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Grease Witherspoon Blog - In Defense Of: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

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I've had discussions on this site before about how I like the transformers movie trilogy despite their poor reception. I just finished my yearly rewatching of Transformers 1 and 2 which has led me to speak my mind about why I think Transformers 2 deserves more than the scathing reception it has received from critics and the internet at large. Transformers 2 is by no means perfect but I think the positives outweigh its faults.
One common criticism of TF2 is that people say the movie has some distasteful racial humor. I fully agree that having robots with gold teeth speaking gangsta slang who say they dont know how to read is incredibly distasteful and thats the first thing I would have changed if I was in charge of production. However, it's plausible that those characters would exist as the transformers learned to speak from observing the internet and there are people who speak like that on the internet. Of course they should not have been in the movie to being with. But if this was just a human action movie and there were gangsta characters I don't know if people would be as offended by the characters. It's also worth noting that there are plenty of other black characters in the TF trilogy that don't fit the gangsta stereotype. Tyrese plays a total badass military dude in all three movies. He's smart, competent, likeable and funny without relying on bad racial stereotypes. Not to mention in Transformers 1 Anthony Anderson played a genius computer hacker nerd who was one of the better parts of the movie. Also, Jazz was black even in the old cartoon show of transformers and he also appeared in Transformers 1 as a cool dude. The point is yes those twin gangsta transformers are racist and terrible but at least there were other black characters who weren't like that. Fortunately, the gangsta twin transformers dont have too much screen time and if I remember correctly they arent in TF3.

Another big problem with the Transformers movies is that they are exhausting to watch in one sitting because they are poorly paced and packed to the brim with visual effects, loud sound effects and explosions. Personally, I dont like to watch movies over 2 hours in one sitting. I love the lord of the rings films but they are just as exhausting to watch all at once. Now that the transformers movies are on dvd/blu-ray I really enjoy watching just part of them and then taking a break and watching the rest later. Does that inherently make transformers 2 a bad movie because its more entertaining when consumed in pieces rather than as a whole? I don't think so but of course people will disagree with me on that. But when I watch TF2 I really love getting sucked into the detail of the transformers. They are beautifully rendered and watching them transform is just a work of art. The sound design in these movies is incredible. The sounds of clashing metal as they transform is just breathtaking at times. I think the lesson TF2 can teach us is that not all movies are meant to be experienced in the same way. 2001 A Space Odyssey is one of the best movies of all time and I can barely ever watch it in one sitting because there is so much to digest and think about whereas Grandmas Boy is a great comedy that I can turn my brain off and watch all at once no problem.

I think its strange that people complain about the overuse of special effects in these movies as the special effects are top notch and there isn't a lot of noticeable green screen like in the star wars prequels. In fact, TF2 shot on location in Egypt and a few other places.

The transformers have always been about style and commercialism over substance. But The Transformers movies didn't bastardize the franchise in fact they embraced it. The cartoon show was practically a weekly half hour commercial to sell toys. But who cares because that cartoon show and those toys are badass because they are about alien fighting robots that transform into cars and jets and shit. Thats just badass I'm not sorry. There is nothing wrong with some movies and entertainment being style over substance. Not everything has to be philosophical or cerebral to be enjoyable. Sometimes it feels great to shut my brain off and watch giant robots fight with explosions, hot chicks and cool cars everywhere. Plus there were a few jokes that were actually funny among the bad ones and a few moments were genuinely touching. For example, at the start of TF2 Sam is going to college and his parents have to let him go live his life. Later in the movie he meets up with his parents and this theme of 'coming of age' is repeated as Sams parents have to let him fight his own battle with the transformers even though they know its dangerous. It's a cheesy movie but there were still a few touching shots of sams father struggling to let his son go just as he had to do once before at the beginning of the movie.

Also, TF2 is a big improvement from TF1. The biggest problems I had with TF1 were that the action scenes were too shaky, there wasnt enough robot on robot grappling and there was way too much human drama with very little transformers in the movie. TF2 is a lot more balanced between the human drama and the transformers stuff and the action is shot much more competently and is more satisfying. Megan Fox is hotter in TF2 and her performance really was better than I remember it being. Whatever her problems in real life and in the media she can act and is beautiful on screen.

Plus it was great that TF2 wasnt just a repeat of TF1 as so many sequels fall into that trap. Not to mention, there was far less pandering in TF2. In TF1 we had to see a lot more products center screen, a lot more kids and people of different age groups in the frame for no reason other than to try to reach as wide of an audience as possible ect. TF2 is much more brutal with its portrayal of the action and it gets away with it because its robot on robot violence. It was a good sequel in that it built off the original but newcomers could jump into TF2 and still have a good understanding of whats going on. Like most good blockbuster sequels it took everything good about the first movie and pushed it to the Nth degree. It's also worth noting that TF2 was a huge financial success.

I like Michael Bay because he's not afraid to do things his way and to say 'if you don't like it then fuck off because I'm michael bay and this is what I wanted to make.' I think these movies are artistic expression even if they greatly overlap with commercialism. Art and commercialism have become less and less separated overtime and while there may be problems inherent to that it's the reality of our society and I've learned to embrace it to some extent. Big movies like this are a business and the success of big blockbusters like this allow studios to use their huge profits to fund smaller more independent movies that take bigger risks and appeal to a much more narrow audience. But again, TF2 didnt feel like it was aiming at as wide of an audience as the first movie, at least it didnt appear to be trying nearly as hard. I also like that there were several subtle moments where the integrity of the US government and military were brought into question. Some people claim these movies are commercials for the military but I think if transformers were on earth fighting each other the military and governments of the world would get involved and would be central to the conflict. Plus there were lots of badass military scenes so whatever.

So yes, these movies aren't perfect and I can understand why people hate or dislike Transformers 2. The racist tranformer twins were really offputting as were a few of the bad jokes throughout the movie and the script is a tad messy as is the pacing. But these are spectacle movies about alient giant tranforming robots fighting that are based on a commercialized cartoon from the 80s so I dont expect too much realism or a highly serious tone. TF2 delivers wonderful action shots, special effects and a few good moments with some rough patches along the way. To me, that is entertainment no matter what criticisms others may have. Nothing appeals to everyone but perhaps despite the hate for TF2 there is also more than meets the eye.

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