Scene Analysis #1: Forest Battle—Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen · 10:10pm Jan 7th, 2023

Scene Rating Scale:

9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.

Hello, hello, my wonderful friends! Mr. J is in the house for a very special review today! This afternoon, I will finally start my very first scene analysis as the new year has already started. I will be analyzing the Forest Battle from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”! Despite the fact that this film has been heavily criticized by both fans and critics at the time of release in 2009 (as it painfully suffered from the Writers’ Strike), this scene has been praised by a vast majority of people as the best scene of the whole movie. And I agree; it showcases Optimus’s courage to stand against Megatron and his goons despite the odds against him and that he would do anything in his power to protect Sam Witwicky from danger.

In this scene, we see Optimus taking Sam as far away from the Decepticons as possible right after he and Bumblebee rescued him from Megatron’s clutches. As the latter tackles him in a forest, both leaders fight to the death while Sam runs for cover behind the woods.

There are a lot of reasons why this scene is worth watching. It’s not just because we see robots beating each other up on screen but also because we see some actual display of both opposing powers clashing with each other. You can see that through the dialogue and the way they actually attack each other. Let’s first look at Optimus and how he fought his opponents:

At first, he uses his raw strength to battle his millennium-long arch-nemesis; he punches Megatron right after the latter tackles him in the forest. Realizing how ruthless Megatron is after he tackled him the second time, he uses an earthly object to disorient him. Then he later uses an energon blade to gain some advantage over him…until Megs calls for backup.

So now Optimus is fighting not one, not two, but three Decepticons which puts Sam in even greater danger. He tries to fight them all at once but eventually gets beaten up, sliced, and blasted to the ground. This is when Prime decided to no longer play around and get more lethal in order to protect Sam. He activates a second energon blade to even the odds.

So this is what we normally see in action movies: the villain beats the hero momentarily until the latter powers up and defeats the villain at the last minute. This is what Optimus does to all three of them, including killing Grindor. But then there’s a twist to the scene: Prime gets killed by Megatron as he lets his guard down looking for Sam. As a result, it raises the stakes at a dangerously high level for our surviving Autobot and human characters now that they are deprived of their primary source of guidance, leadership, and strength.

This whole scene shows Optimus as a courageous hero who refuses to give up Sam or Earth which he considered home. Despite the odds that were against him, he nearly succeeded in stopping the threat. But his concern for his human companion led to his temporary demise and defeat in battle. The only thing I found questionable was that he was not able to kill Megatron or Starscream during the whole fight but had no problem killing Grindor, the tallest robot out of the four. I don’t understand why he couldn’t just stab his blades through Megatron’s face and put an instant end to his recently-resurrected existence. But of course, that’s a discussion for another time.

Now I move on to Megatron: his fighting style is relatively weaker in comparison to his dominating power from the first movie where he overpowered everyone like a beast. The only time he was able to actually win was behind his back: a very deadly tactic even a coward like Starscream can utilize. It was only when Optimus let his guard down did he fatally stab him through the chest and blow his spark. He also says this remark:

You’re so weak!

A lot of people misinterpret this line as physical weakness he was addressing. When you carefully watch the part where Optimus frantically called for Sam, that’s the moment Megatron got the jump on him and taunted him for his softness. He called him weak in terms of having compassion for the human, not his lack of physical prowess. That line defines Megatron’s character: he’s a power-hungry, narcissistic, arrogant warmonger who cares only for the Decepticon cause with no regard for humanity or anyone else. The way Hugo Weaving delivers that line was perfect, no doubt about that.

Then we see Starscream and Grindor, two of Megatron’s top lieutenants. This is the only time in the series Starscream fights Optimus, and here he fights decently well against him. Nonetheless, it’s hilarious how he gets shat on by having his arm cut off and being beaten by it. Why hit yourself, Screamer?

But as for Grindor, he….unfortunately doesn’t do much here. We do see him take a clear cut on Prime (at least in the original version here), but then he barely does anything else useful. He staggers around like an idiot until his face gets violently ripped in half, screaming in agony. That alone honestly disappoints me. He is one of my favorite Decepticons because, based on the description of his ROTF voyager class toy bio, he is a battle strategist and is incredibly intelligent. He can actually predict the moves of his opponents before they can even make them. In the video game, we see his brilliant strategy-making skills at work with amazing dialogue.

In the movie here, he’s nothing more than a mindless brute who contributed little to nothing to the whole fight. Why even bring him here?

But still, this scene is awesome to watch and the soundtrack makes it 100 times more epic and goosebumps-inducing! The sound effects are really catchy to listen to as well; the CGI, the movements, the transformations, everything! Plus, I especially love the fact that this all took place in a forest. That means that Optimus won’t have to worry too much about civilians getting in the way. I believe that’s partly why Optimus went all-out on Megatron; in the first movie, he could barely put a dent on his foe’s chassis. Here, he dominated Megatron and almost defeated him had it not been for his concern for Sam that cost him his life. With little to no humans getting in harm’s way, he could use any means necessary to bring them down.

One last thing to discuss: the camera work. Overall, the fight is shot and edited very well. However, there are a couple shots that could have been better. For example, when Optimus stabs Megatron on the shoulder at the 1:38 time mark, the camera suddenly slightly moves downward and then back up. It’s like the cameraman almost dropped it before holding it correctly. Another instance is where Prime swings at Starscream and Grindor with his energon blades around the 3:27 time mark. There, the camera slightly moves down where we can’t even see half of their upper bodies until half a second later to see everything. It was really distracting, and it is partly due to Michael Bay’s weird style of cinematography he loves to maintain so much. Regardless, it doesn’t take away the awesomeness of this fight scene.

With all this said, I will rate it a solid 8/9! Love this scene, and it’s something that I always watch everyday!

Peace out, folks! Roll out!