2.5 out of 5 stars
I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last night with Matt and Sean. I had been waiting to see this movie since walking out of the first Transformers flick. I loved the mythos and the style, but most importantly for this type of film, I loved the explosions 
It was a melding of Michael Bay’s trademark action style with a story line that mirrored what I loved as a child. The first film had it’s own drawbacks, such as Bumblebee urinating on people and some poor CG where it was difficult to tell which robot was which in some of the more fast-paced scenes. On the whole, it was a good action flick. I hope not to disappoint, but this successor does not rate as highly.
I have to say the action sequences are even better. The CG is more carefully designed where motion is less blurring and the robots are more distinct in the fights. When there was action on the screen, I was loving it for the most part. When anything else was going on though, the prospects were a bit more dank. The scale is much more grand with regard to action, number of robots, etc., but this is also leads precisely this movie’s downfall. Outside of say 5 or so robots total, the rest are generic, poorly defined, and ultimately placeholders in the plot. For being a bigger, longer movie, the plot/story line is mostly non-existent and often is riddled with unexplained events. Now, this isn’t truly a deal-breaker given that Michael Bay brought the explosions, but it certainly didn’t help.
Now, come the real problems in my opinion; obvious, yet COMPLETELY unnecessary trash added to the film:
- Dogs humping peoples’ legs
- Robot humping peoples’ legs
- “Rascist” robots – 2 robots based on what appears to be African-American stereotypes. I doubt they were intended to be offensive and many seem fine with them, but I found their inclusion to be at the very least jarring and unfortunate.
- Robot “balls” – Ugh, enough said
- Cursing robots
Much of this seems to be intended to drive towards the younger demographics, but I’d be curious to know why they did what they did. I’m sure I may be missing somethings, but the above could have been cut without ANY LOSS and it would have been heading in the right direction of shaving 30-45 minutes of the runtime. You see given all of the above, the main pain point for me is that the movie is just TOO LONG. I think if it had been properly edited and moved along a more brisk pace, much of the issues could have been avoided.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It is an enjoyable movie. I’m glad I saw it and will likely watch it on Blu-ray many times in the future when I can fast forward when needed. Bay brought the explosions, the babes, and Optimus Prime. This alone made the movie worth watching, but all of the rest drags its overall value down.
