My Movie Review on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen · 8:08pm Nov 22nd, 2021
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for the 4th installment of this year's "Thanksgiving Treat", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".
Here's the rundown of this sequel:
Two years after the battle of Mission City and the shattering of the Allspark, Sam Witwicky has transitioned from high school graduate to college freshman. Meanwhile, the Autobots and American government have formed the Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty (NEST), which was made to eliminate the remaining Deception forces who are hunting for the Autobots.
However, when the leader and founder of the Decepticons, The Fallen, discovers that the shattered Allspark is still active, he revives Megatron and tasks him with retrieving it. The only issue is that the Allspark's energy was absorbed into a human: Sam Witwicky, whom after touching one of its shards has been seeing Cybertronian symbols that are the key to finding the location of a new Energon source.
After I did my review of the 2007 Transformers film, I knew that analyzing its sequels was going to be a gigantic priority of mine despite my awareness of their negative reputations. Doing so just seemed inevitable among others, and my desires to have my own personal opinions on them were very strong.
Similar to the last film, I rented this one from AppleTV and watched it using one of my Rokus, which I believe is pretty much going to be the only method I'll be using to seeing movies that I don't physically have. With Revenge of the Fallen being the 2nd movie of the live-action Transformers movies, of course it'd be the one I'd review next.
So, what do I think of Revenge of the Fallen personally?
Yay, I'm not gonna lie. This movie definitely wasn't perfect, mainly because there were some notable issues that can't be passed over.
Among the many nitpicks I pinpointed came from the runtime, and I can see why it was a target of criticism. It wasn't one of the slowest movies I've ever watched, but even so...for some reason, 30 minutes felt more like an hour. With how all-over-the-place and action-oriented the movie was, I found myself unable to tell how far everything actually progressed. The movie's frequent use of sexual-related scenes and stripping also became annoying, and there were some moments that were questionable because they had little meaningful purpose behind their incorporations. An example came from a moment where Seymour Simmons takes his pants off before he and the others enact their plan to get in the Air and Space Museum.
The performance of Julie White as Judith Witwicky wasn't something I completely enjoyed either. There were some moments with her that I found to be alright, but her portrayal in other parts seemed unusually exaggerated and cringy. The times where Judith got emotional over Sam going to college, despite being relatable for any mother, were particularly over-the-top. When Sam was getting himself settled at the college campus, Judith at one point acted like a crazy drunk with no explanation as to why, which was not only irritating but confusing.
Other than those very flaws, though...Revenge of the Fallen turned out to be more fun than I expected!
For instance, the direction by Michael Bay, and the story by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman were well-done in their own way.
Despite the lengthy runtime, questionable moments, and apparent restlessness, the story as a whole was incredibly enrapturing and engaging. No matter what, I constantly found myself wanting to know where things were gonna go next and what sort of surprises would unravel, and as the characters continued driving the story everything managed to come full-circle when the end was drawing near. Plus, despite the humor being campy in some ways, there were tons of moments that made me laugh and proved to be entertaining regardless. In addition to this, the action sequences were enjoyable to watch, and the camera wasn't as shaky during those scenes as in the first film.
A big thing that caught me by surprise, though...was how emotionally-invested the film was. Whenever there was a happy or sad moment, I felt my heart getting tugged and my feelings being played with! There was also an added sense of darkness in the movie, which particularly makes itself known at the prologue. Whether anyone will agree with me on this is something I don't know, but I thought the filmmakers did a great job with unravelling a further history shared between humans and robots, as well as revealing what started the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.
The special effects were as spectacular as ever, if I may add.
As with the other two live-action Transformers movies I already reviewed, the robot characters and outer space sequences were incredibly realistic-looking and well-crafted. But, the underwater sequences were impressive too, and so were the moments featuring Cybertron in its ruined state. The best part was that they had no sense of uncanny valley effect.
Finally, the acting, characters, and character development were awesome!
Outside of Julie White, the rest of the human-visible cast members were enjoyable to watch every step of the way, and their characters proved themselves to be engaging and full of personality. Even characters that were relatively minor stood out to me thanks to the performers giving their all, a notable example being Rainn Wilson as Professor R.A. Colin the astronomy teacher.
When it comes to which human-visible performer that I believe gave the best performance, though, I believe that credit goes to Shia LaBeouf in his reprisal as Sam Witwicky. He portrayed his part with great personality and emotion, of course. But, in all the times Sam was acting strangely while seeing those Cybertronian symbols and was stuck with the Allspark inside of him, he pushed himself to the point of where he accurately portrayed someone who genuinely wasn't in a normal state of mind. Sam himself had phenomenal development throughout the film, and the exploration given as to what his overall role was helped him be someone of surprising importance.
On another word of note regarding the human-visible cast members and characters...
Admittedly, I was surprised to see Seymour Simmons again because I didn't think he was a character who'd make more than one appearance in contrast to others like Sam. When I saw him again, though, I was astounded by his change from a snob in the first film to someone who still had his usual sense of humor yet had a newfound nobility. As the movie progressed, he even showed that he cared for the safety of humanity and Earth as much as Sam and the others do. On top of that, John Turturro was amazing in the role.
The vocal performances and robot characters were terrific as well.
Just like in the first movie, Peter Cullen killed it in his portrayal of Optimus Prime, and despite being dead throughout much of this sequel he had all the buildup and history-delving needed to make his revival something people would want to see happen. Plus, Hugo Weaving was as terrific as ever in the role of Megatron, and whatever piece of dialogue he had he projected with a sense of ferocity mixed with dark humor. The larger amount of screen-time Megatron had was a great bonus, because it gave the filmmakers the opportunity to further develop and explore the character.
On the subject of the supporting vocal performers, the ones that I believe gave the best portrayals were Tom Kenny as Wheelie, Mark Ryan as Jetfire, and Tony Todd as The Fallen. From the moment their characters came on the screen, Kenny and Ryan stole the show with their personality-filled performances and comedic-timings, and they sounded like they were having fun taking on their parts. Tony Todd's portrayal as The Fallen was likewise unexpectedly enrapturing, not just due to him making every piece of dialogue his character had work but because he incorporated a sense of something ancient yet incredibly dark.
Plus, the characters of The Fallen, Wheelie, and Jetfire were all enjoyable to watch in their own way. Jetfire's role showed that not every Decepticon was evil and that they can be capable of changing for the better if they choose to, and Wheelie's eventual reformation helped him be surprisingly complex instead of the usual comic relief character. Plus, The Fallen was an undeniably interesting antagonist who helped give the overall story purpose, and his personality, development, and backstory made him all-the-more compelling.
In conclusion, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" isn't a masterpiece, and it does have flaws that people will immediately take note of. But, the film is nevertheless one of the most enjoyable movies I've ever watched, as well as a worthy successor to the first movie. In short, it's a new guilty pleasure of mine.
So, I rate "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" 4 out of 5 stars.
In my honest opinion, Revenge Of The Fallen is my least favorite of the Bayformers series. It had a lot of good ideas, but because of the infamous Writers' Strike of 2008, there were a lot of cringy and unnecessary jokes, scenes, and stereotypes.
I agree with everything you said. It’s also my guilty pleasure as well.
Love that movie no questions asked.
Well, I love this movie and the Fallen. I say he one of my favorite Transformer villain
5610136
I definitely agree with you about the Writers’ Strike. If not for that happening, then the film wouldn’t have the flaws I noted.
a guilty pleasure of mine as well.