Transformers 2

I went to watch Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen this morning. Here's my take on it:

Go for the special effects, stay for your money's worth. In terms of plot, the movie achieved all the charm of my mother's leftover stew--not the good one.

The number of Transformers introduced in this second take of the movie certainly increased, and the majority of the first movie's actors returned. While that's a lovely bit of nostalgia, that's where it starts to end. The ridiculousness of crass humor overtook most of the witty one-liners and the overall plot fell flat. Hard.

The first movie had me in my seat, gripping the arm rests and not daring to blink lest I miss any minute details. The soundtrack acted as a soundtrack--enhancing the scene and standing on its own as something marvelous. The plot was simple, nostalgic, classic. It was simple, to the point and clean. Occam's razor meet Transformers (2007). On top of all that, there was artful beauty in the computer graphic details. I loved it.

The second movie had me tapping my fingers and praying for the end. It was explosion after explosion after shelling after explosion; rewind, replay, repeat. It felt like I was being hit over and over again to the point of becoming desensitized to the overall action scenes. The plot was classic, just one too many. It felt like the scriptwriters went rabid with the success of the first movie and decided to pile on more goodies. Well, too much of a good thing is bad. There was the old wise crone, the resurrection of the bad guy, the sacrifice of the good guy followed by his resurrection, the long-winded ramblings of a revenge obsessed baddie; supernatural alien ancestors and destiny cliches. Oh joy. Character development... hmm, apparently Samuel's mother reacts badly to the empty-nest syndrome and he just wants a normal life. Other than that, it's up for grabs.

On the bright side, I didn't pay as much for the movie as I might have had to.