I find it funny how fickle critics can be as both movie goers and critics. The line between just sitting with a bag of pop corn and enjoying a film is very fine for them. Because of expertise and for some like myself, partial degrees in cinema study, we are taught to pay attention to how a film is made more than just what it is. While the plot and story are essentials, lighting, cinematography, sound, and overall presentation matter as much. That's why I haven't been surprised at the amount of flack being delivered to the new Transformers film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. To many critics, Michael Bay is cinematic poison, an incubus of God like proportions sent to screw the art of film making by cramming 360 camera shots, slow motion, and explosions out the ass into 2 hour action fests. Bay is the reason the term summer blockbuster was coined, having pumped out at least one film a summer or so for the past fifteen years. Critics alike hate him for his predictable directing jobs and continuity lacking storylines. But as Michael's bank account has shown, his simple minded film making pays off for the audience who just enjoy watching things go boom which is not a bad thing at all. Coupled with his long standing partnership with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and they rarely go wrong, except for maybe the Island. So with all the flack being put on this sequel what is the final verdict for someone who doesn't always need to stick his nose up at loud bangs and jiggling female body parts?
Despite my worries of the film being something I was going to hate based on feedback from friends who weren't too thrilled, I would be a fool to say I didn't enjoy the movie regardless of it being about an hour too long. Bay and Bruckheimer once again bring to the table what they do best, making the audience glare at the screen with "OOO" and "AHH" reactions and leaving them breathless at what today's technology can do. If these two were screenwriters, they would be great with beats in a script, not the plot.
The plot is relatively simple to figure out. Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf) is rushed back into the world of the war between the autobots and decepticons after a chunk of the Allspark cube that he destroyed in the first one summons to life the Fallen, an ancient decepticon who was banished from his race and has been in hiding waiting to bring about the power of ancient weapon buried on Earth. As expected alot of the old baddies are back: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and even the absent minded (fictional) United States government, this time the bully being a very unthreatening national security advisor named Galloway, very scary. The plot has alot of the point A to point B structures and the good versus evil arch that the first one had. The storyline has a bit of a better set up with the concepts of Earth's past and its relation with the decepticons being a unique plot point but nothing real spectacular.
Character wise, development is never in favor in the Bay world. Shia LeBouf and Megan Fox, returning to her role of Mikaela, really have no character development. The most progress that Sam gets through while trying to avoid being blown to bits by robots is his struggle to tell Mikaela he loves her. I will give a brief moment to conduct a universal aw and then get back to the heart of the matter.
In a way character development is left suspended in a film like this to focus on the action and visual aids that come with a Transformers movie. Monuments being blown to bits, robot on robot carnage and slow motion captions lifted directly from Bay's previous work. There is even a reference to Bad Boys II if Bay's ego wasn't big enough.
The most noticable flaw and it's an offensive one at best is the racial stereotypes that are expressed in the film. To point to an obvious reference, look no further than the Amos and Andy like autobot team of Skid and Mudflap, ghetto talking bots with gasket gold teeth and the inability to read symbols from their own language. Have both these guys run through a drive through at KFC and I'm pretty sure we would have the first blackface team of robots. The dialogue is also a sticking point with alot of uneccesary cursing that was absent from the first film. Sight gags like Sam's mother accidentally buying a bag of pot brownies on the Princeton University campus. Finally the big offender as if black like robots weren't enough is the wise cracking robot factor. Compared to the first one, there is alot more dialogue between the autbots and decepticons with alot of the main bots getting a personality thrown into them. Starscream is now an Egor like persona, while we are introduced to Wheelie, a autobot who transforms into a tiny toy truck and mimics the likeness of someone like actor Joe Pesci. We also have Jetfire, an elder decepticon who carries around a mechanical cane and weezes and spits and is likely in need of a care center.
In many ways what we have been delivered is the pop corn action fest that we as movie goers look forward to each summer. Summers are lined up for big budget films, not the academy award winners that get nominated at the Oscars, although
4 out of 5 stars
