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TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

KAEOS
Grab your crank shaft and fire on all pistons, Director Michael Bay has returned with the sequel to his 2007 Film Transformers. Transformers Revenge of The Fallen. It is 2 yrs later and the autobots have been busy helping the US Government hunt down and kill rogue decepticons who have come to earth. The relationship is tenuous at best and as with most things in washington, downright hostile at times.
Meanwhile Sam Whitwicky again played by the very jittery Shia Lebouf is going off to college while trying to deal with a long distance with his token hot chick and bad girl girlfriend played by megan fox.
The Decepticons have been busy searching for more ways to dominate the universe and bring back their assumed leader megatron from a water grave. Only now we find out that Megatron is not the true leader but just another pawn in the Decepticon leadership and an ancient robot called the Fallen is waiting for his chance to finally conquer earth, a battle that very confusingly started 16,000 ago before earth’s last ice age.
Its up to Sam and the Autobots with the help of some unlikely allies to once again stop the sinister plans of the decepticons and save humanity against overwhealming odds.

MARC
Going into this I am going to say that I was a huge sceptick of the first Transformers movie, therefore I did not go see it and theatres and even when it first came out I still did not see it. It took a couple of my friends to convince me to see it and once I did, I really liked it! I mean, it’s a movie about toys and it’s good! I think we can all agree that the first one really did not have much of a story to it but the movie seemed to concentrate more on the Transformers themselves, then anything else and it worked.

KAEOS
Much like the first film, Revenge of The Fallen is, as you would expect very fast paced, the action sequences are as loud and explosive as you would expect and the plot is as thin as you can imagine. Making this movie a perfect pop corn blockbuster to sit back and marvel at.

MARC
With a film like Transformers you know the filmmakers and writers are going to concentrate more on action then anything else which in this movie’s case, works out perfectly. The action in the film is more intense then the first film and my eyes were popping the first two hours of the movie. Michael Bay must have heard some of the fanboys cry about how fast the fighting sequences in the first movie were and how it was hard to distinguish which transformer hit who because in the sequal they slow down the action to an almost, Matrix like style, that helps out. You see much more fist punching in this one and overall battles.
Another thing to add, the comedy in this film is all over the place but in a good way. The first one had some cute little laughs here and there but this second one took it to the point where it almost felt like an Action/Comedy then anything else. All the actors deliver pretty well except for one person, Megan Fox but I will get to that later. As much shit we give Shia Labouef you have to admit that he is a decent actor but I still feel we have yet to see some real acting chops with this kid.

KAEOS
The highest marks I can give this film, expecially when compared to it’s 2007 sibling, are in character development. where as Transformers had 14 robots in the film, Revenge of the fallen boasts a fully loaded 34 bots battling it out all across the globe. And this time the range of characters is signifcantly bigger both in raw size and in personalites. Even the humans in this film are given a better opportunity to shine through. I agree completely with Marc on the comedy aspects of the movie. Sam’s Parents played by Kevin Dunn and Julie white absolutely steal every scene they are in. Mom whitwicky is histerical from the sobbing tears over Sams baby booties to pot brownies on college campus. The bots themselves are more well rounded and identifiable characters as opposed to just hero stereotypes several of them are funny as hell all on their own.
The complexity of the robots themselves and their battles is nothing short of incredible. This time around the action is a little easier to follow and the ferociousness of some of the machines is a bit shocking, if not very satisfying to an action fan. There is a little bit of something for everyone in this movie. The die hard fans of the original series and toys growing up get a dose of nostalgia. The sci fi fans get some amazing visual effects and the average summer movie goer gets a solid, big budget film that makes you laugh, delivers some thrills and doesn’t make you think too much.

MARC
Now, what I thought sucked about this movie: The length. It was 2hours and 45min! Way to long! Some people might say that I got my moneys worth, which I agree but with a movie based on a toy franchise I believe this movie was 30min to long. There were so many random shots in this movie that could have been cut out with no problem. Perfect example, Bay must have a thing for humping in this film because at one point he shows two scenes where dogs are humping eachother and at another point show a little Transfomer humping Megan Fox’s leg. Another shot was of two dangling balls from a huge transformer, another stupid shot and pointless at that. Imagine the amount of money the computer animators wasted on two dangling balls from a transformer! Fucking, clown shoes!
Next problem with the movie, Megan Fox. Yes she is a hot but other then that I believe she has nothing else to offer acting wise. Most of the movie she looked confused or completely not interested. I am not expecting academy award winning performances from this movie but at the same time, find someone who wants to be in this movie.
Spoiler Alert ahead: So in a scene the filmmakers want you to think Shia’s characters dies but of course we all know he does not, in turn, fucking pointless. At the scene I looked over at my girl and she rolled her eyes, there is no point in putting in a scene which amounts to nothing in turn. Last problem with this film is the last 30min of the film. It was like they took the same exact action sequence from the first movie and put it in this second movie. What I am talking about is the sand battle. The only difference is the amount of transformers. It was almost like watching the first movie.

KAEOS
Aside from the obviousness of Megan Fox as one piece of token eye candy in the movie, there are two after all, I have 2 major criticisms of this film. First as a parent wanting to share the sheer awesomeness of giant walking talking alien robots with my kids, it bugs the hell out of me that Bay clearly took full advantage of his PG13 rating. There is just a ridiculous amount of blatant sexuality and pointless, unnecessary cursing throughout the film. Whether it’s Megan Fox or the films resident fem-bot straddling inanimate objects and Shia alike, or it’s one of the “hip-pop-be-boy” autobot twins calling actor Ramon Rodriguez a “Pussy”. There are just a stupid amount of people saying shit and ass in this film. Though to be honest the scene of John Turturo radioing the aircraft carrier that he is postioned below the (giant) enemy scrotum was pretty damn funny.
Second comes the nit picky winey bitchy fan boy in me. We get to see one of the most awesome Decepticons from the original series, Soundwave. But as with the Megatron voice in both films, it’s just not right. We get to see lots more robots, but most of them aren’t given names or aren’t characters I knew growing up. Stepping back and looking at the whole picture these crticisms aren’t enough to knock me out of enjoying the film entirely.

MARC
So, all in all, it was a very well made action film. Bay does do a good job with all the CGI action from the Transformers and seems to handle a very basic story, well. The comedy in the film was a nice touch but when it came to the dogs humping I felt lost its touch at that point. The film seems to drag on once the 2hour mark hits but ends with an ok battle of the Transformers. I would recommend this movie however to anyone who enjoyed the first one just so you can expeirernce the action and sound on the big screen. There are a couple of complaints but with those aside I am going to give this movie a 7/10.

KAEOS
You’ll laugh, I guarantee it. You’ll cry, but thats only until you realize that no one, robot or human alike ever REALLY dies in these movies. Only their careers. My recommendation is to bring a large bucket of popcorn, a huge soda, maybe some goobers and leave your brain at home. It’ll be much more enjoyable that way. I give the film a 7/10 or Pretty Chaotic.

Kaeos, in this film, Soundwave is voiced by Frank Welker, who voiced him in the original animated series... along with Megatron, Shockwave, et. al.

Understood, but still WRONG voice! What I left out of the review in that sentence was that he did Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. Not Soundwave. Where is the auto-tuner?!?!