Tags : movie critics, movie review, Transformers, transformers revenge of the fallen
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” – Critics Hate It
The sequel in the Transformers series, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, came out Tuesday night in select showings, and will debut tonight more widely, so the reviews have been pouring in for the last few days. Not surprisingly, it made $16m in its first, and single, showing – with all sorts of big numbers and records already coming in or expected. Surprisingly, the critics not only hate it, but feel the need to badmouth every aspect of the movie.
Go through a list of some big name critics and their reviews: Roger Ebert (Sun-Times), Mary Pols (TIME), David Edelstein (NY Mag), Jeffery Anderson (Combustible Celluloid), Devin Faraci (CHUD), Maryann Johanson (FlickFilosopher), Garth Franklin (Dark Horizons), Marshall Fine (Hollywood and Fine Reviews). Then take a look at the Rotten Tomatoes page. If you have a Netflix account, scroll through its user reviews. Notice a trend?
How can a movie that’s likely going to be the biggest box office all summer get such horrible reviews?
The answer is simple: critics don’t understand the movie. Most of the movie critic audience is either too old or too snobbish cultured to be seen enjoying purely action movies, let alone giving them decent reviews – so their kneejerk reaction is to not just give it a horrible review, but to concoct a vitriolic spew that they hope will scare people from seeing the movie. Take Roger Ebert as an example:
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.
That’s just the introduction paragraph, but the rest of the hilariously high class review follows suit – and he’s the most tame of the angry-mob reviewers. All of them use lots of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs to explain how they feel about this movie, as if they have an infatuation with appearing ridiculous and over-the-top… isn’t that what they’re criticizing Michael Bay of?
You don’t go to a Michael Bay movie expecting an indie art movie. You don’t even go expecting something that’s intelligent or a social commentary – you expect big explosions, lots of action, and enough of a plot to explain all the awesomeness in between. The first Transformers movie was as unadulterated of a “guy movie” as it gets, so why should the sequel be any different?
The audiences seem to know and expect this, or perhaps even love it. Anyone that pays to see this movie should know what they’re getting themselves into, and be mentally prepared for it – if not, they shouldn’t be sitting in the theater. Even Bay himself will explain that his movies are about explosions and action, not thoughtful, plodding pieces on love or other issues.
Another major criticism is the heavy-handed use of computer effects, which, again, makes no sense. The critics seem to think that a movie about giant robots fighting each other can happen without the use of special effects and camera trickery, which is in itself an interesting problem – I’d love to see a non-CG rendition of Transformers. Maybe they’ll use sockpuppets?
Movies exist as a way to escape from reality, and momentarily believe in something more exciting than everyday life. The Matrix wasn’t a perfect movie (as much as I adore it), and had heavy use of special effects, but didn’t get bad reviews. Perhaps the difference is that the critics refuse to understand movies can sometimes just be movies – no deep meanings or philosophical questions, just an excuse to watch 144 minutes of explosions, attractive women, and fighting robots.
I can’t wait to see reviews for G.I. Joe… the critics are intent on destroying all of my childhood fantasies.
Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction. He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.
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