Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Review
I went to see ROTF in IMAX, and yes, the movie is much bigger, louder, and crazier than the first movie. However, all those things together doesn’t make the sequel better than the first ‘Transformers’ movie. The first movie was better than ROTF (it wasn’t perfect, but I’d give it 4/4 stars). It had a more human aspect to the film, while ROTF has a more mechanical/robotic feel. In the first film, the robots were toned down in favor of character development for the human characters. I liked that I actually cared for the characters. In the sequel, the human characters, for the most part, just run around as they hunt for something. The robots have more speaking roles this time around, but it’s a let down.
I hate most of the personalities and the voices that many of the transformers had. The ‘Twins’ were annoying with their stereotypical gangster slang and attitude, although they did have maybe one or two funny moments. The little blue robot was also annoying with his voice (the voice actor of Spongebob), but I soon grew fond of the character (too bad he’s totally left out in the finale and final fight). Jetfire (the old robot) had a stereotypical grumpy/grouchy-old-man personality, and that got on my nerves. His character was over-the-top. I would’ve liked him more if the filmmakers toned him down a bit. Also, with the addition of so many robots in this movie, the ‘Transformers’ film franchise has become more cartoonish, which I don’t like. There were many ‘Frenzy’-like characters in the sequel (Frenzy was the crazy small robot from the first film), but Frenzy was more realistic since he didn’t have a cartoonish appeal and he didn’t speak (in English) that much. Since there’s so many new robots this time around (like 42, compared to the 10? in the first movie) most of them either don’t talk at all, or get one line in. The big robot in the final fight (Devastator – the one that’s made from the combination of six or seven robots) was very underused and a waste. His big character could’ve been great. Also, there seemed to be two identical robots: the six or seven robots that combined seemed to each have an identical robot fight in the battle at the same time. This confused me, but it probably won’t confuse people that don’t know the individual characters.
{Spoiler Alert: I hated the addition of ‘Alice’, the hot girl that gets all over the main character. If the robots could transform into humans, why transform into vehicles? It’s more convenient to be a human. Spoiler Alert Over}.
Although there was a lot of things I felt was wrong with the movie, I still enjoyed it. The fights were better this time around (although i liked the first film’s final fight more than the second film’s final fight). The forest fight where Optimus is fighting three decepticons was cool, but it was like 5 minutes long. If it was longer, I would’ve appreciated it more. Oh, that reminds me – I HATE the way Optimus Prime talks. Every word that comes out of his mouth is a cliche! Also, a thought just came into my mind: What happened to the cop-car-decepticon (Barricade) from the first movie. He didn’t appear in the final fight for the first film, and he didn’t appear at all in the second film! He was my favorite Decepticon from the first movie.
Since I’m talking about Decepticons now, imma say a little something about Megatron and Starscream. Megatron was badass in the first movie, while in this one he’s just a little servant to The Fallen. Megatron is stronger in ROTF but he doesn’t do much. The only good part he had was in the forest fight with Optimus. Starscream was also annoying because he does nothing. He bickers with Megatron more, but I hate the way Starscream fights. He stays in vehicle form and just shoots at the enemies. Now, about The Fallen. The concept of him being the main bad guy in ROTF was cool, but the way he was portrayed in the movie was dumb. He was barely in the film, and in the final fight he barely does anything. Also, when he fought, it was for about 2 minutes before it was over. Bummer. The Fallen wasn’t even as menacing as Megatron was in the first movie. The villains this time around just suck.
The subtitle ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ is a double meaning. It means the revenge of the fallen decepticons, and also means the revenge of the character called ‘The Fallen.’ However, in ROTF, neither the Decepticons nore The Fallen were successful in their revenge plot. They all SUCKED. The movie’s awesome, but it just has flaws that bothered me A LOT, and it was horribly made. ROTF is certainly a much bigger movie than the first film, but the first film is certainly better. However, I still enjoyed ROTF and the exhillarating ride that Michael Bay kept me, and the audience, through.
Two out of four Kents.
PS: Now that the robots talk more, the movie has a lot of cursing/swearing. Do robots really need to swear? Oh, and the parents were back with their comedic selves. Haha, everyone’s gotta love the mom! Oh, and there’s a lot of dick jokes in the movie. The audience and I saw the giant wrecking balls on the gigantic transformer dude, and we all laughed. Was it really needed? Oh, and NEST stands for Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers. I wish the freaking movie explained that, so as to not confuse people.
PS…S: Both Michael Bay AND Shia LeBeouf have stated in interviews how this film sucked. Michael Bay blamed it on the Writers’ Strike, and I believe him. Bay has stated that the third will be better than the second film, but not necessarily bigger (thank you!) – more character development, deeper, more emotional, etc. YES!!
