The Energon Pub

And its a solid 3 outta 5 movie.

Most of the ciriticisms are valid tbh, little characterisation, plots a little thin for the legth but CGI fights and Fox are all good and thats what bays known for.

TF fans will be split by this movie but itll make enough for TF 3

Is the movie score blended well with the movie?

Totally agreed dude.

SPOILERS!!!;

I think they tried to put too much into the movie - a lot was made of the botcount this time round, but when they include decepticon drones [nice nod to the first movie's DS game there though] and a multitude of constructicons with the same alt mode, it's not as impressive. I was annoyed that Sideways was in the movie for about 10 seconds and there were so many great characters that could have been expenaded upon but were given little screentime and no personality.

I also REALLY disliked the twins - mostly because of the lame racial stereotypes [and I thought Jazz was bad...] and goofy heads - if they were less stupid in the face and less over-the-top I'd have liked them to be honest. I also thought this time round Sam's Mom was overdone - in the first one she's just a mother in an effed up situation reacting in a way I think a lot of mothers would, but in this one she's kinda like a schitzo, alcoholic drug user! I found a lot of the humour really crude, and was a little shocked at the amount of bad language for a 12A [and this coming from a guy who swears like a trooper, for real].

I felt a little underwhelmed by it all really, I would have easily forgone 2 or 3 action scenes for more characterisation with the Autobots.

All in all though, I thought it was a slightly above average movie and I'll watch it again with a few friends. The most important thing is a lot of the toys are awesome!

Some spoilers

I watched the film last night at a midnight showing and I did really enjoy it. The special effects are amazing and I like the music scores. But I wasn't happy about the balance of the film.

First off they showed too many transformers in the movie, the Decepticons for the most part just seemed to be random no-names. The opening where we have an awesome fight scene I have no idea who the hell these two cons were, same with other parts of the film where random Cons showed up then got killed.

It was the same for the Autobots (minus prime a little), they hardly got any real in depth screen time. They were there but they didn't say much, the main stars of the films hardly got any lines. There was awesome fight scene's all the way through the film though, Bay at his best.

As for the main story plot character "The Fallen" the story surrounding him was a bit muddled and rushed. He also wasn't in the least bit scary, at least in the first film you knew Megatron was a bad-ass from the get go when he broke free. The Fallen was a bit meh. The worst part was the fact he was in charge of the Cons and he was meant to be the original Decepticon ?!?! wtf …. AND to top this all off Megatron called him Master and seemed to me to be a subservient wimp hanging on his every command … that is just not Megatron, period ! There is one thing about the Megatron character that has been his number one trait in all the comics, cartoons and movies. Megatron answers to no-one, he doesn’t take crap, he's in charge and you bloody well know he is. He might have played possum on a few occasion in past story arc's but you knew he was only biding his time before he ripped their head off and took back control of the Decpeticons.

My other gripe was the two Autobots Skids and Mudflap. I think those were their names, to be honest they again got no real explanation about their characters, they just dropped in a few funny one liners every now and again. I didn't mind their alt modes but their heads made them look retarded. As for poor old Arcee's, I think they had one line in the who fine … and that was when one of them got their head blown off.

I've moaned a lot in the post but for all of my personnel objections I still really enjoyed the film.

For story line and character development 4/10
For the sheer action packed ride 9/10

The Arcees had TWO whole lines bro! Really wanted to see more of Jolt too - why was he around sometimes and not others!?

Liking the screname too man - do you play? I collect Space Marines and Vampire Counts, but that's whole other message board

simonightmare wrote:The Arcees had TWO whole lines bro! Really wanted to see more of Jolt too - why was he around sometimes and not others!?

Liking the screname too man - do you play? I collect Space Marines and Vampire Counts, but that's whole other message board

Two lines ? I must have missed one then, i'll keep any eye out when I go watch it again at the weekend.

Nah never played the games, me and the missus did try the online Warhammer game but it didnt last long.

At the start in Shanghai [sp?] when there's the roll call they say "Arcee's, ready" or words to that effect. And there's the line "Come with us to Prime" or whatever. Oscar winning performances indeed!

I just got back from watching it twice. Ravage was well portrayed. He looked vicious but was very much like his G1 namesake. The robot he sent into the base was another great design. Shame there was no name attached to it, however, I think Buzzsaw suits it. All the Megatron/Starscream encounters were perfect. The first encounter on the Nemesis when Starscream is trying to weasel out of the blame for what happened in the first movie could have been from the cartoon. The forest scene is mind blowing. Prime puts up one heck of a fight against Megatron, Starscream and ? (Blackout, Grindor, you decide). Megatrons, tank mode flying was completely unexpected. They obviously spent alot of time on Bumblebee. They can give a robot without a face so many expressions. Did anybody else notice that when Optimus Prime dies he goes slightly gray? Megatron's voice was better. Hugo Weaving did a good job in both films but I prefer his performance in this movie. I didn't mind the twins, actually they were quite funny. Soundwave was also well designed an implemented. What else would the Communications officer and chief spy do? I am sure I will have nightmares about Alice and her tongue. Also, thanks MB for the very brief (pun intended) shot of Megan Fox's underwear.

What I didn't like was MB using footage twice. I am referring to the Ambassador against Optimus scene at the start and two shots of Soundwave. In case you missed it, during the scene with the Ambasador, the camera pans behind him and shows him talking to optimus prime, then about a minute later the exact same camera pan plays again with different dialogue. All the characters move in the exact same way in both clips. For Soundwave (would it have killed MB to use the same voice pattern from G1) when he communicates to the Decepticons before he joins with the satellite there is a shot of his head which moves down and out to revel his satellite mode. This plays again when he summons the Decepticons that destroy the aircraft carrier. Did he think we wouldn't notice.

What happened to Wheelie? He goes into a building in Egypt but never comes out again. Has he joined forces with Barricade? Speaking of Barricade, the police cars were on set but he wasn't in the movie. Was Devastator was amazing but were his male parts really necessary. How could they kill him so quickly. Not even the Dinobots could do that. Why was Darth Vader and the Emperor in the film? Oops that was Megatron and the Fallen. As Megatron said back in the 80's "Nobody summons Megatron".

There was some inconsistency with the Autobots as well. Before the forest scene you see Optimus, Ironhide, Skids, Mudflap and Sideswipe. However, after the forest battle, Ratchet appears to help save Sam. Jolt only appears in two scenes as well. He isn't seen in any base scene except when they bring back OP. He was obviously only there to install Jetfire onto Optimus.

I am sorry to leave this on a negative but I as I am not sure I blinked during the first show I have to give this a 3.5 maybe a 4 out of 5.

Trikeboy wrote:I just got back from watching it twice. Ravage was well portrayed. He looked vicious but was very much like his G1 namesake. The robot he sent into the base was another great design. Shame there was no name attached to it, however, I think Buzzsaw suits it. All the Megatron/Starscream encounters were perfect. The first encounter on the Nemesis when Starscream is trying to weasel out of the blame for what happened in the first movie could have been from the cartoon. The forest scene is mind blowing. Prime puts up one heck of a fight against Megatron, Starscream and ? (Blackout, Grindor, you decide). Megatrons, tank mode flying was completely unexpected. They obviously spent alot of time on Bumblebee. They can give a robot without a face so many expressions. Did anybody else notice that when Optimus Prime dies he goes slightly gray? Megatron's voice was better. Hugo Weaving did a good job in both films but I prefer his performance in this movie. I didn't mind the twins, actually they were quite funny. Soundwave was also well designed an implemented. What else would the Communications officer and chief spy do? I am sure I will have nightmares about Alice and her tongue. Also, thanks MB for the very brief (pun intended) shot of Megan Fox's underwear.

What I didn't like was MB using footage twice. I am referring to the Ambassador against Optimus scene at the start and two shots of Soundwave. In case you missed it, during the scene with the Ambasador, the camera pans behind him and shows him talking to optimus prime, then about a minute later the exact same camera pan plays again with different dialogue. All the characters move in the exact same way in both clips. For Soundwave (would it have killed MB to use the same voice pattern from G1) when he communicates to the Decepticons before he joins with the satellite there is a shot of his head which moves down and out to revel his satellite mode. This plays again when he summons the Decepticons that destroy the aircraft carrier. Did he think we wouldn't notice.

What happened to Wheelie? He goes into a building in Egypt but never comes out again. Has he joined forces with Barricade? Speaking of Barricade, the police cars were on set but he wasn't in the movie. Was Devastator was amazing but were his male parts really necessary. How could they kill him so quickly. Not even the Dinobots could do that. Why was Darth Vader and the Emperor in the film? Oops that was Megatron and the Fallen. As Megatron said back in the 80's "Nobody summons Megatron".

There was some inconsistency with the Autobots as well. Before the forest scene you see Optimus, Ironhide, Skids, Mudflap and Sideswipe. However, after the forest battle, Ratchet appears to help save Sam. Jolt only appears in two scenes as well. He isn't seen in any base scene except when they bring back OP. He was obviously only there to install Jetfire onto Optimus.

I am sorry to leave this on a negative but I as I am not sure I blinked during the first show I have to give this a 3.5 maybe a 4 out of 5.

Can you elaborate more on Soundwave's voice? So he doesn't sound like his G1 counterpart?

So did the part where the Fallen asks Megatron to save him from Prime at the last moment with the promise of 'being a god' and Megatron's subsequent F-You response make it into the movie?

Because I believe that was supposed to be the thing which establishes Megatron as full well into the 'No body summons me' bit.

Counterpunch wrote:So did the part where the Fallen asks Megatron to save him from Prime at the last moment with the promise of 'being a god' and Megatron's subsequent F-You response make it into the movie?

Because I believe that was supposed to be the thing which establishes Megatron as full well into the 'No body summons me' bit.

God no. Something like that would constitute characterization and narrative, two things promised yet conspicuously absent from this film.

KingEmperor wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:I just got back from watching it twice. Ravage was well portrayed. He looked vicious but was very much like his G1 namesake. The robot he sent into the base was another great design. Shame there was no name attached to it, however, I think Buzzsaw suits it. All the Megatron/Starscream encounters were perfect. The first encounter on the Nemesis when Starscream is trying to weasel out of the blame for what happened in the first movie could have been from the cartoon. The forest scene is mind blowing. Prime puts up one heck of a fight against Megatron, Starscream and ? (Blackout, Grindor, you decide). Megatrons, tank mode flying was completely unexpected. They obviously spent alot of time on Bumblebee. They can give a robot without a face so many expressions. Did anybody else notice that when Optimus Prime dies he goes slightly gray? Megatron's voice was better. Hugo Weaving did a good job in both films but I prefer his performance in this movie. I didn't mind the twins, actually they were quite funny. Soundwave was also well designed an implemented. What else would the Communications officer and chief spy do? I am sure I will have nightmares about Alice and her tongue. Also, thanks MB for the very brief (pun intended) shot of Megan Fox's underwear.

What I didn't like was MB using footage twice. I am referring to the Ambassador against Optimus scene at the start and two shots of Soundwave. In case you missed it, during the scene with the Ambasador, the camera pans behind him and shows him talking to optimus prime, then about a minute later the exact same camera pan plays again with different dialogue. All the characters move in the exact same way in both clips. For Soundwave (would it have killed MB to use the same voice pattern from G1) when he communicates to the Decepticons before he joins with the satellite there is a shot of his head which moves down and out to revel his satellite mode. This plays again when he summons the Decepticons that destroy the aircraft carrier. Did he think we wouldn't notice.

What happened to Wheelie? He goes into a building in Egypt but never comes out again. Has he joined forces with Barricade? Speaking of Barricade, the police cars were on set but he wasn't in the movie. Was Devastator was amazing but were his male parts really necessary. How could they kill him so quickly. Not even the Dinobots could do that. Why was Darth Vader and the Emperor in the film? Oops that was Megatron and the Fallen. As Megatron said back in the 80's "Nobody summons Megatron".

There was some inconsistency with the Autobots as well. Before the forest scene you see Optimus, Ironhide, Skids, Mudflap and Sideswipe. However, after the forest battle, Ratchet appears to help save Sam. Jolt only appears in two scenes as well. He isn't seen in any base scene except when they bring back OP. He was obviously only there to install Jetfire onto Optimus.

I am sorry to leave this on a negative but I as I am not sure I blinked during the first show I have to give this a 3.5 maybe a 4 out of 5.

Can you elaborate more on Soundwave's voice? So he doesn't sound like his G1 counterpart?

It was still Frank Welker but didn't have the synthesized sound. It was just Welker's performance.

Primus C-00 wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:So did the part where the Fallen asks Megatron to save him from Prime at the last moment with the promise of 'being a god' and Megatron's subsequent F-You response make it into the movie?

Because I believe that was supposed to be the thing which establishes Megatron as full well into the 'No body summons me' bit.

God no. Something like that would constitute characterization and narrative, two things promised yet conspicuously absent from this film.

Yeah, I was sorry to see that go. I also was really looking forward to the epilogue of Megatron on Nemesis surrounded by protoforms. Sadly, also not included.

Doh I started another thread-but anyway. Is it me or does it seem Primes been taking energon steroids in the 2 years between TF1 and TF2-in the first one he struggled to fight Megs but in RoF he throws Megs,Starscream and Blackout around like they were ragdolls!

Cloudraker_Fastlane wrote:Doh I started another thread-but anyway. Is it me or does it seem Primes been taking energon steroids in the 2 years between TF1 and TF2-in the first one he struggled to fight Megs but in RoF he throws Megs,Starscream and Blackout around like they were ragdolls!

How about the end when he is combined with Jetfire. That was an early Arnie body from Conan if ever I saw one.

Cloudraker_Fastlane wrote:Doh I started another thread-but anyway. Is it me or does it seem Primes been taking energon steroids in the 2 years between TF1 and TF2-in the first one he struggled to fight Megs but in RoF he throws Megs,Starscream and Blackout around like they were ragdolls!

Desperation? Maybe he spent two years honing his skills. He certainly was more vicious in this film - you'd never catch G1 Prime shooting a wounded bot in the head at point blank.

Well, I disagree with everything you people said. I was blown away by the film and loved every minute of it. The only disappointments are: lack of Barricade; lack of new cast. I'm very inderwhelmed by the new toys and I was hoping for some good figures to be released later but that clearly won't happen.

Mykltron wrote:

Cloudraker_Fastlane wrote:Doh I started another thread-but anyway. Is it me or does it seem Primes been taking energon steroids in the 2 years between TF1 and TF2-in the first one he struggled to fight Megs but in RoF he throws Megs,Starscream and Blackout around like they were ragdolls!

Desperation? Maybe he spent two years honing his skills. He certainly was more vicious in this film - you'd never catch G1 Prime shooting a wounded bot in the head at point blank.

Well, I disagree with everything you people said. I was blown away by the film and loved every minute of it. The only disappointments are: lack of Barricade; lack of new cast. I'm very inderwhelmed by the new toys and I was hoping for some good figures to be released later but that clearly won't happen.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie. After it finished I went straight to the desk and got a ticket for the next showing. It was just little things that you notice and distracts you. For example Soundwave's voice. I admit after hearing Frank Welker was doing it I believed, like everybody, it would be the same. Using stock footage from the first movie was another thing I noticed and distracted me from the story. The footage I'm referring to is the comet form transformers in space. They used the same footage but just added more comets.

I was sceptical about the first movie but it won me over. This one really disappointed me. The first bots we see are the Twins, Arcee and that unicycle Constructicon. Arcee can be forgiven but the others and Wheelie look slaggin awful.

I was ready to leave after half an hour.

Someone needs to show MB what a Transformer actually looks like. I'd be happy if all their heads were done in the style of Prime who's closest to a G1 Bot in appearance.

The twins were awful. I was surprised to find I liked the little bit we saw of Arcee and Sideswipe. Why was the focus on the crap bots like Wheelie, the twins, Jetfire, the kitchen-bots. Peter Cullen made the last film with his performance as Prime who spent most of the film dead.

How hard would it have been to give Soundwave his old voice?

Don't get me wrong, I like Prime, Soundwave, Ravage, Megatron, Starscream and Bumblebee but all the cool bots were put in the background for the crap-bots and the annoying humans.

I liked the human cast in the last film but in this one the parents were annoying, Sam and Michaela were boring and that roommate was live action Armada Carlos. Awful, awful character. Couldn't enjoy any scene he was in. Strangely, Simmons who I despised in the last film got a bit likeable in this one.

All my workmates who knew I was going last night, and what a big fan I am, were amazed at my disdain for the film when they asked me about it this morning. We need to restart the franchise and keep Bay and those writers away from it. I ended up loving the first one but almost hating this one.

I actually enjoyed the film alot-i thought it was better than the first one in some respects. Funnily enough I actually thought the twins were actually likable. I thought Sideswipe was pretty cool. Jolt was more of a mobile jump cable. I thought Arcee was ok-not sure about the 3 way drone thing though. I agree with windsweeper, I thought Simmonds was actually quite funny in this one. Leo was really anooying and as mentioned before he is live action armada carlos. I thought the taser toilet scene was hilarious though! As for Jetfire wasn't that fond of his design, think his overall look could have been better. I thought the combined Jet-Optimus mode was pretty cool. Everyone in the cinema started cheering when he shot Megs (or was it the fallen?) with his arm cannon! I'm think about watching the IMAX version to see what extras there are. By the way did anyone know what Decepticon got scrapped by the constructicons on the sea bed to get parts to revive megs???And I also heard that you see the Deceps stamp on Jazzs body????Did I just miss that bit out???

Neurie wrote:And its a solid 3 outta 5 movie.

Most of the ciriticisms are valid tbh, little characterisation, plots a little thin for the legth but CGI fights and Fox are all good and thats what bays known for.

TF fans will be split by this movie but itll make enough for TF 3

not good......NOT GOOD LMAO

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. This film was A LOT better than the first.
But somethings bugged me BUT I'm going back in a week to see it again and probably another after that.
One Arcee with the amount of time she was on screen they could have just her actual robot mode instead of splitting her into three.
Sideways well he could have done with more screen time but no.
That decepticon girl should not have been in. I really didn't like that scene, yes i loved the action that followed but the actual scene well I'll skip it on dvd.
The Fallen well when the main antagonist is shown in the first hour well i wasn't THAT impressed.
Devastator should have been MORE of a bad ass in this but he seemed to easy to kill.
I really didn't like the re-using of old footage it just seemed cheap to me.
Soundwave well i loved him in this film BUT could have done with more screen time a a synthesizer lol .
BUT with this i STILL loved it and would see it countless times again like i said i'm seeing in a weeks time.
Story/plot 3/5 action 5/5 music 5/5

So what did you all think?

Only reply if you have seen the movie and dont read below if you havent.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S



S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S


The Fallens origin is at complete odds with the comics, him living on cybertron not earth etc.

I really didnt expect Primes death and subsequent resurection, or Arcee and Elita 1's deaths.

Too few lines for almost every one, Decpeticons are very 2 dimensional.

Wheelie is suprisingly good, althought why he humps Fox's leg I dont know(too much humping jokes with the dog sex).

Also I felt this should have been reclassified as a 15, the language is really unappropriate for child I heard s*%^ at least 4 times, mother f£$%^& mouthed at least once, bollocks, crap and calling some one a pussy in a film children will watch is whoely inappropriate.

Yeah unfortunately i think the Twins were lifted directly from Bad Boys and pushed into this film.

The trouble, ive figured out, is that they seem to struggle with more than a couple of main charachters. Prime and Bumblebee are the only Autobots that get any Charachter Development, the Twins are the Comic relief while everyone else is Background Ass kickers/ablative casualties. I mean, the 2 bikes getting supposedly killed (we see them get hit but are they dead?) with absolutely no mention whatsoever of the event.

Also the whole decepticon thing was just lazy. Blackout returns, no explanation as to who it is, Boncrusher is seen in Vehicle mode in the desert with no explanation with apparently Each Constructicon having a twin so they can appear in the battle even While Devastator is combined.

At least we now know why the toys dont have 3 modes, cos neither do these guys. As far as a I can tell Devastator is simply 1 Robot built from Multiple vehicles and the actual 'individual Constructicons' are totally different robots.

And is it just me or does anyone else get annoyed with how Lazy they are when they show an Autobot just parked up in Vehicle mode while somethings going on? They did it with Jazz in the first film. Bumblebee gets his legs blown off and Jazz sits there as a car, even having to be told to backup to give them room.

In this one Sideswipe is sat in Vehicle mode in the middle of the Desert while the Human soldiers are getting in position for a fight.
Its like "if you cant be bothered to pay for them being Animated just dont include them in the shot!"

The Good
Awesome first half.
Shia was textbook, really moved his character on. Great chemistry with Fox.
Sam's parents as the comic relief.
Longhaul, Sideswipe, Jetfire, Soundwave, Ravage, the Bikes. All really cool.
The Twins were lovable (def buying the toys).
Interaction between Megs and Starscream really left you wanting more.
Prime really kicked tailgate. Him and Bumblebee were the most engaging 'friendly' mechs by far.


The Bad:
I do not understand why the running time was 2 1/2 hrs. It was at least half an hour too long.
Sam's dorm buddy: no need for him to go along for the ride. Very annoying.
The Autobot's lines: often misplaced or cringeworthy.
The Constructicons were constantly re-used and were indistinguishable.
In the finale Mixmaster appeared in two places at once: as part of Devastator and attacking sam.
Lack of both human and mech character development.
The Fallen and his minions were uninteresting.
Sideways only lasted 5 mins.
Jolt just in the background, never properly introduced.

Fananga wrote:
The trouble, ive figured out, is that they seem to struggle with more than a couple of main charachters. Prime and Bumblebee are the only Autobots that get any Charachter Development

It's all down to cost, animating the robots is extremely expenisive, it's simply not feasible to have them in as much of the film as we would like. The more a robot was used in the film, the better it's animation model was. Prime and Bumblebee looked near real in every scene, whereas the twins in their ice-cream van form looked almost like stop motion.

Fananga wrote:Also the whole decepticon thing was just lazy. Blackout returns, no explanation as to who it is, Boncrusher is seen in Vehicle mode in the desert with no explanation with apparently Each Constructicon having a twin so they can appear in the battle even While Devastator is combined.

They kind of explained this with all the protoforms, it wasn't Blackout, it was Grindor and I'm sure the Bonecrusher vehicle has a new character name. Quite simply there aren't enough bad ass vehicles for them to turn into. Anyway, it makes sense if protoforms of the same size have the same alt modes. Besides, it's much cheaper to recolour and reuse animation models than building new ones.

Fananga wrote:And is it just me or does anyone else get annoyed with how Lazy they are when they show an Autobot just parked up in Vehicle mode while somethings going on? They did it with Jazz in the first film. Bumblebee gets his legs blown off and Jazz sits there as a car, even having to be told to backup to give them room.

In this one Sideswipe is sat in Vehicle mode in the middle of the Desert while the Human soldiers are getting in position for a fight.
Its like "if you cant be bothered to pay for them being Animated just dont include them in the shot!"

Again, it's all about cost. This wasn't a record breaking movie in terms of budget and you simply can't have a robot in the background of every scene, it would add tens of thousands of dollars to each one. I know it irks a bit but some of these bots take hours, maybe days to render a single frame, you can either have lots of shots with robots that look poor, or just a few that look amazing. Personally I feel Bay made the right choice.

I was actually impressed with the film, much more than I thought I would be. It was made as a spectacle and we all know the story was going to partially fall by the wayside.

Seeing the bike-bots in action, I now get their transformations, although their screen time was short they did look badass.

The fight in the forest between Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Grindor is hands down one of the best action scenes I have ever watched. Prime as an absolute legend and even the missus shed a tear when he died.

But do you know what impressed me most about the film? How much screen time John Tuturro had. From the trailers I was worried he wouldn't be in it much, after Sam's parents left it was starting to feel like the humour had disappeared. But he was there and he really did drag the film through a slightly boring third act.

Shame about John Voight not being about again though.

Neurie wrote:Also I felt this should have been reclassified as a 15, the language is really unappropriate for child I heard s*%^ at least 4 times, mother f£$%^& mouthed at least once, bollocks, crap and calling some one a pussy in a film children will watch is whoely inappropriate.

Totally agree, I took my 11yr old with me and felt quite uncomortable during those moments, not that he hasn't heard it before, but like you say, it is aimed at kids to a certain extent.

The comic relief didn't do anything for me either, although my boy thought they were hilarious. It was like watching the bizarre love-child of Jar-Jar Binks and Mater form cars

Overall tho', I enjoyed it, more bots, more action, it did mmove the franchise on and left it wide open for Megs' to graduate to Galvatron, maybe they tried to ceam a little too much in, but so be it, I would happily pay to see it again and will no dobt buy the DVD or BR in the coming months.