TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

What I'm sure many are expecting from this review while they wait for it to load onto their computer screen is yet another nerd hate tyrade of how Michael Bay supposidly pillaged and raped my childhood like a Viking raider hopped up on Viagra and Jolt. It seems to be the trend amongst the inter-web to bash as much of this movie as possible for accomplishing exactly what the trailers told us would happen. Robot fighting porn. Because Michael Bay got a pass with his firt excursion into this beloved 80's property everyone around the planet sure as hell wasn't about to let him get away with it again. But you know what? I liked this movie. Is it a movie that deserves recognition in the annals of film history? Fuck no. This movie is a threat to no one. But does it deserve the lambasting that was initiated well before it was even released? No. It wasn't that bad.

First, I'm going to address the concern I have with this movie being called rascist. Strangely, I agree with Mister Bay on this one. I didn't see anything rascist about this movie at all. And I'm looking squarely at the characters that have everyone up in arms in the first place. Mudflap and Skids. Two funky talking autobots who use words like, "Pop a cap in yo' ass, punk ass bitch," and "pussy". For all intents and purposes, they talk like Poochy. Like a couple of white guys who think that talking with a certain accent and using tough words, gives them street cred. And granted, one of them has a shiny gold tooth. To me, the characters just came off as annoying little fucks who I wanted to see die. The thought that they were playing off of negative sterotypes didn't convey even once. Let me put this way, Jar Jar Binks is a far, FAR, FAR!!!!! more rascist a character than these two. Now if they were walking around with Bumblebee and got distracted by the scent of fried chicken, watermelon, or grape soda to the point where the mission was fucked because of their inability to resist such items, THEN! I would have had no problem calling foul and being not just offended, but angry at the amount of rascism. But that wasn't in this movie. And the general audiences don't see the problem either. This thing is set to cross $300,000,000 by weekends end. So if you're listening to all those "nerd" haters of this movie, the truth is they're just woefully angry that it doesn't follow the exact to the letter formula of the old 1980's era cartoon. They want the lore they grew up with represented on the big screen and each and every little thing the film makers get wrong distracts them from the plethora of stuff they got right. Calling a movie rascist is the surest way they can get people to not support this film and thus never see TRANSFORMERS 3.

The problems for me in this movie were the exact same problems I had with the first one. The humans. Good fucking Christ, do I hate Shia LaBeouf. His acting is panic attack inducing. If I were the on set nurse during filming I would be edge every day because I would never know if he was acting or suffering an aggresive stroke. He clearly comes from the "lie on the ground, shake and shit your pants" school of method acting. It's like watching a chimp fuck a beach ball. And for some reason Megan Fox has become less attractive. In the first film she was hot, but knew how to tease. You were left wanting more from her because she so tempted you to try to pry further. Opening shot of her in this movie is her bent over the side of a motorcycle with the loosest pair of short, short, jean shorts and for a brief moment the intriuge is gone. Peering into Pandora's Box has left a dissatisfying taste in my mouth. Where once her character was strong and independant she now plays lap dog to Shia's Sam. Following him, hopelessly in love. Praying that he loves her just as much. It's kind of pathetic. And thus the love affair of Megan Fox disappeared. At least until her next movie JENNIFER'S BODY shows up.

Ramon Rodriguez. Let's talk about him. There hasn't been an actor to come along in a long time that my first knee jerk reaction upon seeing him was, "I want to punch him." Ramon Rodriguez is that actor. He makes Shia look like James Cagney. His character, Leo, who happens to be Shia's college roommate is not terribely written. I like the idea of the character, but good Christ in heaven is this kid terrible. Sadly he will probably end up as the next Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Because that's how the universe spins sadly. Actors like him will be exhalted and hoisted upon the shoulders of others, where if things WERE right with the world the next lines he spoke would be "Pull around to the next window please."

Look, if you hated the first TRANSFORMERS nothing I can say will make you born again Christian-Bots. This is loud, noisy fodder. Save for the few instances when the humans open their mouths and words actually fall out of them it is a summer movie that meets every requirement a summer movie should have. Explosions, tons of CGI, and enough bullets to take down Australia. If you did like the first movie chances are you will like this one too. Ignore the hate this movie is receiving in terms of the "rascist" scope of the movie. It just doesn't exist. The characters are dumb and lazily written but they're not rascist. And if you see this movie and decide for yourself that maybe it was rascist then let it be your own opinion and not that of someone who wants this movie to be an exact duplicate of the 1980's cartoon. Because if you go back and watch those cartoons now you will realize in a hurry that they suck.

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