as if all the parts from the vehicles fit into their robot bodies, but I don’t like it. I also have a hard time telling who is who–especially with the Decepticons (Megatron and Starscream are nearly identical).
I also don’t like the ‘human focus’ of the films. But, I did like the idea of humans and Autobots teaming up to hunt Decepticons, that was pretty neat (and made for a pseudo G.I. Joe/Transformers cross-over element).
I could have done with WAY less of the human stuff, it just dragged things out. But some of the new characters were fun (Jetfire), and some where down right horrible (the Twins). I don’t need to go into details about how bad the Twins were, just read this write up on the whole thing on /Film.
One of the saving graces of this film was John Turturro, who is one of my fav actors—which was the case for the first film. He’s so great. The other saving points were the inclusion of Soundwave and Ravage–two of my favorites from the show and voiced once again by Frank Welker. Lastly, Starscream (another favorite) finally became interesting and had some great back and forth moments with Megatron, which was a fixture of the original show.
This film defines brainless action–which, hey I have nothing against in general (Commando is one of my favorite movies), but I’m just not a fan of Michael Bay’s directing style, or the focus on the very boring human characters.
And the character of the Fallen, while cool in concept (I enjoy Transformer history as much as the next geek) didn’t really come across as that interesting.
So if you enjoy brainless action, and for some reason enjoyed the first Transformers, check this out…but maybe for a matinee.
