The Energon Pub

The days of action and adventure are upon us once again and the time is now, our time, our genre of movies. I speak of the superhero, cartoon, and video game based movies that are becoming the blockbusters of the new era. Movies like Transformers Revenge of the Fallen are reaching a whole new generation of viewers. Not only do these movies capture the attention of the wide-eyed child but of the adult who grew up on the origins of such comic or cartoon themes. They are the ones who gasp in awe at their childhood brought to life on the big screen and who are now sharing the very characters they loved with their own children.

Unfortunately this is where worlds collide and the bell is beginning to toll. Not for the viewers of today, but of the movie critics of yesterday. Critics like Ebert Roper of the Chicago Sun Times, David Edwards of Mirror.co.uk, Peter Bradshaw of Guardian, and Robert Dougherty of Associated Content. They were once heralds of the arts, grading movies with verbose reviews and strong opinions that captured the attention of their readers. But now they squabble and complain at the offerings of Hollywood like bickering old men. And that doesn’t mean they have to be aged into their fifties, but rather the mentality of their craft has transformed them and placed them outside the usefulness of today’s moviegoing class. They have shown us they are relics of the past by comparing our new generation of action films to their beloved classics.

With each thumbs down and one-star rating they vengefully toss forth, these popular movie critcs threaten the market and future of the genre we know and love. They have no business reviewing movies they do not understand and lack the intelligence and open mindedness to accept such films into the fray. This frame of mind is dangerous and impedes any sort of progress for the future of such films. True enough the critics of yesterday live to enjoy the classics, movies they claim have beautiful insight in to humanity and where a Patsy Cline score can be heard playing in the background. And that’s all well and good for that is their schoolyard playground where they can rule as king of the sandbox. But they fail terribly when they try to grasp the spectacular, or try and understand the love someone holds in their heart just to see their favorite giant robots walk across the screen for the first time. The movie critics will scream and yell, casting down upon the directors and producers of this abomination to Hollywood’s credit.

Yet the very movie they sneer at breaks records and outsells their ‘Casablanca classics’ drawing in millions upon millions of fans. This only serves to enrage the critic and fuel their hateful approach to the review, in many cases going so far as to mock the fans of such a genre. Well enough is enough. Movies like Transformers and Superhero types MUST succeed if they are ever to reach the levels of directing and plot brilliance these critics hold in such high regard. We have only begun to tinker with the tools that allow us to reshape a Camaro into a bipedal humanoid in a split second of screentime. But the movie critics of yesterday do not care about that, they do not care about new genres of movies and the child and his father that so desperately want to see their favorite robots battle it out regardless of how well the lighting was chosen.

The bell has tolled. New blood is needed and a new generation of movie critic must take the place of the aging, bitter ones that cling so desperately to their past films. And if these movie critics of yesterday cannot accept that, they must be replaced by ones who can. You cannot compare movies like Transformers to anything else for they are a new generation of films where the amazing action and intricate plots do not necessarily need to take place on the big screen….they take place in the heart of the fans who enjoy them.

F**k the critics. I heard nothing but **** about this movie, and it's the greatest action movie I have seen in the last 20 years, if not ever. So to hell with those people.

I did read one 4-star review in a small local newspaper here. So not all of them are retards.

amen to that.

If critics keep giving bad reviews to movies the vast majority enjoy, people aren't going to listen to them anymore. Everyone will think "I liked it, but Ebert hated it, so I guess I won't listen to him anymore." Whats a critic that no one listens to? Jobless

I enjoyed the movie very much, and that's all that matters to me.

Meh, if you enjoyed the film you enjoyed it, if you didn't you didn't. I can understand where the critics are coming from after reading some of the reviews, apart from the awesome fight scenes and effects the film doesn’t offer much depth or character development. In those departments the first film was better by miles.

You can't really say critics cant have opinion and print it, that's their job after all. Most of them have been harsh but for me I find most of the stuff they said pretty fair and I agree. Bad publicity for the ROTF hasn’t effected the cash this film has raked in, in fact it's probably helped in some small way.

I think the critics have only been printing what some of us have been thinking about ROTF, and before you go into emo-fan-rage-reply-mode go to the film review thread and see how divided most people are on this

There is no need to say these critcs are worthless just because you disagree with them. If you happen to agree with them they are justified, if you disagree they need to retire? It doesn't work like that.

Steamed_Ham wrote:There is no need to say these critcs are worthless just because you disagree with them. If you happen to agree with them they are justified, if you disagree they need to retire? It doesn't work like that.

There is a difference, a difference between honest movie critiquing, and shameless bandwagon jumping. It's appalling how much of the latter has been displayed of late, and attempting to defend them? You are just as bad.

Yes, I am clearly a terrible person, God I feel so guilty, how do I sleep at night?

Do you honestly think movie critcs are "bandwagon jumping" by giving a bad review to a film which is set to become the highest grossing film of the year.

Bah, I say forget about them.
Im seeing it today, so I will make my iwn judgment. Im sure it will have most of the flaws of the first one but it won't be a bad movie.

Good post Jin.

You know I REALLY wanted to like this movie and be able to give it a glowing review, but I just can't lie to myself. Sure the action scenes were great and I love seeing what my childhoood heroes look like in live action but that "coolness" was over shadowed by bad acting, crass humor, poor character development and a weak plot.

There were a few times I was on the edge of my seat watching in excitment but for the majority of the movie I sat there shaking my head. I couldn't stand the twins. Maybe it's the cop in me but the whole "pop a cap in your ass" gangsta, tough guy act was ridiculous and embarrasing. I felt that Sam's parents and roommate were WAY over acting and while I found the "sector 7 guy" (I forget his name) entertaining, some of his one liners made me cringe.

I am a G1 fanboy but I am not so blinded by my love of that to know a bad movie when I see one. I thought that Soundwave was fantastic! Optimus, BB, Sideswipe, Megatron, Starscream, Ravage and most of the Transformers not named Skids, Mudflap, or Wheelie were awesome. I would have liked to see a little bit more of some of the new guys (Sideswipe, Arcee, Volt) but I guess that wasn't meant to be.

I guess to put this all in a nutshell I would have been more happy with a 20 minute "short" of watching Bots and cons battle it out then the 2 1/2 hour Baygasm that I saw.

But again that is just MY opinion.

Half these critics have the wrong frame of mind when they go in to review these kinds of movies.

Quite a few of the reviews I read basically ranted on about the plot and acting. Who the hell cares? You're there to park your brain aside for a few hours and watch a giant robot on robot deathmatch. You should know off the bat that this is what you're getting when you buy the ticket to go into the theater. These critics need to look at what the movie attempts to do, and assess how well it accomplished that. It's just maddening that they expect grade A acting and story from every movie they see, and that all movies are obligated to offer such.

Officer Prowl wrote:You know I REALLY wanted to like this movie and be able to give it a glowing review, but I just can't lie to myself. Sure the action scenes were great and I love seeing what my childhoood heroes look like in live action but that "coolness" was over shadowed by bad acting, crass humor, poor character development and a weak plot.

But again that is just MY opinion.

THIS.

If the crowds I saw at my theater are any indication, a lot of those critics are going to have a lot of crow to eat come Sunday.

Not really, they're not Box Office Analysts, their job is to say how good the movie is. I'm sure all of these critics were aware of how successful the new TF movie was likely to be.

When I saw it people were cheering at the end. Nobody cheers for a bad movie.

critics grading system:
crap=good
good=crap

Evil_the_Nub wrote:When I saw it people were cheering at the end. Nobody cheers for a bad movie.

same here. when i went at midnight the theater was loud but the screen was not there was no sound. but when sound came on every one started clapping. and every one loved it. evry time the twins taked every one laughed. and when the movie was done, every one was clapping. TF2=win, critics=fail.

Evil_the_Nub wrote::APPLAUSE: If critics keep giving bad reviews to movies the vast majority enjoy, people aren't going to listen to them anymore. Everyone will think "I liked it, but Ebert hated it, so I guess I won't listen to him anymore." Whats a critic that no one listens to? Jobless

I agree. If NOBODY agrees with them, then they serve no purpose and have become out of touch. As far as people on this forum defending the critics, do you realize they aren't judging the film poorly the same way as the fans are. Their poor critiques of this film are not validation for the complaints the fandom has. The critics care as much as Bay does. Not much.

The critics hate everything, and they are drunk. I just saw the movie today and thought it was awesome! Actually It exceeded my expectations because between the Critics and the hate displayed by many of the fans on this site, you'd think I was going to watch Jeepers Creepers 3 or something (I think Jeepers Creepers is the worst movie ever made by far). I did a good job avoiding spoilers.

I thought it was actually better than the first. As for the critics, I knew they'd hate it. I guess the thing is you gotta go into a transformers movie thinking "generation 1" and "Cartoon" because inspite of all the changes, the general plot and flow of the stories of both movies is kind of like an extended episode of G1, which I think is what I like so much about these movies. This one even ended like a G1 cartoon with Megatron and Starscream cowardly escaping, which I really got a kick out of!

I have to agree w/ Jin

And if I remember correctly, Roger Ebert gave the first live action movie a "thumbs up" 2 years ago

You don't walk into this type of movie expecting Casablanca, if you do, clearly you're in the wrong theater - it's 2 hours and 20 minutes of giant alien robots [ based upon a toyline and cartoon from the 80's ] beating the crap out of each other, blowing stuff up, and other brainless entertainment, I liked it, my friend Suzy liked it, who BTW had no idea Transformers first came out in 1984, I kid you not; plus the audience laughed, clapped and went WOW at just the right times
And $146 million worldwide for the first 2 days ain't too bad

The critics didn't stop the showing I went to--which, mind you, was at 12:20 PM on a Wednesday--from being sold out by the time I got there. The critics are fundamentally flawed if only because they don't want to have fun, they want to be impressed. They also want to have to analyze a movie for hours and see it multiple times before they can understand it. RotF was just too straightforward and simple for them to like.

It's also worth noting that Roger Ebert is 67 years old! Of course he doesn't like it!

Counterpunch wrote:Good post Jin.

That really was a great post. And it isn't condemning the critics; it is just a fact that these critics really are lingering in the past classics they grew up with. It is too bad, since everything moves forward and people who don't change and open their minds at least a little bit will be left behind. They will no longer be relevant. That time seems to be right now.

Autobobby1 wrote:The critics didn't stop the showing I went to--which, mind you, was at 12:20 PM on a Wednesday--from being sold out by the time I got there. The critics are fundamentally flawed if only because they don't want to have fun, they want to be impressed. They also want to have to analyze a movie for hours and see it multiple times before they can understand it. RotF was just too straightforward and simple for them to like.

It's also worth noting that Roger Ebert is 67 years old! Of course he doesn't like it!

It's also worth noting that at 65 years old he gave a positive review to the first movie.
Just thought I would share.

Prime Riblet wrote: As far as people on this forum defending the critics, do you realize they aren't judging the film poorly the same way as the fans are. Their poor critiques of this film are not validation for the complaints the fandom has.

I am not defending the critics because I feel they validate my complaints about the movie. I liked the movie. I am defending them because I feel the attacks on them here are, in my opinion, unjustified and inaccurate. And as pointed out a couple of times on this thread I doubt there were so many comments about Roger Ebert being an out of touch old fart when he gave the first movie a good review.