Watched the second Transformers movie with Monoceros today. It was action-packed. With teenage romance and morphing, organic robots, it was a case of American Pie meeting Terminator 2.
Here are things I liked and disliked about the movie, and other insights. Spoilers ahoy…
Things I didn’t like
The incessant blabbering of the teenager-hero Sam, especially when he was in a panic (which is often in the movie). Perhaps it’s a cultural thing.
The organic form of the Transformers, which is a far cry from the cartoon version. Optimus Prime is the only one who looks remotely like his original self. Bumblebee isn’t even a Beetle anymore, but he was cleverly parked next to one. True-blue Transformers fans will get the message.
Megatron wasn’t a gun but a plane. On hindsight, it would have been hard to turn such a big machine into a small gun. Somehow they could get away with it in the cartoon, but not with CGI. Soundwave, one of the more intelligent Decepticons, is reduced to a skittering spider-like robot spy. Actually, I thought it was meant to be Soundwave, as he transforms into a hi-fi system. However, the official website indicates it is actually Frenzy, who is one of the cassette tapes in the cartoon version. It would’ve been cooler to see Ravage, Frenzy and Laserbeak fly out of Soundwave’s chest while transforming.
Like in many cops and robbers movies, the cops think the good guys are bad, and lock them up for a while. Same goes for poor Bumblebee who gets the same icy treatment as Megatron. These scenes are unbearable for me. I can just about tolerate it when the same happens to the X-Men.
Jazz died. He’s a cool Autobot and he’s named after my favourite music. But perhaps it’s more realistic – anyway one Autobot death is nothing considering they killed Megatron and a few other minions. A good ratio.
There were too many human characters so their personalities weren’t developed much, save for Sam and Mikaela. And perhaps the army Captain.
The “Kids save the world” plot prevalent in other movies as well. In the Pentagon, everyone’s unable to crack the code and beat the virus, but a tubby youngster is able to do it in a couple of minutes.
Things I liked
Prime won. The humans had to help him a bit, though. But that’s to be expected, as Megatron usually has the upper hand, being more ruthless.
Megatron dies in a way that I didn’t expect, which I thought was clever. Two birds killed with one stone, er, cube.
Of course, the movie cleverly winds itself up in a way that Megatron CAN return. And Starscream escapes. There’s no indication of his insubordination in this movie, but you never know. The Autobots are now stationed on earth, meaning they expect the Decepticons to return. Maybe they can build Teletran One and then we’ll see some really cool architecture.
Many other Autobots and Decepticons were left out of this movie, which will make the fans hungry to see MORE. Monoceros wants to see the Dinobots in the next movie. I concur. Besides, the Decepticons already brought in one of their Destructicons. Maybe we should hope for a visit to Cybertron!
Funny scenes in the movie humanised the Autobots. A classic scene was how they tried to hide around Sam’s house and on another building. Another was when Bumblebee, with vocal chords damaged, communicated to Sam via phrases from cheesy love songs. And how the Autobots learned English via the “World Wide Web”, and found out about Sam via Ebay.
Mikaela (Sam’s love interest) rocked. She’s pretty but can repair cars. And she teams up with an injured Bumblebee to blast Megatron dead. She’s brave throughout the movie and doesn’t gibber so much. That’s a real heroine.
No actual sex scenes in the movie. That would be a rude shock to an adaptation of a cartoon series meant for kids.
All in all, it was very entertaining though I don’t feel the need to watch it again and again. I’d watch the original movie many times over, and it is probably still more moving than this one, despite being a cartoon.
My rating for this second movie: 6/10.
Comments
Thought the movie had been put through a shredder and the parts reattached. The fight scene at the end was very confusing.
I just caught it last night at plaza sing with a friend. we discussed about why would bumble bee not become the new VW Beetle.. If you think about it seriously… somehow politically it just cannot happen.
1. Volkswagen tied up with Universal (http://media.vw.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=9513)
2. Its not as cool as a Camaro
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGL0nrse8Vo)
3. Its abit …
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/fashion/12cars.html)
It still made sense if it was the new beetle.. but too bad, its just not meant to be…
Transformers rawks man!! What can I say…heard there are more to come yeah?
i’m a true blue transformer fan no matter what. i can’t help it, i was biased at the start of the show, and i still am. (watched it twice too)
a few references to the series and all important cartoon movie, i liked the alien/organic designs. makes it more believable that they are from an alien planet, and also that they played on the importance of getting a human disguise, as opposed to clunking around in the cartoon.
i didn’t care much for the human characters, it was all about the autobots and decepticons. Megatron retained his cybertronian transformation, because he’s badass enough to not want to hide (plus he was frozen in ice, i’d be pissed off.) the laser canon he fired at prime was probably a homage to the fusion canon he used to pack. homage to the energo sword (grimlock’s weapon of choice) and megatron’s mace (the purple energy thing he swung at prime atop a dam in one episode. hence the hoover dam is another reference.)
Prime is an absolute badass, he’s all for protecting the human species (are we that innocent and deserve to live?), but he does it anyway.. and yet he’s brutal in the way he swiftly yet savagely decapitates bonecrusher. my favourite scene!
michael bay’s the jack neo of america, he pushes the right buttons of the masses, and it was evident in this movie with his pop culture references and not too complicated storyline (in fact, when prime explains the story to Sam, that was the synopsis right there!) – so less story equals more action, whcih is fine by me for a movie like transformers. plus they got peter cullen, the original prime to voice him. it was great hearing that voice again. -))
I guess I’m not a fan. Went to watch the movie ‘cos I had a free ticket. Was about 1.5 hours into the show then had to get up and pee. And then I decided I was hungry and didn’t go back in to finish the movie. Plus I did feel a bit out of place surrounded by all the kids. I felt rather old. Heck, I am old compared to them! heh.
woah..brudder Ivan..I had to pee after an hour and a half man too man..but endured big time crossing my legs here and there..love the show…loved the erm..main cast.. 🙂
Almost flooded the urnial after the movie man…keke…
Did nobody find it disturbing that Shia & Megan Fox were making out on top of Bumblebee…with the other autobots watching at the end of the movie??
They were only making out. If they went all the way, they may need to give Bumblebee a car wash!
I liked the earlier comment from one of the Autobots on detecting hormones…