SPECTACULARLY BAD
Expect Little From Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen And Go Home Satisfied
REMEMBER EPISODE ONE OF THE ORIGINAL TRANSFORMERS cartoon? It had poor animation, lousy sound, and shoddy voicework: two of the three reasons why Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is bad.
South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker said it best: "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?" A quick look at his Rotten Tomatoes profile shows that he currently scores a 7% (out of 100%). That's damn awful.
In fact, his only movie to recieve a positive review score was back in 1996 with The Rock.
Bay's first tangle with the autobots landed mixed reviews -- some people loved it; others hated it. Many reviewers agreed that the main problem was that there wasn't enough Transformer in the movie. The robots were side characters in their own film, taking the backseat to Shia LaBeouf and the walking eyecandy known as Megan Fox. (I'm told she's attractive and an actress -- but I'm not buying either of those statements.)
This new movie gives fans' more Transfomers and more screentime for mechanical monsters.
Exactly what we wanted, right? Not so fast.
The latest in the series is so dominated by the machines and their fights/transformations that the movie feels more like CG animation than live action.
Bay went overboard, delivering too much of a good thing. Way to go, Mike.
At times, the viewer is so focused on trying to figure out who is fighting whom instead of why. The whole movie is about sensory overload. It's as if Bay made the noise so relentless hoping that viewers wouldn't notice the lack of storyline; the flick should have run 90 minutes instead 149 minute. It'd be tempting to take a nap if the fight sequences weren't so loud.
I won't completely rain on Bay's parade though. Tthe visuals are spectacular and surpass those of the first movie. The lead actors do what they can with little to work with.
There is good reason to love the Transformers franchise. The original Transformers movie was a bonafide hit, and Beast Wars is among the best computer-generated cartoons of all time. But this movie fails as spectacularly as those succeeded.
While I doubt my little review will stop you from seeing one of the only summer blockbusters, maybe it will lower your hopes just enough to make the movie enjoyable.
Marc Sakol understands the kindness in strangers, which is why he abandons hope of actually getting to know people. He spends his time falling head first into video games, watching every movie ever made and writing for his blog Sarcasm Not Included.
