[Locke]

Rewatched Revenge of The Fallen on Bluray.

One of the complaints of Revenge of The Fallen is that it tries to be "too big" but I honestly think it's all the better for it. The hits are harder and the action cleaner, the whole thing just flows better and despite the larger quantity of robots I can actually follow the action this time.

Sadly the effects, while not horrible, are just not up to the scratch set by the first film. Spielberg made sure that in the first film every CG shot was accompanied by practical shots - very little outside of the robot forms of the Transformers were CG - which made it very easy to be convinced by what was on screen and has lead to the film ageing very gracefully. Revenge Of The Fallen on the other hand, not so much...

Given at least fifty more million to play with, it appears Bay has made the majority of the whole movie into CG and made the Transformer's even more complex, if you thought the designs were over complex in the first movie, you ain't seen nothing yet. By the time the Decepticon's arrive, I couldn't tell one apart from another, there are a few stand out designs but most are just a whirlwind of shiny metal scraps which are never laid out in any kind of defined shape cluttering the otherwise decent cinematography. The whole thing seems to melt into an animated feature by the end, my belief long since abandoned.

Characters are much more defined this time around than they were in the first film which has mostly positive results. Sam and Mikaela's relationship almost feels believable this time with how well they play off of each other (who woulda figured?) and although I don't quite like the person Sam grows into in this film seeing how he plays off his parents and Bumblebee continues to be very enjoyable and at places quite poignant. I certainly found myself relating to Sam much easier this time around, which is probably helped by the fact that minus the earlier parts of the film, I never felt smothered by the human characters.

The Transformers themselves remain, sadly, completely forgettable though. Optimus is more badass than ever and Bumblebee even more lovable while also getting his own chance to be a bit of a badass but all new additions, Autobot or Decepticon, are... wait, were there any new additions? I don't remember. Yeah...

Tonally, Revenge of the Fallen is all wrong, too. It gets really dark in places, and really brutal too and I guess I should be happy that the Decepticons feel much more like a genuine threat this time around but I didn't want it like this. It doesn't even really work all that well in context given how silly the whole premise of this thing is and I mean yeah, the comedy in the film is no better either but it sure fits better than what we got here.

Pretty much everything scriptwise is all wrong though, to be fair. I finished this movie...and I couldn't tell you what the hell it was about. It isn't just incoherent, it's convoluted as all hell. It's about fifty fetch quests which all interlink only because the characters cross over in scenes sometimes, every one has some sort of novelty which not only defies all real world logic but also directly contradicts and confuses the previous movie. By the end it literally just felt like scenes were being thrown together in whatever order they wanted and half of them felt like they weren't even from the same movie.

Revenge of The Fallen ends up being the kind of film where the spectacle leaves you finishing the film on a high and it isn't until a few hours later where you've gone away and thought about the film that you realise how awful it is. It takes a pretty massive step in the wrong direction tonally and the effects were disappointing. I will say that there does seem to be, at least at points, a genuine attempt to better the first film but it doesn't work. Just like the whole film.