Greetings kids,
I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen the other day. I would write you a review but instead i'm just going to copy and paste this e-mail I sent to Jamie. Maybe I'll do this more. I do like to send long and rambling e-mails to Jamie. Though I have to say he doesn't like it when you send long chains of penis enlargement adds to him.
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Alrite mate,
Just to let you know I couldnt agree with you more about Transformers. For
me there were just far too many characters with far too little time for
anyone but the humans, Optimus and Bumblebee and that's with the over long
running time. They seem to chuck the rest of the Transformers from the
first film and just replace them with those two REALLY annoying twins. They
also fail to build up The Fallen or Megatron in any significant way and
only pay lip service to the actually interesting conflict between Megatron
and Starscream.
I also agree that they basically copy the basic story from the first film.
Annoyingly there were a couple of really interesting potential storylines
which again were just skimmed over. I think they could have made great
films about:
- The Transformers refusal to give the humans access to their technology
measured with the idea that they have brought their war to this world. This
was made an almost comedy subplot with the oh so assured army guys from the
first film and the grumpy director.
- The past generations of Transformers and their role in the evolution of
the human being. Maybe their tech could be responsibly for something
horrific like nuclear weaponry or something like that but also have the
potential to help the Earth's energy crisis.
- The idea of the Decepticon turncoat and the notion of choice in these
robots choosing sides. That was again made comedy with the forgetful old
jet.
If they really wanted I also think they could have made the coming of age /
assuming responsibility or leadership story work but they needed to shift
the focus on others apart from Sam. They cant attach such an importance to
this idea and then just have Optimus come back to life with the magic dust.
They need a parallel story where Bumblebee or someone else takes on
Optimus' role as leader (see Transformers: The Animated Movie for this done
right).
Anyway, that is my take. There was so much potential but it really was
surrounded by some extraneous rubbish.
5 / 10
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Soooo it wasn't great. I'm not sure if it was made worse by the fact that I love Transformers but I genuinely think that the flaws were evident for those who wouldn't know a Unicron from a Soundwave. And before anyone suggests it, you can't over think giant robots who transform into cars beating the hell out of each other.
Peace
Steve
