# TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN - film review



## Danno1975 (Mar 30, 2009)

People either love or hate Michael Bay. Considering he made Pearl Harbour, one of the single most appalling and quite offensive violations of history that have ever been committed to celluloid (and another nail in the coffin that was Ben Affleck’s career) , this is understandable. However I’ve got to say he does make some entertaining popcorn action pictures. This holds for the first Transformers movie, yeah the story wasn’t great but what were you expecting? It’s a film about giant robots that transform into cars and trucks and beat the snot out of baddie robots that turn into tanks and things. Moaning about these films not having a decent story is like moaning about Frost/Nixon not having a serious of gratuitous threesome sex scenes and not having a martial arts punch up at the climax. It’s about BIG FIGHTY ROBOTS. 



The story isn’t as good as the previous film, but it more than serves its purpose for keeping the film moving and allowing for some big action scenes. Intermixed with these are some fairly amusing comedy scenes with the lead character Sam’s (Shia Labeouf) parents, in particular his mum who is always fun to watch. Labeouf pretty much has the same thing as in the last movie, not a huge amount to work with but he has enough charm to make even the worst parts of his script work. The military characters are back again but they are pretty much relegated to support players mainly for some of the action scenes. Which to be fair is exactly right. 



This time around there is a lot more Megatron, which makes up for the disappointment of the first film whereby he only came on right at the end and was there for about 20 minutes before he was ‘killed’. This time around he is much more of a main player, plus they’ve brought in the bickering with Starscream which was such a major part of the cartoon and is great to see on the big screen. There is also a nice addition in Soundwave, voiced by Frank Welker (who voiced him in the cartoon) who is space based and seems to coordinate the decepticons attacks on earth. 



There is also a lot more Megan Fox but I’d best not go into that as I might get in trouble with the wife J 



Another thing that was changed from the first movie is probably one of my favourite parts. Was it just me or did Optimus Prime look a bit weak in the first movie? He’s the leader of the autobots and meant to be the strongest but in the climatic fight in that film with him against Megatron it seemed to be pretty one sided with Megatron kicking the snot out of him fairly easily. Thankfully they’ve really made up for that in this one with Prime looking every inch the baddass robot. Even Bumblebee is made to look stronger in this film. 



There are more robots in this film than the last which inevitably means that some of them don’t get much in the way of screen time, so we never really get to know them as characters, which is a shame but as this seems to be a film franchise with plenty of legs there is always scope for some of them to be fleshed out. Which would be nice. 



The visual effects in the first film were jawdropping. They were the best CGI ever at that point. Certainly a lot better than the CGI polar bears in Golden Compass which amazingly and incorrectly won the Best Special Effects Oscar for that year. The visual effects in this film are even better. There are a lot of close ups of the robots this time so we get a better look at them, So we can differentiate between them more this time around. The action scenes are bigger and far longer too than the first movie. And a hell of a lot more brutal as the robots literally at time rip each other apart without mercy. The film opens with a huge scene set in Shanghai which gets things going. There is a stunning mid point battle between Prime and three Decepticons which is just fantastic and the very sustained climax in Egypt, I wasn’t timing it but it must’ve been over 30 minutes, was a terrific climax to the film. 



If you liked the first movie you’ll probably like this one too, I found it much more entertaining than the first film, mainly because there are more BIG FIGHTY ROBOTS action scenes and really couldn’t give two hoots that the story line wasn’t amazing. The robots and action scenes were and that is where a film like this succeeds or fails. To be this film was AWESOME and maybe the first movie this year that I go back and re-watch on the big screen. 



Roll on 2011 and Transformers 3. 

Credits (Paul Hussy 2009)


----------



## Rick_1138 (Jan 24, 2008)

A nice (unspoilered) review.

One point however, Frank Welker didn't voice Soundwave in the original cartoon series, he voiced megatron and various others.

(transformer geeked out again (diff forum that time))

But its ace that he has a part in this film as he is voice actor god.

Looking forward to seeing this on Friday


----------



## yetizone (Jun 25, 2008)

Looking forward to seeing it as I enjoyed the first one. 

Empire gave it three stars and this chap, good old Mark Kermode, gave it an absolute panning. I've literally just listened to his the Radio 5 podcast where he really gave it a thorough kicking..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/kermode.shtml

17 minutes 43 seconds in he lets rip :thumb:

Edit: Just noticed how much Simon Mayo looks like Griff Rhys Jones on the photo at the start of the video :lol:


----------



## Alex_225 (Feb 7, 2008)

Good review that doesn't give too much away and I think its pretty much bang on. 

All I'd like to say first is that I loved the film its basically more of the same from the first but just bigger and better. More action, more robots, more of everything. I'd actually say it has a slightly more in depth story to it than the last one all be it not by much.

There was only a couple of gripes I had which were more fan moans than down sides to the movie. 

1 - The action was so intense that you couldn't always take in the sheer aweseomness of the CGI. In the first film where the camera sits there as you see Blackout transform was amazing. In this you just don't get the chance to take that in quite as much.

2 - The new characters were more like extras than characters. All the originals were in there and the 'classic' characters but a shame they didn't highlight some of the new Autobots and there number of new Decpticons. 

3 - Devastator needed to be in it more just purely because of how awesome he looked. I know even in the original cartoon movie he wasn't in it for long but I just wanted to see more.

I'm just hopeful that the 3rd one will deliver even more than the last two and even they are favourite movies of mine already. 

As said too, Optimus Prime is a proper hard b*stard in this one. In the first it showed him as the diplomatic, almost peace keeper type. In this he's p!ssed and kicks a few heads in. Really shows why he's the leader in this one. 

Think of the fight he has with Bonecrusher in the first movie and then some!


----------



## uruk hai (Apr 5, 2009)

yetizone said:


> Looking forward to seeing it as I enjoyed the first one.
> 
> Empire gave it three stars and this chap, good old Mark Kermode, gave it an absolute panning. I've literally just listened to his the Radio 5 podcast where he really gave it a thorough kicking..


I heard the Kermode rant but as I think the mans a **** I wont pay any attention to it, the **** thinks if he uses the word "vacuous" a lot in his lengthy bouts of verbal diarrhoea people will be impressed.


----------



## Danno1975 (Mar 30, 2009)

Rick_1138 said:


> A nice (unspoilered) review.
> 
> One point however, Frank Welker didn't voice Soundwave in the original cartoon series, he voiced megatron and various others.
> 
> ...


My Source wanted to thank you all for the positive feedback on his review but also note both IMDB and wikipedia say that Welker did in fact do the original voice of Soundwave.

Although admittedly he's noted these could be incorrect.

PS, Rick, love the Avatar mate...


----------



## deanchilds (Dec 11, 2007)

Did you notice that prime's lips were covered up for the later part of the film?


----------



## Rick_1138 (Jan 24, 2008)

Danno1975 said:


> My Source wanted to thank you all for the positive feedback on his review but also note both IMDB and wikipedia say that Welker did in fact do the original voice of Soundwave.
> 
> Although admittedly he's noted these could be incorrect.
> 
> PS, Rick, love the Avatar mate...


Update!

I made FAIL!

Welker DID do soundwave, i was thinking of Shockwave, he was voiced by Corey Burton.

I must be slipping in my old age.

Poor tranformers Fu!


----------



## Deano (Jul 7, 2006)

Kermode. sorry but i cant take anyone seriously who is named after a chair you sh1t in. he's one of those people that will love a 1918 russian film about nuns toenail clippings and slates anything else. 90% of the time i go to see a film i (especially one like transformers) i go for a bit of escapism and to relive childhood memories, not to get involved in a deep plot. Hitch****s twists or megan foxes norks. No brainer really.


----------



## Rick_1138 (Jan 24, 2008)

just listened to the kermode review, now i have to say i like his reviews, he is usually pretty grounded.

In this instance he is going off on one, but he has a point about certain things, mainly the whole campus of the uni do look like maxim models, there are no fat kids, nerds etc.

But the big summer popcorn films have always been like this, Bay is just the most popcorny of the lot.

However i am sure i will enjoy it, and megan fox as ever, yes draped over a bike, but I DONT CARE!


----------



## Alex_225 (Feb 7, 2008)

deanchilds said:


> Did you notice that prime's lips were covered up for the later part of the film?


Same happened in the first one mate.

Its like a protective face guard that folds out when he's fighting. :thumb::thumb:


----------



## Danno1975 (Mar 30, 2009)

Crystal Finish said:


> Kermode. sorry but i cant take anyone seriously who is named after a chair you sh1t in. he's one of those people that will love a 1918 russian film about nuns toenail clippings and slates anything else. 90% of the time i go to see a film i (especially one like transformers) i go for a bit of escapism and to relive childhood memories, not to get involved in a deep plot. Hitch****s twists or megan foxes norks. No brainer really.


"MEGAN FOX",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sorry what was I gonna say??, oh yes, you mastered Halo Wars yet?, not used the 360 for weeks thinking of giving it a crack tonight though.....


----------

