Now Rating: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Jeff Mason
Issue date: 6/24/09 Section: A&E
Let me be the first to say I was wrong about this movie. After watching the first "Transformers," I was convinced the newest movie, "Revenge of the Fallen," would be another robot brawl with no plot and terrible dialogue. Essentially, it would simultaneously be the best and worst movie of the summer. "Revenge" isn't the best movie so far, but is also far from being the worst.
Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox are back as the typical "dork meets knockout meets alien race" couple facing the reality of a long distance relationship after LeBeouf's character leaves for college. Their plans are ruined when they discover a piece of lingering technology from the first movie that makes them the focus of a Decepticon (the bad robots) attack. Now Optimus Prime, leader of the rival Autobots, must help the entire planet from entering an eternal blackout from a piece of ancient Transformer technology.
It's incredible how much the franchise has transformed from the first movie to the second. Almost all of the issues with the first movie have been either fixed or tweaked. The writing, which was utterly pathetic in the first movie, has drastically improved in all fronts. The plot is much improved, the Transformers actually have personalities and there are no more awful lines of dialogue, such as Optimus' unintentionally hilarious, "Put the cube in my chest," in the first movie.
At the same time, "Revenge of the Fallen" maintains the aspects that made the original movie bearable. The robots are all super destroyable and won't survive a stab through the chest, so there's plenty of carnage and dead hunks of metal to go around. The time spent on huge robot battles has also increased dramatically. Gone is about 90 percent of the "Robot Comedy Theater" that plagued the first movie. For the most part, the robots just stick the action, but have enough personality to feel more like characters.
The humor in "Revenge" is also improved, but somehow manages to be the same low-brow humor. There's still a shot of John Turturro in his underwear, but it's made up by a justification that any fan of baseball will be sure to enjoy. It's still a little slapstick at times, but it stays away from going overboard and works in a movie that involves space robots that transform in to cars.
"Revenge of the Fallen" isn't the smartest movie, but it is about as good as it could be, and a vast improvement over the first movie. The robot on robot carnage is an eyeful and is confusing at times, but is still sure to fulfill the childhood fantasy of truck turned titan destruction.
Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox are back as the typical "dork meets knockout meets alien race" couple facing the reality of a long distance relationship after LeBeouf's character leaves for college. Their plans are ruined when they discover a piece of lingering technology from the first movie that makes them the focus of a Decepticon (the bad robots) attack. Now Optimus Prime, leader of the rival Autobots, must help the entire planet from entering an eternal blackout from a piece of ancient Transformer technology.
It's incredible how much the franchise has transformed from the first movie to the second. Almost all of the issues with the first movie have been either fixed or tweaked. The writing, which was utterly pathetic in the first movie, has drastically improved in all fronts. The plot is much improved, the Transformers actually have personalities and there are no more awful lines of dialogue, such as Optimus' unintentionally hilarious, "Put the cube in my chest," in the first movie.
At the same time, "Revenge of the Fallen" maintains the aspects that made the original movie bearable. The robots are all super destroyable and won't survive a stab through the chest, so there's plenty of carnage and dead hunks of metal to go around. The time spent on huge robot battles has also increased dramatically. Gone is about 90 percent of the "Robot Comedy Theater" that plagued the first movie. For the most part, the robots just stick the action, but have enough personality to feel more like characters.
The humor in "Revenge" is also improved, but somehow manages to be the same low-brow humor. There's still a shot of John Turturro in his underwear, but it's made up by a justification that any fan of baseball will be sure to enjoy. It's still a little slapstick at times, but it stays away from going overboard and works in a movie that involves space robots that transform in to cars.
"Revenge of the Fallen" isn't the smartest movie, but it is about as good as it could be, and a vast improvement over the first movie. The robot on robot carnage is an eyeful and is confusing at times, but is still sure to fulfill the childhood fantasy of truck turned titan destruction.
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