The Movie
I think there might be something wrong with me: I didn't hate the first Transformers, and neither do I agree with all of the vehement bashing of its sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It's big and it's loud and it's more than a little, y'know, stupid (the two-and-a-half-hour running time would be much shorter if director Michael Bay didn't keep stopping the story to make us "laugh" for minutes at a time), but it's a movie based on toys for Pete's sake, and the first movie let us know what to expect.
It's been two years since Transformers, and the good-guy Autobots have stuck around to find and destroy any of the bad-guy Decepticons who might still be hiding here on Earth. Those happy days of cooperation are numbered though as the consequences of their increasingly overt police actions are noted with concern by the government, even as The Fallen--the original Decepticon--is preparing for his return, and for the ultimate decimation of mankind with the activation of his secret invention, The Harvester.
When he's not "borrowing" from James Cameron, Bay does a good job repeating himself (see
Pearl Harbor,
Armageddon). I will say this: His movies are grand in ways that only mega-budget sci-fi can afford, with the sheer quantity of large-scale action that audiences obviously can't get enough of.
This "Big Screen Edition" seeks to recreate the IMAX experience as rendered specifically for those high-end moviehouses during the film's theatrical run. In an unusual first, Wal-Mart has exclusive rights to present those scenes specially created in the IMAX format at a screen-filling 16:9, much like Warner did with The Dark Knight. This is the only version of the movie on this disc, meaning that we can't toggle between IMAX and a constant 2.35:1. I don't have my copy of the standard Blu-ray release yet but when I do I will confirm that this is the only difference between the two, content-wise. No explanation of any kind is provided on or in the packaging.
Also be sure to check out movie critic Joe Lozito's take on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
The Picture
As I mentioned, this edition calls out the IMAX shots with a clear shift from a 2.4:1 aspect ratio to 16:9 (1.78:1). That's actually not the accurate aspect ratio for IMAX, but it is ideal for home video, to maximize the appearance on widescreen HDTVs. The first of two such instances begins at 59:23 (ending at 1:02:44, then cutting back for about another minute to conclude the scene) as robo-hero Optimus Prime takes on three Decepticons in the forest. The image quality is absolutely gorgeous, but is it a night-and-day difference? No, but only because the rest of the movie looks so damned good.
Colors are amped but not cartoonish, soft imagery somehow manages to keep the ringing and other artifacting to a minimum, and even darker or out-of-focus areas of the frame, typically poison for Blu-ray, are relatively clear and natural. The second IMAX sequence starts at 1:51:25, cutting back and forth throughout a lengthy battle in the desert with a super-ultra-combo-Decepticon that eats other robots. These special effects-heavy shots are indeed very big and very crisp.
The Sound
Even the DreamWorks and Paramount logos have been retooled sonically for this movie, with a slick techno twist. The ".1" in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is packing some sick levels of bass like I have never heard before, rattling the entire home theater within minutes after I pressed Play. To be fair, Transformers had better not sonically disappoint: These guys weigh tons, and they love to smash stuff, plus they shoot! And every channel here is so active, I half-expected to see smoke coming off of my speakers. In a typical scene, meteorites are hitting and helicopters are flying overhead, cars are crashing and guns are blazing. Even during a moment of intimate dialogue, there might be a battle raging in the background. This is action movie audio at its finest.
The Extras
On Disc One we are treated to a commentary by director/executive producer Michael Bay and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, always interesting on such an elaborate filmmaking journey as this. The real excitement begins on Disc Two however, a treasure trove of thoughtfully assembled supplements produced mostly by Charles de Lauzirika.
"The Human Factor: Exacting Revenge of the Fallen" is a seven-part "making of" from pre-, through production and post, running 134-and-a-half minutes if watched straight through. The weird, funny "A Day with Bay: Tokyo" (13 minutes) follows the director to the Japanese premiere, but first there's the small matter of finishing the film. "25 Years of Transformers" (about eleven minutes) explores the history and evolution of the toys.
Nest: Transformer Data-Hub is an extremely deep interactive section exploring the robotic characters' entire biography, from the original animated series, the toys, multiple comic book lines and of course the movies. A lot of love went into this. The BD-exclusive The Allspark Experiment interactive game meanwhile allows us to customize and then transform Earth vehicles into other-worldly robots.
Following an introduction by Bay himself, "Deconstructing Visual Bayhem" (see what they did there?) lets us toggle between multiple angles of pre-visualization for 15 different scenes (just the pre-vis, or an onscreen comparison of pre-vis and the final shot), with commentary by pre-vis supervisor Steve Yamamoto. The three deleted/alternate scenes total six minutes, "Giant Effing Movie" condenses the entire mammoth-scale production down to a fun 24 minutes, and the music video for Linkin Park's song "New Divide" will cost you five minutes. All of the video extras are in high-definition. Lastly, "The Matrix of Marketing" is a collection of trailers, commercials, poster artwork and photos of tie-in products.
Final Thoughts
Just calling Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen "a big, loud action trifle based on toys" is not entirely fair. It is an exceptionally well-produced big, loud action trifle based on toys, and I'm okay with that. I didn't learn a blessed thing about the world or myself, but I did spend two-and-a-half hours watching and listening with rapt attention while this disc made my home theater its bitch.
Product Details
- Actors: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Ramon Rodriguez, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Isabel Lucas, John Benjamin Hickey
- Director: Michael Bay
- Audio Format/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, Spanish)
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
- Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1/16:9
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: Paramount
- Release Date: October 20, 2009
- Run Time: 150 minutes
- List Price: $39.98
- Extras:
- Audio commentary by Michael Bay, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
- "The Human Factor: Exacting Revenge of the Fallen"
- "A Day with Bay: Tokyo"
- "25 Years of Transformers"
- Nest: Transformer Data-Hub
- The Allspark Experiment
- "Deconstructing Visual Bayhem"
- Deleted/Alternate Scenes
- Giant Effing Movie"
- Linkin Park "New Divide" music video
- "The Matrix of Marketing"
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