TFW2005ers Response to Roger Ebert and Other Hatin Critics - Win $50 Gift Certificate

It seems that even though Transformers Revenge of the Fallen may have issues even us hardcore TF fans can't ignore, that the main stream media and critics seem to be blasting it a bit harder than usual. Not sure what's up with that.

So lets use this thread to voice your opinion on what you think about all the hatin ass critics out there. Do your best to keep it constructive and reasonable. Try to do point counter point. If you speak about a particular review, reference it with a link. Humor is welcome. Just make the post interesting and let folks know why you as a Transformer fan think their analysis was bullshit.

The best post within the next week will win a $50 USD Gift Certificate to StylinOnline.com!

Stylin Online is sponsoring a series of contests here on TFW2005, running 1 per week until July 8th (4 total). Each week, Stylin Online will be giving away a gift certificate valued at 50 USD. Each Wednesday (or Thursday when we are slow asses) we will announce the previous week's winner, and reveal the next contest. All you need to do is be registered at TFW2005 and logged in to participate. 2005 Staff are not eligible.

Get to talkin!

UPDATE: DISASTER RECOVERY...

OK, I guess either I didnt make myself clear, people didn't read the board rules, or we are all assholes. So let me clarify what the point of this thread was SUPPOSED to be before it devolved.

It was meant for the folks that DID like the movie, who DISAGREED with what was perceived as the overly harsh mainstream critic response to the movie.

This is not to say that the critics were wrong. Or that folks who DONT like the movie are wrong. Or that TFW2005 supports ROTF as Gone With the Wind level cinema worthy of a sweep at the Oscars.

The folks that do agree with the critics, and don't like the movie, there are other threads on this forum that you can respond to, and are free to do so. That's just not the point of this particular thread.

During the early part of opening week, I felt there was an stronger than normal negativity floating around the movie by PROFESSIONALS, and wanted us, the fans, to respond. In a constructive, FUN manner.

So, I will give this one more shot. Ive deleted several hundred posts from this thread, leaving less than 25. Let's try to stay on target.

New Rules

You must quote a professional critic's original story.

You must reference 2 points in their story and explain why you feel they are wrong.

You may not comment on anyone's posts from this thread or forum inside this thread.

You may not respond to anyone who posts a review here. This thread is not for back and forth fan commentary on the movie or movie industry. It is meant to speak about particular critics and why you think they are wrong.

If you think they are right, stay out of this thread.

You may not call anyone anywhere a name.

It must be more than 3 sentences.



I apologize to everyone for not staying up on the management of this thread, I've been busy and didn't think a festering swamp of puss was brewing in here like it was.

First off, they think the movie is too inappropriate for kids. BS! This movie clearly has a rating of PG-13, and it's purpose is to bring back adults and teenagers who were former fans to be fans of the franchise again. Second, they see my two favorite new additions Skids and Mudflap, as racist stereotypes. again, i say, BS! They are there as comic relief and to be the younger autobots who Bumblebee has to take care of. They help to bring comedy to the movie, to help balance the scifi, romance, action and adventure. In comparison with their bumpersticker, the critics can "suck my popsicle"

If I see those critics:

Them: "Ow that hurt!

Me: "Of course, it's an ass kicking!"

And here's my video of how I think those ROTF hating SOB's are wrong, by saying how awesome the movie wasYouTube - Skids, Mudflap and Bumblebee review ROTF

LONG LIVE ROTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd like to say that I don't understand where the critics are coming from, but to a certain extent I do. Revenge of the Fallen is a movie that basically said "This movie is about giant alien robots that can change into cars/trucks/etc. beating the hell out of eachother, and damn all the rest." It flies in the face of traditional Hollywood movie making. It's standing up and saying "We're going to have the biggest robots, the biggest battles, the biggest explosions, and nothing else matters.". It is, truly, a two hour and thirty some odd minute toy commercial. For us hardcore fans, it's fantastic. It's the characters we loved growing up, brought to miraculous life on the big screen. It is as faithful an adaptation of the original cartoon series (something never renowned for it's depth) as any of us are likely to see. At some point, you just kind of throw your hands up and go, "Okay, I give up. I'm just going to start betting on what blows up next.". Is it a perfect movie? No. But is it perfect in what it wants to do? Absolutely. Revenge of the Fallen grabs the viewer by the face and says "You WILL watch this." It is such a spectacle that even if the plot is virtually nonexistent, it already has a home in the DVD and Blu-Ray collection of every person that wants to show what their home theater can do. It is the ultimate expression of escapism, a movie that not only has plot holes, but seems to revel in them. It is the end result of an era where the world is just to depressing, where people no longer go to the movies to be mentally challenged, but rather to be entertained and to spend two hours plus not worrying about making rent, finding a job, or any of the other things people have to worry about.

In short, Revenge of the Fallen is an affront to the very notion that a movie has to have a serious and comprehensible plot to be entertaining. It is the anti-The Dark Knight, an action movie where action occurs not because the plot and storyline demand it, but rather just because it can, plot and storyline be damned.

Optimus747 vs. Ebert

As the one-time movie reviewer for Hoosac Valley High School's "The Eye of the Hurricane", I felt that I had at least some iota of experience in the world of film critique. As such, I decided to compare my views with those of the esteemed Roger Ebert, known to some as "God" due to the unbelievable truths he divulges in his movie reviews.
Though I'm just a casual moviegoer, a peon compared to the glorious likes of the professional reviewers, I have done my best to attempt to bring myself to the level of Mr. Ebert.
And here's what we had to say regarding "Revenge of the Fallen":

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

(I put Mr. Ebert's quotes in bold, because his words carry so much power)
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments.
One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys.

I can't believe you enjoyed that scene with Wheelie OH wait, I see what you did there, that's sarcasm! Good Lord, only a few sentences into the review and it's already funnier than the actual movie! Well played!

If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.

Oh, you're killing me, Mr. Ebert! A veritable barrage of side-splitters with your stinging metaphors! Good show!

The plot is incomprehensible. The dialog of the Autobots®, Decepticons® and Otherbots® is meaningless word flap. Their accents are Brooklyese, British and hip-hop, as befits a race from the distant stars. Their appearance looks like junkyard throw-up. They are dumb as a rock. They share the film with human characters who are much more interesting, and that is very faint praise indeed.

The plot is most certainly uncomprehensible for people of our intelligence. It would take a first-grader to understand that the Decepticons are seeking the Allspark fragment in order to revive Megatron, who in turn wants to assist the Fallen in activating the sun harvester in order to produce Energon as a means of sustaining their race!
And the Transformers themselves, with their accents! Whatever happened to the good old days when average West-coast Americans voiced alien robots?! And I'm glad that you agree with me that they look like garbage, I mean, I can never tell when I'm looking at Optimus Prime's head or his legs! No distinguishable features whatsoever!
And of course they're dumb, they're aliens! Nobody's smarter than Americans, who know how to take on any problem without help from useless advanced civilizations! The human characters are definitely more interesting to watch; I'd rather see a movie all about Galloway or Leo than these useless robots.

The movie has been signed by Michael Bay. This is the same man who directed "The Rock" in 1996. Now he has made "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Faust made a better deal.

Ooh, classy, a jab at another Bay disaster and a reference to classical literature that shows your intelligence!

This isn't a film so much as a toy tie-in. Children holding a Transformer toy in their hand can invest it with wonder and magic, imagining it doing brave deeds and remaining always their friend. I knew a little boy once who lost his blue toy truck at the movies, and cried as if his heart would break. Such a child might regard "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" with fear and dismay.

I know, what kind of good movie has toys that go with it?
(Star Wars, Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, etc., don't count).



The human actors are in a witless sitcom part of the time, and lot of the rest of their time is spent running in slo-mo away from explosions, although--hello!--you can't outrun an explosion.

Yeah, what kind of respectable action movie has people running away from an explosion?! The nerve of that Michael Bay...the nerve.

They also make speeches like this one by John Turturro: "Oh, no! The machine is buried in the pyramid! If they turn it on, it will destroy the sun! Not on my watch!"

Yes, I did notice that all of the dialogue was actually monologues meant to take themselves too seriously for the sake of humor. What's the point?

The humans, including lots of U.S. troops, shoot at the Transformers a lot, although never in the history of science fiction has an alien been harmed by gunfire.

Nope, can't think of any aliens that have gotten shot befo...

There are many great-looking babes in the film, who are made up to a flawless perfection and look just like real women, if you are a junior fanboy whose experience of the gender is limited to lad magazines.

Testify, Mr. Ebert! Fox and Lucas are trashy and hideous compared to the elegant women of the nursing home you're from. For shame that our youth are taught to think such bimbos are "real women"!

The two most inexplicable characters are Ron and Judy Witwicky (Kevin Dunn and Julie White), who are the parents of Shia LaBeouf, who Mephistopheles threw in to sweeten the deal. They take their son away to Princeton, apparently a party school, where Judy eats some pot and goes berserk. Later they swoop down out of the sky on Egypt, for reasons the movie doesn't make crystal clear, so they also can run in slo-mo from explosions

Exactly, what type of kid going to college needs to have his parents involved? The additional human element, as well as the humor they provide, is absurdly out of place in such a film!
And though Starscream tells the Decepticon bulldozer, Rampage, to release the Witwickys as bait for Sam, that's really the code for "Let them run from explosions!"; only a man of your cunning could have seen through that deception, Mr. Ebert!

The battle scenes are bewildering. A Bot makes no visual sense anyway, but two or three tangled up together create an incomprehensible confusion. I find it amusing that creatures that can unfold out of a Camaro and stand four stories high do most of their fighting with...fists. Like I say, dumber than a box of staples. They have tiny little heads, although Jetfire® must be made of older models, since he has an aluminum beard.

Yeah, they never used their guns or swords or whips or missiles at all! What was with that? It was as bad as the fight scenes in G1!
As for the tiny heads, quite frankly I don't have any witty sarcastic remark regarding that comment. All I can say is that someone is trying to feel better about himself.

Aware that this movie opened in England seven hours before Chicago time and the morning papers would be on the streets, after writing the above I looked up the first reviews as a reality check. I was reassured: "Like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan!" (Bradshaw, Guardian); "Sums up everything that is most tedious, crass and despicable about modern Hollywood!" (Tookey, Daily Mail); "A giant, lumbering idiot of a movie!" (Edwards, Daily Mirror). The first American review, Todd Gilchrist of Cinematical, reported that Bay's "ambition runs a mile long and an inch deep," but, in a spirited defense, says "this must be the most movie I have ever experienced." He is bullish on the box office: it "feels destined to be the biggest movie of all time." It’s certainly the biggest something of all time.

Very good, referencing such well-known reviewers and newspapers to drive home your point that everyone absolutely hates this movie! To the abyss with casual moviegoers, they don't know what they're talking about because they aren't refined and educated enough to know what's enjoyable and what isn't!
And the box office...oh don't get me started! Money never won anyone an Oscar...am I right?!
And yes, Revenge of the Fallen is most definitely the biggest "something" of all time: It's the biggest summer blockbuster action-packed entertaining "popcorn movie" of all time.
Email me if you want a list of the biggest "somethings" that you yourself are, Mr. Ebert.
Thank you for your uplifting and enlightening review; I did enjoy it so, and await your undoubtedly unbiased reviews of Harry Potter and upcoming Disney movies, which I'm sure you will agree with me are 10000000000000 times more worthwhile to see than this garbage called "Transformers".
Cheers.

Ebert and Knowles may have a few points (and no, I don't think their assertion that Skids and Mudflap are racist caricatures is one of them), but they apparently believe every movie has to be some kind of cinematic work of Oscar-worthy art. They sound like the guy at work who, when TF1 came out, tried to argue with me about how certain parts of the movie were unrealistic. Really?! No shit!!! Parts of a movie about giant fucking robots from outer space are unrealistic? Alert the media!

I, on the other hand, had no such delusions. My girl and I walked in, sat down, and got exactly what we wanted out of Revenge of the Fallen...a kick-ass Transformers movie that was even better than the first one!!! And last I looked, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

So...
EBERT AND KNOWLES CAN KISS MY SHINY CHROME SKIDPLATE!!!

Erm, I kind of agreed with most of the critics. Some parts worked perfectly, and lots of parts failed perfectly. Plot and continuity shouldn't be disposable, and characters should drive the story, not the other way round.

I think Ebert was pretty mean, but I don't think that makes him automatically wrong.

Now, if we're just looking to call the man certifiably insane, I'm all for it. Didn't he LOVE the hell out of Waterworld, or Postman, or something?

The days of action and adventure are upon us once again and the time is now, our time, our genre of movies. I speak of the superhero, cartoon, and video game based movies that are becoming the blockbusters of the new era. Movies like Transformers Revenge of the Fallen are reaching a whole new generation of viewers. Not only do these movies capture the attention of the wide-eyed child but of the adult who grew up on the origins of such comic or cartoon themes. They are the ones who gasp in awe at their childhood brought to life on the big screen and who are now sharing the very characters they loved with their own children.

Unfortunately this is where worlds collide and the bell is beginning to toll. Not for the viewers of today, but of the movie critics of yesterday. Critics like Ebert Roper of the Chicago Sun Times, David Edwards of Mirror.co.uk, Peter Bradshaw of Guardian, and Robert Dougherty of Associated Content. They were once heralds of the arts, grading movies with verbose reviews and strong opinions that captured the attention of their readers. But now they squabble and complain at the offerings of Hollywood like bickering old men. And that doesn’t mean they have to be aged into their fifties, but rather the mentality of their craft has transformed them and placed them outside the usefulness of today’s moviegoing class. They have shown us they are relics of the past by comparing our new generation of action films to their beloved classics.

With each thumbs down and one-star rating they vengefully toss forth, these popular movie critcs threaten the market and future of the genre we know and love. They have no business reviewing movies they do not understand and lack the intelligence and open mindedness to accept such films into the fray. This frame of mind is dangerous and impedes any sort of progress for the future of such films. True enough the critics of yesterday live to enjoy the classics, movies they claim have beautiful insight in to humanity and where a Patsy Cline score can be heard playing in the background. And that’s all well and good for that is their schoolyard playground where they can rule as king of the sandbox. But they fail terribly when they try to grasp the spectacular, or try and understand the love someone holds in their heart just to see their favorite giant robots walk across the screen for the first time. The movie critics will scream and yell, casting down upon the directors and producers of this abomination to Hollywood’s credit.

Yet the very movie they sneer at breaks records and outsells their ‘Casablanca classics’ drawing in millions upon millions of fans. This only serves to enrage the critic and fuel their hateful approach to the review, in many cases going so far as to mock the fans of such a genre. Well enough is enough. Movies like Transformers and Superhero types MUST succeed if they are ever to reach the levels of directing and plot brilliance these critics hold in such high regard. We have only begun to tinker with the tools that allow us to reshape a Camaro into a bipedal humanoid in a split second of screentime. But the movie critics of yesterday do not care about that, they do not care about new genres of movies and the child and his father that so desperately want to see their favorite robots battle it out regardless of how well the lighting was chosen.

The bell has tolled. New blood is needed and a new generation of movie critic must take the place of the aging, bitter ones that cling so desperately to their past films. And if these movie critics of yesterday cannot accept that, they must be replaced by ones who can. You cannot compare movies like Transformers to anything else for they are a new generation of films where the amazing action and intricate plots do not necessarily need to take place on the big screen….they take place in the heart of the fans who enjoy them.

I for one, as a real person, and a Transfan, thought the movie was phenominal, gripes included. Racial Sterotypes? So what. I bet nobody noticed the racial stereotypes in "Cars" because it's an effing Disney movie. The lowrider has a latino accent. Flo, who was voiced by an african american woman, had a large trunk, Fillmore was a stoner VW van, Mater was a hillbilly truck with buck teeth. All racial stereotypes. I say BLASPHEMY to those douche baggy movie reviewers that don't know what a real movie is. Benjamin Button, please. Milk, eff that! Bring on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the People's Choice Awards! For the movies that people actually watch and love, by the people that actually love "good" movies.

I won't say revenge of the fallen is perfect. But your reviews are being harsh. Its a long ride but It has some of the greatest robot battles ever put to film.

I understand why the lowbrow humor is here. In passing though that stuff is just white noise. And a Childish RIOT if your theater is packed with Yahoos. Its simply cute jokes and I honestly wouldn't be annoyed as much by these bits in private (on DVD/Blueray) Where a laugh track does not accompany it.

I think this movie is going to do well because it resonates with a grand amount of people. Some people are board by constant action+ narrative. They need simple and crude jokes between the rush. And others Just are here for insanity a popcorn action movie can buy. It was a much better translation of the original transformers show+ comics 25 years later and the homages were gigantic nods the original Transformers Series with the Matrix, The Solar Needle, and Jetfire changeing Factions.

And honestly I came out of the theater traceing my mind through the two and a half hour journey. Immediatly Recalling the action I came for. Traceing the story together keneticly.They gave you a solid 15 minutes of filler to chew on and make fun of it but its a big movie and there is room for everyone. Not just you film Snobs. And specificly Roger Ebert your review particularly was so contradictory I trust you were watching the wall instead of the screen. Everything is explained. Everything functions like the toy line allows it to. The designs are what Transformers Look like and Frankly I think its as Solid as a Artillery Rail Cannon.

Honestly, what more could critics expect from this film? It is a summer action film, not something that is supposed to be complicated or to make you think. Most people go to summer action films to see fights and explosions and to generally be entertained. While it is true that a great story and plenty of action can take place in the same movie, if a summer action flick keeps people in the seats and has most people leaving and saying "Man, wasn't it cool when...", then the movie has done its job. From what I've heard critics saying (I don't usually read reviews), they do make many valid points. However, it ultimately boils down to the critics thinking "Fire Emblem", when the game being played is "Street Fighter" (just the first analogy that sprung to mind).