Recent Posts
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the movie.
I often rate movie trilogies on the merits of the second movie and how it bridges the series together. Amongst geeks it is usually agreed that The Empire Strikes Back is one of the best movies in popular science fiction and fantasy. The reasons are too numerous to mention here. With the outstanding box office receipts for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF), it is obvious that we will receive a third edition of the ongoing battle between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Despite the tremendous response in the box office to the second installment in the Transformers franchise, the film itself has largely received negative feedback from critics and fans alike. During a discussion with a recent viewer of ROTF, we discussed how the movie could have been improved and provide a lead in to the eventual third movie.
ROTF culminates with a huge battle between the nameless hordes of Decepticons and the Autobots/humans. Optimus Prime is resurrected, and then Jetfire sacrifices himself so that his parts can augment Optimus temporarily in order for the latter to battle with the Decepticon leaders, Megatron and the Fallen. Prime succeeds in forcing a retreat from Megatron while destroying the Fallen, with all the human protagonists surviving (unfortunately). The movie ends with a voiceover by Optimus, which is intended to leave the viewer with a nice warm fuzzy feeling before the credits roll.
Originally the Fallen was the first Herald of Unicron, the Chaos Bringer. Unicron was first introduced into the Transformers universe in 1986 in the theatrical release of the Transformers animated movie, and was voiced by the late great Orson Welles. That films producers had made a great choice in selecting a larger-than-life actor to portray a Transformer the size of a planet and with untold power and knowledge. Unicron was pure evil. If we could have the writing and production staff of ROTF go back in time, this is what would have made the movie better than Bayhem with a sprinkle of bad acting:
The final act of the film has the resurrection of Optimus Prime, and the Fallen trying to activate the Sun Harvester in order to use the energon to power his lord and master Unicron (whos not been mention until this point). Prime fights and kills the Fallen, but instead of the Fallen doing the melting face thing during a quick death, the Fallen slowly dies and expresses regret for failing his master, then utters a threat to Prime and the Autobots explaining that they are too late that his master has come and will take his vengeance on them all. Then the Fallen does the face melting thing.
Starscream makes his coward comment to Megatron, behind whom we see the daytime moon and another planet behind it. Megatron directs the Decepticons to retreat. Prime, along with the humans and gathered Autobots, look to where the Decepticons are fleeing and see Unicron for the first time. In a shot from Primes point of view we discern that Unicron is getting closer. Prime then states to the group, The Chaos Bringer has come, and I fear that we may not be able to stop him
Then we cut to the surface of Unicron as his great maw opens with a feral roar and a burst of energy before quickly cutting to black.
With an ending like the above, the viewer is prepared to experience a whole new kind of awe at the technical expertise of ILM, and set to purchase their ticket for the next ride on the Bayhem machine.
When the title for the current Transformers movie hit the nets many months ago it created quite a buzz for the new movie. Revenge of the Fallen? Really?! Wow, this could be so cool if the producers were going to give us this character! was the general tone of fan response.
The Fallen in the comic adaptation of the movie
Occasional viewers of Transformers are probably unfamiliar with the Fallen, who existed solely in comics until Revenge of The Fallen, but to diehard fans the Fallen is just one infinitesimal step down from having Unicron on the big screen. The character was introduced in Transformers: The War Within by Dreamwave Productions comics to critical acclaim. The Fallens backstory took us back to the earliest days of Cybertron, the Transformers home world. He was one of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus to protect Cybertron from Chaos Bringer Unicron. The Fallen (as his name obviously foreshadows) betrays Primus and eventually serves Unicron. Imbued with both the power of Primus and of Unicron, the Fallen is the biggest bad there is, and he eventually gives rise to the Decepticons.
Below, I go over the background of the Fallen in both the comics and the movie. How does Michael Bay's movie treat this character?
Overview of The Fallen (Dreamwave Productions)
Nine million years ago, the Fallen, Unicrons first herald, fought alongside his master against Primus and the twelve other original Transformers. Primus and the Fallens brethren defeated Unicron and the Fallen, trapping them in underspace, outside of normal space-time. Unicron was able to free himself from underspace, leaving the Fallen alone and between dimensions for two million years.
An experiment in space bridge technology freed the Fallen from his prison and returned him to Cybertron, the Transformers home world and the dormant physical manifestation of Primus. The Fallen recruited a small Decepticon force to aid him in awakening Primus with the goal of drawing Unicron to Cybertron and defeating his creator. Since the leadership of both the Autobots and Decepticons understood the threat of Unicron to their continued existence, the two factions united to destroy the Fallen before he could succeed.
Overview of The Fallen (Revenge of the Fallen)
In director Michael Bays version of the Transformers universe, the Fallen is one of the first Transformers created by the Allspark, a Prime. The Primes are the guardians of the Transformers species. They search the universe for uninhabited solar systems in order to convert the stars into energon, the Transformers primary energy source.
Approximately 19,009 years ago (17,000 BC), the Fallen happened upon Sol (Earths solar system), and decided for some unexplained reason that the energon derived from our star would be worth destroying an inhabited world. This decision sparked a conflict between the Fallen and the other Primes, culminating in the Fallen receiving his designation and the almost total destruction of his followers--the Transformers that would eventually be called the Decepticons.
So far so good; its not as interesting as Dreamwaves characterization, mind you, but it is a good start. But it goes downhill from here. As a Prime, the Fallen is responsible for the construction of Sun Harvesters, the machines responsible for converting stars into energon to feed the Cybertronians. To activate a Sun Harvester, a Prime must insert a powerful and mysterious power source called the Matrix of Leadership.
The Fallen had developed a deep hatred for the nomadic tribe(s) of humans who occasionally attacked his followers during the construction of a Sun Harvester. When the other Primes stole the Matrix of Leadership from the Fallen to prevent the activation of the Sun Harvester, they sacrificed themselves to prevent him from finding the device.*
Considering the backstory for both versions of the Fallen, you can see that they share certain attributes such as being an original Transformer, and the betrayal of their comrades. But the fact remains that they are completely separate entities; speaking as a Transformers fan, that is the main reason Revenge of the Fallen disappoints me. What could have been a good story with great effects, tying the new movie continuity into some of the established comic continuity, ended up screaming FAIL!
*Comic series Transformers: Defiance provides more backstory: the Primes do not just shield the Matrix from the Fallen, but imprison him. Megatron, prior to the Cybertron civil war, makes contact with the Fallen and is manipulated into freeing him. Then Megatron leads the revolt against his fellow Cybertronians with the newly formed Decepticons. The Fallen attempts to return to Earth to find the Matrix aboard the Decepticon starship Nemesis, which crashes on a moon of Saturn. At this point the continuity picks up in the movie.
Bayhem is now a word. The two-and-a-half-hour experience of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is best described as an adrenaline junkies version of a movie. The story, as expected, is lacklustre. For the 30-second attention span generation, however, it is the perfect movie--too bad Im not part of that generation.
Devastator (cojones not shown)
Michael Bay has stated the technical complexities of creating of the bots for this film--even providing stats on his official websiteand then he proceeded to pat himself on the back for including FORTY-TWO Transformers in this film. Too bad that the bots themselves are used and reused interchangeably. The sharp-eyed viewer might notice that many of the Decepticons shown during the battles in the film are in separate Constructicon robot modes. For example, one scene calls for a Decepticon to be sacrificed for parts to repair another Decepticon; thus, it is torn to pieces. Later this same bot is shown fully assembled battling the Autobots and the humans.
In another scene of Bayhem (which also features, I kid you not, Devastators wrecking ball testicles), Bays trademark frenetic editing shows other Constructicons duking it out with the Autobots. But Devastator is all the Constructicons combinedhow can they be in two places at once? Either the production staff doesnt care about continuity or they banked on the viewer not being able to differentiate between one bot versus another.
Thankfully, we have more character development with the Transformers this time and the humans are in a more supportive role--as they ought to be. (I have heard complaints about this, but if I wanted to see humans act badly I could watch Shia in that last Indiana Jones movie). However, the story is barely developed, aside from several voiceovers and a flashback.
The Fallens motivations for destroying the human race are never explained. Much-needed explanation on the Decepticon hierarchy is never provided, nor is the existence of the hatchlings. I hope that these gaps indicate things that were cut for time, and will be reinstated in a Directors Cut.
It would be easy to blame the writers for the under-developed story, but I had a nagging feeling that what was onscreen was not what was written; the transitions from one scene to another felt too forced. It would be interesting to see the original screenplay. In the meantime, I hope that Spielberg will learn from all the negative feedback to the film and tie a tighter leash on his pet director.
On a spur of the moment request from my son, I attended the movie UP in 3D. I could only remember my last 3D experience of Jaws III and being thoroughly unimpressed with the technology. Boy, was I in for a shock! We purchased our drinks, popcorn, and candy (did I mention I was with a 7-year-old?); rushed into the theatre (thankfully, the cost of a second mortgage's worth of food spared us the 20 minutes of commercials that moviegoers are now inundated with prior to the feature); and found seating as the opening credits started rolling. I had to blink a couple of times and refrain from yelling, Focus! as I realised that the image on the screen was supposed to be blurred without the 3D glasses. We donned our glasses and were instantly immersed into the world the artists at Pixar created.
UP
[ Click here to read more ]
I recently had an interesting conversation with my friend D.W. about Superman movies and where the studio went wrong with the last four (the first, directed by Richard Donner, is nearly perfect). It was argued that Superman has little opportunity to go against any real super-powered villains in his movie career. I of course corrected this misconception and mentioned the three Kyptonians from Superman II and the Luthor clone from Superman IV. The conversation eventually led to Bryan Singers attempt to honour the world that Donner created in the poorly-received Superman Returns. While I do not agree with many of the choices Singer made in the movie, I understood why he made them and accept the film for what it is.
Recently rumors surfaced that with the success of The Dark Knight the studio in its finite wisdom (no, that is NOT a typo) has indicated that its wants to make Superman darker for the next film. You can just guess what the fan response was to that little tidbit of news. As my conversation with my friend progressed we were able to lay out exactly what we would like to see in a new Superman movie without destroying what has already been established in the movie continuity of the last 30 years, borrowing ideas and concepts from both Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League (both by Bruce Timm), along with the current DC universe stories
[ Click here to read more ]
There are several women in Terminator Salvation. Dont feel bad if you missed them, because you might have blinked or slurped your soda or something to that effect. But there are several women acting in this film: we have the eminently creepy Helena Bonham-Carter, Moon Bloodgood, and Bryce Dallas Howard, the purpose of whom appear only to support the endeavours of the male counterparts. Howard plays Kate Connor, wife to John Connor and his second-in-command. She also doubles as the resistance cell medic whose advanced training in veterinary medicine qualifies her to conduct open-heart surgery in a tent (to which I call bullshit).
Kate stands by her man.
[ Click here to read more ]
My wife and I have seen every Terminator film: we're pretty familiar with 1984's inspired B-movie The Terminator, the ultimate Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the poorly executed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and now we reach Terminator Salvation. Buzz for this film coupled with advanced scenes showing in theatres prompted great hope for the movie, which was quite possibly the franchise's salvation, so to speak. But with a disappointing opening weekend (a paltry $43 million for North America) a follow-up Terminator release helmed by McG seems unlikely. While I truly believe that the cast, crew and production staff placed a great deal of effort into the film, I rest the blame for the overall lackluster movie squarely on the studio, McG, and his editing team.
[ Click here to read more ]
This is the third and last part of my ruminations on the Star Trek movie.
Part of what always attracted me and many other fans to Star Trek is the science portrayed in the shows had come to pass in reality, either in practical technology or in the theoretical realm. Light speed is no longer an impossible barrier, thanks to many hard working physicists; it's just another barrier to be crossed much like the sound barrier was in the 1950s. The nascent technology of teleportation is even moving forward, when only 20 years ago it was deemed improbable if not impossible. But in the Star Trek movie, the science is placed squarely in the background in order to not confuse the moviegoers with techobabble. As I mentioned previously in my thoughts on Nero, a supernova threatening a entire galaxy seems improbable to say the least, not to mention the super-dense red matter, and the mechanics of the ships themselves (for example, 25th-century Spocks Jellyfish starship with its spinning nacelle(s
[ Click here to read more ]
Our villain Nero is probably one of the most under-utilized elements of Star Trek 2009. He has potential to become a great Trek villain, but due to budget, editing and overall focus of the movie, he ends up being no more than a frowning, and rather odd, Romulan with a beef.
Eric Bana as Nero
[ Click here to read more ]
Leading up to the release of JJ Abrams' Star Trek I was filled with a mix of hope and trepidation, reading all I could about the movie in advance and preparing myself with as open a mind as possible for this "new" Trek. My concerns regarding this new Star Trek included the writing team of Orci and Kurtzman who were behind Michael Bay's Transformers in 2007, which had plot holes a 60-ft tall robot could walk through (and did) and JJ Abrams, who only had a couple of movies under his belt.
Spock and Kirk: then and now
[ Click here to read more ]
|
|
|
Add Comments
Read More
Comments (5)
Comment by Zeonprime
on Stand by your man
The Fiefdom of Geek