Destroy All Podcasts ST Episode 21 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Saw the movie, nice premise, but once again Michael Bay's style has to dominate the movie...cliche love scenes, absurd plot twists, ridiculous amounts of explosions ( where not one main character gets maimed or hurt...), and enough slow motion montages...to make a 3 hour movie that could have been 90 min...I hate when a director becomes such a self absorbed tool that they ruin and overlay a movie that could have been good.

Dude. It was a dumb movie, but it was entertaining as all get out.

Was it a good movie? No, but neither was the original. Fun as hell though.

And for the record I will miss hearing Andrew in the regular podcast. I am here for the mech stuff anyhow. More mechy goodness, less Mamoru Oshii and "suprise nookie" jokes!

I enjoyed the original as a forgivable, mindless summer film, this on the other hand was absolutely INTOLERABLE. It's actually amazing to hear Andrew get this angry, though ending on having to talk about this movie is pretty painful.

Haven't seen it yet so why comment... He'll do a 3rd movie to make up for this one hopefully it will be worth watching (Did enjoy the first though) and then in another few yrs after that maybe someone will pick it up and make a better Transformers Movie? Kind of like how they redid the Hulk movie because the first one sucked so bad. Star Trek got an uplift and that's the best movie so far this Summer, even if I wasn't a fan I'd still think it was good. Will listen to your podcast after...

Hahahah.

Andrew,

This is the MOST entertaining CDX Podcast EVER! No Joke.

I don't care about the movie that much, but you made me want to see how bad it is. I am going to slow down and look at the car crash on the proverbial highway.

You found your voice man. Hold onto the rage....or drugs or whatever. ;-)

You on pain meds = AMAZING.

You are like the Steve Albini of robots.

-Josh

The overreaction for this movie is just beyond dumb at this point. I can understand people having a problem with this movie mainly with "the twins", which is completely understandable. They didn't bother me but again understandable why they shouldn't have been in it the first place.
But seriously the angry rant wasn't even necessary.
People say there wasn't a plot when it was. Here's the breakdown:
There are still scraps of the AllSpark left from the previous movie, and they're causing problems for Sam Witwicky and the Autobots - who realize the Decepticons are coming back for revenge as well as to hopefully take over the planet, so they need to use the help of old friends, new friends, and new enemies to figure out what to do to stop them. What's so difficult to understand about this?

To me the movie was good but i can understand someone coming out of it with a "meh" opinion of it.

Based on how well the first film was received by most, and those that did not like it (myself included) were labeled haters and shunned, I am surprised at the criticism of this one so far. I saw it last night with a friend and actually enjoyed it... I'll see it again, whereas I refuse to watch the first one, and my friends know not to even ask me if I want to watch it with them. There's still loads of god awful writing and Bay-isms, wherein Bay clearly has the sense of humor of a nine year old. The twins were stupid, but bothered me much less than I expected, altho the entire Ice Cream truck bit could have been removed without loss. I'm most upset over Devy's nuts, which were completely uncalled for, and then way too overplayed, as if they were something clever and worth the shocking amount of screentime and effort they received. Devy doesn't even have a component vehicle with a wrecking ball on it, let alone 2.

The action seemed cleaner than the first, as I could actually tell what was going on in most of it... the slo-mo is still disgraceful, but if you went in expecting nothing, removing any 'Transformers' expectations and just ignored most of the dialogue, it was a decent action romp. Still not good, but at least better.

Glad to hear of another film I need not have to see this year!

Funny when masturbation and urinating jokes weren't enough in the first film, we now need dog humping in the sequel. Whoever said nothing is improved in sequels deserves a medal!

Why can't they make the stupid dumb action film that would get by with a PG rating these days? Seems like most of these films have to be targeted to the late teens/young adult crowds these days, and much with the other film, they want to have all the acorns in one basket or they'll lose the interest of at least one person in the theater they're trying to lure into this film. Ebert's review is pretty conclusive, especially the bit with closing your eyes while letting your kid go around the kitchen banging pots and pans! I'd probably get more entertainment out of that anyday!

Wifey and I went to see this today. We both enjoyed it a whole bunch. It was, above all, entertaining.

Now, I agree that the dog humping, Jetfire farting, Skids and Mudflap, and 75% of the "banter" could've been cut and the movie would not have suffered in the least. However, those things did not ruin the movie by any stretch.

Also, as active duty USAF, any movie that portrays the Armed Forces in such a heroic, positive light (like Michael Bay consistently does) can have a whole slew of filler moments forgiven.

Optimus Prime rolling out the back of a C-17 to smash a Decepticon? I got goose bumps on that one.

======Darth Cirrocu======
"Arashi no nakade kagayaite."
"Coelum ad Proelium Elige"

"You and your wife gave it your blessings from the moment you've forked over your buck$ to see this B-flick and came home happy, so flick's B.O. success was justified."

I thought the true sign of approval for a movie was to see it AGAIN... aren't repeat viewers the true sign of a successful movie and the key to making a hooozillion dollars? With the divisiveness of this film, even greater than the last one, it'll be interesting to see how viewership holds up after the initial week or two of hyped up views regardless of reviews and such. The film might collapse after all the people who were going to see it regardless of critics see it and then potential realize for themselves that it is just about the worst written movie ever made, and won't see it a second or third profit-driving time.

You want to know why Transformers is so huge? Look at what else is on the marquee. ...nothing, really. Of course people are going to go see Transformers; what else are they going to see? Pelham 123?

*****

"Oh, it's just a dumb summer action movie!" "Hey, it's just mindless entertainment." "I just turn my brain off and enjoy it." Anyone who talks like this is a GODDAMN RETARD. People who take this attitude are exactly why modern movies are so stupid. Why should we have to "turn off our brains" to enjoy something? Why shouldn't we expect better from our movies?

We live in a time when a kid in his parents' basement can produce SFX that are as interesting as anything the major movie studios can come up with. We've moved past the "ZOMG STUFF IS MOVING ON THE SCREEN", CGI-wowsers period. Film-makers need to step up their game and stop pretending that audiences just want to sit down and watch an SFX reel.

*****

I think that what's most frustrating, though, is that the Bayformers version of the property is now the canonical version, by dint of sheer effort. I mean, nearly three-quarters of a BILLION dollars has been spent on this, when you consider advertising, two movies, video games, toys, merchandise, all of that crap. Everyone in the world now thinks of Bayformers when they think of "Transformers".

And that includes all of it. Black stereotypes as comedy characters. Robots that look like random piles of crap from a junkyard. Optimus Prime as a combination of Jack Bauer and Jesus Christ. A robot that dresses up like a girl and tries to make the main character kiss it. 150-minute movies about transforming robots that have less than 45 minutes of actual robot. This is what "Transformers" means, now.

It's frustrating because this movie is clearly not being made for the Trans-fans. It's like "thanks for keeping this property alive for the last twenty years so that we can exploit it now, but we're going to ignore your opinions because you're all a bunch of nerds, lol nerds go back your nerdery you nerds, PS NERRRRDS!"

******

I also agree with Andrew and others: There is no reason that this needed to be a PG-13 movie full of swearing and sex jokes. This is the kind of movie that dads should be able to take their kids to go see, to say "hey look, this is the stuff I watched when I was a kid, now we can watch it together". The biggest group I saw going to see "Star Trek" was dads with their sons. "Transformers" should have been made for that audience. Instead, we got "Borat" with occasional robots. We got "robots? Whatever. Let's stare at Megan Fox's ass some more."

RobotBastard, you are my new favorite poster... everything above is 100% spot on. There is no reason fun summer films should expect the audience to act like mewling drooling zombies in order to enjoy the movie. The best fun movies either strike a good balance of action and plot so as to keep the movie interesting and the audience awake, or if anything, drift vaguely towards the realm of a properly written film, and not just an action flick (Iron Man).

And it is extremely frustrating to be a big man-child who grew up enjoying the original transformers, only to have everything you LIKED about them pushed aside in light of some new nonsense that everyone else knows about. Defenders of the movie franchise argue that a franchise needs to grow in order to thrive, but is it really the same franchise when that growth overwrites everything that made the franchise good in the first place?

A group of us saw it saturday night. I have no particular attachment to Transformers, although the toys are pretty cool. I never watched the show (or shows) and thought the first film was rather meh.

Bay is a pretty limited filmaker with a small toolkit of tricks he often overuses. This film was no different. He stuffs the first half with all manner of story hooks (that go nowhere), and draws the last half out far too long, only to wrap things up in a manner of minutes. In bay-ism terms the flick is all foreplay and moneyshots, with no sex to make it worth the while.

Sitting through the first half I was rather shocked that a mom and 7 year old son sat in the row infront of me. But once Optimus died, the kid turned to his mother asking "Why doesn't Sam use his part of the Allspark to bring Optimus back?". Now if a 7 year old noticed that; I figured he was smart enough to be immune to the rest.

Of course the film is filled with all sorts of these plot/logic holes. And Bay uses all his best manipulative tricks to try to make you ignore them. But they nag at you (or many of you) and by the time the film starts dragging its way to the end. Sam tells Magan Fox that they still have one more mile to go. And the couple sitting to my left had enough, and several more followed them from the theater.

Ever the glutton for punishment, I stuck it out. And witnessed what might be the biggest WTF! moment in film history...Methinks Michael Bay needs drug tested for haveing us witness Sam go to autobot heaven.

While its no Manos the Hand of Fate. And it is put together in that slick Michael Bay sort of way. Its just not what I'd call "meh" either ... "meh minus minus" maybe.

Course it was a hot summer day when we saw the film. And God reminded me never to spend money on a Bay movie again by dumping about 4 inches of rain into the open sunroof on my car. Was one of those freak flash thunderstorms that started the moment we opend the theater doors to leave. God saw me there, guilty as charged :P

Everyone sounds so pleased with this suck bag of a movie. Prime dies again, did Hot Rod get in the way? A 7yrs asks why not use the allspark you say. Here's a question: The Cube is weak and powerful as well, meaning why couldn't this thing rebuild itself from a left over shard after it was used to kill Megatron. After all Bumblebee shrunk it down from the size of a 5 story building into something he could hold in his hand. Meaning its capable of some sort of replication and for it to be destroyed to kill one robot that's another story. Riddle me this Micheal Bay...

No offense to anyone here, but there is just something i'd like to point out.

What did people said about the first movie? Too much character development, not enough action, not enough robot, too many sunsets.

Now, what are people complaining about? not enough character development, too many robots, hard to follow action...

Granted, some of the so called jokes could easily have been cut out. But the director seems to listen to what fans said about the first one and tried to correct it in the second. Beside, you can't expect a gazillion bots and a lot of fleshing out.

"Awww man, that's one ugly zord..." Tommy about BA Drivemax Megazord.

Yo, an for an editor your a hostel little pr!ck. I thought you we're supposed to be bigger than that and set an example for this site like Sanjeev said watch the bad language. Ya, **** what it's still not swearing! You just tore Rodimus78 apart.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE EDITED BY ADMIN ----

Watch yourself Lizardspock. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

End.

Atom

Man what are you guys even arguing about anymore?

I don't understand why everybody has to turn into a colossal prick over this movie. I only read like half the comments in this thread,and most of them were two posters calling people things like 2 faced and "goddamn retards" because they liked a cartoon-based movie that was too cartoonish.

I think most people who know me would say I'm as old school as it gets,and I'm definately a crotchety old TRUKK NOT MUNKY Geewunner when it comes to transformers,but what was so bad about this movie? It wasn't an all time classic,but it wasn't terrible either. People just like bashing Bay.

Sanjeev,this movie definately had tons of G1 nods. Energon is ill defined and you can make it from anything,a Prime is one with the Matrix upon death,the Decepticons took over all the world's TV stations to broadcast a threat,etc.
Hell,the fact that the movie revolves around The Fallen proves they did their research,he's not exactly a well known character.

OK,you guys can start launching juvenile insults at me now.

Dreamwave stuff is G1,right? I mean,I know they had AEC comics too,but the War Within stuff is G1,as far as I've ever known.

I'm honestly miffed by some people saying ROTF is full of G1 nods and the kinds of story lines that are straight out of the 80s. The Fallen is a nonsense character no-one liked from a terrible comic made by Dreamwave, a company that ran itself into the ground through disgraceful business practices. No one humped anyone or anything else in G1, and Prime never took anyone's face in the cartoon. And Megatron would never ever be subservient to another robot... just utter nonsense.

Yeah,G1 Megatron would NEVER be subserviant to another robot! Except for in Transformers the Movie where he becomes Unicron's henchman.

The Fallen is a G1 character. It doesn't matter if you or I like him,and it doesn't matter what Pat Lee's buisness practices are like,(no I'm not defending Lee) he appeared in G1 fiction. One day IDW might go out of business,but Drift would still be a G1 character. Noone likes him,either.

Galvatron was subservient to Unicron, for a time. Megs/Galv played his cards just right to get a new body and troops, and was working from pretty early on to get Unicron removed from the picture. ROTF Megs is a chump who bows down and coddles the Fallen, who does not rule through superior force, the ONLY way Unicron can get Galvatron to obey.

As for the Fallen, I may be unique, but I view anything made after the original G1 cartoon and comics run as only semi-canon, sort of in an "Extended Universe" way, or even as retelling and separate versions of canon therein. Granted, I also prefer the JP G1 canon post-Season 3, so what do I know? While I love them, you won't hear me complain that the Bayformers films don't have Dai Atlas or Dezaras in them, because most people don't even know about them. I think the Fallen is the same way, taken from an obscure comic most people haven't read, that only applies to one version of the extended G1 mythos. If Bay wanted to introduce a secret behind the scenes big-bad, some form of Unicron or even a Quintesson would have appealed to G1 fans much more, and stayed much truer to the 'original' G1 fiction. The Fallen was a stupid character from an obscure comic that most of the minority that read it did not even like.

I thought "G1" was a seperate term for several canons,as it refers to at least one comic (Marvel) and a show that are incompatable.

I think that's where it breaks down, as the term CAN refer to alot of things. I never read the comics as a kid, and going back now, I can't stand most Transformers comics, and chose to ignore them basically on a whole (Altho I DO really like Megatron:Origin). The original cartoon and comics are completely different tho, and the differences only get bigger as more comics are written. The best thing is when a year or two back, Takara released a new 'canon timeline' for the JP versions of everything transformers, wherein they tried to make ALL or just about all of the various works of TF fiction exist in one canon universe, through some seriously convoluted explanations.

...

I'm with Sanjeev; there's no way to have a meaningful conversation about this if you're going to tell us that The Fallen is actually a G1 character. I mean, I know we're getting into The Onion "Green Lantern article" territory, here, but--like I said--the reason that The Transformers is popular is because of the 1980s TV show. The Fallen had NOTHING to do with that show. The Fallen is midichlorians.

Its unfortunate that many people didn't read the prelude comics the explains alot of stuff that was brought up in Revenge of the Fallen specifically the Megatron/Fallen relationship.
Really good read regardless of whether you liked the movie or not.