Autobots, Roll Out!

I went to see Transformers (Revenge of the Fallen) yesterday with my wife, son, and mother at Trinoma.

Summing it all up, I enjoyed it. My wife liked it quite a bit (despite not being a fan of robots), and so did my 63-year-old mother. My three-and-a-half-year-old son... well... he fell asleep about halfway through the movie.

Here's what I liked about the movie...

• Megan Fox (I know this is rather unfair. We all know the main reason why many people... errm, men like her, it's definitely NOT because of her acting. And Wheelie couldn't have made the point any clearer!)
• Shia LaBeouf
• the giant effing robots especially Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Devastator, the "Ancestors", Megatron, Demolisher, Sideswipe (he deserves more screen time), and (I-didn't-expect-liking-him-but-I-did) Jetfire
• the ONLY true comic refief (in my opinion), Wheelie
• Optimus Prime not being the ultra "clean" goody-two-shoes anymore
• the voices of Optimus Prime, Soundwave, Jetfire, Megatron, and the Fallen

My dislikes:

• some of the main robot characters in the first movie were pushed to the sidelines (ending up as sort of extras)
• many robots were needlessly added (including the twins... I loved Wheelie though)
• was it just me or did the movie score also take a back seat?
• how the "Matrix of Leadership" worked (C-H-E-E-S-Y-!)
• the three sisters (motorcycles)
• a few cheesy lines here and there

Anyway, the story... well, it was fine. It was DEFINITELY NOT a five-star two-thumbs-up kind of thing, but it was generally ok. But really, for me it all came crumbling down with the Matrix-of-Leadership bullcrap.

Some notable scenes - in no particular order, I'll list them as they come into mind (contains spoilers, stop reading if you don't want me spoiling the movie for ya):

• transformation/union of Devastator
• Devastator climbing to the top of the pyramid
• chopper flying above Mikaela as she was crying over Sam
• union of Optimus and Jetfire
• Soundwave scenes
• the forest scene
• chopper dropping Optimus at the airbase
• destruction of the aircraft carrier
• Demolishor scenes
• Sideswipe scenes

One more thing I'd like to mention, I like what they did to Jetfire. I can still remember what I thought of him in G1... a pushover. He's now got my respect... too bad he had to go.

My personal rating... four out of five stars (largely due to the awesome effects and nostalgic quality). There's a 50/50 possibility that I'll change my mind on some of these if I would watch the film again.