Just got home from seeing the movie. Not great, but I left entertained.

(Minor spoilers ahead I guess, but nothing serious)

The good:
-Optimus Prime, especially at the end. THAT kicked ass. I wish we had seen more of this Optimus during the movie. He's great as a father figure, and that is necessary, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to see that mask come down and watch him kick ass a lot more than he did. I do love the fact that you can see his colors clearly now; he looks MUCH better than the last film.
-Bumblebee. Love him. Having him communicate with songs and soundbites is a gimmick that should be annoying, but I actually think it works well. They don't overdo it.
-The military stuff. I actually really, really enjoyed the way they handled it, and it was especially cool to see members of all the branches working together on the same team. That's something you almost never see in "real" military movies, and it was really fun to watch.
-Petra. Just...Petra. That place is magnificent, and what little they had of it in the movie they photographed beautifully.
-Starscream's reaction to Megatron's return. He was more snively than Starscream should be, but it was still funny.
-Scorponok's cameo. He's one of my favorite bad guys, and I admit to marking out a bit when he unexpectedly showed up.

The bad:
-Those fucking ghettobots (Mudflap and Skids). They were embarassing, cringe-inducing, and not worthy of being on the same reel of film as Shia LeBeouf, let alone the rest of the Autobots. Whoever thought they were even a remotely good idea needs to die.
-Jetfire. Um, since when do robots need canes? And we'll leave out the part about them apparently growing little metal beards as they age. Really, wtf?
-Megatron. Yes, his character is awesome. Yes, Hugo Weaving makes him even more awesome. But I HATE his look, and the look of the rest of the Decepticons. That all chrome thing is so ugly. They need to be colored, so they stand out as individuals, like the Autobots.
-Citizens of the US, apparently the densest people on the planet. Fail to notice giant robots flying, standing and fighting around their city.

Syd Lexia wrote:

I like the part of the movie when the American army violates Egypt's sovereignty.

I didn't read it that way at all, personally. NEST is an international group of Special Forces soldiers, and all of the countries of the world are aware of the Transformers. I assumed the okayed the mission with the required military officials in Egypt before starting. This is further reinforced by the fact that the Jordianian Army immediately sends help when called, which means they were probably aware of the situation and on standby. I would think most of the armies of the world who work with the Autobots feel the same way about them that NEST does, and would be happy to help.

AtmanRyu wrote:

- No, do NOT take his mask off! The images of his WEAK CHIN from the first movie still haunt me as of this day. - ...I thought Bumblebee could speak; after all, he did at the end of the first movie.

Ahh no no no! Sorry, I wasn't clear at all in what I meant there. I meant "mask come down" as in, "put the fucking thing on so we don't have to look at that godawful excuse for a face." I should have said, "put the mask on and watch him kick ass." Sorry. For the record, I STILL can't get used to that face as Optumus.

Reeper: I actually didn't mind Jetfire as a character, or even that he was old and bumbling. In fact, I could even excuse the cane, since he was falling apart and had trouble walking. But a metal old man beard? Robots don't change their appearance as they age! That really, really bugged me.

And allow me to reiterate my hatred for the way Mudflap and Skids were handled. THEY EVEN TALKED ABOUT COLLARED GREENS FOR FUCK'S SAKE! Not only is that racists as fuck, it's retarded. Transformers do not need to fucking eat food. There is zero reason they should need to mention an Earth food product among themselves anyway, let alone THAT food product with THOSE characters. It makes me ill thinking about it. God.

AtmanRyu wrote:

Could be worse. They could had longed for fried chicken and watermelons.

As a matter of fact, there was indeed a watermellon joke.

Syd Lexia wrote:

I'd be a lot more forgiving of Transformers if they taken out all the swears, and the drugs, and John Turturro's ass, and gone for the PG rating. Because then one could write off all the movie's idiocy as "Well, it's a kid's movie". But PG-13 is not a kid's movie. So instead, it's vile trash for people with low IQs. Also, that part where Sam meets the dead Primes was a complete fucking rip-off of Majora's Mask.

Agreed on both counts. As cool as the *concept* of the ancient Primes was, its execution, rather than being a mark-out moment, made it a complete "wtf". I mean really. Oy. ...Just...Oy.

Best Transformers 2 summary yet:

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/8875-tf2

God I love this guy. Perfectly and succinctly captures the very best and very worst of the movie at the same time, in highly amusing fashion.


EDIT: while going back through the thread to make sure this hadn't been posted yet, I noticed this:

Black Zarak wrote:

- And here's one Syd pointed out; Why is there a classic Greek wall mural in an Egyptian tomb?

If you mean the place where they found the Tomb of the Primes, that wasn't in Egypt, it was in Jordan, at the ancient city of Petra. Jordan was heavily influenced by the Greeks and Romans (and even occupied by the Romans at one time, I think, although I could be misremembering that.) Anyway, I'm not sure if that particular mural exists there, but it is possible. You can see that some of the buildings in the Petra complex even have Greek and Roman style mosaic art in them:

http://i.pbase.com/u17/bmcmorrow/upload/42247638.petra665.JPG (which comes from here: http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/petra&page=all ).

Yeah, okay, that was way more of an answer than anyone needs in a Transformers 2 thread, but fuck it.

Black Zarak wrote:

Do they even mention that part is in Petra or was I just zoning out from boredom and don't remember? And I didn't know where Petra was anyway so it wouldn't have helped...

I think they mention it once in passing. The only reason I know all that crap is because I'm a huge history buff (and an Indiana Jones buff, too ). I doubt they expected anyone to know or care; they just picked the location because it looks awesome.

Fun fact: Petra has played the part of Martian ruins not once, but twice in film history!