REVIEW! Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
I'm so proud and excited to announce that I already watched "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" twelve hours ago and I love it!
And I admit I was so in awed with movie that I had to hold on my painfully pee-pee thing to watch it throughout the time!
I was so giddy especially when there's promotion to bring 5 Coke bottle caps to buy 1 then get another 1 free ticket at the newest SFC cinema in our town. We actually got to see this in the second round of premiere day (they premiered at 5.00 pm here in Thailand, we got 5.40 pm).
Though, it's not extremely crowded in this cinema since (1) the movie is in Thai subtitle/English sound (2) the ticket costs more than another local cinema (we paid 120 bahts/ticket while the cheaper is 80-100 bahts) (3) it's not weekend but when we finished watching, we found out that there was also big amount of people who got in later and almost filled out every seat in this big cinema.
Review:
About CGI experience with this Transformers sequel, I must say I'm impressed. The CGI is the next step to the surreal world of fantasy. It's blended perfectly with background and people in movie. Almost like a magic. Almost make us believe it was actually true! I can't really find the fault over this movie's CGI, it's just beyond my impression. The transformation of every single cars is just awesome and fantastic and contains a lot of detail to show off in every scene. The location in Egyptian town (gosh, that's big bomb) and Pyramids scenes are very awesome with each brick was falling down and almost made us think they destroyed that in real life! I also secretly hope for this sequel of Transformers to make it at the next Oscar and won for CGI (after losing it over Golden Compass last time).
Sound & soundtrack: Also, I'm glad I watched this in newest cinema in town. The sound is great, not too loud and smooth unlike old cinema. The soundtrack is good with Linkin Park again (well, I think this band is meant for every movie soundtrack LOL) and the overall is good. The machine whooshing sound (yeah, the one that very weird and unique, it's screaming "I'm Transfomer!".) is really gotten into me. Megatron's voice by Hugo Weaving (who's is also a voice behind V in V For Vendetta and famous from The Matrix & Lord of The Rings), Frank Welker's voice in Soundwave / Devastator and original snarls and growls for Ravage from "Transformers" (1984) also have been reused for this film are just very great collaborations! They may have been nominated to Oscar over sound editing somehow.
Directing, Plot & Screenplay: And honestly, the screenplay is quite good (not that I expect much from sci-fi flicks). It's pretty humorous and funny, especially at the peak of the story. *HUGE SPOILERS warning: if you wanna read just drag your mouse over the black area to see words beneath it* It contains a lot of unexpected stuffs such as ...I never expected new addiction like new friend of Sam from college to steal many scenes with Agent Simmon and makes Thai people laughed over his pathetic actions (in movie, not his acting), bad transformer coming in an-over-tanned-girl-that-looking-a-lot-like-Nickie Hilton thing and seducing our Sam!, a twin transformers that always bickering at each other or Bubble B is actually crying when he knew he wouldn't go with Sam to college or one of leading soldier accidentally dropped the orange smoke sign next to them for signaling planes to bomb, not to mention Sam's parents' weird but funny action and their sudden appearance in later of film. It's very surprisingly hilarious, not just a lame joke director trying to fill in. It's actually turned out surprisingly fine. So I guess Micheal Bay did his job very great for my liking.
Not only that, the movie almost got me in tears in some point. The drama and emotion set even so lightly but pressed in when needed but not that intense. It gave the feeling that Transformers is not just another trashy sci-fi with only selling extreme CGI but the story of love, hate, humanity and roboticnity(?) as well.
Anyway, who cares about the plot that much when it comes to this kind of movie? (Well, it's me who actually cares.)
Acting: Shia LaBeouf (who plays Sam) did his job impressive for me since he had to use a lot of acting to look like he was possessed by something. Megan Fox (Sam's GF, Mikaela), well, I must say she was just being herself (though I admit, even I'm a girl, I was often drowned into those green eyes of hers) which nothing really special but she did good enough in highly emotional scenes. Ramon Rodriguez who played Leo is very great scene stealer and his acting makes this movie more interesting. Another actors & actresses are also doing their jobs very fine. :)
Complaining: The only complain is that there are so much details of transforming actions we missed savoring during the too-fast pacing of movie. I wished they should have adapted the slow-motion thing to show off when the machine is transforming which is the heart of this flick. We supposed to watch the whole transformation for a lil' bit longer to satisfy our nerdy need of CG, shot-by-shot. It's just too fast for our eyesight to catch in completely and sometimes it makes the movie lost its unique appeal.
Oh, and I still have question on why Decepticon & Autobots clans don't use their own language when talking to each other but using English instead? That's another complain. I think it would be very great to hear they talk to each other with their own language like we human would do if our mother language is not English. It would make them more roboticnity.
But overall, I LOVE this film, it's better than the first film and I have the feeling that we'll see Transformers 3 soon!
For once, I don't hesistate for paying to Steven Spielberg's film (& making him more richer) if he kept producing a movie like this!
Nannie's Rating: 9/10
(I suggest you watch the first movie first and no, I'm not overrated, it's far better than X-men Original: Wolverine I watched earlier or else I'm into robot more than mutant :P)
Did you see Transformers 2 yet and what do you think of this movie?