'Revenge of the Fallen'
Posted by Lance Smith
Wednesday night I checked out 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'. Overall, I enjoyed it. However, I can understand why critics were so harsh on the movie.
When seeing a movie such as this, one must go into it with the mindset that this is just big-budget summer entertainment--meant solely for the enjoyment of seeing things blow up and make loud noises. You cannot expect to go in and get an elaborate storyline with intricate plot twists--that's not the intent of this movie. If that is how you approach it, you will not enjoy yourself. If you expect anything more than a special effects extravaganza, you'll be sorely disappointed.
'Revenge' extends the storyline of Sam Witwiki and his interaction with the Autobots and Decepticons. This time, he heads off to college to try to live a "normal" life, but gets sucked back into the war between the robots and must help Optimus Prime and help save the earth from an ancient Decepticon bent on destroying the world. His funny parents are back (they are great). And, of course, his (terrible acting but great eye candy) love interest is back as well. There is also a very annoying college roommate sidekick in this movie who is more punchable than endearing. John Turturro returns as the Sector 7 guy (love him), but not until almost the end of the film. We also get to see some cool Transformers from the early cartoons. There are two Autobots known as the "twins" who everyone thinks are racially offensive stereotypes but I found competely hilarious. Still, some of the pure campyness of some of the scenes will leave you scratching your head as to why. I found myself saying "why'd they put that in there?" several times.
Despite all that, some of the worst aspects of the film are the crudeness of some parts. There is a cute but foul-mouthed transformer named "Wheelie" who is funny, but somewhat crossed the line. This is still a kids' movie, and some parts were just completely inappropriate in my opinion. Also, Michael Bay loves him some Military action, and it usually works well in his movies. But, 'Transformers' should be about the Transformers...not how cool the U.S. Air Force is. Hey Michael--this isn't a recruitment video! I don't care about how awesome our planes are, or how big the guns on our ships are. I work for a defense contractor. I see that stuff every day. And, I wasn't really emotionally upset by the sinking of an aircraft carrier. Was that supposed to make me more angry at the Decepticons? Whatever. Show me more Optimus!!
I don't know if T-Formers 3 is in the works, yet, but hopefully Bay and Speilberg learn some lessons from this movie and listen to the fans next time. Next time let's hope they don't just go off and do things the way you think they should be done. We're going to have enough of that with the train wreck that will be 'G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra' later this summer. I won't even get started on that travesty.
Not as fresh as the original and way too long, but still a delight to fans.
