Love Jeffrey Wells, he always cracks us up. He says of “Transformers 2: The Revenge Of The Fallen,” essentially: “the mentality is aimed at mall monkeys.”Amen. Reviews are in, and the pluses are surely negative to some and vice versa. What does seem apparent, is that it’s far too long for everyone and that fanboys will love it, it should haul in a ton of dough, but it’s probably just more mindless spectacle.
Variety’s review suggests the same and basically says, if you love it loud, overkill-ish and cranked up to 11, you’re going to love the film, but check your brain at the door. “With machines that are impressively more lifelike, and characters that are more and more like machines, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” takes the franchise to a vastly superior level of artificial intelligence. As for human intelligence, it’s primarily at the service of an enhanced arsenal of special effects, which helmer Michael Bay deploys like a general launching his very own shock-and-awe campaign on the senses. Otherwise, little seems new compared to the first installment, except that this version is longer, louder, and perhaps ‘more than your eye can meet’ in one sitting. It will reap similar B.O. rewards worldwide.”
The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t think much more of it, though do say the pleebs and nerds will connect with it. “With its intelligence at the level of the simple-minded, however, the film is not likely to attract moviegoers who seek something more than a screen filled with kaleidoscopes of colored metal. Fan boys will no doubt love it, but for the uninitiated it’s loud, tedious and, at 147 minutes, way too long.”
Even geeks like IGN aren’t totally down with it, possibly calling it overwrought. “It’s just too bloody big. Epic, spectacular but unfortunately far, far too long; the film proves that when it comes to Michael Bay blockbuster movies, you can have too much of a good thing.”
News of the World gives it a thumbs up, but it doesn’t leave folks like us asking for a tiny bit more much confidence, “It’s bigger. Badder. Boobier. And many other words beginning with B, including boneheadedly brilliant….Rest assured if you enjoyed the original, as I did, you’ll love the hell out of this.”
The Daily Mirror suggest it’s fun, but again, for the arrested man-children. “Star Trek might have had more spaceships and aliens and Terminator: Salvation more grim-faced robots, but this Michael Bay summer blockbuster is pure mindless adventure mayhem that sticks firm and hard to its winning formula. In truth, it is a film for teen boys – and a bloomin’ long one at that – but is also a guaranteed multiplex crowd pleaser. Saying that, for the most part it is also a complex lumbering mess of a movie that is long on turgid backstory and short on tension, laughs and subtle acting.”
Total Films loves it, but that’s to be expected. Honestly, if people in the middle like THR or Variety raved, we’d probably be more curious, but fanboy sites are obviously automatically in the tank. More loud and dumb Michael Bay it seems, but a lot of people love that, so it probably makes a trillion dollars regardless.
