3. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)
“Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers’ war.”
Revenge of the Fallen is, in the eyes of a lot of people, terrible. For me though, it is a nostalgic mixed bag and the first Transformers film I was truly hyped for.
For me it has its moments. The score by Steve Jablonsky is once again beautifully epic, the CGI is incredible and some of the action set pieces, such as the opening Shanghai fight, the forest battle and the final fight in Egypt, are exciting.
However, it is bogged down with some stupid, unfunny, crass humour and annoying characters (both human and robot). Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate, has no character arc at all and should have either been written out of the story after the first hour or gone through some character growth by the end of the film. As it is, he is there for "comic relief", making a fool of himself in failed slapstick comedy and literally screaming in fear.
Then there is the issue of two of the new Autobots - twins Mudflap and Skids. Criticised for being racial stereotypes, they bring nothing to the film other than a misjudged attempt at comic relief and two new toys for Hasbro's tie-in toy line. They were received so poorly in this instalment that they were omitted almost completely from the franchise's third film (almost, since they were included in tie in comics, books, the toy line and can still be seen in their vehicle modes, albeit briefly, in the background of one of the shots early in the film.
The film was in pre-production during the time of the Writers Guild of America strike, so the story and character development definitely suffer for that. It is a basic plot of the Decepticons searching for a Cybertronian MacGuffin that will end the world and the Autobots, with the help of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), have to stop them. Sam's character arc involves him getting to the stage in his relationship with Mikaela (Megan Fox, who has somewhat improved acting-wise since the last film) where he can tell her that he loves her. His mother and father make a return, with them learning to cope with their son leaving for college, on his way to face the world on his own whilst also being caught up in this alien war..
At the age of fourteen-going-on-fifteen, Revenge of the Fallen was the perfect Summer action blockbuster for me and, at the time, I probably favoured it over the first one. This is no longer the case, but it is still mindless background noise if you are doing something else, that you can pick and choose to watch your favourite moments. Also, director Michael Bay still seemed to actually care at this point, so it is far better than Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
For me it has its moments. The score by Steve Jablonsky is once again beautifully epic, the CGI is incredible and some of the action set pieces, such as the opening Shanghai fight, the forest battle and the final fight in Egypt, are exciting.
However, it is bogged down with some stupid, unfunny, crass humour and annoying characters (both human and robot). Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate, has no character arc at all and should have either been written out of the story after the first hour or gone through some character growth by the end of the film. As it is, he is there for "comic relief", making a fool of himself in failed slapstick comedy and literally screaming in fear.
Then there is the issue of two of the new Autobots - twins Mudflap and Skids. Criticised for being racial stereotypes, they bring nothing to the film other than a misjudged attempt at comic relief and two new toys for Hasbro's tie-in toy line. They were received so poorly in this instalment that they were omitted almost completely from the franchise's third film (almost, since they were included in tie in comics, books, the toy line and can still be seen in their vehicle modes, albeit briefly, in the background of one of the shots early in the film.
The film was in pre-production during the time of the Writers Guild of America strike, so the story and character development definitely suffer for that. It is a basic plot of the Decepticons searching for a Cybertronian MacGuffin that will end the world and the Autobots, with the help of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), have to stop them. Sam's character arc involves him getting to the stage in his relationship with Mikaela (Megan Fox, who has somewhat improved acting-wise since the last film) where he can tell her that he loves her. His mother and father make a return, with them learning to cope with their son leaving for college, on his way to face the world on his own whilst also being caught up in this alien war..
At the age of fourteen-going-on-fifteen, Revenge of the Fallen was the perfect Summer action blockbuster for me and, at the time, I probably favoured it over the first one. This is no longer the case, but it is still mindless background noise if you are doing something else, that you can pick and choose to watch your favourite moments. Also, director Michael Bay still seemed to actually care at this point, so it is far better than Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
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