By Vanessa Ho
Growing up, I was a tomboy. With two brothers on either side of me and being close in age to boot, it was inevitable that I would be one. Transformers were our bonding experience. We had most of the Transformers. Older brother had the leader of the Autobots –Optimus Prime while younger brother had the leader of the Decepticons –Megatron. I got second bananas on both sides –Bumblebee and Starscream.
Imagine our excitement when, in 1986, there was going to Transfomers: The Movie a feature length animated film that was based on the cartoon show that was airing at the time. We thought it was going to be a blockbuster because the one showing we wanted to see was sold out but come Monday, I don't think it made a blip at the box office.
Back then the cartoon movie was like the Citizen Kane to an 11-year old. I re-watched it a few years ago and upon further reflection, it wasn't such a great movie.
Fast forward to 2007 when Michael Bay directed a live-action version of my beloved toys. I wasn't quite sure how he was going to do it but I was excited to see the film. I walked in excited and I walked out disappointed. While the effects where amazing, the story was confusing (the All Spark –what the heck is that?) and the dialogue was terrible. What was with Optimus Prime saying "My bad." Terrible just terrible. But the really awful thing about Transformers was that they turned my beloved Bumblebee from a Volkswagon bug into a Camero and gave him a Herbie-like personality.
Despite not liking Transformers, for some reason I had faint hope that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would be better than the first.
The answer to that is no. While the effects were still amazing and the Autobots and DEcepticons had more personality, the dialogue still sucked and the storyline still confusing.
Revenge of the Fallen takes place two years after the events of the original. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) in pursuit of a normal life after saving the world, is off to an East Coast college to study Astronomy, leaving girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox –who adds no value whatsoever storyline-wise) and his parents' (Kevin Dunn and the hilarious Julie White) home in LA.
Trouble starts when a shard of the All Spark cube falls out of one of Sam's sweatshirts. He picks it up and upon doing saw gets downloaded with Cybertronian symbols that apparently are a map that leads to a source of Energon on Earth. Apparently, the Decepticons want it and one in particular known as the Fallen, who is so powerful that only a Prime (meaning Optimus Prime) can beat him.
Confused yet? Don't worry, I didn't really quite understand what was going on and in fact I am so confused that I can't even recap the rest of the plot.
There were definitely things I did like about the sequel. The first being the interpretation of Soundwave as a telecommunications satellite (in the original cartoon, he was Walkman that spewed out tapes that acted as his robotic minions).
I also got really excited that the film featured the Constructicons –a subdivision of the Decepticons – that when they combine together form Devastator.
What was annoying? Megan Fox. I know her purpose was eye candy but her line delivery throughout was so wooden. Shia LaBeouf was fine but I don't really see his appeal as this is the fourth movie that I've seen him in where he and the film aren't great (the others are Transformers, Eagle Eye and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls). Also, it was really hard to distinguish who was an Autobot and who was a Deception. While their symbols are visible in close-ups, far away they all looked the same and at times, I thought the human army lead by Josh Duhamel were attacking the Autobots.
The two twin Autobots were annoying in a Jar Jar Binks kind of way and weren't really necessary to the story.
And, if you've seen the original cartoon film –you will see some (and I mean a tiny some) elements in this film.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is definitely one loud and way too long summer blockbuster and it doesn't really matter what I think, there is going to be a Transformers 3 in a couple of years and I will probably be there to watch it.
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