Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009): Movie Review

DIRECTED BY

• Michael Bay

PRODUCED BY

• Steven Spielberg
• Lorenzo di Bonaventura
• Ian Bryce
• Tom DeSanto
• Don Murphy

WRITTEN BY

• Roberto Orci
• Alex Kurtzman
• Ehren Kruger

STARRING (more at IMDB and Wikipedia)

• Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
• Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes
• Josh Duhamel as Major Lennox
• Tyrese Gibson as USAF Master Sergeant Epps
• John Turturro as Agent Simmons
• Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
• Julie White as Judy Witwicky

VOICES (more at IMDB and Wikipedia)

• Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime
• Jess Harnell as Ironhide
• Tom Kenny as Wheelie / Skids
• Tony Todd as The Fallen
• Hugo Weaving as Megatron
• Charlie Adler as Starscream

MUSIC BY

• Steve Jablonsky
• Linkin Park

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Ben Seresin

EDITING BY

• Roger Barton
• Paul Rubell
• Joel Negron
• Thomas Muldoon

RUNNING TIME

• 150 min

BUDGET

• ~ $200 million

GROSS REVENUE

• ~ $830 million

TRAILER

PLOT (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

"It is revealed that thousands of years ago there was a race of ancient Transformers who scoured the universe looking for energon sources. Known as the Dynasty of Primes, they used machines called Sun Harvesters to drain stars of their energy in order to convert it to energon and power Cybertron's AllSpark. The Primes agreed that life-bearing worlds would be spared, but in 17,000 BC, one brother, thereafter dubbed "The Fallen", constructed a Sun Harvester on Earth. The remaining brothers thus sacrificed their bodies in order to hide the Matrix of Leadership—the key that activates the Sun Harvester—from The Fallen, who swore to seek revenge upon Earth.

In the present day, two years after the events of the previous film, Optimus Prime is seen leading NEST, a military organization consisting of human troops and his own team of Autobots (including newcomers Arcee, Chromia, Elita One, Sideswipe, Jolt, and the twins Skids and Mudflap) aimed at killing the remaining Decepticons on Earth. While on a mission in Shanghai, Optimus and his team destroy Decepticons Sideways and Demolishor, being given a warning by the latter that "The Fallen will rise again". Back in the United States, Sam Witwicky finds a splinter of the destroyed AllSpark, and upon contact the splinter fills his mind with Cybertronian symbols. Deeming it dangerous, Sam gives the AllSpark splinter to his girlfriend Mikaela Banes for safe keeping, and leaves her and Bumblebee behind to go off to college. Upon arrival, Sam meets his college roommate Leo Spitz, who runs an alien conspiracy website, and Alice, a co-ed who makes sexual advances on him. Back home, Decepticon Wheelie tries to steal the shard, only to get captured by Mikaela. After having a mental breakdown, uncontrollably writing in Cybertronian language, Sam calls Mikaela, who immediately leaves to get to him.

Decepticon Soundwave hacks into a US satellite and learns the locations of the dead Decepticon leader Megatron and another piece of the AllSpark. The Decepticons retrieve the shard and use it to resurrect Megatron, who flies into space and is reunited with Starscream and his master, The Fallen. The Fallen instructs Megatron and Starscream to capture Sam in order to discover the location of the Matrix of Leadership. With Sam's outbreaks worsening, Mikaela arrives at campus just as Alice—revealed to be a Decepticon Pretender—attacks Sam. Mikaela, Sam, and his roommate Leo drive off, destroying Alice, but are seized by Decepticon Grindor. The Decepticon known as "The Doctor" prepares to remove Sam's brain, but Optimus and Bumblebee turn up and rescue him. In an ensuing fight, Optimus engages Megatron, Grindor and Starscream. Optimus manages to kill Grindor and rip off Starscream's arm, but he is eventually impaled through the chest by Megatron and dies.

After Prime's death, The Fallen is freed from his captivity and Megatron orders a full-scale assault on the planet. The Fallen speaks to the world and demands they surrender Sam to the Decepticons or they will continue their attack. Sam, Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee, the twins and Wheelie regroup, and Leo suggests his online rival "RoboWarrior" may be of assistance. "RoboWarrior" is revealed to be former Sector 7 agent Simmons, who informs the group that the symbols should be readable for a Decepticon. Mikaela then releases Wheelie, who can't read the language, but identifying it as that of the Primes, directs the group to a Decepticon seeker named Jetfire. They then find Jetfire at the F. Udvar-Hazy Center and reactivate him. After teleporting the group to Egypt, Jetfire explains that only a Prime can kill The Fallen, and translates the symbols, which contain a riddle that sets the location of the Matrix of Leadership somewhere in the surrounding desert. By following the clues, the group arrive at the tomb where they ultimately find the Matrix, but it crumbles to dust in Sam's hands. Believing the Matrix can still revive Optimus, Sam collects the dust and instructs Simmons to call Major William Lennox to bring the other Autobots and Optimus' body.

The military arrives with the Autobots, but so do the Decepticons, and a battle arises. During the fight, Decepticon Devastator is formed and unearths the Sun Harvester from inside one of the pyramids before being destroyed by the US military with the help of agent Simmons. Jetfire arrives and destroys Mixmaster, but is mortally wounded by Scorponok. The Air Force carpet bomb the Decepticons, but Megatron breaks through the offensive and kills Sam. In a vision, Sam meets with the other Primes, who tell him that the Matrix of Leadership is not found but earned, which Sam has done, and send him back, effectively reviving him. The Matrix is reassembled from the dust, and Sam uses it to revive Optimus. The Fallen then steals the Matrix and activates the Sun Harvester. In his final moments, Jetfire volunteers his parts and spark to Optimus. With enhanced capabilities, Optimus destroys the Sun Harvester and takes on Megatron and The Fallen, killing the latter. Sam then finally reciprocates Mikaela's love as Megatron and Starscream retreat and vow that their fight is not finished.

The film ends with Optimus sending a message into space saying that the humans and Transformers both share a common past."

Being a big hardcore fan of the first film, I just had to watch the second one. I wanted to watch this movie in IMAX so badly, but as usual, I failed to. So instead, I waited for it to be released on Blu Ray. And I finally got to watch it. And as I always say (you are probably getting sick of me saying it, but...), if it's entertaining, it's good. And this movie was pretty damn entertaining to me.

When this movie was released in theatres, almost everyone I know was going to watch it. And after they did, all they did was complain (most of them). About what? First, they complained about the story being pretty weak, which I kind of agree on a little. Because it isn't a very solid story for such a big movie. Second, they complained about the movie being all about action. Well, obviously it's an action movie, so if you don't like action movies, why watch? Right? I mean come on, how could you complain about too much action? And third, they said the movie was mostly driven by computer generated imagery and had very little acting. This is very true. However, it can be a good thing and a bad thing. Almost the entire movie is full of non stop action, but they all mostly involve these awesome giant ass robots beating the crap out of each other. And what can be better than that? The awesomely gorgeous super fine details of these huge giant ass robots! Together with huge explosions and blastings and bombings and loud weaponry fire and... Damn, I wish I saw this movie in IMAX! Eeerrmmm... Anyway, you get the picture right? It's a heavy action packed movie. And I love action movies!

So, as you may have already guessed, Revenge of the Fallen is an action movie about robots. That's it. Because the storyline is kind of weak, all you need to know about this movie is this; explosions, sound effects, special effects, giant ass robots, Megan Fox (hehehe...), Shia LaBeouf. That's all you need to know to watch this movie. Don't expect a rich storyline in this movie. It's basically a straight forward action movie. So, if you like heavy action movies and you don't really care about the storyline, this is the movie for you. This movie is a great movie (must be an action movie fan) to watch after working for stressful hours at work. It's perfect! You don't have to think about anything. Right after work, just get home, get some food, turn the tv on, lights off, make yourself comfortable, and then just get ready to watch the movie. All you have to do is watch the awesome special effects and enjoy it until you feel pleasure! Joy!

Okay, so it's great if you are an action movie fan. I did use to watch the Transformers cartoon when I was a kid, but I barely remember it except for Optimus Prime. You know, that big red truck? LOL. So, if I was to compare the movie with the cartoon series, I'm not too sure. But trust me, this movie is all about action! And what it does very well is showcase all the awesome robots in disguise in action.

So, those were the good sides to the movie. Are there any down falls? Damn it! There is! First, the movie doesn't involve much real acting. So, if you guys wanted to rip your eye balls out thinking you'll get some hot Megan Fox action, forget about it. Obviously everyone in the movie acted very well. Duh. But there wasn't much to be seen unlike the first movie. Like I said before this movie is heavily action based, and almost all the action scenes involve the robots and special effects. Basically, they were all CGI (computer generated imagery). In a way, one may say that this seemed to be a lazy approach to make an action movie. But heck, the scenes were all fantastic! I mean those fine details on the robots are just amazing! And you'll know immediately that they weren't easy to do. So I don't think "lazy" is to be even considered. Of course there were also action scenes with the real actors, and those scenes were also fantastic. But there weren't too many of these scenes.

But what I didn't quite get was that actress Megan Fox was instructed by Michael Bay to gain a few pounds for this movie. The reason to that was because Michael Bay wanted a more muscular looking woman for the movie. I first heard this news a few months before the release of this movie. At that time I thought it was a reasonable thing to do. But after watching the movie I did not see much of the effect at all. She did gain weight and looked a little more heavier than her usual self (heavier, not mouscular), but what I mean is that her weight gain wasn't necessary at all. Why you ask? Mainly because almost the entire movie was based on CGI. And because of that there wasn't much acting to do. So why did she have to look more muscular and bigger? It wasn't like she was acting in more hardcore action scenes. I think she did more action scenes in the first movie. Anyway, in her quest to look more muscular, she didn't look more muscular at all. She did gain weight though, but no muscles as far as I could see. And of course there is a reason to that. And if you are interested you can read more about it at MunFitnessBlog.

Box office wise, this film was a huge success. Revenge of the Fallen was released in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland on June 19, 2009 and in North America, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand on June 24, 2009. On it's opening night itself (not weekend), the movie grossed out $16 million, making it the most ever for a Wednesday midnight debut. The film also managed to achieve the biggest Wednesday opening in history, bringing in $62 million in total receipts on its first day, additionally ranking it as the second biggest opening day of all time, behind The Dark Knight. Hhmmm... actually I honestly think that the Dark Knight was overated. I'm very sure it's all because of the Heath Ledger incident. It was still a good movie though, just wat overhyped. Anyway, Revenge of the Fallen remained as the number one movie in the box office for two weeks straight. And it managed to gross out about ~$830 million! That's a lot of cash there. I think the movie deserves that cash as it was an excellent showcase of giant ass robots in disguise beating the crap out of each other with huge blastings and explosions and... Ok, I think I should stop. You can read more about the box office news at Wikipedia.

So, as all of you might have guessed it already, I loved this movie. Simply because it was a mindless action movie. There are many reviews for this movie, ranging from horrible oponions to good opinions. Some people liked it, some people hated it. My advice to you is this; the movie doesn't have a solid storyline for you to care about enough. So it's just a mindless non stop action movie. Much like playing a mindless beat em' up action video game like Streets of Rage, or a fighting game like Marvel vs. Capcom. If you enjoy a movie based on a rich storyline, by all means, stay away from this movie, because you'll definitely not like it. But if you are in the mood for some mindless entertaining action, this is one of the best movies out there.

Final Verdict: 4 / 5

Comments

[dd]

true dey, its a good movie with huge giant ass robots... hehe... i also laughing ady... plus i think the story line is not really there but i watched it because of the first one was really good, second, megan fox, 3rd, the transformation of robots and also coz of the transfomers game... nice review... thumbs up and yes, a 4/5 from me too...

[chaospetrifier]

@dd: Nice! But I wish there was more Megan Fox action in the movie man. I think if this movie had useless actors, I would still like it. And yeah, the first was the best!