Oh dear gods where to even begin with this movie. Oh, and spoilers below.
First of all, if you were annoyed by the tropes in the first movie, don't even bother trying to see this one, they've multiplied in numbers and intensity at least 5 fold.
For instance, one of the things I liked about the first one is that at least the lead female character you know DID SOMETHING. She drove a huge truck backward and was AWESOME. In this one? Same lead female does NOTHING. You know except scream a bit here and there and get rescued and such. Bleh.
In the same vein, the running while holding hands trope of action movies was alive and well. This has become a huge irritant for me. Have you ever tried to run while holding someone's hand? Your arms can't help you out anymore and you go along really slow and really awkward. Yet they insist on doing this in these movies and in this one it was all over the place. WHY?! JUST RUN DAMN IT!
I never really thought of these robots as having a sex. I mean, they did, obviously, they all have male voices. But I guess I'll give a point to social conditioning for being successful in my not really thinking about it. But I have now, because there are female robots (for 5 seconds)! They're motorcycles with hot female voices who metallic boobs when they stand up. Yay! I mean motorcycles are cool and all but couldn't we just give some of these same big bulky cars female voices? Do they have to be SO gendered for anyone to consider that?
Also, since when are these robots "Terminators"? Why was there a perfectly human looking Decepticon? WHY?! I mean the "my gf walks into my college dorm right as this chick kissed me!" trope is bad enough but seriously did we just throw everything we know about these bots in the process? Was it worth it Michael Bay? Oh, also, in a very "Species"ish move this bot kills people either with a tail which creeps out all dangerously sexy from under her very short skirt or...with her tongue. Oy.
Another fun observation? The Black character has no lines. If you saw the first one you will remember a Black military dude character. He was somewhat important to that movie and had lines and stuff. Well, he's in this movie too. But his lines basically consist of "uh huh".
And my FAVORITE are these two walking robot black face caricatures! I guess maybe someone decided we needed "diversity" in the movie so we get chick robot motorcycles and these two guys. The faces themselves are ridiculous, they look like minstrel show posters, huge lips and googly eyes and I'm not even joking huge buckteeth one of which is GOLD in the front. And they talk like the most glaring MTV "ghetto Black" stereotype you've ever seen. My mouth hit the floor when I saw these two.
All in all, I can't even say I was entertained by this movie. I was alternately annoyed, astonished and bored. The action sequences were cool and it had it's moments, but these tropes just ruined it.
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Also, since when are these robots "Terminators"? Why was there a perfectly human looking Decepticon? WHY?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretender_(Transformers)
Bay didn't make that up.
Autobots
Landmine (mining vehicle) (in Japan released as Lander)
Cloudburst (jet) (in Japan released as Phoenix)
Waverider (submersible) (in Japan released as Diver)
Groundbreaker (car; exclusive to America)
Splashdown (speedboat; exclusive to America)
Sky High (helicopter; exclusive to America)
Metalhawk (jet; exclusive to Japan)
[edit] Decepticons
Bomb-Burst (VTOL jet) (in Japan released as Blood)
Skullgrin (tank) (in Japan released as Dauros)
Submarauder (submersible) (in Japan released as Gilmer)
Iguanus (motorcycle; exclusive to America)
Bugly (jet; exclusive to America)
Finback (hovercraft; exclusive to America)
Ok, where is the femme fatale?
Also:
While the Autobots' outer shells all resemble human beings clad in armor, the Decepticons' shells are all in the form of monstrous animalistic creatures
Yes he did completely make it up!
They were adapting (very very poorly) a (magnificent) cartoon for young boys into a (crappy) live action (POS) movie for young men. Of course sexing-up occurred.
Shit, the Transformers cartoon was only for young boys? I wish someone would've told me before I made a fool of myself and watched it back in the day...ya know, being a girl and all.
It's ok, I'm sure they didn't mind succeeding beyond their target market. I watched My Little Pony and it's not what made me a fool.
"core demographic" doesn't mean very much for a $150 million movie like Transformers 2. It was marketed everywhere from the LA Times to Dora the Explorer, either exactly haunts for young men in their late teens.
You can't compare it to My Little Pony, a 1986 movie with a $6 million theatrical gross. Or, for example, a more contemporary film targeted towards young women such as "I Love You Beth Cooper," with a $5 million gross. Those are target demo films.
These Transformers/superhero films, for better or worse, have become the anchors of the box office, and they have an audience much more diverse than their young white male centered POV.
I was comparing the original Transformers cartoon, which someone attacked me for implying was targeted to boys, to My Little Pony. Not the (craptacular) Transformer movies.
Yes "of course" it happened but that doesn't make it a good thing or something we shouldn't point out. Many elements of this movie (whether they were Bay's bright idea or not) were incredibly fucked up.
Also, it's not that much different from how Beast-era TFs worked.
I have trouble finding sympathy for anyone who watched both movies.
Ack thank you for this. My reaction to the first shot of Megan Fox in short shorts draped over a motorcycle made the hubby laugh (I think it was his only one for the whole film). Then the robot hip hop step-in-fetch its!!!!
I get your point aleks but the theatre has AC.
So do most prisons :)
What I don't get is how many nominally straight girls have crushes on Megan Fox. It made sense with Angelina, but explain this one to me?
Do "female" robots produce motor oil from their breasts?
Only early model skin-job cylons.
Bay didn't invent female Transformers, they've been around since G1. Usually as minor characters, but occasionally as part of the main cast (as with Blackarachnia in Beast Wars).
And Arcee was supposed to be in the first movie, but got cut for some reason or other. Got a toy though, a pretty good one too.
I found the movie to be largely pretty good. The Optimus scenes were cool. It was worth seeing just for those alone. Couple of things irritated me though - little miniature remote controlled truck, length of the movie, the twins and that chick who turned out to be a robot, that was so random and had no explanation whatsoever. But as I told over all I love the movie transformers and the game transformers, so collected some good articles and sites, around 200, for transformers movie and video games. If you are interested check out the link below
http://markthispage.blogspot.com/2009/06/200-links-to-know-about-transformers.html