Transformers 2

By Edwin Hopkins
Converse electronically with Mr. Hopkins

Super

Radical, rockem, sockem robot brawls, military battles, loud crushing explosions backed by cgi, weird mechanized characters as well as human and unfortunately, more cheesy dialogue (but not as bad this time), form the basis for action director Michael Bay’s much anticipated sequel to 2007’s Transformers. Incidentally, the dialogue is tolerable only because of the increased amount of action and slightly longer running time. Otherwise, it’s still nauseous to the brain cells.
With that said, I must admit that despite some misgivings, I did like Revenge of the Fallen. It was much better than the first in scope and origin, continuing the story similar to what Paul W.S. Anderson did with Aliens vs. Predator; the Autobots and Decepticons have passed by our planet before.

Optimus Prime shares a brief narrative on their prior visit before we are thrust into the present where humans and Autobots are now working together to ferret out the remaining Decepticons from 2 years ago. Your senses are immediately assaulted by the pursuit of Demolisher and Sideways through the city. Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sgt Epps (Tyrese Gibson) quarterback this frenetic operation with Autobot reinforcements in a harrowing, nearly confusing chase.
Bay wastes no time segueing to our flesh and blood hero Sam Witwicky as he anxiously prepares to leave home for college. He’s the first in the family to go. His father still has some reservations regardless and mom is so distraught, it’s downright ridiculous. While hustling to get clothes, accessories, etc into the car, a small jagged shard of the All Spark (power source of the robots) from the last adventure drops to the floor. And all hell breaks loose. Not just with the house, but with Sam’s mind too. But of course, he doesn’t know this yet.

Sam has what he describes as a full blown meltdown in his first astronomy class, seeing symbols and spurting out advanced scientific formulas he does not understand. Naturally, this is much to the chagrin of his teacher, Professor Colan, p layed by the always laughable Rainn Wilson. It gets worse when Optimus meets with him secretly and tells him of an impending war that we as humans will reluctantly have to wage against more Decepticons.
As I mentioned above, Revenge bombards you with that same tacky discourse so rampant in the last movie. It seems so strange to me that scribes Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman who penned Bay’s The Island and J.J. Abrams smash hit Star Trek could come up with such ridiculous banter. And again Megan Fox has the best lines, considering all she really had to do was look hot.
But Megan, whose under- the- hood scene in the original Transformers made her a Hollywood goddess overnight, now has some striking competition in the form of shapely Isabell Lucas. She plays college coed Alice, a tantalizing amoret with a few surprises, besides setting her sights on Sam.
ILM’s special robot fx completely overshadow our heroic cast including returning vet John Turturro and newcomer Ramon Rodriguez. You’ll have no trouble realizing that by far, It’s the best compensation for everything else that the audience must be subjected to; plus The inevitability for a third film which prayerfully, will have improved speaking parts.

Bread, circus and a slight hangover that screams a good time was had:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
by Christian De Matteo

SUPER

All the naysayers, nitpickers and entertainment-nazis have already had a field day attempting to strip the bones of every single ounce of meat before the movie has even had a chance to get sick, let alone die, so I realize I am late to the party. Regardless, let me add my two cents about the most unrealistic and absurd aspect of this Transformers sequel:

No modern college freshman would ever have a Bad Boys 2 poster in his room.

Good, now that I’ve gotten that immense load off my chest… what is wrong with everyone? Even my favorite Fanboy site is kicking this movie like it’s a sport for nerds. And yet, here I sit, typing, having read a plethora of other reviews, and wondering, what the hell is wrong with everybody?

I LOVED TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN.

There, I said it. And why not? I loved the first one and Michael Bay decided to stray not one iota from that formula. Big frickin robots that can turn into various and sundry examples of American automobiles (which, it should be noted, they can do consistently regardless of economic downturns, labor disputes and governmental interference, and all with no help from Fiat) are helping human soldiers with massive guns and great vehicles fight a war against other big frickin robots who can also turn into various and sundry examples of American Automobiles (and the occasional plane) with a whip-smart young man overflowing with teen charisma who isn’t afraid to shriek like a ten year old girl after he’s been violated by sexy villain with an eight foot, diesel flavored tongue... okay, so the tongue bit is new, but still, what’s not to love?

Michael Bay’s second Transformers film is non-stop fun and comedy filled with massive, bigger than life, bigger than fiction explosions (Bay does demand things be awesome, after all) all being executed for your viewing pleasure.

Folks, this is SPECTACLE. What were you expecting?

Were you expecting Ingmar Bergman? Do you wish to better understand the existentialist point of view on the validity of religion in a modern rationalist world and if it’s possible to come to terms with the omni-present threat of encroaching mortality? Me too. And when that particular mood strikes me I throw on The Seventh Seal.

But – call me a heathen, a philistine, or even a barbarian – I also get in the mood to see big things explode. To see big things respond to big things with bigger things that cause bigger explosions. I like to see what the latest technology the modern sciences have developed is bringing to the table for the entertainment world, and when I like to see that, I also like to see it in a story-setting that gives me someone good to root for and someone bad to root against. Yes, in this gray-infused world our media likes to force down our throats, I like some black and white, particularly when it’s mixed up with some multi-colored explosive, world toppling pyrotechnics.

And speaking of black and white… is this movie racist?

For Pete’s sake, folks…. Do we even know what that word means anymore? Are we really ready to cheapen it to the point that we label the ever-present literary device of the Fool character “racist” because in one particular instance, the Fool seems to be one particular race? The Fool character in this movie is the same one the Wayan’s brothers have dedicated their careers to making the go-to Fool character since the mid-eighties. And besides, the in-question characters of Mudflap and Skids are exact representations of what the Transformers do: They come to a planet and transform (get it?) into the most popular and therefore acceptable parts of its cultures and fashions. They do that with the vehicles they mimic and the people they emulate. Mudflap and Skids are perfect examples of what’s cool right now in entertainment.

Want to blame someone? Blame a rapper.

So where does that leave the movie? Right where we left the last one. Pure, silly, awful-dialogued, great-charactered, explosion-riddled fun. John Turturro gets to play a man who would come up with his own A-Team like TV show introduction. Megan Fox gets to be HOT and paint decals on motorcycles at angles that would make the painting of the decal impossible but that make her backside impossibly awesome.

Shia LeBouf, actually, gets to grow. The LeBouf signature hip-rants are no where near as frequent or as long as they have been in previous movies, as he tries on a new skin: That of a young man and not an old teen.

His parents, played by Julie White and Kevin Dunn: Hysterical, lovable and wonderful. Transformers: ROTF (as opposed to Transformers: ROTFLMFAO which would probably be the next sequel) even manages to have an incredible “Letting a child become an adult” parent/child story arc that is actually pretty affecting.

All in all, if I had my druthers, the film would have been fifteen minutes longer (that’s right, compare that to other reviewers). And why?

Because I was having fun.

And why was I having fun?

Because Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is like the best party of the summer. You’re not going to remember all the details, in fact large parts of it might be hazy blurs in your mind, but all your childhood friends were there, and some of them did things you freaking couldn’t believe. And when it was over, and all the fires were out, and the bottles were strewn all over the ground and your head was a little woozy and thick, you knew nothing really bad had actually happened, and that there would be no real consequences. You also knew you’d always remember it as one of the best times you’ve ever had being stupid.

And in a way-too-serious world, yeah, I like that once in a while. Hell, it’s the same reason I drink.

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