"You deserve better than this."
First, the good news: the second Transformers movie does not seem anywhere near as confusing or visually overwhelming on second viewing as it did in cinemas last Summer. It does remain clear, however, that the two-year turnaround to get a movie of this scale into cinemas relatively quickly was insufficient to iron out some of its deficiencies. The first half has a laughably over-serious and quite dull tone, particularly when compared to the self-effacing fun of Summer 2009's other big toy-inspired movie, G.I. JOE: The Rise Of COBRA. In the movie's second half, the storylining careers around wildly like a possessed toddler, with an increasingly irritating habit of pausing occasionally to try to explain what on earth is going on and barely succeeding. All of the lead (human) characters have very little to do except to move from one location to the next, and the introduction of Sam's college room-mate provides us with one of the most annoying characters of recent times. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is clearly written for eight-year-old boys, as evidenced by the crass dialogue and humour, leaving very little for everyone else in the audience apart from some astounding (but very inconsistent quality) CGI and some impressive sound design. The casual sexism, homophobia and racism (even the French are on the receiving end for some bizarre reason) demonstrates a lack of responsibility for its young target audience. A major problem is the long running time; it almost feels like whole seasons have changed since you started watching it. Of course the big set-pieces are impressively delivered on a huge scale, and the level of detail achieved together with some complicated 'camera' moves within shots featuring the giant robots and other visual effects are to be applauded. Michael Bay promises a smaller-scale third outing for the franchise (which we will believe when we see it), but that is to completely miss the point of the main weakness of Revenge Of The Fallen: the robots may provide the spectacle, but the humans provide the heart, and that focus is what will be needed to make the third Transformers movie a more satisfying experience.
First, the good news: the second Transformers movie does not seem anywhere near as confusing or visually overwhelming on second viewing as it did in cinemas last Summer. It does remain clear, however, that the two-year turnaround to get a movie of this scale into cinemas relatively quickly was insufficient to iron out some of its deficiencies. The first half has a laughably over-serious and quite dull tone, particularly when compared to the self-effacing fun of Summer 2009's other big toy-inspired movie, G.I. JOE: The Rise Of COBRA. In the movie's second half, the storylining careers around wildly like a possessed toddler, with an increasingly irritating habit of pausing occasionally to try to explain what on earth is going on and barely succeeding. All of the lead (human) characters have very little to do except to move from one location to the next, and the introduction of Sam's college room-mate provides us with one of the most annoying characters of recent times. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is clearly written for eight-year-old boys, as evidenced by the crass dialogue and humour, leaving very little for everyone else in the audience apart from some astounding (but very inconsistent quality) CGI and some impressive sound design. The casual sexism, homophobia and racism (even the French are on the receiving end for some bizarre reason) demonstrates a lack of responsibility for its young target audience. A major problem is the long running time; it almost feels like whole seasons have changed since you started watching it. Of course the big set-pieces are impressively delivered on a huge scale, and the level of detail achieved together with some complicated 'camera' moves within shots featuring the giant robots and other visual effects are to be applauded. Michael Bay promises a smaller-scale third outing for the franchise (which we will believe when we see it), but that is to completely miss the point of the main weakness of Revenge Of The Fallen: the robots may provide the spectacle, but the humans provide the heart, and that focus is what will be needed to make the third Transformers movie a more satisfying experience.
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