Review – Transformers 2: Revenge of Michael Bay
From toys to the original cartoon, I’ve been a fan of the Transformers for almost as long as I’ve been alive. When the live-action Transformers film hit theaters in 2007, I was one of the first to see it, hoping for an amazing update to a classic animated television show.
Unfortunately, director Michael Bay was the one picked to put the film together and it was painfully obvious that he was involved. While the movie wasn’t terrible, it was definitely filled with Bay’s trademark Hollywood schlock, including bad acting, cheesy dialogue, over-saturated lighting, and gratuitous everything else. But at least the Transformers themselves resembled those found in the cartoon and toy series. Yes they were redesigned as twisted masses of sharp, pointy metal, but the designs were unique and each robot did carry over its distinct personality. So I was mostly happy with the first film.
Two years later, Michael Bay returns with a sequel to his live-action Transformers film called Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Before I had a chance to see this new movie, I heard many rumblings from critics and average movie-goers alike that the film was bad. Really bad. I figured that it was just a standard reaction to more Michael Bay schlock and it couldn’t possibly be as bad as everyone thought. I was wrong, they were right.
Transformers 2 clocks in at a whopping two hours and 30 minutes long. That’s six minutes longer than the first film, though it felt more like it was five hours longer. Out of the 150 minute duration, I enjoyed -at most- 30 minutes of the film. The rest was filled with absurd scenes that seemed like something out of The Hangover rather than the Transformers universe. Filled with inappropriate dialogue and moronic new characters (including many of the robots), Transformers 2 is a must-skip, even for hardcore Transformers fans.
The only good thing I can say about Transformers 2 is that some of the action scenes were somewhat enjoyable. Those made up the 30 minutes that I would want to see again. In the first Transformers film, the camera was placed so close to the action that all viewers could see was random shiny bits of painted metal moving around the screen. For this film, cameras were pulled back wide enough to actually see what was going on, often surprisingly staying on shots for more than a second or two, allowing the action to unfold clearly. Slow motion was appropriately used throughout the movie, allowing an excellent view of the robot battles.
Unfortunately, any time a character, robot or human, opened his or her mouth, it ruined the scene. One new character was present almost throughout the entire movie, tagging along with Sam (Shia Labeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox) and ultimately serving no purpose whatsoever. I think he was supposed to be comic relief, minus the comedy and the relief. Add to the mix far too many scenes prominently featuring Sam’s obnoxious and idiotic caricatures of parents and it’s one disaster after another. And that’s without even factoring in the unnecessary robot swearing and recurring inappropriate sexual themes.
I know I’m not alone in thinking that Transformers 2 was really, really bad. And yet, somehow, most of the audience in the Downtown Disney movie theater in which I saw the film seemed to enjoy it. I was surrounded by viewers who were cracking up at the gross-out comedy and didn’t seem to really care about the robot battle scenes. Now I can’t stand most stupid comedy films, so perhaps I wasn’t the intended audience for this film. Perhaps all of the other movie-goers somehow knew that buying a ticket to Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen actually meant buying a ticket to a movie of the same style as American Pie, Dude, Where’s My Car?, and Van Wilder. I guess that’s just not what I was expecting out of a movie that was based on a children’s television show and line of toys. The real stars of Transformers 2, apparently, are not the Transformers. Silly me.
To wrap up, if you’re a fan of stupid comedy, perhaps you’ll enjoy Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Transformers fans shouldn’t bother.
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I couldn’t disagree more…
Transformers 2 was everything I expected it to be, which was lts of explosions, lots of carnage, and robots. I don’t understand where all these criticisms about the lack of plot come from. Maybe we grew up watching different cartoons, but I remember the Transformers cartoon having about as much depth as a kiddie pool. Someone mentioned Iron-Man when stating how bad they thought T2 was, but in all reality, the two couldn’t be more dissimilar. Tony Stark has incredible depth as a character, and there’s lots of material to pull from. Optimus Prime, as heroic as he is, is one dimensional. This isn’t a problem for me, as I know the cartoons are 22 minute long commercials.
I didn’t like the endless fast cuts and shaky cam action editing, but there’s hardly any action film these days that isn’t shot and edited that way. I could have done without skids and mudflap, two of the most stereotypical non-human characters I’ve ever seen, and the scenes with mom got to be tiresome… But other than that, I loved the 2 1/2 hours of seemingly non-stop robot violence.
Sure, I could spoil my fun by nitpicking the movie, like how robots can transform so tall when their vehicle forms are so small, or why in robotic form, their panels are scraped and damaged, while they turn into pristine showcars when they transform…. But geez, why would I want to do that?
Setting your expectation level is everything. Dumbo and Pirates are two very different attractions, and I understand that. As a result, I can enjoy both for what they are. The same applies to movies IMO.
Turn your brain off, grab some popcorn, and veg out. It’s ok ;)
I agree with you Ricky. I’m a diehard Transformers fan since day one and thought Transformers 2 was a waste. The only reason why I’m not upset about wasting money on a ticket is because I got to see a free prescreening. Perks of the job. :) I feel for those who shell out the money to take the entire family. I say wait for the DVD and deposit the money into the kids tuition fund.
I saw it yesterday with my friends. The guys liked it because of the running scenes whilst I just thought it was stupid. There were a lot of editing mistakes, and the plot had so many problems with it. For example, towards the end of the movie Sam meets his parents and makes them drive away in Bumble Bee, and then runs all the way to meet up with the other Transformers, it takes him an extra 20 minutes of the movie to do so. But when he gets to the other Transformers, his parents show up anyway? There were a lot of editing problems going on in the background, sometimes when changing shot Sam’s face would be a different expression, people in the background would be in the wrong spots, at one point he is running downstairs and drops some books, when he picks them up there is a woman walking down stairs, she gets half way, then when he picks up his books and keeps running she is at the top of the stairs again. All in all, the plot was dodgy, the new characters where rude and boring, and it got to a point when I wanted to leave the theatre. Don’t bother with it.
I went into the movie with the LOWEST possible expectations and a long-festering hatred of Michael Bay. So I guess I had nowhere to go but up. I was entertained for 2 1/2 hrs, and feel my dollars were not wasted. I agree that there’s some great action, but am unhappy with the crude humor and abundance of sexual themes (my 7-year old was looking forward to seeing it, but I’m NOT giving the OK).
I myself was NOT offended by the “Car-Car Binks” twins, and was more annoyed by Megan Fox’s constant squeaky, baby-talk line deliveries.
I think the movie will do OK at the box office, but won’t have much staying power, compared to stories with better scripts, characters, and directors (see Star Trek, Up, the upcoming Harry Potter–just an assumption on that last one…)
Please note that I didn’t once mention the words “plot” or “story” anywhere in my review. The overall story was fine. Dare I say it was even good. But it was totally muddied with all the other nonsense that was going on in the film.
(Spoilers begin here)
If you were to remove Sam’s parents, roommate, John Turturro (and the gratuitous close-up of his rear end), and “the twins” (who I didn’t find to be stereotypical so much as annoying), then maybe I would have been able to enjoy the movie. Unfortunately, those characters occupied at least half of the screen time.
I’m not normally one to bark at the presence of sexuality and profanity in a film. Heck, the original cut of the Transformers cartoon movie featured the word s***. But it was just over the top and gratuitous throughout Transformers 2. It’s amusing at first, but after 2.5 hours, enough is enough.
Regarding the profanity and sexuality–especially inappropriate considering that it’s a movie intended for kids (based on toys, trying to SELL toys, fast-food tie-ins, etc.)
I’m curious if the “Twins” characters are as racist and offensive as people say, or are people just jumping on the bandwagon against them. They’ve been labeled the new Jar Jar, but I find that hard to believe.
Like I said on Facebook, I very much disagree with you Ricky, but I am very glad about one thing-that you didn’t find Mudflap and Skids racist. You can yell at me all you want for loving a dumb loud movie, but don’t you call me a racist.
And of course I don’t mean you, personally, Ricky, I mean, people in general. I didn’t find them racist at all, and don’t want to be thought less of for it.
And as much as I loved the movie for the giant robot action I will agree that there was an abundant of stupid jokes, but that was just white noise to me. I’d rather focus on how awesome Sideswipe was.
This is the best review that I have read of the movie. Well said.
What kills me: Burger King is offering Transformers kids meal toys. A movie with the F-word in it!
I actually liked the movie. The special effects were amazing. I found the movie actually funny and thought it was really fun. Do I like movies like Van Wilder and American Pie? No! I hate that type of film. I actually enjoy films such as Slumdog Millionaire and Doubt. I am 16 years old. This was intended for teenagers and 20-30yrs old who enjoy films as Fast and the Furious and know how to have a good time watching a movie, though it may not be the smartest. That being said, the movie was completely sold-out during the WHOLE weekend in my area and it raised over $112million on opening weekend. A bad movie could never raise THAT kind of money. And to the Transformer geeks, who cares?! It was a fun movie!
There is only a POSSIBLE F word in it, the only time was possibly at the end with Mikaela, and it was so slowed down who knows what it was. Besides, what would you say if the person you loved was killed?
The burger king toys also feature no characters that curse.
I really enjoyed this movie, a lot, lol.
First off, I have not seen the movie, and really don’t care based on what I have heard and have read only on here. First off, @ Josue, I realize you are young, but there is a long list of movies that were terrible and made plenty of movie. Box office take does not equal quality film. And that goes both ways, as some films, such as Shawshank Redemption, tanked at the Box Office, yet were great films.
The main reason I will not see the film is because I am sick and tired of Hollywood et al not giving a second thought to marketing movies towards kids that are completely inappropriate for kids. This only seems like the latest salvo. As was mentioned above, this movie is based on children’s toys. Yeah, plenty of adults dig them too, but they are sold in toy aisles, aimed at kids. Not to mention the tie-ins with kids meals at restaurants. (I think the restaurant chains are just as guilty.) They are not doing anything illegal, but to me it is no different than cigarette makers, who entice people into doing something that is ultimately harmful for them.
Count me, and especially my kids, out!
I have been waiting out to see this movie at the drive in for weeks it seems, but it hasn’t, so I just saw it today.
My opinion of the movie is that it was great.
I hate the cinemas and I stretched and fidgeted for so many of the lousy scenes that were so boring, but in the end it was an awesome movie.
I don’t really know how to say why I thought it was so great.
As I sat there eating my $4.50 bag of maltesars(which had I had the time, I could have bought at the dollar store next door for, well, a dollar) I thought for sure that I had just set myself up for disappointment.
I saw the first one at the drive in, and there is no better experience. The awesome sound of my car stereo booming inside the vehicle with me, eating a pizza I brought with me, and watching from the comfort of a seat that I could recline and stretch out did put me in a better mood.
However, I was VERY excited to see this film, after loving the first so much, that I decided to go see it today, in case it never does reach the drive in, and i miss it entirely on the movie screen.
What made me feel like I might be in for a disappointment was one after the other crappy characters and bad acting.
I’m not a big movie guy, but I can spot it when I see it.
Some of these things were mentioned earlier, but here is my thoughts on them.
First off, I understand Sams mom went through a lot in the last movie, so she may have a new look on life.
She dealt with this trauma apparently by becoming rude and perverse. I dont care, except that it was offered to me as “comedy”. Wow, I laughed so hard, swearing is so funny!
Apparently the brownies she bought, having never seen a pot leaf before also contained shrooms, which I guess was left out of the script. Typical I suppose of hollywoods depiction of someone stoned.
As for the twins, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if anyone thinks they are racist or not.
To me, they just didn’t fit in. Why does he have a gold tooth? Why would a transformer have a gold tooth? True, maybe a piece of what he transformed from ended up there, but is that how he acts where he comes from? Am I supposed to believe that on his destroyed planet, he and his bro were just a couple of stereotypical guys from the projects who had a bad start in life, and now resemble uneducated black guys from the streets?
The stupid humour, language, ,bad acting and pointless scenes nobody cared about were barely avenged by an awesome story, good graphics, and some decent characters.
This would have been what I had expected, if only it had stuck to the same feeling of the original, but I absolutely hate how this was done the way every other sequel(except the second new batman movie)is done these days.
Step 1 – Release a pretty good movie.
Step 2 – Write another good movie, and consult the Wayans brothers on how the characters should act in this one to make the movie more hip.
Stop trying to impress people by being like what you perceive as popular. Just let the movie be the way it is supposed to be.
Nonetheless, I did think it was good, just not really really really good, like one can clearly see it could have been.
I’m a little sad :(
I took my 9 year old daughter to see this last night and was I shocked!
The swearing, sexual references and drug usage was not necessary, not appropriate and led to me having to deal with questions I don’t feel my little girl is ready to hear the answers to.
Sure my daughter has been exposed to swearing at school, but sex and and drugs are topics she is still blissfully innocent about. Well, that was until she saw a set of transformer testicles? What were they thinking?
I’m all for making a sci-fi action movie for adults. But to take a children’s cartoon and turn it into the next Harold and Kumar movie is not acceptable.
The sad part is that I think the age difference for the target audiences are too far apart and hollywood believes that as we get older, we get dumber so we need sex, drugs and profanity to stay interested.
Sorry John, but I see this as your fault. The movie is rated PG-13, meaning it is not appropriate for those under 13. 9 < 13.
Here in Canada it is rated PG which is the same rating as Ice Age 3 and Up.
When looking at the rating on my theater website, it has the rating for Violence which I knew going in.
Even above 13 – I haven’t seen it yet but if there are robot testicles in it, that seems like an 18 and up crowd. I’m sorry, but we’re expecting our kids to grow up faster and faster in sexual and immoral ways. It’s stupid – then we wonder why they get interested in sex so young . . .
That joke was moronic and had no place in the film. I don’t care if it was aimed at 10 year olds or 100 year olds, it was just dumb and out of place, like most of the movie.
The more I read about this movie, the more I hate it. I’m almost to the point where I’m ashamed to have seen this movie at all (thank heaven I only lost $6 of my hard earned money on it).
Now we’re just getting ridiculous…
I’m ashamed to have even heard the name of the movie!
I’m ashamed that I’m even AWARE of the movie!!!
I’m ashamed that Scott is ashamed, and…
It’s a movie people. If you took a child, then you should read more reviews first. If this is ruining your life, then you need a therapist. If the “robot testicles” pushed you over the edge, then you need to get out more.
Again, it’s a movie.
Ed,
I did read a number of reviews before watching the movie, and none of them indicated that anything about the swearing and sexual content.
If I had known, I would have still seen the movie myself (and I did enjoy it). I just wouldn’t have taken my 9 year old. Even the rating of the movie was misleading. Here in Canada it was rated PG for violence and should have been PG-14 for violence, sexual situations and profanity.
Regarless of what it was rated, this is a movie based on children’s toys and much of the content of this movie should have been off limits for the product line it represents.
Imagine if they ever made a live action Barbie movie. Would I have to worry about Barbie getting it on with Ken while she tells him how F-ing good he is in bed? I don’t think so. The property should be protected from this possibility.
The problem here is that Hollywood gets away with a bit too much. I’m actually surprised that Mattel (or whoever owns the rights to Transformers) didn’t set up some specific guidelines to ensure that the movie remained suitable for children. After all, how many 30 year old guys are going to go and buy the toys for themselves?
My original comment stands. This movie was unacceptable and should not have been released as is. Our children need to be protected.
John – I was with you until the comment about 30 year old guys buying toys for themselves. I can assure you, there are plenty of those. ;) Many guys (myself included) who grew up with the original Transformers cartoon in the ’80s are still buying the toys today. I have a whole shelf full of them from the 2007 live-action movie.
However, I have not bought any toys from this new film, nor will I be buying any of them. I won’t support a film that I did not like, regardless of what property it is.
You really are cutting off your nose to spite your face, Ricky. There are so many amazing figures in this line, and that won’t change no matter what you think of the movie. Especially things like the new Prime.
John, your post does not stand.
Nothing in that movie was inappropriate for PG-13. And that’s what it was rated. Take up your beef with Canada, because it’s the one that lowered the rating.
Secondly, the movie was based on much more then Children’s toys. Look into Transformers seriously sometime. That fact that you don’t even know who makes them (Hasbro) just shows how little you actually understand. Same goes for your other comment. You have no idea the market for Transformers. If it was all kids, they wouldn’t make sublines for children. (IE, Powerbots, Fast Action Battlers, etc.)
Comparing Barbie to Transformers? Ridiculous. Transformers has always been based around combat, death, war. Not pink houses.
Your comment really doesn’t stand at all. Your playing the righteous parent. You made a bad call, deal with it. Nothing in this movie wasn’t out of line with the first one, did you see that? Did you do any research by asking people? The movie didn’t come out of nowhere, nor did its content. As for making the movie the way they did, even the original 86 movie had swearing. There is no way this wasn’t mentioned in any reviews, since every review on the internet has done nothing but trash the movie and talk about how crude it was.
Our children need to be protected? Lol, from what? The evil beast Michael Bay, who is out to corrupt the innocent mines of the future with robot testicles and OMG SEEEEX! NEXT THING YOU KNOW MY NINE YEAR OLD WILL BE BUYING REEFER BROWNIES! GASP SWEARING! WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN? Yes, you. Go first, then your kid. You said yourself you would have seen it. You knew what the first was, this was no different.
Seriously, Ice Age 2 was a raunchier movie with its innuendo for PG then anything in this. If people don’t like the movie, that’s fine. I’m not going to sit here and argue with Ricky and make him like it. But this is different.
Scott, calm down. The movie was inappropriate, and in an ideal world, I wouldn’t even have a thirteen-year-old watch it. There’s a reason why people are dumb and crude, and the fact that movie makers go out of their way to try and make a representation of robotic testicles FUNNY and parents, who probably grew up in the 60s for God’s sake, who eat drugged brownies and disintegrate into totally asinine wastes of space acceptable isn’t helping.
For me, it’s not about protecting the children as much as protecting my brain cells.
If you (general) like it, fine; I’m envious, because I tried really hard to like it. But I never in my wildest imaginings would have expected it after watching the 07 movie. Combat, death, and war wouldn’t have surprised me or bothered me, or swearing. I didn’t like the movie because I didn’t care about the characters, the plot was holey beyond recognition, and I couldn’t even enjoy the fight scenes because it was impossible for me to keep the Transformers apart. It’s no fun watching a war if you can’t tell who’s winning, or who’s even on the battlefield. It was a frustrating movie for me. And kind of insulting.
Sorry, have to disagree. Movie was not inappropriate at all in my opinion, it was fine. I didn’t like the movie humor either, but people did, and that’s fine. It fit in the movie fine. Stop judging everyone as dumb for liking a movie you didn’t.
If your brain cells are so fragile, then maybe you shouldn’t watching movies.
And the fights were much, much better then in the first movie, much clearer.
I’ve seen twilight, twice, and my brain cells are fine. And that was ten times worse then anything in ROTF. And it wasn’t a chore to like this movie, either.
http://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/think_of_the_children.jpg
Transformers 2 is the worst film of all time not to mention it’s not suitable for children. John, I agree with your Barbie comparison. Lauren you made some incredible points.
Ok we can all disagree on what we think our children should be ok with. The movie was “cleaner” than i how i hear people talking to their kids in the grociery store. I wouldn’t talk that way. But can we get back to how bad/good it was.
I liked it but was disappointed. We wan’t to see “Transformers” not people. We got very little about the actual transformer characters.
Grindor is the same as Blackout? Were they trying to save money by doubling all the decepticons? Blackout/Grindor is one of my favorite ones, but either Blackout dies and Grindor is a new DIFFERENT vehicle/robot or he doesn’t die or comes back. Not the same (again, my favorite :)). No creativity. And the same Constructicons are fighting the autobots at the same time they are part of Devastator. Every decepticon in Devastator was the same ones fighting in the desert.
The same “rolly” decepticon at the begining of the movie ,which died, was also part of Devastator with a different name at the end. Which pretty much had the same face as Devastator(different eyes). In fact most new decepticons had very similar faces, while the first movie had very unique faces. I can’t comment on autobots seeing as how they didn’t show anyone except the twins. They had the girls “Arcee, Chromia,and other” motorcycles with no story. Supposedly they share one mind which is why they were only referred to as Arcee. Who was the Blue car? And how did Jetfire have an SR71 form if he shut down during the reign of The Fallen thousands of years ago? How could he take the form of something that didn’t exist yet? Bonecrusher vehicle (dead in first) was another part of Devastator. Shown driving in desert.
Why didn’t they just leave the Constructicons seperate like G1 and let all the duplicate construction vehicles be other cool, creative forms.
Sorry to go on. And i actually liked it. just seemed like a waste of “transformer” story and a lack of creativity. Actually not lack of, just not to what it should have been. Sorry about my lack of making sense and having run on sentences. Trying to get it all out in a hurry, no time.
thanks.
Barbie comparison does not work in the slightest, sorry to burst your righteous bubble.
I agree, The first transformer’s movie was much better in the area of strong language usage. The only thing that really bothered me was how many times the used the “f” word. here is a list of times they used it ( list may not include some times )
“this place is a f***ing nut-house”
” f***ing weather channel”
“f***ing miggets”
“f***ing help him!”
there were a couple more times but I cant remember all of them. The real retarted thing is that its only pg-13! In my opinion it should be R becuse of the language and sexuality.
I was also looking threw the comments and scott… you are very very wrong about one thing. the movie does not have the f word only once. I own the movie and I have watched it multiple times. It has TONS of inappropriate language (not just the f word ) for younger audience ( read my other comment ).
Transformers 2 is a good movie with comedy and action any high class prick tht doest get tht deserves to be shot in the balls and slowly bleed to death.