Film Review on Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction action film, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg.It is the sequel to Transformers (2007) and the second film in the live-action Transformers Trilogy.Revenge of the Fallen was nominated for Best Sound at the Academy Awards and for Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Award.It also won 5 Scream Awards for Best Actre, Breakout Performance-Female, Best Sequel, Best F/X, and Scream Song of the Year.
The film was a box office succe, achieving the second highest Wednesday opening gro in history, bringing in $62 million in North America and close to $100 million worldwide.It is currently the fourth highest-groing film of 2009 worldwide (behind Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and the second-highest groing film of 2009 in the United States, only behind Avatar making it the 22nd highest groing movie of all time.In le than a month, the film surpaed the all-time earnings of its predeceor.
Clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen rumbles into theaters as a slam-bang exercise.Director Michael Bay ups the ante on his 2007 hit Transformers by hurling even more maive amounts of swirling, twirling, machine-crunching robot action onto the screen.Industrial Light and Magic‟s photorealistic CGI bots interact seamlely with star Shia La Beouf and other cast members against a backdrop of huge explosions and military firepower.
The plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), the human caught in
the war between Autobots and Decepticons, having visions of Cybertronian symbols, and being hunted by the Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen, who seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying all life on the planet in the proce.
It‟s an impreive display of digital effects, but bigger, faster, louder and longer do not necearily equal better.Bay‟s famous fondne for blowing up stuff threatens to overwhelm the senses in Round 2 of the ongoing grudge match that pits evil, alien Decepticon robots against a fractious coalition of civilians, soldiers and humanity-loving Autobots.
Still, there‟s plenty to admire in this fast, furious and frequently goofy sequel, which opens Wednesday.Within the first 12 seconds, Bay showcases his gift for masterful wide-screen compositions as he sets up Revenge of the Fallen‟s 17,000-year back story.Following a manic blur of bot-chasing mayhem that takes place for no discernible reason on the streets of Shanghai, the story catches up with the comparatively docile doings of reluctant hero Sam Witwicky.
Played by La Beouf with his usual hyper charm, Sam heads off for college, leaving behind his girlfriend Mikaela (reprised by Megan Fox) his best Autobot friend, Bumblebee and his robot-slaying past.
But when shape-shifting Decepticons figure out that Sam holds the key to their survival, he hits the road in search of a mysterious matrix with evil bots in hot pursuit.At one point, as a machine prepares to slice into his brain with a circular saw, Sam
protests: “I‟m just a normal kid with normal problems.”
Unlike many of its sci-fi brethren, including the grim Terminator Salvation, the PG 13-rated Revenge of the Fallen embraces its inner Joker.
The film received mostly negative reviews by the critics.Actor Shia LaBeouf was unimpreed with the film, stating \"We got lost.We tried to get bigger.It\'s what happens to sequels.It\'s like, how do you top the first one? You\'ve got to go bigger, Michael Bay went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie....You lost a bit of the relationships.Unle you have those relationships, then the movie doesn\'t matter.Then it\'s just a bunch of robots fighting each other.\"
The Houston Chronicle called it \"A well-oiled, loudly revving summer action vehicle that does all that‟s required, and then some\".Jordan Mintzer from Variety said Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen takes the franchise to a vastly superior level of artificial intelligence.Entertainment Weekly said \"Revenge of the Fallen may be a maive overdose of popcorn greased with motor oil.But it knows how to feed your inner 10-year-old\'s appetite for destruction\".According to The Washington Post, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Bay\'s worst-reviewed film, faring even lower than Pearl Harbor.Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter commented in his review that \"for the uninitiated, it\'s loud, tedious, and at 147 minutes, way too long\".Roger Ebert, who had given the 2007 film three stars, gave Revenge of the Fallen only one star, calling it \"...a horrible experience of unbearable length\".He later wrote in his blog about the film, saying \"The day will come when Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film claes and shown at cult film festivals.It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era.Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, exceive, incomprehensible, long or expensive \".Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers did not give the film any stars considering that \"Transformers 2 has a shot at the title Worst Movie of the Decade\".
In the movie, helicopters, fighter jets and panther-shaped robots take precedence over La Beouf and his exceptionally photogenic co-star Fox.Too tiny to cause much damage to the maive Devastator and his fellow killer „bots, the humans do an awful lot of running as the mechanized warriors smash each other to bits.
Though there are many negative comments on Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, personally speaking, I think there are many things should be admitted in this movie.For example, as the director did in the first Transformers movie, Optimus Prime gets the last word amid the wreckage, Revenge of the Fallen‟s most soulful character voices the hope that man and machine can co-exist.This is a good hope to be harmonious with the unknown power.It alarms humanbeings to introspect.Besides, I appreciatie the music in the movie.I think Steven Spielberg should thank Linkin Park, cause their songs certainly added coulor to the movie.As the old saying goes “Love me, love my dog”, I like the movie partly because that I am a big fan of Linkin Park.
