The "Retro Game Reviews" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I’ve been a Transformers fan since I was a kid and although the toys came first, the storyline in the comics and TV series built up a careful history of the robots from Cybertron.
Michael Bay’s first film ignored most of this and focused on the main facts, introducing the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, with their leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron. It was a good plan that let Bay focus on action and introductions and gave us Sam Witwicky, (played by Shia LaBeouf) as the boy who finds the Allspark cube, the item that gives the Transformers life.
Now that the characters are established with a new audience, however, Bay can finally concentrate on providing a bit of history and a lot of fan service to those who’ve followed the franchise from the beginning. But the important question is; can the second film kick shiny robot butt better than the first?
When we rejoin the story, Sam is off to college, leaving girlfriend Mikaela (played by the lovely Megan Fox) behind and trying to live a normal life after the events of the first film, but a shard of the Allspark cube burns a message into his head. Meanwhile, the Autobots are working with the government, still in secret, to remove the last of the Decepticons from Earth.
As you can imagine, not everything goes to plan. The Decepticon Soundwave, in the form of a satellite, picks up messages that Megatron is buried beneath the sea and that another shard of Allspark cube is being kept by the humans. We also learn that Starscream is back on Cybertron, working for a very old foe of the Autobots and someone who could threaten the whole Earth if let loose.
What Bay does right here is to provide more of what fans wanted to see. New Autobots, like the female Arcee (first seen in Transformers: The Movie) and decepticons like the huge Devestator and the jaguar-like Ravage alongside prolonged fight scenes and even some great Megatron/Starscream squabbling. The characters of Sam and Mikaela are given even more room to grow and a few new human characters help to mix it up as well as a welcome return of one particular favorite from the first film.
Mix in a bit of fanboy history; the Matrix, Energon, the Primes and even a big homage to Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 animated film), plus a possible new love interest for Sam who may not be who she seems and you have a winning combination. At 147 minutes it still manages to pack enough action and drama in to every minute and while it may be a bit long for some, for fanboys who’ve been asking for some more nods to old Transformers lore it will be heaven.
Not everything works though, in particular the new Autobot twins who almost reach Jar Jar Binks levels of annoyance, only making up for this towards the end. The other criticism is that Bay concentrates too much on human characters, not really allowing any of the other Autobots and Decepticons to develop their own personalities beyond the basics. Only Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee get enough screen time to really make you care about them.
Still, for a fan of the series this reaches new heights. For the rest of you it may grate a little towards the end, but you’ll still end up loving it. My only hope is that Transformers 3 brings us the Dinobots (with Brian Blessed as the voice of Grimlock, please!)
9/10
Michael Bay’s first film ignored most of this and focused on the main facts, introducing the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, with their leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron. It was a good plan that let Bay focus on action and introductions and gave us Sam Witwicky, (played by Shia LaBeouf) as the boy who finds the Allspark cube, the item that gives the Transformers life.
Now that the characters are established with a new audience, however, Bay can finally concentrate on providing a bit of history and a lot of fan service to those who’ve followed the franchise from the beginning. But the important question is; can the second film kick shiny robot butt better than the first?
When we rejoin the story, Sam is off to college, leaving girlfriend Mikaela (played by the lovely Megan Fox) behind and trying to live a normal life after the events of the first film, but a shard of the Allspark cube burns a message into his head. Meanwhile, the Autobots are working with the government, still in secret, to remove the last of the Decepticons from Earth.
As you can imagine, not everything goes to plan. The Decepticon Soundwave, in the form of a satellite, picks up messages that Megatron is buried beneath the sea and that another shard of Allspark cube is being kept by the humans. We also learn that Starscream is back on Cybertron, working for a very old foe of the Autobots and someone who could threaten the whole Earth if let loose.
What Bay does right here is to provide more of what fans wanted to see. New Autobots, like the female Arcee (first seen in Transformers: The Movie) and decepticons like the huge Devestator and the jaguar-like Ravage alongside prolonged fight scenes and even some great Megatron/Starscream squabbling. The characters of Sam and Mikaela are given even more room to grow and a few new human characters help to mix it up as well as a welcome return of one particular favorite from the first film.
Mix in a bit of fanboy history; the Matrix, Energon, the Primes and even a big homage to Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 animated film), plus a possible new love interest for Sam who may not be who she seems and you have a winning combination. At 147 minutes it still manages to pack enough action and drama in to every minute and while it may be a bit long for some, for fanboys who’ve been asking for some more nods to old Transformers lore it will be heaven.
Not everything works though, in particular the new Autobot twins who almost reach Jar Jar Binks levels of annoyance, only making up for this towards the end. The other criticism is that Bay concentrates too much on human characters, not really allowing any of the other Autobots and Decepticons to develop their own personalities beyond the basics. Only Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee get enough screen time to really make you care about them.
Still, for a fan of the series this reaches new heights. For the rest of you it may grate a little towards the end, but you’ll still end up loving it. My only hope is that Transformers 3 brings us the Dinobots (with Brian Blessed as the voice of Grimlock, please!)
9/10
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
I’ve been a Transformers fan since I was a kid and although the toys came first, the storyline in the comics and TV series built up a careful history of the robots from Cybertron.
Michael Bay’s first film ignored most of this and focused on the main facts, introducing the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, with their leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron. It was a good plan that let Bay focus on action and introductions and gave us Sam Witwicky, (played by Shia LaBeouf) as the boy who finds the Allspark cube, the item that gives the Transformers life.
Now that the characters are established with a new audience, however, Bay can finally concentrate on providing a bit of history and a lot of fan service to those who’ve followed the franchise from the beginning. But the important question is; can the second film kick shiny robot butt better than the first?
When we rejoin the story, Sam is off to college, leaving girlfriend Mikaela (played by the lovely Megan Fox) behind and trying to live a normal life after the events of the first film, but a shard of the Allspark cube burns a message into his head. Meanwhile, the Autobots are working with the government, still in secret, to remove the last of the Decepticons from Earth.
As you can imagine, not everything goes to plan. The Decepticon Soundwave, in the form of a satellite, picks up messages that Megatron is buried beneath the sea and that another shard of Allspark cube is being kept by the humans. We also learn that Starscream is back on Cybertron, working for a very old foe of the Autobots and someone who could threaten the whole Earth if let loose.
What Bay does right here is to provide more of what fans wanted to see. New Autobots, like the female Arcee (first seen in Transformers: The Movie) and decepticons like the huge Devestator and the jaguar-like Ravage alongside prolonged fight scenes and even some great Megatron/Starscream squabbling. The characters of Sam and Mikaela are given even more room to grow and a few new human characters help to mix it up as well as a welcome return of one particular favorite from the first film.
Mix in a bit of fanboy history; the Matrix, Energon, the Primes and even a big homage to Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 animated film), plus a possible new love interest for Sam who may not be who she seems and you have a winning combination. At 147 minutes it still manages to pack enough action and drama in to every minute and while it may be a bit long for some, for fanboys who’ve been asking for some more nods to old Transformers lore it will be heaven.
Not everything works though, in particular the new Autobot twins who almost reach Jar Jar Binks levels of annoyance, only making up for this towards the end. The other criticism is that Bay concentrates too much on human characters, not really allowing any of the other Autobots and Decepticons to develop their own personalities beyond the basics. Only Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee get enough screen time to really make you care about them.
Still, for a fan of the series this reaches new heights. For the rest of you it may grate a little towards the end, but you’ll still end up loving it. My only hope is that Transformers 3 brings us the Dinobots (with Brian Blessed as the voice of Grimlock, please!)
9/10
Michael Bay’s first film ignored most of this and focused on the main facts, introducing the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, with their leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron. It was a good plan that let Bay focus on action and introductions and gave us Sam Witwicky, (played by Shia LaBeouf) as the boy who finds the Allspark cube, the item that gives the Transformers life.
Now that the characters are established with a new audience, however, Bay can finally concentrate on providing a bit of history and a lot of fan service to those who’ve followed the franchise from the beginning. But the important question is; can the second film kick shiny robot butt better than the first?
When we rejoin the story, Sam is off to college, leaving girlfriend Mikaela (played by the lovely Megan Fox) behind and trying to live a normal life after the events of the first film, but a shard of the Allspark cube burns a message into his head. Meanwhile, the Autobots are working with the government, still in secret, to remove the last of the Decepticons from Earth.
As you can imagine, not everything goes to plan. The Decepticon Soundwave, in the form of a satellite, picks up messages that Megatron is buried beneath the sea and that another shard of Allspark cube is being kept by the humans. We also learn that Starscream is back on Cybertron, working for a very old foe of the Autobots and someone who could threaten the whole Earth if let loose.
What Bay does right here is to provide more of what fans wanted to see. New Autobots, like the female Arcee (first seen in Transformers: The Movie) and decepticons like the huge Devestator and the jaguar-like Ravage alongside prolonged fight scenes and even some great Megatron/Starscream squabbling. The characters of Sam and Mikaela are given even more room to grow and a few new human characters help to mix it up as well as a welcome return of one particular favorite from the first film.
Mix in a bit of fanboy history; the Matrix, Energon, the Primes and even a big homage to Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 animated film), plus a possible new love interest for Sam who may not be who she seems and you have a winning combination. At 147 minutes it still manages to pack enough action and drama in to every minute and while it may be a bit long for some, for fanboys who’ve been asking for some more nods to old Transformers lore it will be heaven.
Not everything works though, in particular the new Autobot twins who almost reach Jar Jar Binks levels of annoyance, only making up for this towards the end. The other criticism is that Bay concentrates too much on human characters, not really allowing any of the other Autobots and Decepticons to develop their own personalities beyond the basics. Only Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee get enough screen time to really make you care about them.
Still, for a fan of the series this reaches new heights. For the rest of you it may grate a little towards the end, but you’ll still end up loving it. My only hope is that Transformers 3 brings us the Dinobots (with Brian Blessed as the voice of Grimlock, please!)
9/10