June 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 am - by Fallback



The sequel to the Transformers movie hits theaters later this week. The big question is whether it will deliver in a big way and live up to the hype and anticipation. This sequel really does everything better than the first movie. The fact that the main the characters did not have to be introduced in this sequel seemed to play a big part and the movie pretty much hits the ground running with action from the very beginning.



The action

The good news is that Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen has many more robot "battles" than the first movie. The fights are bigger and better. The scenes are slowed down compared to the first movie so it does not look like chunks of scrap metal rolling around. Michael Bay pretty much took the best robot fight scenes from the first movie and did it at least 5 times during the the course of the movie. The fights seem more in line with the slugfests you may remember from the old cartoon. You know, Autobots and Decepticons punching each other out and jumping in the air and blasting each other. Optimus Prime emerges as the biggest badass of this new movie which is a slight departure from the first movie where he seemed much more hesitant to kill, or even fight the Decepticons.


Old to The New

The relationship between Megatron and Starscream that you may remember form the old cartoons is very present in the new movie and is a huge nod to old fans. The sometimes cowardly and always sneaky starscream is present and Megatron is right there kicking his ass to remind him who is boss just like in the old cartoons.


The cars are not all General Motors vehicles this time. There is an Audi among other cars makes.


The pink motorcyle you may remember form the old cartoons is also in the movie. The Constructacons and devastator make a huge appearance and is really well done. Though devastator is not depicted as a standing and walking "robot" those scenes are still done very well. The movie gets into the whole deal regarding the importance of "energon" and goes deeper into the history and origin of the Transformers. Energon cubes were very important in the old cartoons and it was nice to see that in this movie.





Racism In Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen

For the most part the writing and dialog in the movie is good but instead of toning down the stereotypical depiction of ethic sounding robots for some reason this new movie is even more offensive than the hip-hop, jive talking Autobot Jazz from the first movie. Transformers 2 features twin Autobot robots "Skids" and "Mudflap." If you were even slightly offended by Jazz in the first movie you will throw up just a little in your mouth when these two are introduced in the movie. One of the two has what is supposed to look like a gold tooth and their lines are extremely exaggerated ghetto vernacular. They say things like "I should bust a cap in his ass!"

The low point for me of this whole movie is a when Sam finds some ancient Cybertronian symbols and asks "Skids" and "Mudflap" if they can read the symbols. One of the twin robots responds with something to the effect of "I dont know...You know I dont be reading." The fact that they would depict these robots in particular as the ignorant robots is the old Hollywood racist bullshit. I do not think it was necessary at all to give the "alien robots" any particular ethnic characterizations and what was included was done in very poor taste.

Verdict

Despite the racist undertones of a few characters as mentioned Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen delivers. The movie is bigger, better and more badass than the first. The fight scenes are more plentiful and better because they are longer sequences and you can make out what is happening because they are move a bit slower. The Transformers are closer to the old cartoon counterparts in this movie than the first. There are many more Transformers in this movie and the plot overall is better than the first. If you are a fan you must see this movie.