Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen PREMIERE!

So Steph and I got to go to the new Transformers movie on Monday night (THANK YOU ADAM WEST @ HOT 103!!). After 2 hours of waiting in line, we got our favorite seats (middle of the first row of the main deck), and settled in for the action!

There were two people that dressed up in Optimus Prime and Bumblebee outfits. Pretty cool.

Now, on to the movie.

I was going to do a giant long review and talk about the whole story of the movie, but then I figured I’d let y’all see it first-hand.

That being said, there are MILD SPOILERS within, so take that into consideration.

Ok.

The main plot of the movie sees Sam Witwicky with a remaining shard of the Allspark cube used to destroy Megatron at the end of the first movie. Touching the spark fragment plants all this Cybertronian information in Sam’s mind, and the Decepticons need this information to activate an ancient Transformers machine that will harvest the Earth’s sun for Energon. Of course, the Decepticons are opposed by the Autobots and the human military, now working as partners.

The cons (not Decepticons):

The same problems that plagued the first movie are back in this one. The comedy involved in this seems pretty forced and out of place. There’s some that works. But there’s some that doesn’t. Bumblebee crying over Sam leaving for college is akin to him peeing in the first movie. We also didn’t need to see Devastator’s testicles. Sam’s mom hopped up on special brownies had some good moments, but she was way over the top for the most part.

Slighty less than neutral but not horrible:

There’s a major plot point in the middle of the movie that I won’t spoil, but once it happens and the next few minutes pass, you instantly have the end of the movie generally figured out. It doesn’t ruin the movie, but it does take some of the suspense away.

The neutral:

The twins. We talked in the other thread how a reviewer ripped the movie for the Autobot twins who were “overly stereotypically black”. I’ll leave that there. I didn’t think that. I said in that thread that if their characters were human, we wouldn’t have heard a peep out of anyone, and after seeing the movie, I still stand by that. There was nothing blatantly racist or intentionally offensive. My problem with the Twins was that they were a little overexposed – a little too much screen time, but they weren’t as bad as I feared.

The Transformers don’t really WOW us this time around – with the exception of Devastator, of course. It’s like we’re used to them being awesome, but that really helps with hooking you in and taking in the entire movie on the whole rather than just oooing and aweing over the robots.

The good:

As expected, the visuals were fucking outstanding, and likely won’t be beat any time soon. The Transformers looked AMAZING, and I think they even got better in the animations. The fight sequences looked smoother and much more realistic.

NO MORE MICHAEL BAY SHAKY CAM!!! We weren’t overloaded with close up quick shots and “live” on the spot documentation of everything going on. The cameras just pulled back and let us watch the story, and that made watching the movie SO much easier to watch. It was tremendous.

The fight sequences: As I mentioned earlier, the animation seemed so much more realistic. Everything was smooth, and seemed like a real streetfight. The robots were busting out arm drag takedowns, and the fights were off the charts.

The story. Not so “teenagerish” as the first movie. There’s actually about a dozen minor plotlines woven in throughout the main angle, and we get a ton of Transformers history thrown at us.

Overall:

The amazing visuals, improved story, and no shaky cam made this much easier to watch, and when you take everything into consideration, the great thing about this movie is that you’re totally, 100% sucked in. You’re hooked. The Transformers don’t really “stand out”, and I don’t mean that in a bad way – they don’t overpower is a better way to put it. They meshed in, and in watching this, they feel like they’re “supposed” to be there, and that helps the overall experience.

The visuals, action, and shooting locations all make this a gem to watch, and you didn’t feel like you were watching a “movie”. You felt like you were taking part in a truly EPIC adventure, and when it was over, I just sat in my chair for a few minutes, just stunned. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, I was *that* taken in by the whole spectacle.

If you can forgive some of the campy comedy moments, this movie is paced amazingly, and you can’t help but feel like you’re part of it. People were actually crying in the theater in certain parts. They were cheering in the fight scenes, and OHHHHHHHHHH’ing when huge sequences happen. It didn’t “feel” like it was over two hours long.

Rating:

If you take into consideration the comedy and some of the over the top bits, I have to give this a 9 out of 10. Truly a blockbuster.