Transformers 2 Review

Okay, my week of hell is over and i have recovered from my zombification (yes that is a real word), here is my review of the Transformers 2 movie!

Overall rating: 4/5

(Edit Feb 18 2011: I've changed my rating system since this review from out of 5 to out of 10. So the TF movie gets a new rating: 7/10. Ya, it's still high, but i think it fits my feelings on it a bit better)

That’s right peoples. I like the Transformers 2 movie. Despite it’s problems, I like the movie and I think some people are being overly critical about it. Since I first promised to review it back when it first came out, I have heard many different reviews by online reviewers, friends, family and during christmas, I was given the movie and got to take another look at it. So basically, I've had a long time to think about the issues people have brought up and decide which ones I agree with and why. Prepare for a long review.

Stuff I loved:

The plot:

The movie did have one! I don’t know why people were complaining about this. The whole plot was about finding the matrix. The cons wanted it to power a machine of ultimate destruction. And bots wanted it to bring back Optimus. Yes, the plot took it’s time revealing this, starting with Sam going loco from the allspark fragment and the cons going after him first. But if the heroes know exactly what they need to do at the beginning of the movie, theirs no mystery and the movie’s story becomes too obvious. Instead, we get a nice build up and found out what the heroes needed to do as the movie progressed.

I liked how the idea of transformers being here since the cavemen days. And turning the concept of the Primes into a special brotherhood was a nice touch. The idea was new, while at the same time, building on past transformer stories.

And props to Bay for killing off Optimus and doing it right (great last stand battle, followed by brining him back before the movie ends. And no, 80s movie, we will never let you live it down.)

The fight scenes:

I loved the fights. This movie when all out with bad ass action. They’re better then the first one. Why? Well, not only did they increase the “robo-gore”, but the battles did not consists of 80% lines from the 80s transformers movie and 20 % fighting. Instead, we got all out action, with Optimus getting a last-stand type of battle against the cons that Dinobot would be proud of and a final battle where Optimus basically went “Slag it, I've had enough” and literally tears Megatron and the Fallen apart, by himself!

I’ve heard people come out with three complaints about the battles: Too fast, annoyingly blurred camera work and --wait for it-- Too. Many. Explosions.

Excuse me while I laugh hysterically at that last one. If your going to watch a Bay film, your going to get explosions. And he went all out for this one.

As for the first two points, that's the stuff I loved about it! I can’t stand long battles because they become unnecessarily drawn out and boring. And the camera work kept me focus on the battle the whole time, cause I knew, if I blink, I'll miss something.

Characters:

As much as I don’t like the twins and Alice (which I'll dig into later), the characters were great.

I swear, Sam has the funniest parents ever. I’m glad that they included the whole family in this movie instead of putting them on the sidelines like last line. I’m still one the fence about the mom’s line “let him go.” On the one hand, it sounds like she trusts that Sam knows what he’s doing and that she and the dad are in the way. On the other hand , it could also sound like she’s going “forget this kid, lets get out of here!” XD

And the dialogue between Starscream and Megatron was so much better then the first movie. Oh, and Megatron scares the crap out of me. Ya for scary villains!

I adore Simmons. Simmons is one of my favourite human characters, and I loved the way they brought him back. He’s still the fast talking, nutty, loyal soldier he was in the last movie, only this time, we see more of his obsessive nuttiness and much bigger battle scenes.

And Jetfire is just too awesome for words. Who knew that taking g1 Jetfire, mixing in some g2 Kup, throwing in a stuffy british accent, an old geezer attitude and a deception past would make such a kick ass character.

And Wheelie. Oh Wheelie. I am one of the few people that liked him in the original movie. But in the tv show afterwords, he got on my nerves really fast. I like how they brought him back, mixing in a new attitude, Waspinator's magnetism for trouble and Mikeala. But I honestly could have lived without the scene where he humps Mikaela’s leg.

And admittedly, despite getting on my nerves at the beginning of the film, Leo won me over. He starts out as a poser that ends up becoming the brave action man he wants to be.

And it’s nice to see some old favourites become bayformers, like Soundwave and Ravage. I am disappointed with the portrayal of some of the minor bots and cons. Arcee is turned into three identical characters with no identifiable character traits, got about two lines and then got blown up in mere minute of a battle.

I am one of the people that thinks the romance between Sam and Mikeala was too focus on, but I didn’t hate it.

Shout outs to past transformer series:

The writers did their research, with obvious references to the original transformers movie, a bit of beast wars, and surprisingly, the original comics. I’m not sure how many people know this, but in the original comics, a character called Buster Witwicky, actually had the essence of the matrix sent into his head, which gave him visions-- an obvious connection to what happens to Sam in the movie.


And now the other stuff:

The racism:

I get why people are mad about this. Sergeant Epps was given that “ass-hole” line, as if he was told to do a Will Smith impression. But the twins are probably the biggest example of this, with people complaining that they are racist against hillbillies and/or black people. Admittingly, Bay could have been a heck more sensitive with this, especially with the gold teeth and lines like “we don’t do much reading”. Ugh. But you know what the twins really remind me of?

White boys trying to be black. (Or is it white robots trying to be black?)

Their posers. Two annoying, “white-and-nerdy” bots that probably saw a tv show or one guy talking that way and thought “Hey, that's cool, yo! Let’s talk like that!” (I repeat: ugh). And if I need further proof of their poserness, the twins also made several comments in the film about acting like cool ninjas! ...My Dork-O-Meter is frying.

They even explained in the last movie that the Transformers learned how to speak from the internet. It’s annoying, their annoying, but I'm not going to beat Bay over with the “you are a racist jerk” stick. He’s not racist, he just put his foot in his mouth a few times and got bashed by the fans for it.

Speaking of which...

The constant groin jokes:

This is one thing that I DO hate about the movie. They were funny a few times. But like the use of the line “more then meets the eye” in the last movie, they got old really fast. But when they still throwing out jokes halfway through the movie, I'd had enough. On the bright side, I did hear some people laughing at these jokes.

But come on. Giant Constucticon scrotum? Really Bay? Really?

Megan Fox:

I like Mikaela's character and thought she should have had more screen time. I especially like her scenes with Wheelie (except the humping scene, but I digress). She could have been a really good female hero if they gave her more to do. Instead she was even more sexualized then in the first movie and became little more then the female tagalong (except when she smashed Alice with a car. That was awesome).

However, I DON’T like Megan Fox. Ignoring all the stuff I've heard about her acting and her attitude on set for the moment, the fact alone that she kept bashing the movie has made me very abrasive to her. If you don’t like the script, don’t be part of the movie. Acting in a movie you don’t like makes you look like a greedy actor who’s in it for the money. And calling yourself a feminist afterwords makes you look like a hypocrite. Especially when you KEEP acting in movies that sexualizes you, like Jennifer's Body. XC

Alice:

*Warning-- commencing angry fangirl rant*

I HAAAAATE Alice. I hate her with the burning passion of a thousand angry TF fans. Why? Because she’s a complete and total slut.

No, strike that. An unoriginal slut. She’s basically a mix of the female terminator from the Terminator 3 and one of the aliens from Species. I tried to ignore it, because her robot mode is kick ass, the fight scene after she transforms was cool and she does have that cold Deception attitude we all love. I tried to make jokes like “I guess this is how all Decepticon's think female human’s act. Ha ha!”... Ya. Didn’t work.

She doesn’t even come off as sexy or seductive. Just gross and annoying. The tongue whip was gross. The panty shot was unnecessary. And trying to seduce Sam when she just wants to kill/capture him, was pointless. I’m really getting sick of the sexualized females in this movie, but at least Mikaela has a personality to speak of!

That being said, I am not bashing the actress like I did Megan Fox. I don’t know enough about her to judge her as a person or actor.

I also hate Alice for a more personal reason. I wanted to like her. I really, REALLY wanted to.

I have been waiting years for someone to make a TF with a human beast mode and put them in an official series. I loved the idea so much, I even came up with my own (I haven’t revealed her yet. My fault for going on hiatus for 4 years). Don’t worry, I'm not here to say, “Michael Bay stole my idea!”. Other fans have made up transformers that change into a human form.

I’m mad because, this is the first time we see a human beast mode in an OFFICIAL TF series. I’m not counting Sari from Transformers Animated. After sari was upgraded, she had more of a cyborg look to her from then on. I’m talking about a character that shift back and forth from an ordinary looking beast mode to robot mode like the characters in season one Beast Wars. And when I found out that Alice was one such character, I was really excited.  

And she turns out like... like...ARRRG!

Oh well, maybe next time.

Okay rant over. Sorry if that came off too personal but I can’t stand the purely sluttish characters. The fact I actually wanted to like her was only fuel for the fire.

In summary, except for a pain in the ass actress, Bay’s bad jokes and.... grr...Alice..., I love this movie. What I hated was easily washed away with what I loved and I hope to see a third one. But if that doesn’t happen, I don’t mind, because Bay’s ending for the second movie was satisfying. Which is nice to see since Hollywood still has trilogy fever, and many movies lately have been giving me an unsatisfying cliff-hanger.

Anyway, I rate Transformers 2 a 4/5. This is my opinion, so flamers that rudely disagree will be ignored.

Seeya peoples.

Ps. I still promised a Dragonball Evolution review and a Julie & Julia review. I'll get to them soon. But don’t worry, they won’t be a --er, lengthy as this one.