Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

IMDB

OPENING SCENE:

1. This is not a children's movie - bad language (pxxxy, the f-word)
2. Extremely entertaining - lots of explosions

THE REVIEW

THING I LOVED

• Hummer HX!!
• The cameo from Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from the Office)
• John Turturro as an actor, he is great...Anger Management. He makes the scene believable and has a slight hint of comedy that isn't Jar jarish, because it comes naturally
• The length of the movie
• The full scale attack
• The rail gun (which is real - just not exactly like their depiction)

THINGS I LIKED:

1. Shorty checkpoint Charlie - goofy, but I liked him, probably because of his interaction with John Turturro ----- Checkpoint in Jordan has video digital face recognition? They might have a phone
2. --Starscream's character fits the character
3. CHARACTERS
   1. Megan Fox - she didn't do a bad job. She's still early in her career
   2. Josh Duhamel & Tyrese Gibson (Major Lennox and USAF Master Seargent Epps)
      1. They have great chemistry as soldiers together. I could watch a soldier movie with them and be entertained
      2. I did hear them say 'u-rah' like Marines once. I'm pretty sure that might be a 'Marine's only' phrase.
   3. Isabel Lucas (Alice - robot) - her role had some awkwardness as she had to hold her mouth open in the goofy tongue scene and I think she did a great job of acting through out that scene.
   4. Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky) - he plays a very confident kid his age for college, which doesn't really suit his role as a 'nervous' nerd from the first role, but I think I might be a little brazen if I had gone through the insanity that he experienced.

THINGS I HATED

1. His parents - reminded me of the family from the Tom Arnold's movie the Stupids
   1. The mom - the baby shoes, the marijuana,
   2. The dad - I liked the dad as he was good through the beginning, but they wouldn't let him listen to his son as everything is exploding around them.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

• Bad editing – after everything is done the girl and guy are facing everyone and the next split second they are looking at each other. Would it have been that difficult to show them transition to putting their arms around each other. It was sloppy – maybe time saver?
• Ball jokes?
• Poor plot pivot - They could have come up with a better way to find the 'primes' than the robots 'all of a sudden' fighting
• The presidents guy (Galloway) would dare tell a giant robot to leave with such fervor, I don't think he would be so brave to a 50 foot robot.
• Optomis Prime says 'I rise, you fall' - what was that about? He sounds like a little vindictive
• Poor 'trap' by the deceptecons using his parents
• Leo, the roommate - I thought his character was a little bit of an over actor
• Obvious geography issues - Cairo near the sea? THE REST OF THE GOOFS

COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT

• The underwear scene at the Smithsonian
• The language (broaden the audience and it doesn't add a whole lot - the original transformers never cussed - it is not like we're
• The Twins (Mudflap and Skids) were poor generalizations of the African American community. They even said that they 'do not do much readin' and they had goofy buck teeth

QUESTIONS:

1. Decptacons with human flesh?
2. It made sense why she was interested in him, but if they had that good of planning and intel to know what school and dorm he was going to why didn't they just go to his house and beat down his door (Beetle)
3. --Why does Optomis Prime need the kid? I could see him desiring to have a voice to the president, but the kid is not a dignitary
4. --Why did the old man robot has a beard and old voice? The evil prime didn't seem to have 'aged'
5. His audience is clearly not children, but those crazy mid-thiry somethings...um...us
6. the small robot humped her leg! You've got to be kidding!!
7. Deceptacons can change sides?
   1. I don't remember this from the cartoons - it does fit the story of one 'deciding' to be evil though. Raises a new question - where the transformers get their badging? Is it like a tattoo or something? If so why couldn't they just change their badge later e.g. the old man SR-71?
8. Why was it is so easy for them to just access the key through the original primes? Didn't they mold their bodies together? Prehistoric learning curve I guess...
9. This movie showed a spiritual side for the transformers – he just has 'faith' that it will work, then he dies and is given life from the transformer 'prime' gods and the key is restored magically.
10. He would not have taken that amount of time to get to his parents. In fact I was about jumping out of my seat angry that he didn't just tell them to hide in the car and he'd back! It was retarded
11. The captain listens to a crazy person's request to fire a rail gun! Somehow they have a view of the pyramids from the boat?
12. Does he really have to go back to college? He clearly remembered the entire book for his class because he recited it at the pyramids
13. What about the stuff still in his brain?
14. Tanks have a profound effect on the transformers now? Weren't they pretty much indestructable on the first one?
15. He goes from national news and now he's just back in school?

THE MACGUFFIN

• The power source; the matrix key

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Best movie based on a video game, cartoon, or comic book? (Hitman - - Punisher w/ Thomas Jane who was in Arrested Development -season 2 episode 2 by the way)
• Chuck MacGuffin Rating - 3
• Mike MacGuffin Rating - 2.5