Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — Plot Holes? or not?

 

When Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came out in theators in the summer of 2009, it was widely criticized for having a plot that one could not follow or that didn’t make sense.  Now that the movie is out on BluRay (or DVD), people have been able to watch it again.

So… are there plot holes?  Or can they be explained?

SPOILER WARNING (if you haven’t watched the movie)

1.  How come there were two pieces of the All Spark?  I thought at the end of Transformers 1, Optimus Prime only pulled one shard from Megatron’s chest.  In Revenge of the Fallen, the All Spark shard is the one protected in the military hide-out that Ravage (jaguar decepticon) and his Reed-Man bot steals.  The other All Spark piece, referred to as the sliver, was found by Sam at home.  It was a piece that was stuck to his wool hoodie from the first movie.

2.  Why didn’t Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) use the All Spark sliver that he gave to Mikaela (Megan Fox) to revive Optimus Prime?  In the first movie, we see that the All Spark was able to give Frenzy (the little guy who transformed into a CD player) his body back and give life to electronic machines/devices (cell phone, xbox, etc).  Similarly in Revenge of the Fallen, we see the sliver gave life to small kitchen appliances like the cappaccino maker, phone, blender, etc.  We never see the All Spark give life to a large machine.  We know it didn’t bring back Bumblebee’s legs at the end of the first movie.  We know the shard didn’t bring back Jazz to life.  From these observations, the All Spark sliver or the All Spark shard do NOT have the ability to bring back a large transformer to life who was dead.

Yes, the sliver is used on Jetfire, but he was NOT dead.  He was in some type of “stasis nap”.  He mentions how without Energon, the transformers deterioate.  He likely went in this “stasis nap” to preserve himself.  The sliver re-awakened him.

2.  How come Megatron was “revived” by an All Spark shard when it was the All Spark that “killed” him in the first movie?  I’m confused.  The full All Spark is too much power to be absorbed by a Transformer.  Sam overloaded Megatron at the end of Transformers 1 by putting it into Megatron’s chest.  It did knock Megatron out.  However, whether he was dead or not is speculation.  Our feeling is that Megatron was in some type of stasis-lock.  “The Doctor”, a.k.a. Scapel (the little microscope decepticon), is obviously an expert on how Transformers work and the history of the symbols of the ancient Transformers.  His knowledge of the All Spark was probably also superior to others.  Put these facts together, and it’s no surprise he knew how to get Megatron out of the stasis-lock using parts (and possibly the “spark”) from another constructicon and the All Spark shard.

3.  When the decepticons descended in the ocean, the Navy said there were 5 decepticons.  At the bottom one of them was killed for parts (for Megatron’s revival), but when they ascended, the Navy said there were 6 decepticons.  Isn’t 5 minus 1 plus 1 = 5?  Most people forget that “The Doctor” came out of Ravage’s mouth at the bottom of the ocean.  Therefore he was not detected when Ravage and the constructicons descended to the ocean.  We can assume that he did show up on radar on the way back up.  This accounts for 6.

4.  How did the Helicopter guy (Blackout from Transformers 1) get revived?  It’s not Blackout.  He’s a little more white-ish and his name is Grindor.  Yes, it could have been explained better.  The proof lies in the toy made of the guy.  Apparently it’s a clone of Blackout or decepticon of the same size who chose the same alt. mode as Blackout.  (More on clones later on in this article…)

5.  Why didn’t the Fallen show up earlier?  First of all, he was old like Jetfire.  You’ll notice that on the Nemesis (the crashed ship on Mars), the Fallen is attached to some stuff.  He likely was resting trying to keep himself “healthy” due to the lack of Energon.  Secondly, he was waiting for Optimus Prime to be killed since only a Prime could match up against him.

6.  How come after the construction vehicles (constructicons) form Devastator, we see some of those same constructicons fighting individually in robot mode?  How are they in two places at once?  Also, how did Bonecrusher (from Transformers 1) get alive again and show up in the desert fighting?  In Transformers lore, there were clones.  In the original 80’s cartoon, there were clones of the decepticon jets Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker and there were insecticon clones.  There were autobots with similar alt. modes too (Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, Sideswipe and Red Alert, Trailbreaker and Hoist, etc…).  So, in Revenge of the Fallen, the multiple constructions must be because of clones.  Same goes for the bot that looks just like Bonecrusher (alt. mode = military “buffalo”).  More evidence of clones is how the Excavator decepticon (Demolisher) in the beginning of the movie (who was killed) is similar to the Excavator who starts Devastator’s transformation at the end of the movie (this Excavator is called “Scavenger” on the toy packaging).

7.  Why are there decepticons that look kinda like Megatron near the end of the movie fighting against the US Military?  These decepticons came from the Nemesis and had no need for an Earth alt. mode since their primary objective was to stop Sam from reaching Optimus Prime with the matrix and to steal the Matrix to use it for the machine (in the pyramid) that destroys the sun for Energon.  You’ll recall that Megatron (in his arrogance) never had an Earth alt. mode either.  Remember how in Transformers 1, Optimus, Jazz, and Ironhide look very similar until they scan Earth vehicles for their alt. mode.  This proves that Transformers can look very similar in their “protoform” state before scanning an Earth vehicle.  Furthermore, these decepticon no-name drones/clones are the “cannon fodder” that no movie viewer cares gets killed.

8.  When Sam is trying to get the Matrix to Optimus’ body, why didn’t he just take Bumblebee in Camaro mode?  He did… well, at first that was the plan.  But then Starscream attacked them.  Sam made a plan for Bumblebee to go off by himself as a decoy and the Twins to go off as other decoys.  Meanwhile he and Mikaela went by foot — something the decepticons wouldn’t expect.  He later had Bumblebee take his parents to safety, probably because he cared so much about them being safe.  Probably more so than his own life, one could argue.

9.  Why are there Transformers that talk “ghetto talk”?  (The autobot twins)  They are basically autobot kids.  Meaning, they’re young like kids are.  You know how kids/youth will talk in ways adults won’t.  Same goes here with the autobot twins, Skids and Mudflap.  Remember, in Transformers 1, Optimus Prime said the autobots learned Earth’s languages through the World Wide Web.  Skids and Mudflap, being young, must have liked this “ghetto talk”.

10.  Why are all three autobot female bikes called “Arcee”?  The writers of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen orginally intended for the three “Arcee bikes” to combine together.  You can see concept art on the 2nd Bonus DVD or BluRay disk.  This plan was apparently a late scratch.  Toys were made of (currently) two of the three bikes.  The blue one was called Chromia (after a blue female G1 character) and the red one was called Arcee.  The purple one is rumored to be called either Elita One or Flare-up.

11.  The Matrix?  A decepticon that transforms into a girl?  Why are they ripping ideas from other movies?  The Matrix was actually an essential part to the 80’s original cartoon.  In the 1986 cartoon Transformers Movie, the Matrix of Leadership was passed on from Optimus Prime and eventually inherited by Rodimus Prime, a new leader.  So… Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did NOT steal from “The Matrix” (the movie).  As far as the transformer whose alt. mode was the college girl (played by Isabel Lucas), that also is based on old Transformers lore.  In the late 80’s, when Transformers cartoons stopped in America, Japan continued making Transformers Cartoons.  In “Transformers: Super-God Masterforce” (1988), there were Transformers called Pretenders.  These Pretenders “transformed” into a human-look-a-like mode.  The Alice character in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was inspired from this.

12.  Why couldn’t Bumblebee talk in Revenge of the Fallen?  Wasn’t his voice working at the end of Transformers 1?  Good question.  Haven’t figured that out yet…

Some would argue that so many questions or the fact that some people have to watch the movie twice to figure it all out means it’s not a good movie.  Did those same critics say the same thing about Mission Impossible (with Tom Cruise) or The Lord of the Rings?  Many people had to watch those movies more than once or ask questions to others (like people who had read the Lord of the Rings books), but yet many enjoyed those movies.  You be the judge with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen…