Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Tracking

Wow. So far, people's WOM has been terrific based on my Facebook feed and the BOM forums. Might I be wrong?

If the British reviewers can't stand it, it's destined to be gold. Already got my front row, dark-side tickets for tonight.

The critics are trashing but the WOM by the people is good. I will be the judge of that today when i go see it.

Not all critics are trashing it. Here's today's review from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:



'Transformers' sequel carries audiences on long, loud, head-banging ride

College can be a time of great upheaval. New city. Separation from your parents and your high school girlfriend. Crazy roommates and brutish frat dudes to contend with, not to mention egomaniacal professors.

And in the case of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), there's a little matter of trying to save the universe from the Decepticons.

Actually, he has more experience with that than he does with college life, having destroyed Decepticon leader Megatron the first time around in the 2007 "Transformers."


With "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," director Michael Bay delivers what you expect from a sequel by throwing the kitchen sink -- and, literally, all the kitchen appliances -- at the screen. The overstuffed second serving is bigger, louder and more eye-popping. By the time you've sat through all 147 minutes, you feel like you've watch a couple different movies.

When last we left Sam, the chosen one, he was turning Megatron's lights out by shoving the AllSpark cube into his chest. Now Megatron is lying limp at the bottom of the ocean, closely guarded by U.S. warships, as if that's going to work. Sam is now off to freshman year, leaving the embodiment of human perfection (Megan Fox) behind, along with Bumblebee -- his bodyguard and transforming Autobot Camaro.

The first glitch is the discovery of an AllSpark shard that's not only capable of bringing machines to life but also sending Sam into spasmodic visions of Cybertronian text, sometimes in class. He also has a sexy college co-ed coming on to him who smells like diesel and does supernatural things with her tongue.

She's going to push the action to the next level, and the next thing we know, Bay's blowing all of his location budget, spinning his story to Washington, New York, Paris and the ruins of Egypt, where Megatron and his Decepticons will slug it out in biblical fashion against Optimus Prime and the Autobots. (Only in Hollywood would humans survive this carnage, but then again, it could only happen in Hollywood ... we hope.) The stunning revelation is that we now know why the Great Pyramids were built, and it's not in our best interest.

Yes, there are a few plot twists to follow here, but you don't have to be a lifelong sci-fi geek to grasp them.

One of my companions walked away saying, "I wish it had just been about him going to college." And there's something to that. With stars as appealing as LaBeouf and Fox, a typically neurotic set of parents and a conspiracy-obsessed roommate (Ramon Rodriguez), Bay could have junked the robots, saved $200 million and made a classier "American Pie." But it's much harder to find reasons to blow things up in romances. And blowing things up is Bay's specialty (see "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "Bad Boys" and, of course, "Transformers").

The special effects are out of this world, far beyond "Batman," "Spider-Man" and "Hulk." As someone who struggles with a happy-meal transformer, my jaw drops at the elaborate CGI involved in turning a construction vehicle into a robot on the screen. The scenes of Devastator demolishing the Pyramids are spectacular.

What also sets "Transformers 2" above the usual summer blockbuster is that the second half doesn't completely degenerate into CGI. Midway through, we encounter John Turturro, the bullying Sector 7 agent from the first film, now working a deli counter in somewhat of a throwback to his classic "Do the Right Thing" role. Just when the energy is starting to dip, Turturro sparks it again as a frothing alien obsessive. "I spend my whole life looking for aliens and you're carrying one around like a little Chihuahua," he tells Fox at one point.

The obvious knock on "Transformers 2" is the running time. Bay's various supervisors must have been expert lobbyists, because everything apparently stayed in the picture. Show the average movie-goer how to work the machine and he or she could have made this better by trimming, say, 12 minutes, starting with some of the military stuff.

As it is, opt for the large popcorn and enjoy the eye candy.

'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'

3 stars = Good
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro.
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.
Web site: www.transformersmovie.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It caters SO much to the average movie goer, which in this case hurt it a lot. I was very disappointed. That said, it is going to have an absolutely HUGE 5 day weekend. I think it has a legitimate shot at 200 million. My theater had 4 sold out midnight shows. That's the same number they had for TDK. I don't know if it will fall, because the average movie goer that laughs at stupid jokes seemed to really like it a lot. It got a great response, I was just disappointed because it wasn't close to as great as the first.

geezer9687 wrote: I don't know if it will fall, because the average movie goer that laughs at stupid jokes seemed to really like it a lot.

Can you say Paul Blart?

Transformers did about 16 million for the midnight showings.

nice nice im under 3 hours away from seeing it.

That's freaking insane. Has the Wednesday record locked up.

for at least another 2 weeks you mean right?

The third Lord Of The Rings had much better midnights if I remember. And that was on a school night.

nope it has third place as far as midnights are concerned
1 dark knight 18
2 Star wars episode lll revenge of the sith 16.5
3 transformers 2 16

As far as I can tell word of mouth from fans is strong. It has a 7.2 out 5,300 votes on IMDB. The reviewers are not going to matter. The movie has done what it set out to...entertain. I mean what did they expect? It is loud, stupid, and unrealistic but that is all it ever set out to be. The theater I went to had 6 sold out midnight showings and my theater gave it lots applause. I think this it is going to be hard for Harry Potter to outgross it.

It was going to be hard for Harry Potter to outgross it from the minute it was announced. The original outgrossed every single HP movie and the sequel is certainly going over the last.

J.I., not every big sequel is guaranteed to outgross the first. Spider-Man 2 was considered by many the best comic book movie of all-time when it came out and it still made less than the original Spider-Man.

Just got home from seeing it, and my multi plex said they had 8 1/2 theaters full of people for the midnight showing.

I'll have my review of it up tomorrow.

Buscemi wrote:J.I., not every big sequel is guaranteed to outgross the first. Spider-Man 2 was considered by many the best comic book movie of all-time when it came out and it still made less than the original Spider-Man.

Spider-Man probably couldn't get any higher. Transformers has room to go up.

Buscemi wrote:J.I., not every big sequel is guaranteed to outgross the first. Spider-Man 2 was considered by many the best comic book movie of all-time when it came out and it still made less than the original Spider-Man.

I didn't like Spider-Man 2, is that bad? I thought the first one was great though.

I didn't like any of them W, and found Spider-man 2 the worst of them all.

I only liked the first Spider-Man. I would have liked them more have they continued to follow the first rather than do their own thing with the second and third.

I loved Spider-Man 2. I thought it was practically flawless. Best one of the series IMO.

The theater i work at had 7 sold out midnight shows and every single show on Wednesday sold out. We had to add an extra show, which then sold out right away. It was freakin' crazy.

$55+ million opening day according to DHD
$60.6 million according to Hollywood Reporter

That's a bit of a difference

60.6 is what comingsoon had. isnt that only like 3 million less than dark knight made last year? pretty damn good.