Movie Review - Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is set two years after the first movie. After the defeat of Megatron, the leader of the evil Decepticons and the human’s alliance with the heroic Autobots, the civil war between the two factions of the mechanical alien race was thought to be over. Now a more ancient evil stirs and once again earth is in peril thanks to the Transformers.
The fact that the sequel is set two years after the first one would have been negligible, except that clearly something movie worthy has happened within the time span. Suddenly, the Autobots grew in numbers and is now working with the military, unquestionably and with full support, to hunt down and kill Decepticons like dogs.
The Autobots are very violent in this movie. Sure, Megatron killed Jazz by snapping him in half in the first movie, but the Autobots more than makes up for it in this one. Since when does Optimus Prime, the noble hero, stabs his enemies in the face, rips their heads apart, and pulls their spark (heart) out and crushing it with his bare hands? Heck Sideswipe cuts a Decepticon in half and Bumblebee ripped the spine out of another! It looks cool, sure, but who is the bad guy here? I digress.
No one expects a good story in an action movie like this much less a story of epic science fiction scale, but bless its heart, this movie tried. The origin tale of how the Cybertronian split into two factions, how their civil war began, and how they function as a sentient alien species is pretty interesting. Too bad it is only a small part of the movie.
More robots is always a good thing and in that aspect TF:ROTF delivers. The cast of Transformers in this movie almost double that of the previous one. Nevertheless, most of the Transformers are never mentioned by name, some gets a little more than ten minutes on screen and only a select few gets any recognition. Without any introductions to who these new robots are, seeing the extended cast of Transformers in action on screen only results the feeling of frustrating confusion.
I must admit that the action sequence and the special effects in this movie are far better compared to the previous movie. Now the action can clearly be seen and the fights does not look like a giant ball of scrunched up aluminium foil rolling down some generic landscape. In some scenes, the effects are so good that I could not believe that they did not use full scale animatronics.
Whatever you opinion of the movie is, there is one flaw in the movie that everyone seems to agree on; it is too long and it is convoluted. The pacing is so bad and there are so many throw-away scenes. TF:ROTF definitely needs a trim and I bet it would have fared much better if it was more focused and if it left most of the monotony on the cutting room floor.
Personally I think saying that Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a “fun summer popcorn movie” is a fair, yet barely acceptable, excuse. Only time will tell, as the novelty wears off, if this movie is as good as some say it is.
