**MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD**
As far as action films G.I.JOE is every boy’s dream. As far as a story is concerned, it falls by the wayside – but honestly who was going to G.I.JOE for the storyline??
Not Me.
I went purely to see the action, with no expectation of a real storyline so I got what I expected to see albeit there was a shallow story there but not really enough to engage you in really caring for the characters, although the predictability of the film did not really leave any doubts about the end result of a fight. I was pleasantly surprised with the identity of The Doctor, that was well played in comparison to The Baroness who I really thought they could have played on that mystery more than they did. With Sienna Miller looking radically different as a brunette to a blonde I think they could have used the flashbacks in a different way to build mystery around her identity and relationship with Duke more.
Actors from The Mummy films provided a heavy presence; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Arnold Vosloo featuring heavily as Heavy Duty and Zartan respectively. Cameo’s from Kevin J O’Connor and Brendan Fraser were quite well played, especially Fraser. He was so insistent in being in the film I feel that his cameo was one of the better cameo’s I have seen in the past few years.
The special effects targeted the hyper-real look, which was at times painfully obvious – some scenes standing out more than others. The action scenes were well presented with a lot happening in a very manageable fashion (unlike Transformers). Overall I quite enjoyed the film, getting a little more than was expected with some great action sequences, but no story whatsoever definitely let the film down.
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I cannot believe the heights that the arrogance of Michael Bay will soar to, nay - strive to. In a recent interview with The Early Show Transformers star Megan Fox commented that she still does not understand the latest film 100% and that full comprehension of the film is accessible only to geniuses. Unfortunately for her Michael Bay heard about this and jumped into defensive mode/unnecessary anger much like he did when he discovered that Terminator Salvation was going to feature giant robots – because giant robots were his thing, because it is his original idea and all! *sarcasm for those who didn’t get it =p*
Bay stated to the Wall Street Journal;
"Well, that's Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she's 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, "Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want. I got it." But I 100% disagree with her. Nick Cage wasn't a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in "Armageddon." Shia LaBeouf wasn't a big movie star before he did "Transformers"-and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from "Bad Boys." Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in "Transformers." I like to think that I've had some luck in building actors' careers with my films."
And when I read this I must say I felt a sudden rush of anger and disbelief. In one brief statement he claims responsibility for the careers of Nicolas Cage, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Ben Affleck. I mean come on, when people think of these actors and their early roles that gained them fame they don’t think of Michael Bay films – action heavy, light on story. Especially Will Smith, yes Bad Boys was a success for him, but not really a career defining moment – that title remains with The Fresh Prince of Bel air and Men in Black. And the comment that Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before Transformers holds little merit. Yes it did have a major impact on his career but he already had other films being released in 2008 that would have done the job ala Indiana Jones and Eagle Eye and Disturbia did attract some attention as well. Speilberg has been keeping an eye on the young actor’s career since Holes back in 2003 and it should be noted that he also appeared alongside Will Smith in I, Robot as well. All these things being said and my anger being set aside I will say this about Bay; he can most definitely direct action but he should leave the rest of it to someone else who appreciates a more delicate approach to film making.
nb. the image above makes me shudder, i wonder what a filmmaker of Spielberg's caliber see's in Bay.
Revenge of the Fallen delivered what Michael Bay promised – big robots, big action, big movie. None of these factors create a good film however, which is something that I feel that Transformers provided. Unlike the first film, which was well balanced between the Transformers, the Humans and the action this sequel suffers from a lack of humanity. The film focused on the Transformers and their role on Earth and what had happened in the past 2 years since the end of the first film – hunting down the remaining Decepticons and apparently some new ones as well, with the help of some new Autobots that have also arrived on Earth. Unfortunately the film focuses on these new supporting Autobots more than the previous films support crew (with the exception of Bumblebee) that were barely provided with 5 lines between them.
The failings of this film was that there seemed to be no real thought in regards to the need for breathing room in the film. There were very little low points, constant eye-candy involving majestic special effects in ridiculous fight sequences. Even the few quiet moments during the film were not without incident; the quietest portion of the film was the college sequence which was riddled with transformer(esque) events as well as a meeting with Optimus. It really felt like the human characters could not exist without a transformer holding their hand. I thought the Shia LeBeouf’s acting was noteworthy – displaying the promise that Steven Spielberg has stated that drew him to the young star and it was nice to see Hugo Weaving have the chance to deliver more lines as the imposing Megatron. The Transformer battles were stronger than before, but unbalanced in comparison to the first film – Megatron was near invincible when attacked by all the Autobots in the first film but in this he was pressed to defeat Optimus Prime when he was one of 3 Decepticons fighting him at the one time. On that note the Fallen was pathetic, when compared to the presence demanded by Megatron in the first film he was nothing. Even compared to the combined Transformer that appeared briefly he held no presence. A very action heavy film which was left lacking in the story department.
Story – 6.5
Lead Cast Performance – 7
Supporting Cast Performance – 8
Special Effects – 9.5
Audio – 9
8/10
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