My Re-Review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen · 7:22pm Apr 26th, 2021
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
NOTE: This review was written on September 24th, 2020 for my DeviantArt page. Also, I have edited this review for grammar mistakes and to give credit to whom credit is due. Enjoy!
Hey, fellas... Mr. J here. Here is my review for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. When I saw the trailers for this movie, The Fallen’s face on the posters, and Demolisher in those trailers (whom I thought was The Fallen at the time), I was heavily hyped for the film. After enjoying the first film which I still do to this day, I was really looking forward to watching the movie in theaters. In 2009, I went to the movie theater with my dad and watched the film; at the time, I was blown away by its awesomeness. I also loved the ROTF toyline as well (which were quite better than the first toyline). My mom and sister watched the film at home, and from what I remember, they didn’t like it at all (none of them are Transformers fans btw).
I honestly haven’t watched the movie in years. It wasn’t until last year or so that I watched it again. Everything the fans complained about were predominantly present throughout the movie. And boy was I unimpressed. I actually made a very negative review on this before with anger. However, as I am now looking back at the movie, I begin to realize the actual potential this movie has. While I still think that this movie has numerous flaws that are really annoying, it isn’t really as horrible as people make it out to be. Maybe it’s just me, but this film has some major elements that I like which I can truly commend Michael Bay for. So, here are my current thoughts on Revenge of the Fallen:
1). I am actually happy to see more Transformers being involved as the series continued on. While I, like many others, truly wish they would focus more on the Transformers than on the human characters, I can appreciate that they introduced new characters in the film which I suppose only a few people like myself can love and talk about. One character in particular I genuinely like is Sideswipe. He is my favorite version of the character of all time. I never even heard of him until I watched this movie. His personality, his fighting style, his one-liners, and the little screen time he got were amongst the best parts of the movie.
Nonetheless, I cannot say the same for the Arcee triplets, Skids, and Mudflap. Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-1 have fairly mediocre designs with barely any dialogue or personality. When the Decepticons killed off Arcee and Elita, I felt absolutely nothing for them. Why? Because it was rushed and done for a few seconds that nobody would have any time to react to. Grey Griffin had so little to do with Arcee which is very disappointing since I actually love her voice acting. The twins are infamous for their racist stereotypes and for their immature, idiotic behavior. While I agree with the critics that they were dragging the film down every time they were on screen, I actually like their designs. But I admire their ice cream truck mode more because it looks more appealing to me.
As for Jolt, I can honestly forgive their last-minute decision to add him into this. The only silent Autobot character was somehow more interesting to me than Skids and Mudflap. From the way I see it, his dedication to the Autobot cause, his loyalty to Optimus Prime and their friends, and his unique qualities that we briefly saw on screen won me over. Why do I say this? Because if he didn’t revitalize Optimus with Jetfire’s parts from his electric whips, Optimus would have never defeated the Fallen and destroyed the Harvester. Basically, he is the true hero of the movie.
2). I do admit that this film has plot holes and inconsistencies. But to be honest, this film’s flaws do not bother me that much anymore. I don’t know what got into me to hate this movie, but they are not as aggravating as the continuity errors in The Last Knight are. Since Michael Bay isn’t a great story teller, just watch this film for the Transformers and the action if you enjoy his blockbuster action sequences.
3). Speaking of action, the best action scenes for me are the Shanghai Battle with Demolisher and Sideways, the forest battle between Optimus and Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor, and the final battle between the Autobots, N.E.S.T military and the Decepticons. They are still enjoyable and awesome to this day. Am I the only one who could tell what is actually going on? The shaky camera isn’t really that bad to be honest. If you don’t like the rotating camera that is done plenty of times in the movie, that’s fine. The action in these films are the best parts of them all. That is what we came to watch them for. Seeing giant alien robots battle each other... good vs. evil! That is what is more memorable for me.
4). Now I would like to mention the new Decepticons in this. The Constructicons were the main ones that somewhat drove the plot of the story for me. I mean, they were the ones who resurrected Megatron after they killed Scrapmetal per Scapel’s orders for his parts and with the last Allspark fragment. They also had Rampage be the one to hold Sam’s parents hostage in order to “spring the trap” for Sam. Mixmaster slapped that American flag away from the bridge to insert Decepticon domination over the world. Lastly, they (or at least their clones) formed into Devastator to destroy the Autobots and unravel the Star Harvester in the pyramid. So yeah... they partly carried the movie unlike the Fallen. While some of their designs look weird, most of them look great and fascinating. I like Mixmaster the most because of his design and authoritative personality (he even said “Listen up!” in his last scene).
Speaking of whom, I still don’t like The Fallen that much. It’s unclear what is his revenge and what are his reasons behind betraying his brothers (the Primes). I guess he’s just pure evil, and he’s one of the few villains who lacks a backstory. Despite that, he has a passable design, menacing voice, and decent personality. Tony Todd did a great job portraying that type of menacing character with his voice. I just wish he had much more screen time so that he would make a greater and lasting impression as a well-written villain. Therefore, I am not a big fan of The Fallen, but he still has some potential. It’s also interesting that he is the main antagonist of this sequel, yet Megatron has more screen time than he ever got. That’s the longest screen time Megatron ever got in the films. To me, that is just... amazing.
5). The human characters are... 50/50 for me personally. I still dislike the sex jokes that just ruin the important scenes and which felt so repetitive where they didn’t need to be. I have no idea what went through Bay’s mind at that time, but did he really need to insert all those dirty jokes? It’s really irritating. Still, I don’t feel angered by them anymore as I realize that is how some people are in reality. But that still isn’t really an excuse to insert them in a Transformers movie. Dog humping, Wheelie humping Megan Fox’s leg, the pot brownies Judy was eating... yeah.
6). Optimus Prime was the best part of this movie. His heroism, his combat style, his epic speeches and lines of dialogue, his sacrifice (death), and ability to save earth from the Decepticons were really awesome to behold. Peter Cullen always does his best in voicing his iconic character. However, I found his “Give me your face!” line to be a bit... odd. I think this was a foreshadow of how his initial great character would plummet to the lower level of being so... unlike himself.
7). I am actually happy they got Kevin Michael Richardson to voice Rampage and the main ancient prime although it was a minor role. But just like with Grey Griffin, I really wish he had more to do with this film. Oh well... they probably had budget constraints for that.
Overall, this is a slightly above average film for me. It’s nowhere near to being a masterpiece or an excellent film because it’s clearly not. But it is still a Transformers movie worth watching only for nostalgia, entertainment, and blockbuster fun. So I rate it a 6/10.
Peace.
I found it surprising Megatron willingly called anyone 'Master'.
So basically you now find all of them except for The Last Knight good or mediocre.
5507187
That part honestly confused me because he literally stated, “There is no command but mine!”
Then he proceeded to call Fallen “master”. Lol, what? It really threw me off. 😂
5507200
You made an excellent observation! That is correct!
And before you ask, no. My opinion of the fifth film still stands. There is nothing redeemable about it.
5507201
It just surprised me. What happened to 'I belong to nobody'
5507207
Looks like his words, “no command but mine” only applies to Starscream. You know how much he hates him.
5507210
Everybody hates Starscream. He makes Waspinator look competent.
5507213
Indeed. My old friends and I always made fun of Starscream back in middle school years ago.
5507217
Wish I could've been there.
5507219
Haha, those were the good old days.
5507221
(Pat shoulder) 👍
5507203
There was a fuck load of shit that was cut from that movie that could have made it somewhat better. As it stands, it's simply a half-baked rush job.
5507251
Oh, I’m very aware of that. However, that would only boost my score from a 0/10 to a 3/10. It will still have the same inconsistencies and plot holes, the same horseshit. Only less terrible than what it already is.
5507256
You know what my favorite bit of cut content is? You know that scene with Nitro Zeus getting his head shot off by Bee? In the earlier drafts for this movie, Cogman was originally going to commandeer his body, showcasing that Cogman was a Headmaster. Wanna know why it was cut from the film? Sigh.... Michael Bay stated that he thought that a small robot becoming a bigger robot's head was stupid.
5507396
I heard of the concept as well, and his response to that idea isn’t surprising in the slightest.
It’s funny, really.
I thought I was the only one who did re-reviews of movies here and there.
5574983
Really?
5575041
Yay.
I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised, but yet…I hardly remember seeing anyone else re-review something before.
5575065
Huh, cool!