Transformers: Pro-military movie?

We went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last night, along with the new Ice Age movie. Brief reviews of both of those movies will follow, but I want to say something about Transformers.

Once again, this will probably be the only pro-military movie that comes out of Hollywood this year. In this movie, the US soldier is not portrayed as a psychopath who loves fighting and killing, or as a drugged-up cartoon figure who does as many drugs as possible to try and keep sane. This is no In the Valley of Elah or Rendition or any other cookie-cutter "anti-war" movie that tries to make our soldiers out as victims.

No, in Transformers, the US soldier is portrayed as a brave, efficient fighting machine, willing to put their life on the line (admittedly, against evil giant robots) to keep their country, and their world safe. They are scared, but they do their jobs despite their fear, and are even able to showcase a dark sense of humour as explosions are going off all around them. They fight, and they die all too often, but they never give up despite being outmanned and outgunned.

What really impressed me about this movie, even more so than the last Transformers movie when it comes to the military, is the reverence that the producer/director/whoever shows for these military heroes (I don't know who made the decisions on what to include in the movie, but my guess would be Michael Bay). After the initial battle scene in Shanghai, the troops, along with the Autobots, return to their base to regroup and to get the new intelligence they discovered to their superiors. As they are returning, we see some flag-draped coffins coming off the plane as well, containing those who didn't return alive. Everybody stops, despite the urgency of their mission, and salutes these fallen comrades as they are wheeled away. It's a powerful moment, interrupted by the arrival of an Obama administration bureaucrat (political statement, anyone?).

I am a very pro-military person, and it's sickened me over the last few years, seeing all of these anti-military movies portraying our soldiers as either victims, psychotics, children who need to be protected, or emotionally-damaged human beings who can't function in the outside world. I'm not saying these kinds of soldiers don't exist. Not everybody who joins the military does it for love of freedom and country. I'm sure some join for the thrill. And I know that war damages people emotionally as well, some permanently. But when that is all Hollywood shows us, ignoring the heroism of the average soldier, it pisses me off.

It's a shame that it takes a movie about giant alien robots to show the military in a good light.