Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

[SHO]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Exactly what I was thinking as well. If people remember correctly Jazz in the original cartoon series had an urban flavor to him too. Pretty ridiculous that the yahoo article was actually written. A total non-issue.

Bad writing and improv, yes.
Racism? No.

Jazz while being the "black" Autobot, he was actually articulate and wasn't acting like a baffoon on his limited screen time before his death.

I won't go as far to say that I think it's racist (more ignorance than anything), but I do have concerns about this.

[SPTO]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Exactly what I was thinking as well. If people remember correctly Jazz in the original cartoon series had an urban flavor to him too. Pretty ridiculous that the yahoo article was actually written. A total non-issue.

Bad writing and improv, yes.
Racism? No.

I knew this was going to happen. I read about the Twins and their antics etc etc. This is more a case of rampant stereotyping and ignorance on Bay's part rather then out and out racism. (though I have no doubt he probably sees the urban scene in much the same way as those characters are portrayed)

Thing is, Bay should be a little more sensitive to these things. I don't think it'd cause as much of a stink if one of the bots didn't have a gold tooth and they were so blatantly over the top in their "urban" style.

As for Jazz in the original cartoon, he was voiced by a black guy yes, but he wasn't so stereotyped to the hilt as this seems to be. You could tell Jazz was "black" but it's a crying shame that an '80s cartoon was more subtle about it then Michael Bay who comes from the HHH school of life where everything has to be sledgehammered to death.

[Altimus]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Spoiler

Hell yeah. Neither did I. At least in the last movie he was shown doing some damage at points. In this one, I can't recall ONE thing he did this entire movie. And like you said, they made him look like a complete bitch this time around.

Spoiler

Yeah all he did was just fly around and get his arm torn by Optimus Prime.

With Megatron's master out of the picture now, I really hope this sets the tone for StarScream challenging Megaton. StarScream is a lot more powerful then the movies make him appear. I was hoping he would use his speed attacks to get some of the Autobots but all he did was just freaking fly around... Oh well. Here's to hoping he has a bigger impact in the third.

[TMagic]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Spoiler

Yeah all he did was just fly around and get his arm torn by Optimus Prime.

With Megatron's master out of the picture now, I really hope this sets the tone for StarScream challenging Megaton. StarScream is a lot more powerful then the movies make him appear. I was hoping he would use his speed attacks to get some of the Autobots but all he did was just freaking fly around... Oh well. Here's to hoping he has a bigger impact in the third.

Spoiler

Yeah, me too. Not only did they show his arm being torn off by Prime, but he got beaten with it, and then they later show him carrying it around with him. LOL. Made him look like a damn fool.

It doesn't look like they are setting him up to be any type of leader at all. After the first, I thought he was going to be the leader in this one. But, that didn't happen.

[cubsfan203]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

There is going to be a 3rd one correct? They obviously set it up so that there could be, but I'm not sure it'll be as good if they switch directors. How would that work, some random person just taking over everything?

[Blzer]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

See, this is the funny thing: I did not like this movie, and I despised what Bay did with this one, especially when you consider how he was able to successfully make the first one. However, despite all of that, I would still prefer that he directs the third one and I am looking forward to seeing it.

I just hope he looks back at both movies, see what the mass does not like about them, and learns from his mistakes. If it ends up being another disaster like this one, I won't like it.

[SPTO]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

There is going to be a 3rd one correct? They obviously set it up so that there could be, but I'm not sure it'll be as good if they switch directors. How would that work, some random person just taking over everything?

I'd say Spielberg could step in since he's a producer but his plate is quite full as it is. Maybe he could get a friend like Bob Zemeckis in as a consultant to reign Bay in. I always felt the BTTF movies had a lot of credibility to them.

[SHO]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

There is going to be a 3rd one correct? They obviously set it up so that there could be, but I'm not sure it'll be as good if they switch directors. How would that work, some random person just taking over everything?

Bay is 0-for-2, so he might as well finish out the third one. Three is the magic number for a series reboot. Maybe when they decide to pick this series up again down the line, they'll get somebody good behind it.

[MattUMD224]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

just thinking about this...anyone else get annoyed with how they had the Decpticon go on Time Square and TV to tell the country that they were gong to take over the world and all that mess and you see no panic from the people and you dont see anything else about it

[Misfit]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Bay is 0-for-2, so he might as well finish out the third one. Three is the magic number for a series reboot. Maybe when they decide to pick this series up again down the line, they'll get somebody good behind it.

Bay has already stated he isn't interested in doing a third Transformers movie, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of interpretation.

I just have no interest in this film. The first one was carried by nostalgia and some surprising humor from the cast. The movie was fun, though it dragged on way too long and was surprisingly bland when all of the attention was focused on the robots doing battle. I also wasn't crazy about the look of each bot as there wasn't much logic. At least with the various cartoons and comics it was reasonable to assume the robots could transfrom from one form to the other (with the exception of Megatron who shrunk while transforming) and the animation was consistent. In the film the transforming animations just looked lazy. It was just a jumble of scrap metal and panels which took away from the visual aspect of the movie for me. If I thought the second would be something at least fun to watch and take in maybe I would have some interest, but for me one was enough.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Jazz while being the "black" Autobot, he was actually articulate and wasn't acting like a baffoon on his limited screen time before his death.

I won't go as far to say that I think it's racist (more ignorance than anything), but I do have concerns about this.

How do you know that Jazz was "black"?

[SHO]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

How do you know that Jazz was "black"?

Because he died first.




The professor from the article puts in an easy way to describe it; "It's not about skin color or robot color. It's about how their actions and language are coded racially." I think there is truth in that. I hate the argument of ambiguity because it's like pornography - I can't exactly describe it, but I know it when I see it. And I know that Jazz was supposed to be depicted as the "black" Autobot.

[Blzer]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

just thinking about this...anyone else get annoyed with how they had the Decpticon go on Time Square and TV to tell the country that they were gong to take over the world and all that mess and you see no panic from the people and you dont see anything else about it

I think this scene was what finally put me over the top with this movie and said, "Okay, that's it." This was the defining moment that separated Revenge of the Fallen from Transformers. Even the Cybertron scene earlier was just as bad.

It could just be me, but I am a fan of some of these new movies plus superhero movies because there is a rather humanistic element to them. I'll never read any of the Batman comics, watch the cartoon or the old movies... same with Spider-Man, etc. But I like these new movies because they are very "earthly," as well as Transformers. But Revenge of the Fallen took that aspect away and went balls-to-the-wall with perhaps a few elements that some people like, but others like me do not. They took away that sense of "realism" (whatever realism there ever may have been) and made it a true comic fan's simulacrum.

But yeah, no such reactions from anybody. That's like if in The Dark Knight no one ever tried to go after Reese. It would just be moot and a waste of time... not to mention more convoluted than it should be.



Oh and as for another funny moment...

Spoiler

... the scene with Captain Lennox was trying to explain to General Morshower how to deploy the chute out of the plane and he couldn't hear anything, then Lennox curses him out with glee.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I think the bucked tooth butcher is a more apparent example of stereotyping in this film than the Twins, but I knew what was going to be made of the Twins by the time they finished their first scene.

Concerning the Times Square thing

Spoiler

The whole "we're taking over the world unless you had over THIS KID" thing was wasted, IMO. I mean, nothing happened with Sam after that. I would have figured everybody on the face of the Earth would have been looking for him, some of the army guys starting to ponder turning him over, etc, but NOTHING. What was the point? That just illustrated how freakin' melodramatic and anticlimatic this movie was. For as long as the final battle lasted, the Optimus Prime and Fallen/Megatron fight was like 15 seconds? Fun.

[Blzer]

Re: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Yeah Fresh, as my first impressions gather, this movie was just terribly all over the place.

Speaking of "all over the place," I found the soundtrack to be bothersome as well. They just took everything that was in the first one and slapped them into random scenes. There was the jungle-sounding music when Sam had awkward moments in his home slapped around when he was in college and such, and they even just used another Linkin Park song! The one time I did notice a change in the actual music was I believe when fighter jets were taking off from the battleship, but even then the music felt kind of weird, almost out of tune. I'd have to find that scene to show you what I mean.

My favorite sound effect in this entire movie though was when...

Spoiler

... I believe it was Starscream that used that one sound to knock out all radio signals. It was really cool, again can't recall exactly who or how it sounded, but it was awesome.