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BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Reviewers



Thursday, June 25, 2009  

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Reviewers


The Transformers sequel has opened, and it's doing phenomenal business so far. It's been less successful with the critics, and is getting skewered by pretty much everyone. The average score is 38% on Metacritic, with one 100% (from TV Guide?) and one 0% (from Rolling Stone), and most scores in the 50% to 25% range.

Curious to compare, I looked up the first Transformers film on Metacritic, and was frankly shocked by the results. People liked it? Professional film critics? It got 61% overall, with no 4-star scores, but lots of 3/4 reviews.

A more direct comparison of hate: Transformers 1 has about 40 reviews listed, with 2 of them red (below 40%). Transformers 2 has 30 reviews listed, with 14 of them red. That seems to pretty well sum it up. Most critics thought the first one was good or okay. Most critics think this one is bad or awful. Given that I thought the first film was horrible, I think it's pretty unlikely I'd make it through all 2.5 hours of the sequel. Which is convenient, since I've no plans to see it.

I've got to quote some of Ebert's 1-star review of Transformers 2, since it gave me some lulz. He seems to be recovering from his various near-death medical crises -- he's not only rediscovered his ability to give bad movies bad reviews, but he's regained the ability to be bitingly-funny while doing so.
"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. 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.

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.

...

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).
You're better off going to see Up again. That's the only summer movie I've thus far seen, and I'm terribly remiss in not writing about it yet, since it was fantastic. Not sure I'd say it was the best Pixar movie yet (I'd have to go with The Incredibles on that one, though I've seen it several times on DVD, so it's an uneven comparison.) but it was a lot of fun, very clever, very funny, and had a great, inspirational plot.

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Comments:

I can't really fathom the hate that this movie is garnering, other than the fact that reviewers tend to blow of anything that isn't some thoughtful, artsy melodrama anymore.

Transformers is a dumb action flick, and it excells at it. The story isn't anything to write about, but what do you expect from a move based on a series of 30 minute toy commercials?

I went and saw it yesterday, and I enjoyed. I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to see it again in theaters, which is a rare thing for me.


 

I didn't like the first movie, although to be fair, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. For reference, I devoured the cartoons as a kid and still own some of my Transformer toys.

I have no plans to watch the second movie.


 

this kinda rewiews are one of the main reson i love this site... so funny, so sarcastic, so true..

Love it!

Attila


 

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