Revenge of the Fallen

I enjoyed the movie greatly, had no trouble telling who was fighting who, got exactly what I expected from a transformers movie. Robots battling for the fate of the world and some laughs. The entire theater applauded after my sold out showing. It was a fun ride. Oh, and

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT


Tongue girl thing was CREEPY, but the screams after were priceless. :)
 
Mark Harris said:
Something that I find on DVXUser is a lot of 20 yr olds in bumblepoo poo nowhere towns who like to act all Hollywood, and throw on a condescending tone, because only they know how the world really works.
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Oh I know. If only there were a mature filmmaking message board where I could discuss the finer points of Transformers 2 with my peers. Flyover country excluded.

Instead I'm on this one, all crummied-up with the rants of 20 year old rubes from Jerkwater, USA. Who do these kids think they are anyways? They're not supposed to be typing anything, right?
 
Was there any doubt it would make a gazillion dollars? The financial success of Transformers 2 has absolutely no relation to its quality as a film. From the goodwill generated by the first movie, Michael Bay could've shot stop motion animation of Transformer toys in Super8 and still break 200 million opening weekend.
 
I don't know what all the hoopla over Megan Fox is. She is not bad looking....but a little too burnt...and overdone. I thought the creepy girl looked way better. Anyways,....I got what i expected out of this movie. I enjoyed it....and didn't realize it was so long.
 
Well I guess the BO numbers prompts the question - what is a "good" film?

Golden Compass was a total BO failure. Net loss of close to 110 million. It did okay in the reviews.
Good film financially? Not at all. Generally good? Yep.

Transformers to critics; total failure. Financially? Total hit. Good film? In the financial world, I'd say so.

It depends on your idea of "good". It is subjective. I don't find Megan Fox attractive. Everyone else does. Who is right?

A film is a huge hit in the box office. But critics don't like it. Who is right there? The studio or the people? Obviously the studio thinks the film is great. The numbers say the film is great. But critical reviews, not so much.

So, who is to say the film sucks?

I Know Who Killed Me = utter failure.
Golden Compass = financial failure, critically okay.
Transformers ROTF = critical failure, financially awesome.
 
Saw it yesterday.

The good:

Megan Fox- not for the acting, mind you- in this movie she was required to act more, and DIDN'T deliver, but she is really a fine looking woman!

Leboeuf- He's way more talented as an actor as the rest of the cast, and carried the movie, even tough the script was, well, crap.

Special FX- Well modeled robots and catastrophe set pieces- its Michael Bay, so these should never disappoint

The Bad, and downright Ugly

Script- SPOILER

Inconsistencies and terrible pacing:

Basically, no Transformer really dies: put a tiny stone and presto, they're back.

Plot is: bad guy returns, and wants to destroy something- for what, it is never explained- bad guy's master, however, who is much stronger than the rest, stays in the sidelines watching the show when he could basically clean up the mess himself. Battle comences, and 2 hours later of robots fighting each other, the expected franchise protection ending.

Fast Cuts

Its an action film, and fast cuts are to be expected, but this is ridiculous. After an hour and a half, I was tired as heck of the repetition of the same scenes almost over and over, with diferent robots on them- explosion, punch, running- cut to dramatic Airforce/Navy/Pentagon crew babling about strategies and commands... Cliché after cliché.

EDIT Directing/camera movement-
I swear, I've never seen a movie with so many 360 follow the subject shots in a movie in my life. Actually, almost every scene in this is either a moving track shot or a steadicam 360 follow the subject shot. You can almost count the still shots by your fingers...

Absolutely lame and basic cliché humour- come on, the robot humping on Megan's leg??


You can see that I really didn't like this. Even with all the fast cutting, explosion filled Robot clashing action, I couldn't help but to feel bored.

Want a good summer action flick this year? Watch Terminator. It was underrated.
 
I'm still trying to understand why there is still so much negativity with this movie? It served one purpose....to just be a chaotic blockbuster. Which it achieved. It's not suppose to be some cinematic masterpiece, and to 90% of the american public who really can't tell the difference, it entertained (at least judging by the sold out theaters near me who all seemed to love the movie). True if you were to base it on all the normal criteria it would and does fail, but I don't see why there is never any flexibility. I personally find most people who seem to bash the film come off very stubborn and hard headed.

I guess this is the issue I find with current film criticism, there is too much personal involvement in professional critics, and they seem to lack an understanding of who the general audience is and how films are geared. It's not geared towards people who can effectively pick apart a film, its geared towards the teenage boys, the young adults in college, and the people just wanting to just see explosions and be as little invested into a movie as possible. To this is, it achieved its goal, which i feel in my mind makes it a good movie. A movie that can effectively and financially do what a director wants despite the critics is a success.


....Now I'm not saying to leave out criticism or its exempt from it, I only think that with movies like this, it should be judged on how well it does what it really should be doing. Compared to a cinematically good movie like...say Goodwill Hunting....it's crap, but there's no reason to even put it in that category of judging.
 
Well the general consensus to a lot of us is that we loved Transformers one and were quiet dissapointed with Transformers two. Both action movies - very different end products.
 
Oh ooh, Michael Bay and Megan Fox is having a war of words. Not good...for Miss Fox. Looks like she is fast becoming a Diva with an attitude. But then, what do I know. We shall see.
 
pathfinder said:
Oh ooh, Michael Bay and Megan Fox is having a war of words. Not good...for Miss Fox. Looks like she is fast becoming a Diva with an attitude. But then, what do I know. We shall see.
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The problem is nothing she has said has been incorrect. All she said was something to the effect of "The Transformers movies are not about acting". Bay's response says more to me about his inflated ego than anything else. He thinks he's making Schindler's List or something. In the same interview Megan slammed her own performance in the first movie, saying it was terrible. She is aware of her shortcomings, more so than Mr. Bay.
 
I think they both miss the point. NO matter how good the performances might end up, the script limits/squanders it, and there isn't much room for development of anyone in terms of character so no matter how much time you might spend trying to make that one moment great...odds are it's trampled by all the rest of the elements.

Bay isn't a bad director. I think he's done his best work when around more seasoned talent like Bruce Willis and Will Smith. Bad Boys 1&2 might have some of the best acting of any of his films because the chemistry of Smith and Lawrence was so strong. There isn't much directing to do when you have talent around like that...especially Willis in Armageddon. It seems things go to hell when he has younger folks around him because he feels a bit more like "I say, they do." where I'm sure on the other sets (probably more with Willis than the rest), he was a bit softer and less authoritative and respectful of their talent.

my 2 cents
 
Like him or hate him, no doubt...he is one of the most sought after and successful director to date. I'm sure many would love to be in his place. He was right in that many A-list actor's careers took off because of him. Including the Foxy Megan. For sure, Bay and Megan will have a tough time working together on the next Transformers.
 
I haven't seen this flick or the first one (and most likely won't), but a local radio personality summed it up like this:

"It's two and a half hours long. At the one hour mark, if a guy came into the theater and gave me two options: A) Sit through the next hour, or B) You can leave if I get to kick you square in the face... I'd have given it some real thought."
 
HorseFilms said:
I haven't seen this flick or the first one (and most likely won't), but a local radio personality summed it up like this:

"It's two and a half hours long. At the one hour mark, if a guy came into the theater and gave me two options: A) Sit through the next hour, or B) You can leave if I get to kick you square in the face... I'd have given it some real thought."
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Me, I wouldn't take any radio personalities too seriously. I doubt that the guy is man enough to accept the kick in the face. If he is man enough, I like to be the Kicker. :D Just a thought....:engel017:
 
SPZ said:
Leboeuf- He's way more talented as an actor as the rest of the cast, and carried the movie, even tough the script was, well, crap.

.
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This I definitely agree with. That boy can act..... But does this movie do his acting chops any justice...not really..but it was a entertaining movie (2 me).
 
pathfinder said:
Me, I wouldn't take any radio personalities too seriously. I doubt that the guy is man enough to accept the kick in the face. If he is man enough, I like to be the Kicker. :D Just a thought....:engel017:
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I know, man. I just thought it was funny. Movies like this just don't do anything for me. There's nothing wrong with them at all, they're just not my thing.

Most people would hate the movies I watch and that's cool with me. :beer:

P.S. - I'd like to be the kicker, too. I've been doing that quite regularly for 22 years.:D
 
I finally got around to seeing "Revenge of the Fallen", and I came away with this:

Michael Bay hates his audience.

He knows that the vast majority of the people who watch his movie are filmically unsophisticated, and there's nothing he can do about it because that's the niche that he's stuck in.

So instead he blatantly tries to make the stupidest scenes possible. "You guys thought that was dumb? Watch this!" **enter Smithsonian in DC in one side of the building, exit into Nevada through another door**. "Or how about THIS!" **pyramids in Saudi Arabia**.

He knows he's being a 'tard, but it's all tongue-in-cheek. Unlike the other films I've been complaining about recently (Star Trek, District 9), which were just lazy filmmaking. There's nothing lazy about Bay's retardation. He kicks retard up a notch. It's built-in to his films -- a lot of thought goes into making each scene as stupid as possible. You have to admire that.
 
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