TF2 - ROTF Movie reviews and comments.

[GoktimusPrime]

kup: You really ought to read the RotF prequels (e.g.: Defiance, Alliance) as it would answer a lot of your questions/comments about certain things in the movie.

When the Constructicon by the name of Demolishor was defeated and knocked out of the action, no longer posing a threat - then comes Prime and executes him in cold blood in a savage manner that felt more like the movie artificially trying to be 'hardcore' than anything substantial and so much against the character of Optimus Prime not just from G1 but also the character we saw in the first movie. It was as if Optimus Prime was now a souless avenging killing machine rather than the compassionate leader we saw in the first movie.

Movie Optimus Prime = DAI ATLAS!
Seriously! Both movie Prime and Dai Atlas harbour incredible compassion for innocents but are extremely merciless toward Decepticons. The way movie Prime hacks his opponents apart is the same as Dai Atlas' style of fighting - who could forget the way he cleaved Predaking in half? (Sideswipe did the same thing to Sideways in this movie)

But I like it. Unlike many other fans I never really disliked Dai Atlas because realistically speaking, in war you have to be ruthless against your enemies. As both Bob Budiansky and Simon Furman wrote in G1 Optimus Prime's TFU profiles, Optimus Prime's greatest weakness is his compassion - he would actually be a more efficient military commander if he were more cruel. But then he wouldn't be Optimus Prime; and I think it's that line which makes a lot of people dislike Dai Atlas, so I can absolutely understand why some people may be turned off by movie Optimus Prime being like this too.

But remember: different universe, different character. In a realistic situation I think it makes more sense.

The College sequences are by far the worse parts of the movie and thankfully they end when Sam escapes after being seduced/attacked by Alice which was all a very cringy affair. That whole Pretender character should of just been cut from the film as it wasn't fun it was just freaking tedious and pointless. Alice gives a bad name to G1 Pretenders

The university scenes were also my least favourite, but I don't necessarily dislike Alice as a character and I don't think she's bad by Pretender standards. In fact, she's pretty good - she's succeeded in one area which has _never_ been achieved by any other Decepticon Pretender before... she passed off as human and infiltrated human society!!

Granted that in G1 most of the Decepticon Pretenders looked like monsters, we did have a few that looked human, like Starscream and Stranglehold. But unfortunately Pretenders in Anglophone G1 continuity are all giants, so they're unable to pass off as humans unless they're in a planet inhabited by giants like Femax or Pz-Zazz. They certainly would never pass off as humans on Earth. In Japanese G1 continuity Pretenders were able to shrink down and pass off as humans - but we only ever saw this being done with the Autobots and never with the Decepticons. So I like Alice because she's the first Decepticon Pretender who can actually pass off as being human on Earth, and thus successfully infiltrate human society. In terms of the scene's purpose for the story, it was a device for incorporating Leo into Sam's party.

Naturally the reason for acquiring the Allspark fragment was to revive Megatron and the sequence with the Constructicons jumping off the ship to reach the ocean depth where Megatron had been dumped was cool even if it contradicts the first movie as the depth of the ocean doesn't crush them but that could be interpreted as the Humans' lack of understanding on Transformers durability.

I would assume so.

Although I liked the ritualistic way in which the Decepticons revived Megatron, I was a bit disturbed about them Sacrificing the Constructicon. Why was that necessary? Megatron clearly looks as if he had been revived from Brawl's parts due to the tank mode and it seems that this was the original intention but probably for greater impact, Bay chose to do this rather pointless sacrifice instead.

I disagree. Megatron's tank mode is entirely alien. Had he been revived with Brawl's parts then his tank mode should bear some resemblance to Brawl's Earthen tank form, but it doesn't, not a single part of it. It's completely Cybertronian in design. The movie shows them sacrificing a Constructicon so they could salvage parts to repair Megatron, the Doctor specifically states this. He also tells the Constructicons to kill the smallest of their party -- so it was a lot like the law of the jungle where the larger and stronger Constructicons cannabilised the weakest of their group.

Jetfire was a bit weird but likable even though his only real purpose was just story exposition which was somewhat disappointing but at least he wasn't a throwaway character (more on that later). Jetfire's story adds a bit of much needed back story to the Movie continuity which is vaguely based on the Marvel G1 origin with the 7 Primes who had a traitor among them. This is similar but still distanced to the 1980s origin with the first 13 Transformers created by Primus with the Fallen being the Judas of the group who chose to conspire with Unicron and betray his brothers and creator in return for power. The Movie version is a considerably more simplistic take on this origin story to the point that there is only a passing similarity.

The "first 13" origin was actually retconned by IDW and was never introduced by Marvel in the 1980s. Some members of Marvel continuity comprise the 13, such as Prima. The Dynasty of the Primes is also something entirely new that's been introduced by Revenge of the Fallen. Movie continuity portrays the Primes as an elite ruling class with power above that of normal Transformers, much like the Rangers of Middle Earth; this was never the case in G1. In comic continuity Optimus Prime was a regular soldier who rose through the ranks and was eventually appointed supreme commander of all Autobot forces with the dissolution of the Autobot Council of Elders by Councillor Traachon (at Councillor Xaaron's behest). In cartoon continuity Optimus Prime was a former dock worker called Orion Pax.

Of course Prime gets revived by the Matrix as well as repaired and upgraded by Jetfire arriving to help in the battle and later sacrifice himself which was good but rather sudden. Jetfire was severely injured during the fight so maybe he was going to die anyway and wanted his death to mean something but this was not properly explained and happened within just a couple of seconds.

It was explained. Jetfire said, "In all my Decepticon life I've never done anything worthwhile." -- Jetfire wanted to leave a legacy.

Another thing that bothered me was that Soundwave never came down from Satellite mode. I expected him to join the battle at the end which would have been awesome but he didn't and again more wasted potential for something great - It seems that he was forgotten by Bay too but he did play a substantial role in the movie at least.

I agree. I was also disappointed that many other Transformers never transformed, like Ravage and that robot that he regurgitated into the AllSpark shard chamber - I'm sorry but a bunch of balls is a really LAME alt mode. :/ It's sad that we saw Alice transform, but not Soundwave and Ravage. Boo.

Then again Soundwave was put into the story because fans voted for him, so I guess his role was always just going to be a fairly peripheral one. And I'm sure that Frank Welker is stoked that Soundwave was finally allowed to sound like the way that he'd always wanted him to sound! Welker was never happy that Sunbow digitally altered his voice in the G1 cartoon - he actually wanted it to sound like Dr. Claw. Now he's got his wish.

after all the movie are based on children toys....

That's not true. The toys are based on the movie. Usually you would be right - the vast majority of Transformers are conceived as toys first and then as comic book/cartoon characters afterward, but this is not the case with the movie. Also, the movie is rated M.

But I agree with what someone else pointed out when Bay tried to justify the twins' odd personas by saying that he made them "for kids" yet the movie is loaded with in-your-face adult references! Beast Wars is full of adult references too, but they're really subtle and fly over kids' heads. I don't think subtlety is a word that exists in Bay's vocabulary. ;D