Official RoTF discussion thread **PART 1 /Reviews go here** [ SPOILERS ]

[calmontoya]

So I just came back from watching the movie here in Berlin.

Obviously this movie is everything a dude like me could wish for:
- mind blowing special effects
- hottest girls you'll ever see on screen (that kept me biting my hand throughout the entire movie)
- explosions that can only described with the word "Awesome!"
- and it's funny as hell! :lol

As much as I enjoyed every second of this picture, I find myself not being as satisfied as I felt after I left the theaters when I watched the first one.

I'm still trying to figure out if its because the movie lacked something, or just because I didn't want it to end.

I'll just have to watch it again to find out

x.

SAME HERE!

It's a good film but I think one of the problems is, and someone said this before, you don't really care about any robots. The only one I cared about was Optimus.
The bit at the end where Ironhide was running away from the explosion was cool and I was concerned that he might die but then I remembered he hadn't really done anything all film so I wasn't that bothered.

AND HERE!


These are my thoughts on the movie:
I gave it a 7/10.... but that's good nowadays!

First off: I'd like to say that the theater was packed! (hard for this kind of movie here in my country... specially if you add that it was a 9:30pm tuesday show)
And the best part is that most people really liked the movie, so that was great!

So, it was a good film!... very close to the first one, maybe equal, but not better... And it's not Michael's fault... it was definetly a Script flaw, by Orci and Kurtzman (not all, but parts!, maybe they're tired, maybe that's why the want to leave the franchise). But here's a mixup of my pros and cons as I will write them as they come to my mind:

* Best action scene ever: (actually there are 2) Shanghai, and the Forest
* Not the best music, only liked the score (I actually think the first one was better at this)
* Nice cinematography/pfotography, very well executed!
* Very good (human) character development, this aspect improved a lot
* Optimus WAS BADASSSSSS!!!!!! YESSS!!!
* Bee was badass too!
* Liked Megs/Starscream relation... right at the end when SC says: "I don't want to call you a coward..." (pardon me if incorrect - I saw it in Spanish! - So I can't comment on voices yet!, though Sowndwave's voice was way too cool in spanish!)
* Did not like the Fallen too much... he was a lot of hot air!
* The same as most people here: Devs goes down too easy! (never thought Mudflap would choke him!!)
* Liked Devs balls! hehehehe
* Liked the Twins (But they were better in their Ice Cream Truck mode... Specially because of the TF theme that thay played! Why hasn't anyone talked about this? - I made a thread! hehe)
* Liked Jetfire and Wheelie (best comic relief in a long time!)
* The ending was a little bit rushed
* Loved Soundwave and Ravage, but WTF were those little balls that came out of him, and what the hell did they turn into??
* Didn't like the Alice character too much... but she was necessary!
* And I specially did'nt like the fact that Sideswipe, Arcee, Ratchet, Ironhide and Scorponok didn't have much time on screen.... and who's Jolt? (just kidding)

And that's all I remember for now...

So all in all, I will be seeing it again, next week when my little stepbrother comes home to visit his dad... I'll take him to see a badass movie that could've even BADASS-I-ER!

[Venturai]

My take (in short)...

Pros:

Optimus was great, truly, "I'll take you all on!". Best... line... ever!! The plot was decent, the effects were just absolutely mind-blowing. It had action, romance, even some good comedy in there. Damn, Sam's mum is just so cool! Really nice to see the Matrix of Leadership make an appearance.

Cons:

Some of the comedy was a bit childish, like Wheelie humping Megan's leg. It got a laugh, but it was cheap and at the expense of the character(s). Some of the dialog between the twins left a little to be desired. They're supposed to be alien robots from outter space, why are they talking like that?

The end of the movie was very anti-climatic, the Fallen himself was a real letdown, and the army was far too effective (one remote shot tore Devastator apart, wtf). Megatron also, he has no master. That wasn't the Megatron I know atall, and it certainly wasn't the Megatron we came to fear from the first movie.

Excellent movie however, deserves to absolutely slay the competition at the box office. Seen once, going back twice over the next 3 days, including catching it on IMAX.

[UltraPrime]

I loved it, but I have a few questions & requests.

1. Can someone please explain extra Constructicons?
2. Though I loved Arcee & The Sisters, why couldn't they have gone with the original concept art from the very beginning. They were all about the same size especially now that we all know they don't combine. They could have still introduced Arcee (with legs may I add ) but along with her sisters.
3. Is it Blackout or Grindor?

And my request of course for future...

1. Dinobots (Hey, Transformers have been on Earth much longer than thought of)
2. Skywarp & Thundercracker
3. More Soundwave, loved him in this film!
4. More Arcee & Sideswipe!
5. Hey I can dream, can't I?

Transformers "Revenge of the Fallen" RULES!!!

[swishbig]

I just came back from the movie 5 minutes ago! It was BADASS!!!!! I cannot wait till I go see it in IMAX! But what kind of disappointed me was that they didn't focus in much on the new autobots like Jolt (barely did any fighting....from what i remember.) And well sideswipe did some fighting but I really wanted to get a better glance at him. The movie focused a lot of decpticons and bumbleebee and Optimus and like Mudflap and skidz. But the movie was really really good!

[eike8832]

Ok so I think I figured out the thing with the duplicates. If you see when the constructicons are forming devastator, only the ones that are actually in the dug out pit are used to form Devastator, EXCEPT the giant green dump truck. You never see him actually become part of devastator. Also, right before they form devastator, two vehicles pull up to the side of the drop off into the big pit where the constructicons and the twins are, one is mixmaster, the other is the front plow construction vehicle that holds Sam's parents. They dont actually become part of Devastator even though they are construction vehicles, they leave the area and continue to fight with the other decepticons. This is how i saw it after watching it multiple times, maybe im wrong.

[eike8832]

btw, if any of you happen to download the actual score off of iTunes, this score really knocks the score from the first movie out of the park, besides Arrival to Earth and the Autobots Theme, a lot more variety this time around and the little sample clips dont do the songs justice at all.

[xSoundwave]

Ok so I think I figured out the thing with the duplicates. If you see when the constructicons are forming devastator, only the ones that are actually in the dug out pit are used to form Devastator, EXCEPT the giant green dump truck. You never see him actually become part of devastator. Also, right before they form devastator, two vehicles pull up to the side of the drop off into the big pit where the constructicons and the twins are, one is mixmaster, the other is the front plow construction vehicle that holds Sam's parents. They dont actually become part of Devastator even though they are construction vehicles, they leave the area and continue to fight with the other decepticons. This is how i saw it after watching it multiple times, maybe im wrong.

I'll check that out when I get to watch it again. If it's true, that's a good catch.

[nic343]

Oh Michael Michael Michael. You failed. You fucked it up.

Don't get me wrong, the film is a wonder to look at. It's fun, it's exciting, but it's a huge misstep buy fucking up very simple things.

The story: Too many threads thrown in. Why take the great mythos and threat that is Megatron and turn him into a little bitch. I was grinning ear to ear to see Megs bitching at Starscream but in mere seconds he's The Fallen's "disciple."

And the Fallen - COME ON. The explanation you give gives this creatures no weight at all. Why does Megatron kneel to him? You don't explain. He's not threatening whatsoever. And then what's his motivation? To create hatchlings? Explain that more, go into it more. That's something that compels me and makes me more interested, the fact that this creature and Starscream's motivation is to restart the race...that's a cool concept, but you don't spend the time with it. It might have also been interesting to see Megs LOATHE the Fallen for it, seeing it as a WASTE of time. But the film never stops to have a thought about it.

And Sam's whole arc is that he wants to be a normal kid, wants the college experience. GO INTO IT MORE, Michael! All that's lost because there's an emergency.

And Alice. What a HUGE misstep here. This is not a Terminator film. So don't ape it. The effects were awful. And it begs the question: If the Decepticons can transform into human tissue, why not make an Obamacon and take away NEST's Money and declare war on the Autobots? You think that we as audience members won't be thinking about it, but we do and you're not clever enough to come up with an alternative that would be better.

The section I really found loathesome was the Superman II General Zod-like FALLEN talking to the world saying they are taking over and asking for Sam. Unoriginal and not needed. The rest of the film would have been better without it. Use some balls and some brains and know when to cut things. Go from Optimus dying to him being helicopter'd in. Skip the crap about Sam being wanted. It went nowhere and failed to further the plot. Weak, unnecessary and now creates a problem for TF3: now the world knows about them.

The best character in the whole movie was Jetfire. Charming, funny, great animation. He gets warmed up and then is taken out by Skorponok too fast. Lame, really. Also Optimus and Bumblebee took a backseat to The Twins.

Arcee was also a missed opportunity. Why do we never get an in-focus steady look at this character. Character? I don't know, the movie never took the time or effort to explain. I know she speaks, which I thought was a female officer at first, again because you failed to give it any thought.

And why oh why oh why is there a shot of Shia emoting (well, btw) and it's out of focus. Fire your first AC please.

The movie was just not focused. I feel like you shot everything and the kitchen sink and didn't have the guys to cut out the things that didn't work. You didn't shape the story - about taking up responsibility while home. It gets lost in dick jokes, gay jokes, pot jokes.

Michael, you're better at this. Look at the wonderful simplicity of the first movie. A boy and his car. They have to protect the Allspark. I couldn't tell you what Revenge of the Fallen was about. And don't rip of Star Wars titles, please.

Oh and why didn't Wheelie and company use the second Allspark shard to revive Optimus after he dies? Again because you weren't clever enough to think of an alternative.

You're confusing by being flashy. You lose integrity by using cheap humor. You've got to really think about things before you do TF3. Please take some time off and realize that by just spinning the camera around you're being interesting. You can do it.

What's up with the poo-poo pee-pee silliness, huh? I swear a third of this movie is written by 8th graders. Examples: Devastators balls, Wheelie humping Mikaela, the two scenes of the dogs fucking, the twins' retardation.

[eike8832]

one thing i noticed about Starscream that i didnt like (maybe this is just me) was the fact that he seemed like a pussy when megatron would ridicule him. In the cartoon i remember starscream being really snotty and kinda jerkish with the way he was treated, and always looking for a way to one-up megatron, in this film starscream kinda just looks like a pansy who cant even stick up for himself. maybe i am remembering wrong from the cartoons, idk.

[calmontoya]

one thing i noticed about Starscream that i didnt like (maybe this is just me) was the fact that he seemed like a pussy when megatron would ridicule him. In the cartoon i remember starscream being really snotty and kinda jerkish with the way he was treated, and always looking for a way to one-up megatron, in this film starscream kinda just looks like a pansy who cant even stick up for himself. maybe i am remembering wrong from the cartoons, idk.

That's because he was like that when Megatron wasn't around!!!... but when Megs showed up, SC feared and respected him!

[Littke]

As a huge Transformers fan since 1986 I was really disappointed about The Return Of The Fallen. It's like everybody was drunk making this movie. What is the thing with all the jokes? Why not take it a little more serious than this? It just becomes a comedy about itself.

The trailers showed a mutch more hardcore and dark movie coming... But the movie was for 10 year olds.

It's like the creators have missed the whole thing about Transformers... It's not a funny comicbook like donald duck, it's hardcore sci-fi taking place on earth. Robots do not jerk of on peoples legs!!!

The first movie was great! It had a good balance of comedy action and drama... this was just nothing, a disaster and I wanted to leave the cinima several times just becous it was painful for an old Transformers fan to se all the good stuff just washed away by sheap jokes.

[Jammed9000]

I loved the movie overall but some things were stupid.
I want to complain about them a bit:

What was up with Optimus going all Gundam on our asses?!? I accept that he combined with Jetfire but making him look sooo cheesy like that was wrong!! On top of the cheesiness, he just had to say: "Rollout!!!" It was the worst moment for that line. To whom did he say it to? It is worse than the new Hulk movie when its all well and serious and out of nowhere Hulk yells: "HULK SMASH!!!" I accept that the Transformers were the original Gundums or however you spell it, but ILM and Michael, you could do better.

Steve Jablonsky, where is the awe inspiring score that made the first film great?

[SamWitwicky]

One more thing I think should be talked about, megatron and starscream live. After the fallen died they kind of just stuck around and watched. Maybe I'm trippin but I didn't see them fly away

[A49ER08]

what did Starscream say at the very end of the movie he is retreating w/ megatron right after optimus owns the fallen...

I can't remember the line but I remember it had the word 'coward' in it..

going to have to watch it again..

[OlaPaulakoski]

The moment i shed a tear was when Optimus said Then i will take you all on! Wow, i was so involved in the story at that point.

I want to say i loved the movie, Michael Bay did an awesome job. Considering all the problems, writers strike and so forth. Revenge had better script and felt more structured and it moved forward much better than the first movie. Less war of the worlds and more superhero movie. It also had more references to the original cartoon "energon, space bridge" and it had so many monents of pure badass and more emotion then the first film.

Fuck the critics, reading reviews for this film is weird. Just go to aintitcool.com The movie is accused of being things i dont think are intentional. Racist? Well if there can be vanilla ice and eminen, can´t there be wannabee hip hop twin robots also?

This movie was the best experience i had at the cinema since the first came out 2007.

I also want to mention i grew up with the toys and cartoon im 27 years old and this movie made me feel like i was eight years old again.

I hope Michael stays on the francise and that there will be a third! It could be even more awesome, with dinobots merging vs this movies devastator.

[darthrage]

something about "cowards do survive"

[darthrage]

Although I thought Soundwave was cool, I felt that he would have had a defining moment in the movie if he had contributed to the final battle by shooting off 3 minions into Egypt to help fight for the Cons. He would be shooting them off from space like he would be shooting projectiles at his targets, except that they are Rumble, Ratbat and Lazerbeak.

[Jammed9000]

You should've put a spoiler warning dude.

[Venturai]

The moment i shed a tear was when Optimus said Then i will take you all on! Wow, i was so involved in the story at that point.

You and me both, I splurted out "get em, Prime!". Heheh, my fiancee even told me to shut up, but I was just so pumped up

[Altea9]

This movie, is quite possibly the BIGGEST PILE OF SHIT I HAVE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO SET EYES ON!

Don't get me wrong, the guys over at ILM have done a magnificent job in creating the effects for this movie. They really have raised their game since the first movie and should be worthy contenders come Oscar night.

But great effects don't make a great movie!

This thing was all over the place!

I hated Mudflap & Skids. They were supposed to be the comic relief in the movie, but they were just really really annoying, much like Jar Jar in Episode I. I won't even go into the racial issues that have been mentioned elsewhere.

I thought the voice over for Jetfire was ALL wrong! WTF?

The story had plot holes in it that were so big, even Devastator would get lost in them!

I thought Devastator was really cool by the way, he just wasn't on screen long enough, and to be killed off the way he was...that was just really poor. Honestly?

I also got really really tired of Megan Fox!
Don't get me wrong...I think she's hot. I really do.
But Bay just went waaaaaaaay over the top with her this time. Did she really have to pout and make her eyes smoulder EVERY F*CKING TIME SHE WAS IN A SCENE? EVERY F*CKING TIME?
It was the same for Isabel Lucas' character.
I know they're hot, and I know why Michael Bay filmed them the way he did. I get it. I know what he's trying to do...but f*ck me! That was just really really embarrassing...for him, for her and for many people watching. It really did become cringe-worthy after her first few scenes.
I also doubt very much if she can in-fact act, which is probably why she's been told to just run around half naked, and hang off a motor bike like she's getting f*cked in the ass, or pout every time the camera is turned on. We know she's hot...now GET OVER IT!

I also think Bay hasn't learned from the first film at all. Ok..he's delivered more bots and more action...at least I think he did. He said there were 40+ bots in this movie...apart from a couple of new robot characters here and there...the vast majority of the new bots were just running around in the background, and had no real character, or involvement in the movie at all.
As for the action scenes...SHAKEY-CAM & TIGHT CLOSE-UPS.....NOT GOOD BED-FELLOWS!!!!!
That was one of the major gripes from the first movie. A lot of people couldn't really follow what was going on because of the way it was filmed.
It's really no coincidence that people are saying the scene in the forest where Optimus battles 3 Decepticons is awesome. Why? Because most of it is filmed on wide shot, and has some nice slow motion shots thrown in there too, so you can actually see what the hell is going on! it's a bit like the scene in the first film where Bonecrusher transforms on the freeway and leaps at Optimus Prime, before falling off the side of the bridge. Cool scene. Why? Because it was shot on a wide, and was slow enough for you to follow the action and actually see what was going on.

As for the story itself....I won't even begin to tear that apart...and Sam's visit to Transformer Heaven? WTF?

To sum up...

I'd be really really surprised if Michael Bay comes back for a third installment of Transformers.
I'd be really really surprised if Shia & Megan come back for a third installment of Transformers.

Michael Bay has lost his Mojo ( and I don't mean the dog )
In the 90's, he was the man to make your movie...much like Steven Speilberg was the man to make your movie in the 80's.
But look at the films that both have made since. Really really bad ones compared with their earlier work.

Will this movie be a box office success. Yes!
Of that I have no doubt.
Will the Studio Execs and the Michael Bay fan club point the movie's critics in the direction of the box office takings and say " There! See! It can't be a bad movie...look how much money it's made!" Yes...they undoubtedly will.

But just like having amazing effects...huge box office takings doesn't mean that the movie is actually any good. People are gonna go see this movie for the same reason I did...I had wanted to see Giant F*CKING Robots in a live action film since I was 8yrs old. I wanted my kids to see what I never got the chance to see.

I was more than disappointed by the 1st Transformers movie, and I really did have high hopes for this one, thinking that Michael would have taken all the criticism from the first film, and shoved it up our ass with the second one, but he didn't.
He has failed yet again to deliver.

Sorry Michael, but with the amazing CGI work aside, this film is really really bad, and I'm kinda glad you're gonna take a break for a while, because I absolutely loved everything you had made up until the Island, and since then, in my opinion, your movies have gone steadily down hill. Again, you can show me the box office takings to prove to me that I'm wrong, but deep down you know I'm right.

And listen guys....I know you're all huge TF fans, and huge Michael Bay fans too...SO AM I.
I just didn't like this film AT ALL!

That's just my opinion, and I'm entitled to that, just as you are entitled to form the opinion that this movie was good.

Altea9

[wingzero]

@Altea9: so.. looking at your profile.. you registered on this site 1 year ago and posted only 3 times.. Shouldn't I tell that you and other accounts here posting negative reviews against the movie just like on other sites and forums do look really fishy,uh?
You are ranting and bashing the movie without explaining anything, it's just hatred there. The same there was against Transformers back in 2007.
You are absolutely biased and what you say it's just not true.
There is nothing disappointing or wrong with the movie, the only missing thing is that it should have been a 180minutes movie to explain the story better to people like you that can't grasp the plot quickly and then go around telling all negative nonsense like "there is no plot, there is no characters development, it's too quick" and so on and on. But the fact is that there is a plot way more complex than on the first movie, there is a lot of characters development. If you fail to see it then that is your problem but you can't go around spreading lies hoping to bring down the movie. Unless you got an hidden agenda to do that.. and I am pretty sure that 90% of negative posts and reviews are part of an hidden agenda. No normal people would spend time bashing and whining and ranting against a movie like this and spreading lies. It happened back in 2007 with Transformers and it's happening now with more hatred power just because the competition is really scared by how much the general public worldwide love Transformers movie and enjoy Michael Bay vision.

[Jammed9000]

I think Michael Bay should post here more often now and give us his thoughts on the decisions he and his team made.

[fletiforeskel]

Michael, you wanted too much!

I was really looking forward to watch movie but today i am more disappointed than happy to have seen it. the first part i really enjoyed (Shanghai, the forest battle, the kitchen bots and bees reaction - cool). Some scenes which didn´t fit into my understanding of transformers, but it was ok. Skids, Mudflap and their human "counterparts" simmons and leo where really cool.

But you created more questions than answers:

Blackout, didn´t he die in pt. 1? If yes, why didn´t the transformers community´s darling Jazz appeared again?
how often did Demolishor die during the movie?
Didn´t the fracking dumper-leg of devastator die with him? and wasn´t it a bit too easy to kill the robots (remember pt.1 - the downtown-battle with Blackout)?
Ironhide and Ratched just appaered as empty tins...
Sideswipe, Jolt, the R8 and many of the not-named Decepticons were wasted CPU time. They didn´t contribute anything to the story.
What happened to the connections between the characters, you created in the first movie? There the Autobots acted like a band of brothers, in rotf i had the feeling they were just a partnership of convenience.

What happened to Skids and Mudflap at the end? Did they survive?

On te bonus dvd of pt. one you said: transformers shall transform, not morph! What did arcee, devastator and the fracking ravage-balls which looked like you took them from aeon flux?

All in all the movie wasn´t that bad, but like said first: You wanted too much.
Greetings from Germany!

[TIMtationX]

I was fully expecting Soundwave to say "I'll get you next time Gadget, NEXT TIME!"

[salinacj]

WHY??????

Visually, this film is awe inspiring!! Audio wise, is is very sad. This is a movie based on KIDS toys. Young boys. Why all the swearing crassness, and humping??? And to have two racially offensive robots, nice move there. Otherwise, I think the action, robots, and story where perfect! Can a new soundtrack be released that is not offensive?

Why does Hollywood feel the need to do this to movies all the time. The theater I was in was packed with 10 year old boys, who now think it is funny to call their friends pussies, or maybe go hump a girls leg.

Please, make the third one perfect, leave out the stuff that should only be in adult comedies, and make a true kids actions movie!!