Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an American science fiction action film released on June 19, 2009 in the United Kingdom and June 24, 2009 in North America, and will release on DVD and Blu-Ray on October 20, 2009.[3] It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers and the second film in the live action Transformers series. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, most notably France, Jordan and Egypt. The plot revolves around Sam, who has been having visions of Cybertronian symbols, getting hunted by the evil Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen. The Fallen seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying all life on the planet in the process.
With deadlines jeopardized by possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, Bay managed to finish the production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008.
Despite being panned by movie critics, Revenge of the Fallen achieved the highest Wednesday opening gross in history, bringing in $62 million in North America and close to $100 million worldwide; this is also the second-highest opening day gross of all time, behind only The Dark Knight's $67.8 million. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is currently the third highest-grossing film of 2009 worldwide, behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and the highest-grossing film of 2009 in the United States. In less than a month, the film surpassed the all-time earnings of its predecessor.
Reviews
The film received "generally unfavorable" reviews from film critics. Based on 223 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Revenge of the Fallen received an average of 19% overall approval rating. By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 35 out of 100 from the 32 reviews it collected. In contrast to the negative critical reception, audience reaction was mostly positive; CinemaScore polls reported that on a scale of A+ to F, the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was "B+".
According to The Washington Post, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Bay's worst-reviewed film, faring even lower than Pearl Harbor. Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter commented in his review that "for the uninitiated, it's loud, tedious, and at 147 minutes, way too long." Roger Ebert, who had given the 2007 film three stars, gave Revenge of the Fallen only one star, calling it "...a horrible experience of unbearable length." He later wrote in his blog about the film, saying "The day will come when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals. It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era. Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive ($190 million)." Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers did not give the film any stars considering that "Transformers 2 has a shot at the title Worst Movie of the Decade." The A.V. Club gave the film a C-.
There has also been considerable negative reaction to the characters Mudflap and Skids, who are alleged to embody racist stereotypes. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that "the characters [...] indicate that minstrelsy remains as much in fashion in Hollywood as when, well, Jar Jar Binks was set loose by George Lucas." Critic Scott Mendelson said, "To say that these two are the most astonishingly racist caricatures that I've ever seen in a mainstream motion picture would be an understatement." Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News, went further, asking his readers "not to support this film" because "you'll be taking [your children] to see a film with the lowest forms of humor, stereotypes and racism around." Director Bay has attempted to defend the film as "good clean fun" and insisted that "We're just putting more personality in." Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman responded to the controversy with "It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it. I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie."
