Movie Review - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Or how I learned to stop nitpicking and like the movie)

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM.

Let me start off by saying that I did like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The following will probably make it sound like I hated it, but I didn't, I'm merely a fanboy with some complaints. And complaining is what Fanboys do best.

I saw the flick Sunday w/ my buddy Mike, we were supposed to hit the IMAX, but underestimated the drawing power of 'splosions & Megan Fox, and found that it was sold out, so we got tickets for the next available show in the regular screen. Little bummed, but 'oh well'.

It starts off really strong, there's a good intro section with narration by Prime, then a great action sequence with the Autobot/US Military team taking down a behemoth Decepticon in Shanghai. It was great to see new characters like Arcee (who was supposed to be in the first movie). But Arcee was confusing, because she's supposed to be a motorcycle, singular, but they kept referring to her as The Arcee Twins, and then they would show three separate motorcycles. So why not say Arcee Triplets...? Also in the beginning is an unnamed Autobot Corvette, who was hard to differentiate between the Decepticon Audi R8 who they were fighting. Lets stop making all the robots Silver and/or Grey. I like that most of the Autobots are colorful. It helps to distinguish who's who. But when you've got a fight with Ironhide (black) and Autobot Corvette (silver) fighting Decepticon R8 (also silver) it gets difficult to tell them apart. The first movie had the same problem though.

The biggest problems for me was how long it was, and how much unnecessary stuff they had thrown into it. By the end of the movie, I was ready for it to be done, which is sad, because the end of the movie is really good. And I wish that I hadn't been hoping for it to be over, but I was ready for the credits to roll. I think it's because they took too much time with a lot of unnecessary stuff in the beginning of the movie. Had they taken out scenes in the beginning, it would have made the ending better, at least for me personally.

Pretty much all of the college stuff could have been cut. I really loved the parents from the first movie, and they were good in this one, but there was just too much time wasted on Sam and his parents in the beginning. It seemed like all this stuff would have made good DVD deleted scenes, or even and Extended Cut DVD. Even though it was funny, seeing the mom get high and tackle Frisbee-golf players isn't really necessary. The stuff that really should have been cut was the scene w/ Sam's roommates. There was no payoff to explaining that his roommates were big conspiracy theorists with a website devoted to proving there are alien robots. The roommate would have worked as just that, a roommate. Then there was this 'first day at college' party, that did have a lot of funny stuff and also served as Sam's first mental breakdown, but again, not needed. The scene in Sam's astronomy class was a better, mental breakdown scene, and probably the only one that was needed.

The party scene did serve as an introduction to the FemBot who was hunting Sam. But even her character subplot could have been scaled back, or even removed. Her purpose was basically to get Sam away from his guardian, Bumblebee, so that Megatron could get his hands on him, to extract Cybertronian information from his brain (which is causing his mental breakdowns). Getting Sam from college and into Megatron's grasp could have been done without the addition of the FemBot character.

This is really about the point where the film picks back up and gets rolling again. There were lots of great action scenes from here til the end. I really dug the whole 'on the run' stuff and cat and mouse between Decepticons and Autobots. I liked the globe spanning Indiana Jones-ness of trying to decipher the ancient clues that lead them to Egypt. Although I was really confused as to how, they go to Washington DC to an Airplane Museum, resurrect an old timey SR71 (Jetfire), then go out the back door and you see plains (not planes, but plains) and mountains in the background??? What part of DC is surrounded by vast fields and mountains?

My next big gripe was how every time there was a fight, they put shit in the way. It seems like a lot of good action was covered by a tree, pillar, column, or scafolding. I understand that it was probably done this way because the first movie was so popular, thereby demanding a sequel ASAP, which rushes the CGI artists and makes it more difficult to animate and render big battle scenes. Which is why they take little shortcuts by obstructing the view. But c'mon, when Optimus is delivering the final blow in the end fight to The Fallen, don't do it in a narrow doorway. Do it out in the open in the middle of the sand with a nice wide angle shot.

Lastly, do we really need all the forced laughs that come with 'potty humor', lets see: Two shots of dogs humping, a RC truck humping Megan Fox's leg, Jon Turturo's ass in a thong, Jetfire 'farting' a parachute, and a giant pair of robot testicles on Devastator. There are more, but those are the ones that really stood out. And I didn't even mention the (Jar Jar) Twins.

All in all, this movie was good, but not nearly as good as the first. I think because I spent over a year prior to the first movie scouring the internets to find leaked pics, rumors and any/every detail about the movie I could, and with all the hype and expectations I had built up, it delivered and was better than I had thought it would be. And at the end of the first one, you absolutely know that there is a sequel coming, so the mystique of seeing the robots for the first time, and seeing the transformations for the first time has been ruined. It's kind of like with Batman Begins, same thing, I was on the forums everyday and trying to find out about it, then with Dark Knight, I wasn't as concerned because I knew that it was the same crew and cast, and I had some idea of what to expect.

So like I said, it sounds like I hated it...but I actually really liked it...those were just my thoughts as to how it could have been better. I would have preferred this to be a more condensed version, and then all the unnecessary stuff added into an extended cut or something. So in summary, less exposition up front = more enjoyment at the end, and less stuff in the way of beautiful fights and transformations...

Roll Out!