TRANSFORMERS

[Chakra-X]

I kid you not. For me, best movie of the year. Though I love dramas, I also love me some action, so if your the person that needs high levels of plot development and A-level acting in a Michael Bay Transformers movie, then I suppose stay away. Party poopers.

But I literally. Literally. Had an Epicgasm. You know your about to blow, but you can hold in a little longer, longer than you anticipated, and when you finish, is it is just fantastic? Yeah it was like that.

There is this fight in the forest, where Optimus prime is taking on (spoiler? They showed him in the previews) Megatron and Starscream, and like 1 or 2 more Deceptions. And it's not generic smash bash, it's carefully thought out choreography and I'm sitting there with my eyes wide and grinning from cheek to cheek as Optimus fights these guys. I think it's almost over, than the fight will come to an end, but even more badass stuff happens. I laughed out of joy.


But why you should see it? There is at *least* 3 or 4 times more robot fighting action. They said they had the animation nailed down better in this one, and it definitely shows, because there is a lot more transforming and more advanced fight scenes. Like I remember when Megatron and Optimus fought in the last one at the end and felt it was kind of anticlimatic because of how boring they were fighting and how Optimus was getting his ass handed to him. It was the complete opposite this time around, and I am talking about the MIDDLE of the movie.

Megan Fox. Yes. I get it. She's not the hottest thing since sliced bread. But still. Megan Fox. Had more of a purpose in this one than just to look pretty.

It was actually pretty hilarious. It really is not a kids movie, considering the jokes and language. Even one scene with Sam and the Deceptions seemed a little too detailed for kids under 9.

Spongebob's voice actor is in it. Come on.

It did slow down the second half, which it needed to drive the plot, and I think it could have been done more gracefully, but it's very short and is understandable. The ending scenes I did not see coming actually. Seriously. I thought it would have been a lot more generic. But YES. BUT. BUT. It was very abrupt. They did what they needed to do and it was like "oh, it's the end now". The first half, I'll admit, was better than the second half. Not just because of the action, just overall I suppose. But the second half is still cool, just not *as* cool. The length was good though.

Of course there is cheese. I like cheese when done right and for the most part it was. I saw it on IMAX too and hopefully get to see it another time (not on IMAX).

 

[Dienekes]

I feel the exact opposite of Chakra. The story was juvenile, the acting was terrible, Megan Fox's botoxed lips made me cringe and the only lines that were legitimately funny came from Sam's mother.

Any of the fights where Optimus was involved was awesome. I'll give the movie that much. He wasn't late over and over again nor did he get his ass handed to him like he did in the first movie.

The movie was one explosion after another, which is fine until you realize its like that so you don't focus too much on the plot, characters, dialogue or anything else really. If you focus on the booms the entire movie, it's an alright action flick. If you can get a thought or two in between explosions to question why none of the "good guys" were killed during the carpet bombing scene or how blowing up a star creates energon without killing every robot in the solar system (who die from saber rounds and just about everything in arms reach), you'll leave the movie a little disappointed.

 

[Chakra-X]

I feel the exact opposite of Chakra. The story was juvenile, the acting was terrible, Megan Fox's botoxed lips made me cringe and the only lines that were legitimately funny came from Sam's mother.

Any of the fights where Optimus was involved was awesome. I'll give the movie that much. He wasn't late over and over again nor did he get his ass handed to him like he did in the first movie.

The movie was one explosion after another, which is fine until you realize its like that so you don't focus too much on the plot, characters, dialogue or anything else really. If you focus on the booms the entire movie, it's an alright action flick. If you can get a thought or two in between explosions to question why none of the "good guys" were killed during the carpet bombing scene or how blowing up a star creates energon without killing every robot in the solar system (who die from saber rounds and just about everything in arms reach), you'll leave the movie a little disappointed.

*spoilers, but nothing earth shattering*







There was a line that said "blow up the sun" and I think that was wrong. It seemed they would just drain the sun in to energon and everything on Earth would have frozen to death (except for the Transformers. They can resist that kind of environment?) I mean they can travel through and live in space. And they transform in to objects a will, so I can suspend my disbelief

I admit I did sneer at the amount of takes of things just exploding, because it can look mediocre after awhile, but I took it as film filler and glossed over it.

Regarding the carpet bomb, I did not think too much in to it. I thought "of course they are going to run away and make it. It's an action movie". But yes, most of the parts that you stop and think "...really?" involve the humans. Such as a slo-mo shot of Megan and Shia(?) running toward the camera with explosions behind them. Cheezy typical action shot? Yep. But I was looking for an action ride moreso than an articulate form of cinema.

At least the humans are not annoying (except the roommate. He perked my interest a little, and had one funny moment, but I found him to be dead weight).

 

[J-Dude]

Here's the opinion of the reviewer of the Escapist. I like the reviews from Escapist, since they don't sugar coat things and when they DO give overwhelmingly positive marks, it's usually for very good reason. Sometimes I become torn after watching a film and can't decide if it was good or not, and hearing a well weighed review often helps me decide.

escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/797-Transformers-Revenge

Me, I like Shia, I liked the movie in general, I loved the old Decepticon turned Autobot character. Hated the two annoying Hybrid Autobots. Loved Sam's parents in this one. I just thought it was so explosive and so long and constant that it wore you out by the time the film ended, and you actually grew tired of seeing Transformers blowing things up and being thrown through structures and rocks. And a problem I always had with Transformers was how overly complex they all were. I'm astounded at how much work must have went into designing, rigging and animating all of these transforming robots, but the end result is the characters are WAY too detailed. You're often not sure what you're looking at. And facial expressions are often hard to read. I remember the first time I saw a picture of Optimus in an Entertainment Weekly mag, and thinking to myself how overblown he looked with all those tiny details. They need to be simplified a bit, make them all mesh more solidly together once transformed. They look like clouds of floating parts in the films. It's just too loud.