AUTOBOT BUMBLEBEE PROTECTS CALIFORNIA YARD
The city of Lemoore, California is located in the San Joaquin Valley and provides a welcome environment for travelers. It is also home of a fan made, 18 foot tall Transformer Bumblebee Statue assembled from an old Volkswagen.
“I’ve always been a fan of the Transformers,” Tom Rhoads stated to the crew at a local radio station. “And when my son was born I decided to make the statue."
Based off the G1 cartoon, It took Tom and a friend a year to build in their spare time and in the end, this awesome 1200 lb homemade hero was hoisted onto its feet by crane and now protects the Rhoads front yard. What's next for Tom after this masterpiece? The Semi Truck in his backyard. It's Prime time!!!
TOY FAIR 09 ROTF FIGURE PICS
See pictures of the new toys from the movie in the Hasbro showroom during our visit to the 2009 International Toy Fair. From Devastator to Sideswipe, get a sneak peek! Transformers 2 Toy Gallery
EXCLUSIVE BUMBLEBEE STATUE ON SALE
In conjunction with the release of Revenge of the Fallen, we shaved off a nice chunk of change from our Exclusive G1 Transformers Bumblebee Statue. Originally slated for the BotCon convention a few years back, now with less than 50 remaining, for the next few weeks it will be marked down from $45 to $25. First come, first serve while supplies last. For more info and pictures visit NonStopToys.com
TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Just 2 days after the official start of Summer, the highly anticipated Transformers Movie sequel skidded into theaters. Before entry, an early highlight was seeing a replica KITT from Knight Rider (owned by NY KNIGHT) in the parking lot. If the midnight opening in NY was any indication, the box office take is going to be record breaking. The place was jam packed for a Tuesday night with humongous lines an hour before opening. TF2 sold out 10 midnight shows in the plex we were at and the crowd was so uncontrollably hyped that a stampede almost occurred with the phrase, "You people are animals," uttered by a man getting crushed off to the side. Lucky for him it wasn't the typical fanboy crowd, as 75% of the unruly masses were screaming teens, with a healthy dose of ecstatic 16 year old girls.
THE PREVIEWS:
The opening previews left me excited for the fall movie season. The trailer for the end of the world movie, 2012 starring John Cusack, knocked my socks off. From the director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, there's no doubt this will be an epic action film. Next was GI Joe, then Disney's animated G-Force hamsters, followed by Tim Burton's upcoming film 9. Detailing a story of the waning days of mankind where machines wiped out the human race, 9 chronicles the adventures of nine small "beanbag people" created by one of the last surviving humans, released into the apocalyptic world right before his death. It looks intense and its characters are voiced by such stars as Elijah Wood, John Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glovers and more.
MY EXPECTATIONS:
As for Transformers, it was everything you could ask for from a good sequel and the crowd was charged. Not since Episode I Phantom Menace had i seen so many people clapping on a consistent basis. Bumblebee shows up, clapping. Megan Fox bent over a bike, clapping. Optimus lays out a Decepticon, clapping. Although the initial shock
value of seeing the giant robots on the big screen had worn off, i was hoping for a good follow-up with lots of Michael Bay explosions. I was not disappointed.
THE CAST:
Megan Fox is hot as ever and Shia is still a tool, although the appearance of Sam's college roomate overshadowed Shia's whiny drivel with plenty of his own. Hugo Weaving, (Agent Smith/Elrond), returns as the voice of Megatron, John Turturro voices newcomer Jetfire and Anthony Anderson, whose hacker character is absent from this sequel, voices Jolt.
As a welcome addition, all-star from the 80s Frank Welker, was cast to voice Soundwave and Devastator. If you don't know who Welker is, he has done over 1200 characters on shows you love from Futurama to Gargoyles, but most notably in the original 80's Transformers cartoon series was the voice of Megatron, Soundwave, Galvatron, Skywarp, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Ratbat, Mirage and Trailbreaker.
THE PLOT:
The plot focuses on a college bound Sam being exposed to a remaining piece of the All Spark Cube. Transferring the coordinates of a hidden source of Energon into his mind, Sam becomes an important piece to the survival of the planet. In the time frame since the first movie, the LA incident has been covered up and the Autobots have been working undercover in conjunction with the world government's, hunting down
Decepticons in hiding. Meanwhile on the Decepticon side, Starscream is back on Cybertron organizing an army and Megatron is freed from his watery prison with a new mission. Seems like there's a new boss in town, one that even Megatron answers to. Enter the Fallen, holder of the sequel title.
The story around the Fallen is loosely based on the actual origin of the Fallen, where as he was one of the originally created Transformer robots who had betrayed his brothers and fell from their grace. Anyway, the Fallen hates fleshings and enlists Megatron to kill Optimus Prime(as a Prime is the only robot that can defeat Fallen), so he can conquer the Earth. In order to complete his mission, the Deceps need the coordinates to the hidden Energon and a search for Sam ensues spanning from LA to NY, Paris to Egypt. As you can imagine, its up to the Autobots to save the day.
FIVE PROS OF THE MOVIE:
1) The CG remained top of the line, and a decent storyline was present to back the insane amount of non-stop action.
2) There were a ton of new robots in the film, some of your old favorites and a bunch of nameless first timers. Newcomers span from the Autobot twins Skids & Mudflap, Arcee, Wheelie, Sideswipe, Jetfire, The Constucticons, Soundwave and Ravage to the random appliances that wreak havoc in Sam's kitchen and more.
3) Although depicted much different from the white and red craft we loved in the 80s, Jetfire retains some semblance of his origin being portrayed as an older, already Earth planted Transformer who was once a Decepticon but switches sides to the Autobots.
4) They managed to work in the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Although it was a visually weak looking device more worthy of a ninja throwing star than such an iconic robotic symbol, it leads me to believe future movies might include Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod, as well as the death of Optimus.
5) Megan Fox is still easy on the eyes. Although that lame show TMZ has been trying to depreciate the beauties hotness on a weekly basis, she remains a welcome return to the cast and will be sure to steam up even the most prudent fanboy's glasses.
FIVE CONS OF THE MOVIE:
1) Similar to the first movie, the acting is occasionally subpar, the storyline sometimes gets ridiculous and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. There's also plenty of starry eyed love scenes for teenage fans to harp over.
2) There is an excessive amount of comedic relief. For this, i have to label the movie an "Action Comedy." Everyone was cracking jokes. Robots, people in danger, the army, everyone. It got a little annoying. Don't get me wrong, i had a few good laughs, but half way through the movie, even the crowd who had been mindlessly chuckling at every opportunity got bored with the antics. The unexpected close-up
of John Turturro's ass in a thong? Funny, but a little disturbing. Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan blue bareness came to mind.
3) One of the pros, was also one of its weaknesses. The introduction of a plethora of new robots left it at that, simply introductions. A leisurely movie goer would have a hard time knowing any of these robots, even i couldn't name them all. There was so much to focus on that things got lost, for example fan favorite Soundwave. Now displaced as a Decepticon satellite, there was really little to no involvement
for him. A few cut scenes of intercepting and sending transmissions from space was all the shine he got. If it weren't for the brief action of him shooting a missile pod down to Earth, (pod being Ravage), you probably wouldn't even have known he was there.
4) In a few of the fight scenes, the action was so fast paced and intense you couldn't even tell what was going on. Sometimes things were so out of control it just looked like a bunch of CG twisting and revolving.
5) Although the film had its share of swear words, death and destruction, it seems it was more geared for kids than the first one. There was little things like Megan Fox carrying around a mini Decepticon on a chain like a pet, or the faces of the Autobot Twins, who looked goofy and buck toothed, more like Tater from the Pixar movie Cars than Autobot warriors.
Honorable Mention: Goes to Ramon Martinez's character Leo (Sam's college roommate). Not since Dakota Fanning's role in War of the Worlds has a character cried, whined and complained incessantly throughout each scene.
END COMMENTS AND RATING:
Overall, the film is a roller coaster ride of action from the very start and the abundance of new characters packs twice the punch. Of course my cons list is nitpicking the film and anyone who loves Transformers will block all that filler crap out and enjoy it for what it is. The fight scenes are explosive and i'll never get tired of seeing the robots of my youth transferred on to today's generation in a
way i couldn't have imagined growing up as a child. God bless digital rendering technology. My advice, Roll Out and see it!! 8.5 stars out of 10
