| Overall Grade: |
B- |
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| Story: |
C |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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First one was better, worth seeing on big screen
by billy (movies profile)
Jun 23, 2009
157
of
212 people found this review helpful
MAY HAVE SPOILERS...
As a summer action movie this does a good job
The good:
There is a lot of funny jokes. There is a lot of action. There are some things not seen before on screen. There are new Transformers introduced different from the last movie. Visual production is high. Megan Fox in various stages of dress.
The bad:
The story was really bad at times. Many of the scenes and plot developments were stolen from other movies. There are many logistical blunders. Some action scenes were just to long and began to lose impact after a while. John Tuturro in various stages of dress.
The mom in this movie stole the acting from everyone in this movie. She had the best lines and delivered them the best. This actually made her the most atrracive actress in the movie for me.
Megan Fox is hot. But her character didn't do much other than devoted girlfriend and eye candy. There was only one scene she was allowed to make hers based on acting talent. It had to do with the capture of a Decepticon spy. Great scene and she shined, but it was the only one.
Shia played Shia. It worked fine enough.
The supporting acting was fine and would say they did a good job. Sometimes even a great job given the script.
One complaint from the first movie was the robot battle scenes were filmed too tight to make out what was watched. In this movie they did listen and pulled back the camera for most of the battle scenes. Sometimes it didn't help depending on the complex design of the robot in the scene. Overall a plus.
One thing I like in this one was if the robots were not speaking their own language they were speaking plain English. The microbot in the first one mosly spoke jibberish like Jar Jar Binks and I found it annoying.
The story had promise in the begining and lost it long before the end. I feel much of the story here contradicts some of the established story and lore the first movie setup.
Of the new robots introduced the RC-truck was my favorite. Soundwave was a disapointment; he didn't do much and was used as a plot convenience. The others were alright no real complaints. But some were treated no more special than Storm troopers in SW. Their sole purpose was nameless fodder for battle scenes.
One of the new robots was an ancient prime Decepticon. It had a relationship with Megatron (including dialogue) like the Emperor and Darth Vader. At one point something that could best be described as the Force was used. This is one of the movie ripoffs. Also it contradicts the first movie setup that Megatron is the leader. Overall I just did not like how this new robot was used script wise. He was supposed to be the most powerful (only another Prime could kill him) but they never explain why he left Earth to go sit on a moon of Saturn to open his nursery there instead of just staying on Earth. The robots against him all commited a type of suicide; they left Earth free to hang out at. He wants to kill humans, has free reign to do so but hangs out near Saturn for thousands of years.
Certain temple scenes were Indianna Jones ripoffs. The scene in the Matrix were Smith implants Neo with a bug was ripped off visually (and ironically since Hugo Weaving who played Smith is the voice of Megatron). The Terminatrix from Terminator3 was ripped off. There are plenty of scenes I swear I have scene in other movies. Even Team America.
One really bad logistical blunder happens at the Smithsonian. Humans go there to find an ancient robot. They find it, awaken it, it acts like a grumpy old man and wants to leave the museum so it smashes its way outside. Outside the museum in washinton DC (a very large city and lacking desert landscape) they all end up in Tucson AZ USA complete with no buildings (not even the one they just came out of), in the desert lanscape, with Tucson's 8000foot high encircling mountain ranges in the background. It wasn't the teleport trick used later to get to Egypt, one of the characters called it the museum outside. They needed a place to have a talk, I guess the producers thought a giant robot chatting it up by the Lincoln memorial was to unrealistic.
Another logistical blunder is the Decepticons say they need to capture Shia. At times it's because he has knowledge or an artifact. During the whole movie they need his knowledge or artifact intact. Every chance they had to capture him they kept shooting at him or otherwise were doing something that could destroy his knowledge or artifact.
Another log blunder was Sector7. The first movie established it as the absolute experts for the last 80 years. This movie explains it was shut down. Its director John Tuturro is found working in his family deli. Why would in anyway the government shut down the one government organization that knows everything there is to know about these aliens the governments is working with?
Don't get me wrong the movie is entertaining. The script just had many holes, cliches, and blatent plot conveniences.
I do recommend seeing it on the big screen at least for the visuals. Many even with blue ray on a TV are going to be difficult to distinguish.
I Liked it as a summer popcorn flick. It could have been so much better but the script held it back. It is not to the first Transformers what the Dark Kight was to Batman Begins. |
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