Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This was touted by one of my friends as "More robots, more action and more Megan Fox", so why wouldn't I go and see it?

It delivers on all three scores, and is a good sequel to the first film which expands on the story, however it has failed to learn from the mistakes of the previous film. Huge metal robots fighting each other is great, but often they are moving so fast in the combat that you can't see what's going on. I had to wait for a high def version of the first film to truly appreciate it, and I believe the same will be true here.

Without giving away any spoilers, the Decepticons are back, and they're searching for something. The story follows on well from the first film, with many plot threads picked up again. Jon Voight's absence was handled quite well, I thought.

The same mix of humour, action and adventure is retained from the first film, and expanded upon. There are a few surprising appearances, and there are even more transformers in this sequel, which was to be expected, I suppose. As a result, many of the robots don't get a lot of screen time.

There's a fairly enormous collapse of the fourth wall near the end of the movie which could have been avoided by some simple location planning and fore-thought. Plus, and this may simply have been the Odeon's stupid audio set up, but I left with a bit of a headache due to all the explosions.

As usual, there already seems to be an influx of cheap toys onto the market to support this film, including a new console game. One can only hope it's better than the first game. Having said that, this wouldn't be hard.


Score: B

OQ: "Don't tempt me..."

Terminator Salvation

I was a bit apprehensive going to see this due to the bad reviews it's been getting in places and to be honest when I left I was confused because this film is really quite excellent.

Terminator fans have been saying that the timeline is inconsistent with the one already established in the previous films, but I don't see this as a problem. There's always been an inconsistencies between the Terminator films versions of the timeline, some of which are added deliberately and some accidentally, and they all combine in to the mix to create a fluid timeline that keeps changing because Skynet keeps screwing around with its time machine. There was actually an interesting article on the Sci-Fi Channel (US) website going in to some detail about the inconsistencies, particularly around how old the characters are*. There is actually a line from the trailer that was dropped from this film (mistakenly, in my opinion), where John says "This isn't the future my mother prepared me for." The implication being that something Skynet has done in the past has radically altered this future.

There are a couple of parts of the film where reality comes crashing in through the door like a ten ton elephant. One at the very start with the titles where the Terminator theme gate-crashes the opening theme. It feels very shoe-horned in. And another when Connor is crouched on a ruined bridge at night where I half expected him to leap off and open his cape to glide down. I have to say that Arnie's digital cameo in this is handled excellently. I wasn't expecting it, I though it would be a glancing shot of him in the middle distance. It's not, and it's brilliant. Looks really great.

The only thing I can think of that might cause Terminator fans to be unhappy with this film is that it is a break from the standard formula. Well, that and that this film was directed by 'McG'. The first three movies are essentially "chase" movies, with an unstoppable villain relentlessly pursuing the heroes. They worked because they drew on a basic human fear, drawing from a common nightmare about being unable to get away from someone no matter how fast you run. Terminator Salvation is a break from this formula, and to be honest, it's a welcome change. The standard format barely worked for Terminator 3 and I can't really see it working again for the franchise. There's always the worry, of course, that in mentioning this "mythic" war but never seeing it in previous films, it gets set it up as being so epic that when you finally see it, no matter how well it is filmed, the war never seems big enough or sufficiently vast. It's a trap that Star Wars fell into with the Clone Wars. Terminator Salvation has rather neatly got around this problem in a novel way. Even being able to put Skynet into the movie for the first time, without really drawing back the veil of mystery surrounding it, is handled rather well.

Score: B++

OQ: Watch me...

*In fact, the implication from the various films is that by 2029 (the period you see briefly in Terminator 2), Skynet is losing the war badly and has become desperate, hence the time travel to kill John Connor in the past. It's a last ditch effort by Skynet to win the war.