Review a Review (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

Michael Bay is more the subject of Manohla Dargis's New York Times review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen than the movie itself. The famous director is widely regarded as a creator of popular movies to be taken with a grain of salt. What Dargis refers to as "the tediousness of his stories and the inanity of his visual ideas" has given him this reputation. But what the reviewer seemed to forget throughout most of this article was that this is supposed to be the review of a film.

Dargis begins by immediately undermining the seriousness of the film, stating that it is only viewed by young boys who still play with their Transformer toys or fantasize about Megan Fox. This sets the stage right away for her claim that Transformers is not a movie to be taken seriously.

She continues by describing the basic plot of the film, taking special care to mention the shakiest parts of the movie. For instance, she mentions two relatively unimportant characters in the movie who caused substantial controversy in the media as possibly racist characatures, but leaves out the big names (most of the good guys). While this is a noteworthy detail to bring up in a review, it may not have a place in one as short as this.

Dargis's main criticisms of the movie itself are the lack of introspection, introspection's replacement by more "overwhelming action," and noxious stereotypes. She balances this by stating that Bay serves his purpose of entertainment. He "wears you out and wears you down" to the point where you are shaking your head at the unnecessary amounts of explosions and sometimes visually confusing action shots. This small section of constructive criticisms is the strongest part of her review however, the rest serving as a critique of the director instead.