FILM REVIEW: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

[Director: Michael Bay. Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Kevin Dunn, Bunch of CGI Robots]

Michael Bay continues to produce big summer films with Kodak moment shots, slow-motion-world-burning-behind-you mayhem, and vivid generalizations about modern society. AND he scores huge box office (SEE Box Office Mojo). Transformers 2 is basically a nice upgrade of the first movie, sans the lovely shots of the decaying Detroit Railroad Station. Bay did improve the battle-sequences in the fact you can actually tell one robot from another much better. Still this film is too long for a popcorn movie, over 2 and a half hours! The plot is convulted and lengthy. I feel you could have cut a good twenty minutes of it and got the same effect.

Every standard Michael Bay shot is here including his patented shot looking up from the ground into the sky as a slow-motion helicopter blades whirl by ala Bad Boys II. He clearly loves filming Megan Fox with her flowing auburn hair, stunning blue eyes, and Bally's body. Fox is an empty vessel, like a dorm-room poster She and new-hottie Isabel Lucas just walk around in tight shorts and flimsy dresses all movie. Not that I'm complaining.

But the main focus I have is what I called 'vivid generalization.' I know its Hollywood and this is a summer flick. I get it, but still Bay films have this synthetic layer, coating if you will, that permeates the movie. I think this is best shown in the twenty minutes the movie depicts "college" life. It is absurd. The dorms are immaculate and huge and clearly been raided by graphic artists, there are no ugly people, girls strut around in big, fluffy towels, and no one is there for education. AND Rainn Wilson (Dwight from the Office) is a professor, funny yes, but still fits my point. Megan Fox herself is a generalization of bitchy-beauty. The whole thing is ridiculous and so much more superficial than the real thing. Does Bay even live on this planet?

And lastly there is the blatant racism or pseudo-racism in the film. I'm pretty anti-PC and don't like to flame such nasty name-calling, but I was cringing in this film every time the twin Autobots, Skids and Mudflap, appeared on screen. They are a 21st century minstrel show. What the Hell were they thinking? And by they I mean the hundreds of people who must have been involved in this aspect of the movie--from the concept to the finished product. It does make Jar-Jar Binks look like a pure enlightened mascot. It is really horrible and now millions of kids have seen this idiocy. It is so unnecessary and so easy to avoid. Just leave them out!

I've added some links to show the continuing conversation on this:

Ain't It Cool News.com (Warning: Adult Language)
Yahoo.com
SLASHFILM.COM: No One Wants to Own Up to Racism in Transformers

Further 2 cents. This film in my opinion is a hard PG-13, there are lots of sexual innuendo throughout. I wouldn't take kids under 13.

RATING: 5.5 out of 10
Though I'd rate the actions sequences as 7.5.