Interesting that it is being rated so high here compared to other places I've been which have universally panned it (with varying degrees of humour!).
That's pretty typical of ENWorld, actually.
Believe me, ENWorld is one of the last places on the internet that I go for movie advice, as it's wrong almost all of the time AFAIC. And that's saying a lot.
It wasn't bad. It was pretty fun, with a very large number of action scenes and probably two or three times as many cool transforming robots as the last one. It could be a bit incoherent at times and a few scenes might require the use of brain bleach though...
I'm pretty sure that Soundwave never had it that good before, though. He probably steals the show as the coolest re-imagining of an Autobot or Decepticon.
I'm looking forward to seeing it on IMAX. My wife and I loved the first one.....sure, some of the stuff like a peeing robot, and the scene where they were hiding in the garden were pretty dumb....but the awesomeness of some of the fight scenes, and even some of the banter between characters at various parts was enough to make me overlook the dumb humour placed in there for 12-year olds.
I really hope the sequel has enough decent parts to it to allow the dumb humour to be overlooked again.
Of course, it seems like several directors of sci-fi movies lately seem to need to rely on dumb gags to get a laugh.......poo jokes in Star Wars, farting banthas (or whatever those creatures were on Tatooine in the first movie), peeing robots in Transformers etc. Does that really appeal that much to young people? I contrast that with some of the humour in a more hardcore sci-fi movie, like Serenity, and I find the latter implementation much more natural.
I really hope the sequel has enough decent parts to it to allow the dumb humour to be overlooked again.
It does, and also has about 10% less dumb humor. Why no one managed to tell Bay that it could all have been cut out and made the movie better is beyond me.
It does, and also has about 10% less dumb humor. Why no one managed to tell Bay that it could all have been cut out and made the movie better is beyond me.
I'll have to rewatch the first one again, but the "dumb" humor in the second movie really stood out to me. Robots with balls and the camera lovingly lingering upon those balls . . . groan. Not a fan of the characterizations of Jetfire and the stupid twins.
Overall though, I thought it was great! Lots of cool robots beating the crap out of each other! And the military was portrayed as extrremely competent partners to the Autobots, not losers that need space robots to save them, so that was nice (this was true in the first film as well). In fact, in the climax I'd say the US Military outshone their Autobot comrades!
__________________ Brian Zuber
Proud Member of ENWorld since 2000 (under several lost screen names). Gaming since the mid-80s!
Favorite Settings: Love all of the official settings, Mystara is my nostalgia fave! Trying to create a homebrew that blends the best elements of the various settings. Favorite Edition: Can't decide between 3rd Edition and 4th Edition, like them both!
First, here's my bias, so you can all dismiss this 'review': I'm a fan of the cartoon from the 80s.
So here are my thoughts on the movie, which I finally got around to seeing yesterday...
First, they didn't eliminate some of the things that should have fallen away in the first movie, namely the focus on the human side of the equation. I could care less about Sam Whitwikey and his parents. I care slightly more about Megan Fox, because I'm male and have a pulse, but her CHARACTER is completely useless.
The 'twins' should have been left on the cutting room floor, as they were useless, idiotic, and insultingly stereotyped. All the way down to the gold "tooth" and the 'We don't read much'.
Some of the bits were incredibly sweet. The new Soundwave -- that's a brilliant re-imagining of a great character. Similarly sweet was when the Constructicons came together into Devastator (original cartoon names, of course, don't know if they even HAD a name this time around). Optimus Prime, wading into a fight, early in the film.
Some of the movie hit sour notes. The continued focus -- as mentioned -- on the humans in the film. Why do we need them again? Especially with a cheesy romantic sub-plot best left to "Three's Company"... The proliferation of "cannon fodder" decepticons, most of whom didn't get names. Yes, the government has been fighting these guys for a while, so one would expect tactics to have improved, but still... that was QUITE an improvement.
And finally, the bizarre. A decepticon humping a character's leg? Really? At least Devestator's "scrotum" was mildly amusing -- those wrecking balls had to go somewhere during the transformation. Did we really see a transformer so 'old' he had a beard? Cause it looked that way... And my personal favorite -- African tribesmen, in Egypt, hunting a tiger. There's so many things wrong with that statement it's hilarious.
One final thought -- there was enough slow-motion of Megan Fox running across sand that I was wondering if I had stumbled into a Baywatch movie during one part of the film.
The point, of Transformers, to me, is in the title -- I'm here to see giant robots fight. It's not unlike a Godzilla film in that respect. I really don't care about the humans or WHY there's a giant, mutant lizard wandering around. The plot is really extraneous; if I want a thought-provoking movie, I know better by now than to go see something with the name "Michael Bay" on it. Or I'll go rent a classic. This is cheesy, action blockbuster at it's finest: An excuse to see giant robots beating on each other on the big screen.
Check your brain at the door, hit the matinee, and just enjoy the ride. (A tip: Pee before you sit down. It's a LONG ride.)
__________________ "On a long enough time line, everyone eventually rolls a 1."
-- Merkuri
i give it a 2. the plot made no sense. the first hour of the movie was complete and utter nonsense. just a bunch of random clips strewn together. I found skid and mudflap insulting. the scene with the brownies was stupid. the movie was crap overall.
__________________ Roses are Red
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I thought it was pretty awful. I mostly enjoyed the first movie, and was hoping I could follow the prevalent advice for this flick and "turn my brain off" and enjoy it too. Unfortunately it was so aggressively cynical and puerile that I was unable to keep my brain in neutral. The robotic testicles (it would have been one thing if they had simply been a sight gag, but one character actually refers to it as the robot's "scrotum"), the horribly irritating autobot "twins", the humping robot...it's all just too much. Toss in that most of the transformers are mere background and props for the human characters (who are one-dimensional themselves), the bizarre plot inconsistencies, and the still (nearly) indecipherable action, and I found it difficult to enjoy.
But it did have some good points:
-Soundwave was fantastic. Ravage was cool.
-Megatron and Starscream had some solid scenes together, really playing up the classic dynamics of their relationship.
-Some of the backstory was pretty interesting.
-Some of the character models were really good and were more distinct than the first movie.
Overall I can't say I'd recommend it and I'm really hoping the rumours of Bay leaving the property for other movies is true. It seems inevitable that there will be another movie, so hopefully someone else can take a crack at it (and this time there won't be a writer's strike in the way).
__________________ [Eadric]: Your lack of moral responsibility concerns me.
[Mostin]: A surfeit of it would concern me more. I abide by certain axioms Eadric, which you cannot hope to comprehend. You can rest assured that within your own framework, I am completely mad.
[Eadric]: And within yours?
[Mostin]: I am utterly pedestrian. There are things far madder than I.
-The Chronicles of Wyre
Last edited by Darth Shoju; 3rd July 2009 at 04:08 AM..
Just saw it tonight.....given how mixed the reviews have been, I wasn't sure what to expect. Was it a high caliber "film"? No. Did I enjoy it as a pretty decent action film, taking place in the world of Transformers, a property that was once dear to my heart? Yeah...
Some things about it I liked better than the first. I didn't find the twins as annoying as I'd heard. I honestly didn't pay that much attention to them. Were they silly? Sure? Were they cool? No. Did the audience seem to find them good comic relief? Yeah.
Not sure what was with the girl who turned into a robot. I didn't know the decepticons could do that.
When Optimus modified himself, I was like "here we go"......I figured he was going to be like Rodimus Prime or something. I guess that wasn't the intention.
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