Like the previous film, the plot of Revenge of the Fallen is very befuddling, but befuddling to the point where it motivates you to explore more, explore Transformers mythos and conspiracies, watch the film more than once, something which surely helps me understand movies a whole lot better. This is what I do with the Star Wars Prequels (for some reason, I just can't stop talking about them), I watch them more than once, analyzing the plot of each film, the plot points, the character development and what the characters do that will have a critical effect on the plot. Of course we all know what happens, Anakin Skywalker turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader and this has a critical effect on the entire plot of the prequels, the republic becoming the sinister Galactic Empire and the Jedi Order crumbling to bits. I also do this with the Transformers films, I watch ever so often and observe the complex plot over and over again until it makes perfect sense to me. Some would say that the plot of each Transformers film is very similar to one another, but I view it as expanding on the previously established content, expanding on all the plot elements and making everything much more layered, much more solid. I also see it as rehashing the same plot in a much darker, grittier way, each film getting progressively contemporary and gruesome as the stakes get higher and each character is at great risk of getting killed off. It's like the Terminator films, each film having a very similar plot, but the Terminator saga gets progressively shadier, moodier, and much more character driven with the addition of each movie, introducing new characters and settings that will contribute to the plot itself. There are characters we can relate to, characters that are put into very risky, defying situations, just like there are in the Transformers films, you just need to look through all the bad stuff to understand each character and how critical they serve in the film's story.
Speaking of the characters, they have not changed much since the last film. Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf is on his way to college, but still likes to score with the ladies and scream like a banshee. Megan Fox, who plays Sam's girlfriend, Mikaela Banes still wears clothing that doesn't get dirty, even with all the fighting and falling debris around her, however, she does know how to put up quite a fight with the baddies, especially the clunky little Decepticon named Wheelie, voiced by Tom Kenny, who tries to a shard of the all powerful allspark, a device with the ability to bring mechanical and electronic objects to life. And as you would guess, I laughed my behind off at Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky, just as I did in the first film, and to be quite honest, they might have actually been funnier in this film than they were in the previous film. Seeing Sam's mother pull out her son's pair of baby booties and weep right before he leaves to college, it surely got everyone in the audience laughing when I went to see this film back in 2008, and I couldn't resist not mentioning the Witwicky's two dogs that are often seen humping one another or running around causing mischief. It's kind of weird in a way, but we all know dogs hump each other for dominance. I also think Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky's response to the Transformer is pure hilarious as well, Sam's mom chanting, "I can not live with a psychotic alien in my garage" when Bumblebee transforms into his robot mode right in front of her. The sarcasm of Sam's dad is also remarkable, for he sometimes doesn't know how to solve certain problems, resulting in him panicking or throwing a fit. Aren't all parents like that? One thing is for sure, Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky really do care about their baby and will do anything to keep him out of trouble or prevent him from running into danger. To be honest, I haven't seen such funnier parents since the parents in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, parents that are always on ends with their children and trying to keep them in line, even when they break away and do the unexpected. But once again, the main attraction in this film is of course, the Transformers. Like the first film, the Transformers take part in a lot of bone grinding action that had my head spinning 360 degrees, and with a lot of new faces to join the crowd, there is a Transformer character for everyone to relate to, to favor, to love and even buy toys of. That's what I enjoy, buying action figures of all my favorite characters, whether it would be Star Wars, Marvel or DC. There is always a character everyone favors because of their unique abilities, appearance, and posture, making them stick out like a stale banana from all the rest.
I wasn't really irritated with the characters of Skids and Mudflap, the Autobots that start off as merging into an ice cream truck but as the film progresses, they take on the look of two different vehicles. They were like Jar Jar Binks in a way, speaking in an annoying tone of voice, saying catchphrases that will make your ears bleed, and doing things that worsen the outcome of a certain situation, but I wasn't really driven up the wall by their performances and even if they were stereotypical like Binks was, it was nothing I was really bothered by, and it did not take away from the entire film experience. All franchises are filled with characters that make people roll their eyes, Snarf from the Thundercats, the Cobra Commander from GI Joe, Orko from Masters of the Universe, Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even good old Grimlock from the original Transformers is sometimes bashed by hard-core purists of the franchise. But I just don't get annoyed by characters like that and to be honest, they kinda remind me of some people I know in real life. Each one of those characters remind me of friends and family members, often looking for attention or spewing out catchy, random catchphrases that will be caught in your head for hours. So Skids and Mudflap I really don't mind that much. Sure they were like roaches in some scenes, even Bumblebee was getting pretty angry over their rambling, but they are nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to comic relief characters in movies and television shows. They also have some pretty eye jumping looks to them, Skids having this bright green decor to him with Mudflap has this dull orange paint job, each having wide eyes and somewhat buck teeth protruding out of their mouths, bringing meaning to the term "Hillbilly Robots", which many critics have come to call the pestering duo over the past years. Like the humans characters, Optimus Prime, as well as all the other Autobots have not really changed that much, although as I mentioned in my review of the first Transformers film, Bumblebee is back to talking through a series of radio static and transmissions. It's not explained how he returned to speaking in this manner, but I guess his voice mechanism was damaged off-screen. Jazz is still six feet under, having been broke in two by Megatron in the previous film, and Megatron and the other Decepticons are hiding out in space with the quite outlandish looking Decepticon king, The Fallen, the stick figure Transformer as I like to call him. The Fallen has the most interesting voice in my opinion, provided by Tony Todd, who is best known for playing the murderous Candyman in the Candyman film series. It's menacing and deceiving all at the same time, and in the final scenes of the film, the Fallen is put up against the newly resurrected Optimus Prime, now fit with new accessories as the two provide some good old Transformers style action, beating the batteries out of one another just before Optimus rips out his spark and crushes it. It was surely one of the highlights of the film and furthermore glorified each character, showing some pretty sweet techniques with silicon computers and CGI. And the human characters are shined upon as well, Sam actually perishing in the Transformers battle, going into sort of a "robot heaven" where the robots allow him to return to live for his wise actions. I don't get it, but it's quite inevitable that all main protagonists in films come back to life by the end of the film, everybody overjoyed over their return and leaving a few wet ones on the protagonists. I have seen it in a lot of film, and this film is no exception.
Now you probably think that after saying all that, I think the film is flawless. Well absolutely not, there are several things in this film that bugged me and things I thought could have been done a whole lot better. Optimus Prime's death in the film is tossed aside like a bag of garbage, not dawned upon like it was in the 1987 cartoon film, and the characters don't seem to be all that upset or devastated over his death. Sure we all know he will come back at the end of the film and kick Decepticon rear end, but it could have been a bit more emotional, it could have left more of an impact on the audience, and it should have had more of a critical impact on all of the characters in the film, including the villains. You see, villains are often overjoyed over the death of their nemesis, and the Decepticons didn't really dawn all that much on Prime's death, only mentioning it briefly and moving on with their evil plans. I also felt that the girl that transforms into a robot assassin at Sam's college was a little rushed and head jilting, for it was somewhat of a fish out of water moment and didn't really fit in with the rest of the film. It was also underwhelming for that fact that Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee escape from this cybernetic drone without ever mentioning anything about it for the rest of the film.Talk about a scene they could have done without. I also found it a bit strange that Sam begins to see the Cybertronic symbols in his head and starts graffiting them all over his college dorm. I think it's a bit odd how he can randomly start marking up his room walls like that, and I often wonder where he got the stuff to do so, maybe he got the supplies from the dollar general right down the road. But even these minor flaws can't shatter why I like this film so much.Like the first film, the action really made this film likable to me, and even if it is made up of a bunch of silicon images that exist only within a computer, it is still adrenaline rushing as all heck, and I would watch this film seven trillion times just to see the fight between the Autobots and the Devastator Decepticon over and over again, it's that exuberant. I like the fact that Devastator is made up of several other Decepticons that come together to form one big behemoth of a robot, kinda like the Megazord, only the Megazord helps defend the Earth from deadly threats, the Devastator is a deadly threat that causes massive chaos and destruction throughout the land.
The dialogue spoken by the actors is also enjoyable in some instants, and I thought some of the words spoken by the Transformers themselves were enough to make me wet my pants. Sometimes, the Transformers were sarcastic, truthful, and very feisty, always willing to take out all evil that stands in their way, evil that wishes to take the Earth into many years of treachery and misery. As I said before, this film is not as good as the first, I will admit that straight out, but it's far from one of the worst movies of all time and deserves a lot more credit than it gets. Michael Bay and his crew tried their very hardest to bring the thrilling adventures of the Transformers to the big screen, and I think any film maker will admit, it's not always an easy process bringing the essence and "zing" of a certain story to the big screen, especially the stories of highly watched television shows and comics.But I think the Transformers films, this one included, hit the nail on the head, and even if they are not as good as the source material, they are still fun in their own right, and I adore them all, even this film, for it is different and defies the odds, taking a few risks but ultimately proving victorious. The tension level was much higher in this film in my opinion, and you seemed to care a lot more about the characters and the interesting plot, feeling like YOU were the character or in a situation similar to the characters of the film. The villains in the film were much more teeth grinding in this film as well, for I was very furious with what Megatron did to Optimus Prime and what he and the other Decepticons wanted to do to terrorize the world and Prime's Autobots. I think everyone's up there with me when I say it's always satisfying to see the villains learn valuable lessons in films, often coming face to face with the protagonists in an epic, mind blowing final brawl. The villain can either join the hero or continue to go against him until he meets his doom, and when he does, we can all go to bed overjoyed that no one will have to feel his or her wrath any longer. The Fallen meets his doom in this film, and it took Optimus Prime a long time to get it right, ending his reign once and for all and restoring paradise throughout the world.
The final thing I will say about this film is that it had a well composed film score, a score that in my opinion, was much more blood pumping and wall vibrating than the score in the first film. Steve Jablonsky is a mastermind at providing new and different music for each Transformers film in the trilogy, which I feel is reminiscent to the score in the 2009 Star Trek film or The Dark Knight, having that sort of thumping, heart pounding rhythm to it. The score during the fight scenes was also well composed, putting you right into the mood for some high quality Transformers beat downs. The score and musical compositions of films really make films what they are in my eyes, the score setting the tone, the balance, and the pace of each scene and allow us to creep into what exactly someone is thinking, what someone is about to do, and what someone wants to prove to themselves. It can also be mind blowing during scenes with big plot twists and climaxes, who can forget John William's epic score during the scene where Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father in The Empire Strikes Back. The scores of movies make films much more worth wild, worth watching over and over again, worth jumping up and dancing over. And the score of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was boggling as I knew it would be, just as the entire film was. It was, in my opinion, better than the GI Joe: Rise of Cobra film released that same year, but far from the first film and the film that would follow, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. That doesn't in any way mean the movie is bad, it is surely a pretty good film in my book of good movies, and like I previously stated, I believe this film will become a cult classic in the years to come, for it surely had a lot of things that stood out, stood out very different from some of the things in the first film, stood out in a different body, a different shade of colors, a different light. And this film was still very successful when it was first released, becoming one of the highest grossing motion pictures of 2009. It also spawned several hilarious parodies and spoofs on Youtube that I still enjoy watching today. They make fun of the film in a way, but in a way that makes you laugh and feel good inside, for humor and comedy is always interesting to observe.
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