Critical Film Condition

This will be short and sweet since I want to leave the honors to Guddy and just cover the basics. He is the Michael Bay buff. And he will forever hate me because I touched Michael Bay at the “Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen” premiere party in Berlin on June 14th. I said: “Awesome movie”. He said: “Thank you very much”. Michael Bay that is, not Guddy. But I am confident that the two will cross paths at some point in their lives.

In “Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen” Michael Bay once again delivers an epic battle of material. Starscream has assumed command of the Decepticons, returns to earth and hijacks Megatron’s body from the US military. With the resurrection of Megatron looming above their heads and Decepticon reinforcements heading towards Earth, the Autobots are hastily trying to gather forces. But the US government is grossly misjudging the situation and orders the Autobots to leave the planet. In a desperate attempt to prevent the worst, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) must once again join forces with Optimus Prime to save humankind. Mayhem and a gargantuan battle ensue.

I have no idea how Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman managed to deliver “Star Trek”, “The Proposal” and this in 2009, along with Ehren Kruger who among other things wrote “The Ring” (1 and 2) and  “The Brothers Grimm”. I have to say that “Star Trek” is definitely the strongest and most elegant (for lack of a better word) of the three. They were losing steam hitting the home stretch.

The juxtaposition of action and comedy in “Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen” is at times difficult to say the least. Why, oh why, do some robots sound like Gangster Rappers and evil German doctors?

The comedy parts are as overdone as the action. With a whopping 147 minutes, it could have been shorter. Although Michael Bay mentioned that the version shown at the premiere in Berlin wasn’t the final one. I am curious to find out what will be changed.

But it is still an awesome movie. It’s as simple as that. The visuals are breathtaking. Heroes are heroes, complete with slomos and orchestral music (courtesy of Steve Jablonsky). Villains are villains, even hot Pretender robot babes.

Megan Fox look stunning, although almost all of hers shots are inserts.

The visuals are fantastic, as are camera and editing. The locations are exotic, among them Paris, Luxor and Giza in Egypt. And World Heritage Site Petra in Jordan (don’t be fooled, it’s not in Egypt!)

Prepare for a testosterone ruled, glossy world where men are heroes, women are hot and machines battle it out for themselves.

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