So, I've finally gotten round to watching ROTF. I know, I know - where have I been?

I never consciously went out of my way "not" to see it, and certainly didn't let fandom moans and groans put me off. However, with two young children (and a third on the way), nights out to the cinema are incredibly rare. In fact, since 2007, my wife and I have managed one a year, and 2009 was all about Star Trek. So, never saw it at the cinema.

I enjoyed the first movie. It was good - not perfect, but good fun. I had hopes for ROTF, despite all the negativity I'd read. My views are below - not split into pros and cons, but I'm sure you'll pick up which is which:

* Firstly, Skids and Mudflap: I'd read a lot about these two (most of it bad). I didn't actually find them that annoying. At least they had SOME personality, unlike most of the movieverse bots and cons. I liked their alt modes as well.

* Wheelie: Again, didn't mind him. Was even amusing at times.

* The plot: Oh dear. Nonsensical. I thought, as a fan since 1984, that even if the general moviegoing public had trouble with this, surely I'd follow it all? Well, I did in as far as I more or less understood where point "A" was, and where point "B" was. But the route the movie took between them... this was a nonsensical mess. Movie 2 was too soon to start introducing mythic elements about "last Primes" and the Matrix - if, indeed, the live action movie series needed them at all (I'm not convinced). But to introduce them - and then devote little more than A COUPLE OF LINES OF DIALOGUE - to explaining them... eeessh.

* Which Transformer is which? I know some people found this a problem with the first movie - but ROTF exacerbates the issue. Especially in fight scenes, it can be hard to distinguish some of the robots from each other. The fact that so many are personality-less (even nameless on screen?) doesn't help.

* Sam and Mikaela: I liked both in the first film. I found both annoying in the second film. In fact, the human element was across the board more dull in this second installment.

* The Fallen. Yawn. His motives weren't all that clear at all, were they - and since when did ANY Megatron in the history of the franchise cowtow and snivel to another Transformer? OK, so Marvel Megs declared his battered allegiance to Shockers, but at least he was plotting revenge all along. There's no indication here that Megatron is anything but lackey to the Fallen.

* Optimus Prime. I'm okay with different takes on our beloved characters. If the Movieverse wants to make Prime more militant and aggressive, fine (though it contradicts parts of the first movie). However, blowing the head off a dying Decepticon (and yes, the "Give me your face" line later) just feels completely un-Optimus. Oh, and his death was the most unemotional and tepid part of any movie I've seen of late - even "Afterdeath" seemed a beautifully crafted send-off in comparison. OK, we all know Prime's not really dead, but the characters within the - ahem- "plot" didn't. Ratchet and Ironhide don't seem to give a stuff that we see, while the other 'Bots are too busy meandering around an aimless plot to notice.

* I liked the idea of NEST, and the humans and Autobots working together. Really, we haven't seen much of this in recent years (though IDW are pushing their G1 franchise in that direction it seems) and it's refreshing from the humans-are-too-stupid-to-tell-the-difference-between-Autobot-and-Decepticon.

* Mind you, I feel sorry for the soldier guys. They had a good role in the first film... this time, yikes, what a letdown.

* Good to see a bit more of Starscream, and a bit more personality this time round.

* Some of the new character designs were pretty nice.

All in all - a huge disappointment, with some redeeming qualities (the main one being it reminded me how much I enjoyed the first movie!). It seems the best thing about ROTF is the toyline and supporting media, rather than the product itself. I really hope TF3 delivers where this one failed

 

Funny you mention Star Trek, same writers Orci and Kurtzman. I feel both films suffered from the Writers Strike. So much that a sense of Did Not Do The Research is a bit annoying for those who know their material.

In ROTF's case You Fail At Geography not only the distances and location but a whole country right smack down the middle of Egypt and Jordan is missing.

 

Nothing wrong with watching movies at home.

You don't have to buy a ticket for each person so you can buy the DVD for less than it costs to take the whole family.

The snacks are way cheaper and you can have whatever you want instead of being limited to popcorn, candy and soda.

You set the thermostat at home so it's not too hot or not cold while you are watching the film.

No people talking, cell phones ringing, really tall person setting in front of you or the other stuff you deal with watching with a crowd.

You can pause the film if someone has to go to the bathroom during a good part.

Heck I live alone and I still watch way more movies by NetFlix than I do at the local theater. I'll go see a film I can't wait on, but if I'm only casually interested in the film I'll just wait. With a HD TV and maybe one of these days a Blu-Ray player it's not a bad set up thanks to my comfy chair.

 

Well said. If only we had gotten writing on a par with some of the ROTF comics from Titan Magazines.

 

HATER!  

 

I disagree.
It wasn't the writer's strike that hurt both films- it was the writers themselves.

 

Is this directed at me? Is one not allowed a different opinion in the Movie Forum?  

 

Jolt looks cool shame he's only on screen for 15 seconds

 

I agree with most of the points MM made here. I thought that they tried to shoehorn WAY too much into ROTF, at the expense of characters and some of the details (mostly geographical.) I'll gripe about the geography real quick: ROTF wasn't the only movie to do this, lots of movies do it. But I'm finding myself more and more aggravated by familiar locations in movies standing in for unfamiliar locations. Case in point: Petra. When I saw it in ROTF, I said "hey, the Holy Grail's in there!" Same with the "Egyptian town, right near the pyramids." Folks, I don't care what you say, that's the same town in Qatar that was blown up in the first movie. They even used a bunch of the same footage (the UAV flying over the mountains, etc.) Just lazy writing, there. Same with the Smithsonian which magically has a door to Tucson. I think that they're two well-enough-known places that a lot of people noticed the mistake. Would it be too hard to put Jetfire in the boneyard? Seriously?

Okay, I'm done. Nothing said here that hasn't been said before. But they really could easily have split TF3 into two movies. Movie 1: Resurrecting Megatron, introducing the Fallen, hunting Decepticons, introducing the concept of the Seekers and the Primes, Megs wanting Sam's brain, basically right up to Optimus's death. Movie 2: The Fallen comes to Earth, they find Jetfire to figure out what the Fallen wants, Earth is scared of the TF's, the military cuts them off and tells them to GTFO, and then we have the rest of ROTF. Now, you've taken a 2-hour movie, and doubled the amount of time to develop your characters, and have two plots which don't need to be intertwined so confusingly.

Am I the only person who thought that ROTF set up a sequel perfectly? "TF3: The search for the Seekers." SOOO easy to do.

 

i lvoed the film

 

My biggest complaint was that it stretched the boundaries of good taste in terms of a movie made to market toys to kids. You see threads on here all the time where someone will complain that Hasbro doesn't listen to the fans, and then someone comes in and (accurately) points out that Hasbro makes toys for kids. If the toys are meant for kids (and the packages still say "Age 5+"), then the films based on the franchise should be kid-friendly, if not kid-focused.

And don't even give me the "It was PG-13!" garbage. That's crap. There are a lot of PG-13 movies that I am comfortable letting my kids see. Revenge of the Fallen is not one of them.

 

Aw man, I was hoping for this guy to like the movie on first viewing  

but there are a few things I do agree with.

but...

see, I've never had this problem. Probably because I look at the toys before I watch the movies.

 

The most annoying thing in the film is Leo! Why did they bring that slagger in at all? He's like the live action version of Armada Carlos? I could live with almost everything else but he just bugged the crap out of me. Most annoying character in any film, EVER!!!

The Twins faces was the only thing that bugged me about them otherwise they at least had characters.

 

Most of the movie I felt could've been shortened dramatically or cut in favor of reducing the movies time. That's what I felt was the worst part of ROTF was...the insane running time of it. Off the top of my head, the desert trek for the matrix, Sam and Mikaela running from 'Cons, and the college part could've been shortened, the running part taken out by just putting them in 'Bee and running them to the battle, and Jetfire 'porting the crew closer to the temple.

I just felt that ultimately the film was already pretty...."eh," but it turned bad when I felt like it was bogged down by needless filler. I had to go to the restroom for about 10 minutes when I was in the theater, and when I came back, asking my friend what I missed, and when he said "nothing, really" I knew that it was just too much. Not to mention towards the last half our or so mark I was wishing that the film would end already.

I have many other gripes...but none that aren't already been voiced now and in the past. My hope for TF3 is that PLEASE let it be shorter than the second film.

 

I actually really enjoyed the film, and I went to see the film 3 times in one week. (I got bored, and plus with all the epic fight scenes going on it took me 3 watches to figure out what was going on)

Alright it did have it's flaws. The plot was a little confusing at times, some of the characters did annoy me (not metioning any names) and I agree, the film could have been a bit shorter. It did feel like 2 1/2 hours.

But otherwise I really enjoyed it. Especially the fight scenes, I think my favourite part of the movie was the "Forest Fight" It definitely hasn't put me of seeing the 3rd one, from what I've seen from the filming of the 3rd one, it's gonna be awesome!

 

Ha ha, trust me if you have to ask you don't know the movie forms all that well. I'm pretty sure I'm on the list of top 25 most hated people in Transformers for having an opinion so you'll have to work hard to top me.

Just say something like you think the Twins might have crossed some boundaries that were too close to racial parodies and people will start accusing of being racist.

 

I liked him, and the Leo/Simmons slash 

 

See this is where society fails. PG-13 means Parental Guidance... I don't understand how people can be okay with the violence (letting their kids see random acts of violence and murder) but get annoyed by crass humor. The Dark Knight has TONS of savage violence, a bunch of murders, throat slitting, pencils to the eyeball etc, but ROTF gets bashed for toilet humor that was present in Ren and Stimpy 10 years ago. Not saying this is you, but then I see these same people letting their kids watch Family Guy, Futurama the Simpsons, Robot Chicken etc...

That's not crap, it's subject matter you don't agree with. They put the rating there for a reason. By your reasoning the Dark Knight, GI Joe, The ATeam, Iron Man, Spiderman etc etc are all in this same boat... you can't tell me these franchises aren't marketed to sell toys and related media to kids.

PG13 means see it before you bring your kids to see it, and judge whether you want them to ingest this.

 

A winner is you 

 

Shorter? The only real issue with Transformers2 is that the pacing got wrong because they cut 20-30minutes of footage that was obviously planned to be there and they probably shot even because if you read the official novel you would know that there are many missing scenes and the editing was brutal on Transformers2 and anyone could notice. That is the movie major flaw.

Telling that you got to the restroom for 10minutes and you would have lost nothing it's kinda silly. Michael Bay movies are pretty damn fast and filled with so many details.. even if the pacing on Transformers2 is a bit off due to missing scenes it's still too fast and features/details packed to just be able to lose 10minutes and miss nothing...

The movie plot is pretty easy to follow, all you here and people in other forums complaining about the plot... It surely is better than Avatar anyway, that is an awful little kids pathetic plot but not this. Yes, Transformers2 got some little flaws but nothing major compared to something like Avatar just for example.