Pros:1. The movie was nevertheless entertaining, a smorgasbord of CGI robot goodness for fans of the Transformers franchise.
2. A lot of effort was placed on the animation of the robots, which helped make a lot of fight scenes more visceral in a way.
3. On a very personal note, Prime died which is a big plus for my fickle senses. I hate Prime.
4. The movie had a little more focus on the robots, which nearly touched on the real point of having a Transformer movie.
5. The Autobot Matrix of Leadership was introduced, along with Energon (yes, something closer to the original mythos than the Allspark).
6. Decepticons were trashing around the place like they should have done in the first movie. Also, Soundwave was there.
7. John Turturro (Simmons) gave an entertaining side to his Sector 7 character with his antics.
8. The film had Megan Fox (more like, her cleavage).
9. The fight scenes between robots were intricately brutal, something that you would expect when a 20-ton robot smashes into another robot of less or equal stature.
10. The concept of the Space bridge was floated (maybe a prelude to another episode?)
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CONS:Prepare, there are many.
CONTINUITY ERRATA AND QUESTIONABLE CIRCUMSTANCESEvery movie has at least one, but I can't help but point some of these out, after seeing ROTF three times (one on IMAX).
1. Bumblebee lost his voice AGAIN. How in the world did that happen?
2. The transformer RC, Wheelie (that Megan Fox captured in her shop), had a sense of libido in the film, and he tried humping Megan's leg. That's odd.
3. Michael Bay had to add testicles to Devastator. Worse, he had John Turturro point it out, which was a double negative and quite crass, really. THERE ARE NO WRECKING CRANES AMONG CONSTRUCTICONS. Very out of place indeed.
4. Skids and Mudflap talk like they have ADHD other than the fact that they shuck and Jive. There was something weird about hearing a robot talk like Chingy or Alpha Chino (
Tropic Thunder) to a college Freshman.
5. The shot in Egypt was arduously LONG. It is understandable that it is the climactic portion of the story, but still, it dragged on for quite a bit.
6. Viewers who are not familiar with the TF franchise simply saw a lot of robots killing each other. These robots were not introduced. That sort of downgrades recall value for the film, for non-fans.
Take for example, Sideways (the Audi R8 in Shanghai). He wasn't introduced in the movie, he was just seen being chased around by Arcee and her motley crew before Sideswipe cuts him in half. You wouldn't even know it was sideways except if you read about him in Wikipedia.
Another example would be the Purple motorcycle robot who goes with Arcee. She was shot down while giving instructions to Sam and Mikaela in Egypt. SHE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A NAME, even in Wikipedia. She was there to get shot like the random guy that gets kicked in the face by Jackie Chan. At least they gave Chromia's name to the blue one.
7. The voluminous sophomoric innuendos in the film: Dry humping, crass jokes and weird slapstick humor between the twins that looks like a rare unfunny skit from MAD TV.
8. Optimus Prime shot down the Matrix (which was lodged in to the sun-eating device). This kills another link between Bay's concept and the original story again. Furthermore, this somehow kills the link as to how they would acquire Energon, which is a staple for all Transformers.
With Prime destroying the thing that creates Energon for them, does this mean that Autobots don't
need Energon? In that case, where are they going to get it in case they start to feel weak? A frickin SOLAR PANEL?!
9. To think that the sun-eating machine was in the Great Pyramid all along, you might think that archaeologists would have found an evidence of it way back when they were digging all around the Middle East for artifacts.
10. The humans were there specifically to be blown to bits. They could have sent in more Aircraft or could have rained cruise missiles, or carpet bombed the damn things... but they didn't. Not until Sam got to Prime and stuff.
11. Grindor, in my opinion, is a total ripoff of Blackout. Seriously. Why the hell is Bonecrusher in Egypt by the way?
12. I guess Starscream doesn't have a 'lock-on' function when using his missiles. He misses horribly, for a robot F-22.
13. The back-up tanks and MLRS came into the scene minutes after calls for assistance were sent. That was fast. Real fast.
The pyramids are somewhat relatively... close in terms of modern range capabilities for most siege weapons, like the MLRS which has an average operational range of 300 miles (I don't think they really used it).
Below is probably the closest (in my opinion) possible that an Aircraft carrier can send land units to Giza from the Red Sea (if you recall the backup that came in hovercrafts), provided that the government of Egypt and neighboring countries allow an American Aircraft Carrier in their waters for that circumstance. Most likely, the Carrier would have been farther off. The sea in the picture is less than 10% of the Red Sea's total size.
This shot is 314.52 km above the ground:
What's MORE curious is the range of the Fallen's magnetic/telekinetic ability that rammed tanks, choppers and MLRS to the pyramid it was standing on. I mean, they could have just sent missiles thrice the range of the distance in the picture from the MLRS. Never mind the tanks, they need to get close. Just curious, really. If the Fallen could reach that far, how come it didn't use it on Prime or on the other Autobots?
14. I didn't know the Rail gun was deployed already as of 2009 (well, for the film's sake it is). That would mean that the naval destroyer housing the railgun is tagging along with the aircraft carrier all this time for God-knows-what. This should have raised international issues among the Middle Eastern countries around the Red sea. Really, the "We'll be parking our warships at your backyard in case killer robots attack your country" doesn't seem really feasible.
15. How come Longhaul (who is Devastator's right leg)
is seen out there fighting the Autobots alongside Megatron, when in the same instance, Devastator is on top of the pyramid digging the sun-eating gun out? He was even bombed to bits in the carpet bombing scene ---- after Devastator was shot down by the rail gun.
16. Rampage (who is Devastator's left leg), on the other hand, was killed by Bumblebee when Devastator was up on the pyramid. WTF.
I also note that Rampage was Red when he fought Bumblebee, but was yellow when he was combined with Devastator. Jesus.
17. To think that Constructicons are smart enough to revive Megatron and crafty enough to hostage Sam's parents, it eludes me as to how dumb Devastator was when they combined. It was as if his IQ suddenly dropped to primal levels, feeding his giant wood chipper mouth like a whale shark feeds on frickin' krill. He doesn't even have the minute dexterity that the original Dev has.
(Note Longhaul and Rampage as Dev's legs in the pic)
18. There's not much plot depth in it... really.
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To sum all this stuff up,
Transformers ROTF is fun, it's enjoyable and it's really, really awesome. Just leave your brain outside the movie house before you watch it, since analyzing it too much when you watch it (like I did on my last two viewings) would ruin the entire experience.
Hey, it's a movie based on TOYS. Get over it.
If you have your own review or critique on the ROTF movie in general, or violent reactions, please post it here in this thread, so we can all share ideas and sentiments regarding our parent theme (which is, after all, Transformers in general).
Subject: Your own Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review 
Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:08 pm
