The title of this review really sums this movie up, a over-the-top bloated CGI fest. Loathed by critics and audiences alike when it released (Especially TF fans!), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the infamous sequel to the enjoyable first Transformers movie. Plot follows Sam Witwicky and his friends to stop the Decepticons from activating an Ancient device that could destroy the planet forever. Hmmm.....
This time around theres more transformers (yay), but at the cost of some of them having little screen time (Ratchet has like 2:00 minutes of screen time in the entire movie), and the rest of the movie is centered around the human characters who, except for the military dudes, should all belong in a mental institution. The movie was made in the Writers Strike of 2007 which prevented scripts to be made and it really shows here, countless of scenes are being spent on people doing dumb things, juvenile dialogue and humor which shouldn't belong in a PG-13 movie (Mojo...) and characters explaining the plot to the point where the entire second act is includes a whopping 20-minute exposition dump, wowie.
Shia Labeouf went from a down-to-earth teenager to a screaming crybaby in here, he does however get an interesting character arc in here but even that's butchered up. Megan Fox is okay, not as screamy as Shia is but she's fine I guess. Shia's new friend Leo (I don't know the actors name) is well, something. John Turturro returns and is more crazy than ever, I guess he's the best character out of the bunch and Shia's parents in this movie are intolerable.
I also got to mention the errors in this movie. There's TONS of them, from the Transformers suddenly changing colors mid-scene to REUSING THE SAME SHOT IN THE SAME MOVIE to DEAD CHARACTERS BEING RESURRECTED WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION?? To major plot points being forgotten, I could go on.... Did I mention the color grading in this movie??? It looks like an ADHD dream to me considering the events of this movie and stuff disappearing out of nowhere. Dare I say, typical Michael Bay...
Now let's talk about the Transformers themselves, the main event of the movie, who have minimum screentime in this movie, as I mentioned before the titular characters either have limited screen-time or just disappear completely but when they're on-screen, I can't even tell what is going on, it feels like a goddamn headache watching these robots fight compared to the first film! Autobots include the previous cast and newcomers, Sideswipe (Damn, he's good), The Arcee Triplets, infamous Skids and Mudflap who, got caught in a controversy surrounding their characterization resulting in them getting limited merchandising, and they got the most screen-time in the entire movie! (Aside, from Bumblebee), but I don't hate them as much. And who could forget! Jolt.
I like the Decepticons. In fact, they're better than the Autobots! Megatron returns for the movie (not a huge spoiler). Starscream is given more personality this time around as he's given back his iconic voice from the original albeit, with more robotic sounds. Soundwave appears. Ravage is an interesting one, I like the sounds of his cannons and he gets his own action scene. However, the titular Fallen suffers from what I said earlier, not having enough screen-time and his presence isn't really felt throughout the movie due to the focus being on the human characters instead. There's also this one Audi R8 Deception that appears, not sure who he is but he's cool i guess.
Despite all this, all the negativity that I have towards this movie, you maybe wondering.... Why the hell did I give this movie an 8/10. Well, to me this movie holds a special place in my heart, I'd regularly watch this on DVD than the first one, and I loved it. I like the over the top feeling of the movie, everything to the characters, the dialogue and the aforementioned action sequences, while seizure inducing, are enjoyable to this day, the Forest Battle is a standout and racks among my favorite movie scene ever and Devastator is something to behold. A monstrous, hulking Decepticon whose body is built from combined "Contructicons" in order to wreck havoc in the most devastating way possible (just see it for yourself) and did I mention that it melted computer trying to render it? That's something to be proud of. I like the Third Act of the movie too, it suffers from aforementioned problems but I like the use of the setting and the chaos that ensues are absolutely brutal, so brutal in fact that Jigsaw would be inspired to make contraptions based off these deaths, Michael Bay can be creative with his actions scenes.
Overall, not for everyone but I still enjoy it, It's fun, weird and is a great time for anybody whose drunk and wants to waste 2h 30mins of his day.
This time around theres more transformers (yay), but at the cost of some of them having little screen time (Ratchet has like 2:00 minutes of screen time in the entire movie), and the rest of the movie is centered around the human characters who, except for the military dudes, should all belong in a mental institution. The movie was made in the Writers Strike of 2007 which prevented scripts to be made and it really shows here, countless of scenes are being spent on people doing dumb things, juvenile dialogue and humor which shouldn't belong in a PG-13 movie (Mojo...) and characters explaining the plot to the point where the entire second act is includes a whopping 20-minute exposition dump, wowie.
Shia Labeouf went from a down-to-earth teenager to a screaming crybaby in here, he does however get an interesting character arc in here but even that's butchered up. Megan Fox is okay, not as screamy as Shia is but she's fine I guess. Shia's new friend Leo (I don't know the actors name) is well, something. John Turturro returns and is more crazy than ever, I guess he's the best character out of the bunch and Shia's parents in this movie are intolerable.
I also got to mention the errors in this movie. There's TONS of them, from the Transformers suddenly changing colors mid-scene to REUSING THE SAME SHOT IN THE SAME MOVIE to DEAD CHARACTERS BEING RESURRECTED WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION?? To major plot points being forgotten, I could go on.... Did I mention the color grading in this movie??? It looks like an ADHD dream to me considering the events of this movie and stuff disappearing out of nowhere. Dare I say, typical Michael Bay...
Now let's talk about the Transformers themselves, the main event of the movie, who have minimum screentime in this movie, as I mentioned before the titular characters either have limited screen-time or just disappear completely but when they're on-screen, I can't even tell what is going on, it feels like a goddamn headache watching these robots fight compared to the first film! Autobots include the previous cast and newcomers, Sideswipe (Damn, he's good), The Arcee Triplets, infamous Skids and Mudflap who, got caught in a controversy surrounding their characterization resulting in them getting limited merchandising, and they got the most screen-time in the entire movie! (Aside, from Bumblebee), but I don't hate them as much. And who could forget! Jolt.
I like the Decepticons. In fact, they're better than the Autobots! Megatron returns for the movie (not a huge spoiler). Starscream is given more personality this time around as he's given back his iconic voice from the original albeit, with more robotic sounds. Soundwave appears. Ravage is an interesting one, I like the sounds of his cannons and he gets his own action scene. However, the titular Fallen suffers from what I said earlier, not having enough screen-time and his presence isn't really felt throughout the movie due to the focus being on the human characters instead. There's also this one Audi R8 Deception that appears, not sure who he is but he's cool i guess.
Despite all this, all the negativity that I have towards this movie, you maybe wondering.... Why the hell did I give this movie an 8/10. Well, to me this movie holds a special place in my heart, I'd regularly watch this on DVD than the first one, and I loved it. I like the over the top feeling of the movie, everything to the characters, the dialogue and the aforementioned action sequences, while seizure inducing, are enjoyable to this day, the Forest Battle is a standout and racks among my favorite movie scene ever and Devastator is something to behold. A monstrous, hulking Decepticon whose body is built from combined "Contructicons" in order to wreck havoc in the most devastating way possible (just see it for yourself) and did I mention that it melted computer trying to render it? That's something to be proud of. I like the Third Act of the movie too, it suffers from aforementioned problems but I like the use of the setting and the chaos that ensues are absolutely brutal, so brutal in fact that Jigsaw would be inspired to make contraptions based off these deaths, Michael Bay can be creative with his actions scenes.
Overall, not for everyone but I still enjoy it, It's fun, weird and is a great time for anybody whose drunk and wants to waste 2h 30mins of his day.