Customer Reviews

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Transformers (Ballantine Books))

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[SPOILER FREE]
As with the first Transformers movie and novelization the first Act here is pretty slow moving. We do get almost instant Transformer action this time around, but the story takes a while to really pick up pace. When it does pick up the action is relentless.

As far as the story goes, overall I liked it. It was not as well put together as the story for the first movie. Alan Dean Foster novelization of which I read cover to cover in two days upon it's release weeks before the first film was released. The first book made me feel like a kid a again. This one failed to do that and actually felt a bit forced in parts (hard to put into words without spoilers, but think of the last Mummy squeal and you might get the idea), but in the final Act it does redeem itself.

My biggest problem with the story is two fold: 1. Lack of character growth. Near the end we're suppose to view one of the primary human characters as having gone through growth, but it just doesn't come across as believable in the book (perhaps in the film it will). 2. Single dimensional characters, I lost track of count of how many lines from the last film got recycled here. These characters are the same people we met last time and don't change at all throughout (goes for humans and Transformers).


[COMPARISON TO FILM: WARNING SPOILERS]
This go around I liked the film better than the novelization. Really that comment isn't aimed at the author, he did a great job of making this a entertaining, quick read. As is the case with many novelizations the book represents an earlier draft of the script than what was final (or scenes were simply edited out or reworked by the director). In case of Transformers: ROTF there were a lot more changes in the novel to film over the first. Some examples:

* In the book Optimus doesn't die. There's a line of dialog between Sam and Rachet where Rachet explains that his body has shut down and is slowly regenerating and that this could take a very long time. This tid-bit of information really isn't all that important, but it explains why some of Decepticons we saw get blasted in the previous film made a return.

* In the book there's more dialog by Soundwave, Sideswipe and Arcee. Also Smokescreen is in the book.

* The scene with Alice in the dorm room were a bit more drawn out. Sam was more conflicted, see's a Deception tattoo on her, etc... Wish that scene was filmed as it was written.

* There is a part where Sams Parent's get captured by the Decepticon's. Perhaps filmed and cut?

* Near the beginning when Sam is packing there is a TV in the background talking about the events from the last movie. A representative from Massive Dynamics (nod to TV series Fringe, which screenwriter Alex Kurtzman is involved with) was part of the cover up and is explaining the whole event

* The book has an epilogue which I expected to run after the credits. It's a scene where damaged Megatron is back on his ship in space and commands his protoforms to "Rise".

* Almost all of the the dirty humor you see throughout the film (including several lines of dialog) are absent from the book. Leading me to wonder who exactly added, but on the flip side the book was almost dry of humor which had me concerned.

* The book seemed heavy on redundant dialog. Little catch phrases, etc... recycled from the last film. That was kept to a minimum in the film.

Overall I really liked the film a lot better and it just goes to show you can't judge how much you will like a film based on a novelization.

First off let me say, I was very excited to get this book, and it did not let me down. It starts out a little slow; trying to catch you up on where the characters are and what happened after the first movie, but once the action starts it does not let up. From the US to Egypt and everywhere in between, this story has it all, and if most of the things in it happen in the movie; it will be awesome. (Being in the Air Force I liked the C-17 parts personally, but I digress) The only problem I found was that the Transformers are named off and it is hard to tell who is who, a little more clarification would have been nice, and the way the twins and Arcee are described confused me until the end of the book. The good part, you find out lots more about the Autobots and Decepticons, their history and that of Cybertron and the war. More bots, including some fan favorites and surprises abound. If you liked the first Transformers, give this book a try, it'll tide you over till the movie.

...all the stupid stuff in the second Transformers movie, is still in the book. I would really have expected better, but I'm not blaming Mr. Foster for anything. The reason being, he was writing what he was being payed to write. He could have made it better, but he had no control. All that having been said, this is still a fun and exciting novelization. If you could sit through the film, you can read this...and this is a whole lot better.

Well, Mr Foster did better with this novel then he has with his own novels. I could "see" the movie in my mind as I read.

It was a good read, but it was different from the movie. All and all, it was well worth it.

This book is a blast from the start. It has a great plot and plenty of action. It gives us a whole new aspect to the Autobots and the Decepticons. This book also gives us more of everything that the first did not cover. I recommend this book very highly. I look forward to seeing the movie. Fallen by the way is much more than he appears.

It been serveral years since Mission City, but the battle between Autobots and Dececticons rages on, but for Sam Witwicky all he worry about is starting collge misus is girlfried Mikaela. But once arriving at school he is drawn back into the war. A war that may change all of mankind. "Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen"by Alan Dean Foster is a pretty good novelization of the up coming moive that we know will a hit. It makes the reader want to see the movie and all the action that it is sure to have. Overall its a good book.

I bought this book because I couldn't wait for the movie. I read the novelization of the first movie so I knew what I was getting into and I wasn't surprised.

Foster writes as if he has a theasaurus constantly open in front of him. The over-inflated language does serious damage to the action of the story but it isn't so terrible that I couldn't follow it. The dialogue is awful in some places, but I don't blame that on the movie script. Foster had a habit in the last novel of changing good lines of dialogue from the script to match his verbose writing style. And I don't think he has the habit of reading his dialogue aloud to see if it's natural.

Overall I felt the story arc was good and coherent. It's an action story that certainly delivers on the action.

The book was a quick read. Not bad in the length department. Definitely read like the way the movie will play out. I also know that the writer is basing the book off of a script and not writing it on his own, so I won't blast the writer much for content creation.

Having said that, I had about one cringe per 35 pages or so due to the horrible dialogue brought out of horrible characters (Sam's mom, Simmons, and Sam's new roommate - Not to mention Skids and Mudflap who are just as bad). It's even better that these are the main characters that are followed throughout the majority of the movie.

This story can't decide who it's target audience is. Should it be geared toward kids? - too much swearing, violence, and sexual innuendos for that. Is it for adults? Then why all the stupid character traits and uni-dimensionality of the characters? Is it too much to ask that the movie take itself seriously and lose all the stupid humor that won't get a chuckle in the audience? It would be a better story by leaps and bounds if it did. There are plenty of films that are serious that have one or two great funny parts in them.

The worst are Sam's mom and roommate who share one brain cell between the two characters. Even in deathly situations or sad moments, he can't help but comment on how hot Mikaila is. Even the characters in the book try to write him off, so why have it in the story at all? A movie shouldn't have to excuse itself for bad content. It should just remove it.

Prime is barely in it. The new cooler Transformers are barely in it. All we get is mostly two Autobots, one with a lisp and one with a gangsta attitude that has about as bad of lines as Jazz from the first movie. I found myself hoping these two would get crushed by Devastator at the end.

The other thing I found annoying about this book is that the Decepticons get hosed out of both description and names for the last fight scene. Bumblebee fighting against "a Decepticon" is not a description my mind has fun with. The only two Decepticons that get any description are Megatron and Starscream and that is it. If I hadn't seen the toys online I wouldn't know who was even in the story at all.

===Spoiler Alert=====


And as far as the story is written, Soundwave never comes out of the sky to fight or anything, which is really gonna tick people off. Maybe he is in it, but they wouldn't describe or name him in the last fight scene... see how frustrating it is?


=====Spoiler End=======

This book isn't as well written as the last one, but the movie turned out to be much worse than the book. I hope to God that this one surpasses what is written or there's going to be even more people out there bashing this film.