Transformers

[slipnslide]

This movie is just weeks away now and I can't hold my excitement in anymore. It is going to be sooooooooo awesome. I can't believe how realistic the CGI is...and so far looks like it is getting great reviews.

My jaw dropped when I saw this TV spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcmywtsnxJI

I mean can you imagine this on the big screen? It is going to be amazing!

[DraPrime]

Good CGI doesn't guarantee a good movie. If special effects where all their is to making a good movie then the last 3 Star Wars movies would have been much more successful. Besides, making a cartoon show for kids into an action movie isn't as great a concept as it seems.

[Setra]

I've always loved transformers, so I've been especially skeptical of this.

Though certain things curb my skepticism to some degree, I'm not holding my breath.

[slipnslide]

can't you guys just enjoy it for being a fun summer action movie without getting into all the skepticism of the regarding the original cartoon. i know it will be different, but there is nothing wrong with that. so far the previews have made it look awesome...and i will be there to see it in all it's glory on the big sceen! :smallbiggrin:

[DraPrime]

There's a difference between "looks awesome" and is awesome. The Hulk looked cool in the previews, but was it? NO! Besides, summer action movies are really overrated. And just because it's "on the big screen" doesn't really improve the quality of the movie. So face it, we have no way of knowing whether or not it's going to be good.

[Gavin Sage]

"I'm a piece of metal vomit" Megatron is looking awesome?

The movie might be decent at some level. Dubious with Michael Bay, but hey anything is possible. The character designs will never be better then sub-par at best.

(You notice how certain Autobots are different cars. Here's why: The cars are all owned by GM)

[Lucky]

(You notice how certain Autobots are different cars. Here's why: The cars are all owned by GM)Bubblebee's a Camaro. A damned Camaro. I don't care for the reasoning, it still makes me cry inside.

[whorrak]

I'm having a hard time with this one. As far as Transformers go, I'm very tied to the original G1 and it's going to be difficult to check those feelings at the door. G1 had such a rich back story, and I'd hate to see Michael Bay rape my childhood just to make an hour and a half long explosion-fest.

If nothing else, I hope the film creates a new generation of fans, and I hope these new fans are interested enough to look into where the franchise started. If so, we'll see a lot of new material based on the old stuff (like IDW is doing now).

[Daze]

Two words:

Michael effin Bay

I'm HIGHLY Skeptical...

that guy is seriously an awful director.

[Zaragon]

Bubblebee's a Camaro. A damned Camaro. I don't care for the reasoning, it still makes me cry inside.

What??? I love Camaros, and that sucks! I could have lived with him being a New Beetle, but not a Camaro. It ain't right!

(Even given the GM angle, why not a Cavalier/Cobalt/whatever other compact POS they're making right now?)

[Call_me_Fate]

There was an advanced screening of the movie in Australia. One of the YouTubers that I subscribe to (Blunty3000) was invited as the YouTube Press representative. He is a big comic book/video game/sci-fi geek that looks a lot like Kevin Smith (Silent Bob). I would trust his opinion on the movie, if only because his other videos are critical, seriously well thought out, and even if I don't agree with all his views he is a smart guy.

Although he has not posted his complete review, he has posted this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k56a6uA2aT0) that includes an 'exclusive' trailer, but also a very very excited man beaming after seeing the movie. It might just be him excited about the whole experience, but it has made me feel at least a little more comfortable that the movie can't be a total suck fest.

He claims that the trailer in his video has minor spoilerage, but it is no more than what I have seen as the trailer when I saw Pirates 3.

[Black Hand]

http://cagle.com/working/070623/zyglis.gif

[Call_me_Fate]

New review from an honest fan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzZ7KOXY-Y

[Burrito]

Just to get this out in the open, I loved Transformes growing up. Even the Movie was cool.

But for those of us old enough to remember...The original Transformers cartoon was created for one reason. To sell the toys. That was it.

As far as the cars being GM models, I'm not all that upset.

Giant Badass robot that transforms into a Camaro = Kinda cool.

Giant Badass robot that transforms into a VW Bug = HORRIBLE. Would he have that little flower vase on the dash and the special Daisy hubcaps?

I am going to see the Movie for what it is, Giant Badass robots running around and blowing crap up. Plus it has Optimus, and its still Transformers.

[Zaragon]

But... but... Bumblebee isn't supposed to be badass!

[Setra]

This sums up my feelings (http://leasticoulddo.com/)

[Muz]

Regardless of if the movie is good or bad, or if the Star Wars prequels are good or bad, or yadda-yadda-yadda, I'm getting really #@!$!%! tired of the whole "raped my childhood" cliché. The phrase has passed into the realm of self-parody. Let's let it go...please?

[Setra]

Regardless of if the movie is good or bad, or if the Star Wars prequels are good or bad, or yadda-yadda-yadda, I'm getting really #@!$!%! tired of the whole "raped my childhood" cliché. The phrase has passed into the realm of self-parody. Let's let it go...please?
I personally find the phrase humorous.

However I admit I have not heard it used frequently

[Dispozition]

Haha...It's really funny because I'll see it a week before any of you :P

It comes out in cinemas a week early in Australia...See? We're just awesome. I'm gonna go see it the day it comes out with a few friends...I *might* tell you what it's like ;P

[AtomicKitKat]

Bumblebee's not meant to be badass. The same way that Starscream's not supposed to be some mangled pile of crap construction beams.

Please at least make sure Megatron's Fusion Cannon(?) is stronger than Prime's but only when he transforms.:smalltongue:

I also find it funny how despite the almost universal presence of arm cannons, it almost always comes down to puroresu matches to determine the outcome of the day.:smallamused:

[Muz]

I personally find the phrase humorous.

However I admit I have not heard it used frequently

Sorry- It's probably partially my fault for being occasionally unable to tear myself away from the car-accident-like morbid-fascination-machine that is AICN (http://www.aintitcool.com/)talkbacks. :smallsmile:

I need help. :smalleek:

[SmartAlec]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4tNz_3dGBA !

Not exactly to do with the movie, but the game. But it's still nice to see Cullen and Welker back 'on form'.

[Leon]

Its Awesome,

yay for being a Aussie :smallsmile:

[Pendragonx]

I'm sad that Bumblebee isn't a VW Bug.. that would have been so much better :(

[Revlid]

As someone with an extremely basic knowledge of the original cartoon, but a mild like of Beast Wars, I have to say that I'm looking foward to this. Was the Ultimate reboot "raping my comics childhood"? No, it was a new look at something that didn't need it half as much as Transformers.

I'm looking foward to this movie, Michael Bay or no, and Starscream sounds pretty awesome (from the voice clip I've heard). Certainly better than the high-pitched whiny piece of crap that pops up whenever I take a look at the animated series.

[Rabiesbunny]

Oh, god, this movie is going to blow. Isn't the Allspark supposed to be Primus, or the matrix (afterlife, not shiny crystal), or something religious to them? And now it's a cube thing they're fighting over? And those robots are so amazingly hideous -- it's going to be a CGIfest, with action scenes that people who don't like to think can get lost in.

And have you guys seen the toys? My friend has Barricade and...um. Starscream, I think. They're amazingly difficult to transform, and their arms and legs pop off while you're trying to do it. They're not kid friendly, and they're so ugly I don't know why collectors would want them.

:P I certainly don't! Besides, according to Toyfare, Michael Bay HAD Frank Welker available to him for the movie, and he tested for it, and Bay says that he didn't have the right feel, or something.

Oh he's so ...*random incoherent angry noises*

[lrigwoc]

I get to see this with work tomorrow at 8:00 AM. I'm looking forward to it.

I'll give a review after.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

To quote this handy-dandy little wiki (http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) I've poured over for the last week or so, Rabiesbunny, "The Allspark - also known as "the Matrix" or "the Well of All Sparks" - is the dimension from which all Transformer sparks that exist, have existed, or ever will exist originate. Collectively, the sparks that compose the Allspark are the essence of Primus."

Also according to that very same article, the good ol' Matrix of Leadership and Vector Sigma are merely ways to access the Allspark.

It's possible to take this one step further and say that the cube in this movie is simply a third access point, and they couldn't think up another name for it. So, if you don't think about it too terribly much, it can make some semblence of sense.

Oh god, I'm justifying something. Please, shoot me now.

[AtomicKitKat]

I'm looking foward to this movie, Michael Bay or no, and Starscream sounds pretty awesome (from the voice clip I've heard). Certainly better than the high-pitched whiny piece of crap that pops up whenever I take a look at the animated series.

You're kidding, right? The whole whiny, sycophantic traitorous Grand Vizier role is what defines Starscream.


Megatron has fallen! I am supreme leader of the Decepticons now!

Less than 2 seconds after Megatron got knocked on his ass by the Dinobots.

[Pyro]

Just seeing the title of this thread reminded me of this:

http://scribs.us/?116

Hah good times.

[Setra]

You're kidding, right? The whole whiny, sycophantic traitorous Grand Vizier role is what defines Starscream.

Less than 2 seconds after Megatron got knocked on his ass by the Dinobots.
I agree, it's one of the things that made him one of my favorite characters.

On another note, I think I have "Transformers: The Movie" around here somewhere...

[SmartAlec]

In a lot of the comics, mind, Starscream comes off as a bit more sly, more subtle. A gentleman-assassin type.

[lrigwoc]

Okay, so I just got back to the office after watching the movie...

Transformers is great! I absolutly loved this film.

[AtomicKitKat]

This says it all:


Steven Spielberg called. He said "I'd like you to direct Transformers", and my reaction was "I'm not going to do a stupid toy movie."

[Tor the Fallen]

I'm so glad I'm not burdened with the baggage of having wasted my youth watching a crappy cartoon created to sell toys.

Transformers was Pokemon without the Gameboys.

[Muz]

Youth is FOR wasting. Even Abe Lincoln didn't build the log cabin he was born in. :smallwink:

[Nebo_]

I saw it yesterday. And the day before at the Gold Class Cinemas. It was truly awesome. Even without having watched the series on TV, I can say it was a good movie in its own right. Very much worth seeing, even if you're not a hardcore fan of the series.

[malakim2099]

Well, I think I saw a webcomic that put it best:

"It's Michael Bay. Anything uncool will explode."

And besides, the original series wasn't all that deep, honestly. I love the original stuff, and adored the original movie, but really... you had tons more depth coming out of the Beast Wars/Beast Machines (particularly when they had actual sci-fi authors of note writing the episodes, I know DC Fontana did one!) than the original series.

My only real concern is that the humans get a lot more time than the bots, possibly. Which is the worst thing for a movie like this to have... Transformers is about the ROBOTS, the humans are the supporting cast. Hopefully this will be kept true.

[Setra]

This says it all:

Steven Spielberg called. He said "I'd like you to direct Transformers", and my reaction was "I'm not going to do a stupid toy movie."
Well there goes most of the hope I had for a good movie.

Only the fact Spielberg is involved at all gives me any hope now.

[dehro]

keeping in touch with my inner child is one thing...pulling it as far as going to watch a movie based on one of the crappiest cartoons I ever saw (ok, I've watched my share of episodes but can't remember a single one, which should mean something)... that's taking it a bit over the limit.

I'll pass this on, unless my little brothers ask for somebody to bring them and nobody else wants to (hope not, though)

[Setra]

keeping in touch with my inner child is one thing...pulling it as far as going to watch a movie based on one of the crappiest cartoons I ever saw (ok, I've watched my share of episodes but can't remember a single one, which should mean something)... that's taking it a bit over the limit.

I'll pass this on, unless my little brothers ask for somebody to bring them and nobody else wants to (hope not, though)
Well if you DON'T like it, you'll probably like the movie. Because from what I can tell they will be quite disimilar.

[Abardam]

Just got back from it. And holy crap it was so awesome.

So awesome.

[Setra]

That's good to hear!

Ahh now I have to see it... I have enough for it too... hm.

[Krade]

Let me say this before anything. I never was a fan of transformers. I really never did find it terribly interesting. I did like Beast Wars, but the movie isn't about Beast Wars. That said, the movie was awesome. I guess one of the reasons I can say this is because I know practically nothing of the original series. It had the whole theatre cheering and laughing the whole way through. It really was quite funny, if a little silly in some parts (partly due to the awesome that is John Turturro, Bernie Mac was cool too). I had my doubts about Michael Bay directing, but I think he actually did a good job. Steven Spielberg helped a lot I'm sure, but the movie has shifting my opinion of Bay into neutral.

Now just pray they don't attempt a sequel(s).

[Suraht]

Let me say this before anything. I never was a fan of transformers. I really never did find it terribly interesting. I did like Beast Wars, but the movie isn't about Beast Wars. That said, the movie was awesome. I guess one of the reasons I can say this is because I know practically nothing of the original series. It had the whole theatre cheering and laughing the whole way through. It really was quite funny, if a little silly in some parts (partly due to the awesome that is John Turturro, Bernie Mac was cool too). I had my doubts about Michael Bay directing, but I think he actually did a good job. Steven Spielberg helped a lot I'm sure, but the movie has shifting my opinion of Bay into neutral.

Now just pray they don't attempt a sequel(s).

If you stayed through the credits, they showed a quick scene that pretty much guaranteed there'd be a sequel.

You see Starscream still alive, and he flies off into outer space, basically.

Definitely worth the money I paid for the ticket, and I'll probably see it again in the theaters.

[Krade]

That was barely into the credits though. You didn't even have to wait till the end. And just because they left it open doesn't mean there will be. I mean, look at the Super Mario movie, they couldn't have said that there was going to be a sequel any louder but there still wasn't one (though I always wanted there to be).

[Suraht]

That was barely into the credits though. You didn't even have to wait till the end. And just because they left it open doesn't mean there will be. I mean, look at the Super Mario movie, they couldn't have said that there was going to be a sequel any louder but there still wasn't one (though I always wanted there to be).

Well, if you want to use the Super Mario movie as a comparison, keep in mind that it was a complete and total flop, losing it's studio $22,000,000. Even if they had plastered "SEQUEL COMING SOON!!!" at the end of that movie, the fact that it didn't even recover half of it's budget at the box office was going to make the execs say no to any form of sequel.

Of course, the fact that they threw in that little clip doesn't automatically mean that a sequel is going to happen...but as with every other movie I've seen lately that's somewhat of a gamble for the studios, they have to leave the possibility of a sequel open, and make sure that the people watching know that it's there, just in case the movie takes off, and gains massive popularity.

After this first week of showings for Transformers is over, we'll see just how much it's making. If the numbers are remotely respectable(and the fact that walking out of the theater last night, I heard a dozen people or more say they were planning to see this one two or three more times in the next week would indicate the numbers will be), then the green light will be given to start production on the sequel.

[TheNovak]

That was barely into the credits though. You didn't even have to wait till the end. And just because they left it open doesn't mean there will be. I mean, look at the Super Mario movie, they couldn't have said that there was going to be a sequel any louder but there still wasn't one (though I always wanted there to be).

I stayed until the very, very end. That last clip was it.

Also, the movie ROCKED, and I want my inevitable sequel ASAP. Like, now. Please?

[whitemane]

What can I say... Saw the movie last night, and I think it's fair to say that Transformers is quite possibly the best movie of ALL TIME!!!! (OK, maybe I'm exagerating... but it still totally kicks butt!)

Definitely a five-star movie!


Optimus Prime for president in '08! Bumblebee for VP!

[Setra]

Agh now I have to see it... even more... x.x

[whitemane]

I'm so glad I'm not burdened with the baggage of having wasted my youth watching a crappy cartoon created to sell toys.

Transformers was Pokemon without the Gameboys.

Well, I didn't waste my youth on Transformers either... I wasted it on Star Wars action figures, and wouldn't change a thing! That having been said, I loved watching Transformers in High School!

As MeatLoaf once said... "A wasted youth is better, by far, than a wise and productive old age!"

Me, I'm going for both of them!

[Dispozition]

What can I say... Saw the movie last night, and I think it's fair to say that Transformers is quite possibly the best movie of ALL TIME!!!! (OK, maybe I'm exagerating... but it still totally kicks butt!)

Definitely a five-star movie!


Optimus Prime for president in '08! Bumblebee for VP!

I actually think it was rather bad...

I mean, the action was good, the plot was surprisingly decent, although lacking a bit. The CG took your attention away from everything else...It was too 'loud' as such...

Also, the amount of mistakes and things that weren't right imo were lots...

Just to make this clear...Bumblebee is a VW BUGGIE!!! GODDAMN GET IT RIGHT!!!
Optimus says 'transform and roll out' not just 'roll out'...
Starscream has a way higher pitched voice.

Ermmm...Those are the ones that really annoyed me...But there were quite a few other ones as well...

(Un)fortunately, I'm seeing it again on saturday for someones b'day party...So I can nit pick it even more.

I will give it one thing, it was much better than pirates 3, which I only saw yesterday :P

EDIT: Where was the cheezy transforming sound...it's just not the same without it...They raped that one memory of my childhood (not really, I just loved the sound :P)

[Suraht]

I actually think it was rather bad...

I mean, the action was good, the plot was surprisingly decent, although lacking a bit. The CG took your attention away from everything else...It was too 'loud' as such...

Also, the amount of mistakes and things that weren't right imo were lots...

Just to make this clear...Bumblebee is a VW BUGGIE!!! GODDAMN GET IT RIGHT!!!

Complain to VW. They wouldn't allow the old style beetle to be used, so thanks to a massive deal with Chevy, we get a Camaro. Worked pretty well, IMO.


Optimus says 'transform and roll out' not just 'roll out'...

I'm pretty sure he said it both ways over the course of the cartoon series.


Starscream has a way higher pitched voice.

That one I'll agree with you on...but considering how few lines Starscream got, not a huge deal.


Ermmm...Those are the ones that really annoyed me...But there were quite a few other ones as well...

(Un)fortunately, I'm seeing it again on saturday for someones b'day party...So I can nit pick it even more.

I will give it one thing, it was much better than pirates 3, which I only saw yesterday :P

EDIT: Where was the cheezy transforming sound...it's just not the same without it...They raped that one memory of my childhood (not really, I just loved the sound :P)

I only caught the sound once, right at the beginning with Blackout's first transformation. It might have appeared again in the end battle, though.

[whitemane]

I actually think it was rather bad...

I mean, the action was good, the plot was surprisingly decent, although lacking a bit. The CG took your attention away from everything else...It was too 'loud' as such...

Also, the amount of mistakes and things that weren't right imo were lots...

Just to make this clear...Bumblebee is a VW BUGGIE!!! &%$*#@*# GET IT RIGHT!!!
Optimus says 'transform and roll out' not just 'roll out'...
Starscream has a way higher pitched voice.


So... What you are really saying is that you didn't like it because it wasn't the same as the original series from 25 years ago...

[AtomicKitKat]

Optimus says 'transform and roll out' not just 'roll out'...

To be fair, he's not very consistent. I've heard "Autobots, transform...and roll!", "...and roll out!", and "Roll(out)", if they were already in vehicle mode.


EDIT: Where was the cheezy transforming sound...it's just not the same without it...They raped that one memory of my childhood (not really, I just loved the sound :P)

I heard about that one. They're basically alienating the core group, in an attempt to appeal to the wider demographic. Ie, the Lowest Common Denominator. I pity the kids who have to try transforming the inevitable toys. Those mangled bits and pieces look like they'll give the kid a Prince Albert, a Christina, an Isabella, and several facial modifications as well.

[Sereneprophet]

lol these complaints make me laugh, as some are straight out wrong from what I remember, and others are just nitpicking.

Anyways, I still gotta say I love the Original Megatron, if only cause he was in essence a tool. I mean cmon, how lame is it that your leader transforms into a gun that has to be carried by one of his minions. If that doesnt scream TOOL, then I dunno what does :P

I'm going into the movie without any reservations that it'll be similar to the original since..oh..I dunno..the original was a cartoon from the 80's and this is a live action with CG. I may not like some of the bot designs, but over all they don't look all that bad, and ill be going into this as a movie with transformer heritage, not transformer remake or translation.

Oh...and Blur owns you all. ALL! Mwuahahahahahaha

[Setra]

The movie is actually pretty good.

Also, I heard the Transformy noise like twice.

My only complaints are the following:

1. Starscream needed more showtime, this is mostly personal preference.
2. The camera seemed shaky during all the action scenes, half the time I couldn't tell what the heck was going on.
3. The one transformer, I can't remember who, I'm tired, but he was speaking like a 'gangsta'. No. Bad.
4. The main character was.. lame. This is probably on purpose, but I still dislike him.
5. Battle between Prime and Megatron was.. well it wasn't really much of anything.

It's not gonna be winning any awards, I'd say, but you can watch it, and enjoy. On a positive note, the music was nice. And the humor was good.

[Starla]

Okay, I am going to see that tomorrow with my husband and brother. I thought I wouldn't care if they just went, but my friend gave it a good review and my brother says his wife won't need help with the kids so we are getting a babysitter. :smallsmile:

[TheNovak]

I actually think it was rather bad...

YOU! Out of the pool! You go sit in the blistering sun with the professional movie critics and bitter, lonely know-it-alls!


I mean, the action was good, the plot was surprisingly decent, although lacking a bit. The CG took your attention away from everything else...It was too 'loud' as such...

So...you liked all the important stuff, but it was too busy and loud. Dad? Is that you?


Also, the amount of mistakes and things that weren't right imo were lots...

Just to make this clear...Bumblebee is a VW BUGGIE!!! GODDAMN GET IT RIGHT!!!

Blame VW. Also, blame the script writers for making Bumblebee awesome, instead of the tiny little whipping boy he always was in the cartoon.


Optimus says 'transform and roll out' not just 'roll out'...
He used both. And actually, early on, "transform and roll out" was all Jazz. I know, I've been watching them.

Also, they kinda weren't transforming.


Starscream has a way higher pitched voice.

HE HAD ONE LINE!!!!

Also, I'm sure they would have loved to get his original voice actor, like they did with Prime...they just would have needed a shovel, first.


I will give it one thing, it was much better than pirates 3, which I only saw yesterday :P

This, I agree with. Though I did like Pirates 3, just...not nearly as much.


EDIT: Where was the cheezy transforming sound...it's just not the same without it...They raped that one memory of my childhood (not really, I just loved the sound :P)

How did you NOT notice the cheesy transforming sound? Dude, it happened every time Bumblebee or Optimus transformed. Even Barricade has an evil, twisted version of it. Pay attention!

I'm sorry, I'm sounding like a ****. You are completely entitled to your opinion, man. I just think it's sort of silly to pick on a movie because of your (somewhat erroneous) childhood memories. Enjoy it for what it is.

And Movie Bumblebee was way cooler than his minibot version could have ever hoped to be.

[Dispozition]

Ok...@Rebuttals to my complaints.

Didn't know VW were being tightasses, so I'll give them the fact that they still made Bumblebee a decently banged up car.

Cheezy transforming sound. Ok, I did hear it once, but it was a malformed cheezy sound...Not nearly cheezy enough.

@TheNovak: By loud, I meant the CG was too important. It took away from every other aspect of the movie. It was saying 'don't pay attention to the plot or what the human is saying, look at bumblebee doing nothing in the background'

Also, as Setra says...Why did Jazz (I presume that's who he was talking about) speak like a black guy? (not trying to be racist here). I can't remember him being black in the series...And I remember him having a bloody loud stereo...

[doliemaster]

This...movie...was...the best...thing...ever. I mean, I grew up on the rather cruddy new animated shows[Beast wars was probably on, I just didn't watch it]but I must say, the starscream thing? I liked him in the show[s] but he didn't talk alot, so who cares?

[Beleriphon]

3. The one transformer, I can't remember who, I'm tired, but he was speaking like a 'gangsta'. No. Bad.

That would be Jazz, and he always talked like that, or rather he always talked in the manner that is currently hip. In the 80s he talked in jive. So now he's gantsa, yo.

I loved the move by the way. I loved that the second thing out of Megatron's mouth is to rip on Starscream for being a failure. C'mon, how hard does that rock?

Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime rules, totally, and completely sold the movie for me. I will fess up though, I would personally liked to have seen Starscream have more lines, but again the menace the Decepticons presented just being there didn't necessitate a whole lot of dialogue.

Also, Megan Fox. Holy crap, Megan Fox....:smallbiggrin:

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

This movie felt like the climax of my transformers-obsessed childhood, and it was GOOD. It felt nice and warm inside, in a very mechanical way to hear Prime up there as I used to. I love you Optimus Prime...

[Setra]

That would be Jazz, and he always talked like that, or rather he always talked in the manner that is currently hip. In the 80s he talked in jive. So now he's gantsa, yo. Eh... I just hate 'ganfsta' speech.


I loved that the second thing out of Megatron's mouth is to rip on Starscream for being a failure. C'mon, how hard does that rock?
Yes, that was awesome.

Still, the action was kind of meh, to me.

[Suraht]

Just to tie it all up, the G1 Jazz was voiced by Scatman Crothers(who died in 1986). I'd mention his other work so people could get a better idea of who he is, but the only ones that seem to be multi-generational is the Disney cartoon "The Aristocats", where he voices Scat Cat, a hipster cat with a talent for playing jazz/swing piano, and "Hong Kong Phooey", where he voices the title character, a crimefighting hound dog that (poorly) uses kung-fu to stop crime at night while being the police station janitor during the day, and in "The Shining" he played <insert nickname for Richard>, the guy with the telepathic link to the boy.

As far as the original transforming sound, I'm hearing a lot of different reports about how often it happens. Most people only seem to hear it clearly during Blackout's first change with one other time that kinda sorta sounds like it during the last battle. Some people say they hear it during every transformation. Some people say they never hear it. I'm going to chalk this up to the theaters for now...the way the position and emphasize their speakers is probably having an effect on how well that sound carries over the rest of the sounds in the movie.


Edit, since the name is also a no-no for the filter.

[Suraht]

I loved the move by the way. I loved that the second thing out of Megatron's mouth is to rip on Starscream for being a failure. C'mon, how hard does that rock?

How hard does it rock that when Starscream flies among the other F-22's, he takes a break from fighting them to transform back to the jet and take a few potshots at Megatron?

[bingo_bob]

I believe that 'Awesome' somes up the movie quite nicely. And very specifically that word. Not 'good', not 'great', just 'awesome'.

This movie is made of pure win.

[Imrahil]

Since this board seems to be the one of choice, I'll just transfer my little talking point here:

Just got back from seeing it myself, and it was definitely worth the money. I never got to watch Transformers when I was younger, but I did know a little about the show. Honestly, I went to see it just to watch giant robots kick the ever-loving **** out of each other, and I wasn't disappointed.

There were occasions where the influences of both Spielberg and Bay were evident:

Having Duhamel talking to his wife and daughter, who 'doesn't know her daddy yet.' - Spielberg

Having Duhamel ride a motorcycle through a city street strewn with rubble, sliding under Blackout and firing into its underside while air support is laying down missile fire. - Bay
Was it a perfect movie? No, but even the few mistakes weren't anything near what one would expect of Bay given his other works. I believe it was put best as follows: It's like Michael Bay took all the bad parts of this movie, strapped some C4 to them, and blew them into oblivion.

[skeeter_dan]

I loved it. I'm a big fan of the original series and loved all the little nods to G1. The voices of all the transformers (Starscream some excepted) sounded right. Heck, even Jazz's "gangsta" speak worked. The humour was in all the right places and the action was frenetic and (somehow) realistic. Strange as it may seem, it actually felt and looked like giant robots fighting. Some of it was cheezy summer blockbuster fun, but that can easily be forgiven as it was completely expected.

I highly recommend it.

[AtomicKitKat]

Blame VW. Also, blame the script writers for making Bumblebee awesome, instead of the tiny little whipping boy he always was in the cartoon.

He wasn't that much of a whipping boy. Between him and the other midget(the red one with the really abrasive personality), they were always more than willing to throw themselves into fights(and besides which the cassette-cons were even punier, although not by much).


Also, I'm sure they would have loved to get his original voice actor, like they did with Prime...they just would have needed a shovel, first.

Sucks that Cobra Commander Chris Latta is dead, but they could have asked around. I'm sure with a little coaching, some fan would have replicated it almost perfectly. Hell, I would have done it for half the usual rate(and probably piss off SAG).

[whitemane]

Ok...@Rebuttals to my complaints.

Also, as Setra says...Why did Jazz (I presume that's who he was talking about) speak like a black guy? (not trying to be racist here). I can't remember him being black in the series...And I remember him having a bloody loud stereo...

Actually, in the series, Jazz was voiced by Scatman Crothers (Who was a black man)... As to whether or not that made him sound like a black guy, that is up to you to decide.

[Pendragonx]

I saw it. I liked it. I would have to say though, I would have prefered the old transforming sound effect to be used more often and in greater emphasis, they the brief part i recall hearing it. I was sad about Bumblebee not being a VW, but what they did worked for the movie I suppose... bumblebee reminded me a lot more of the Hot Rod that saved the day in the original cartoon movie, in this film.

[Mr._Blinky]

H0LY C4AP 7H47 W4S 4W3S0M3!!!!1!!!!1!!!

That movie was incredible! My jaw dropped in the first scene of carnage and didn't lift back up until after the movie! Huge explosions, hot girls, giant robots! Tweeheeheheheheheheeee!

Okay, I'm done now.:smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:

[reorith]

i have a question about the ending.
how did the dude know that jamming the all spark into megatron would kill him? instead of like energizing him or something like that?

[Abardam]

Earlier, Prime says something to the effect of "If we are not able to destroy the Allspark, you must push it into my chest, destroying it and myself, etc."

[Kresalak]

He figured it would do the same as to Optimus.


Too much awkward teen romance, not enough giant robot fights. And the Decepticons got like, what, 10 lines in total?

[Abelard]

Totally rocked.

I admit that I expected total fecal sludge. But it was awesome. The thing never slowed down after that first attack. Those 2.5 hours went by like a minute.

Bernie Mac was perfect for the role he had. Shia was a good comedic actor - it helps that he looks halfway to Dustin Diamond ("Saved by the Bell" Screech). And Megan Fox? "Criminals are hot!" hee hee...

OK, it didn't perfectly mesh with "Transformers cannon" from the mid-80's. So what? It was a great movie in its own right, and everyone should see it multiple times (no, I don't work for Michael Bay) so the sequel will come that much faster.

My amazingly small criticisms:

1. Megatron looked ridiculous as a 'bot.
2. Why are they all wrestling when they have lasers and cannons and such?
3. Those little mini-Decepticon robots were annoying.
4. Why do sentient robots have white enamel-looking teeth? :smallbiggrin:
5. Product placement and name-checking? Eh, it pays the bills...

Not that those detracted from the movie at all. Go forth and see it, and yea verily, be entertained.

[TheTurnipKing]

"Transformers cannon"

http://www.idwpublishing.com/titles/transformers/images/hos/megatron.jpg

?


Totally rocked.
2. Why are they all wrestling when they have lasers and cannons and such?

They almost always did. Go watch all of "More Than Meets The Eye" again.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

Rocked pretty hard, gotta say.
They managed to sneak in a few little 'if you watched the show, laugh now' lines, which I liked.
I was also happy with the complete lack of Hot Rod, thank GOD.
Less happy with the lack of Starscream dialogue, but ah well- maybe next movie. And he does get his very own post-credits sequence.

Also- yummy, yummy Megan Fox. >;3

[Jerthanis]

Also- yummy, yummy Megan Fox. >;3

I was frankly disturbed by the closeup of her abdomen and waist, which I'm fairly sure I could have completely encircled with two hands and had slack. Maybe it was just that it was on the big screen and I lost track of the scale, but human beings shouldn't be that thin! It's unnatural.

The movie was awesome though, and I already had a post about everything I liked and disliked about it and comments on earlier posts, but of course, the forum ate it, so I'm just going to say that I liked it a lot over all.

[AtomicKitKat]

Prime and Megatron were almost always grappling each other. Like every other episode. Otherwise, it was plenty of energy sword vs energy axe(especially the animated movie). Lasers cost energy, and those energon cubes aren't cheap. So fire as warning, cover, then close in and RUMBLE!(No, not the con, although he was pretty good at mixing it up too.:smallbiggrin:)

[reorith]

i have another question :(

how come the electronics , the cell phone, the mountain dew machine, the escalade, and the xbox 360, went hostile as soon as they animated?

[whitemane]

i have another question :(

how come the electronics , the cell phone, the mountain dew machine, the escalade, and the xbox 360, went hostile as soon as they animated?

My theory (and bare in mind, this is solely my THEORY) is that items went hostile as soon as they were animated because they were effectively just being born. If you have ever experienced the "miracle" of child birth, you know that it is a painful and traumatic experience. The child is taken from a warm comfortable dark environment, and thrust into a cold bright scary environment that it doesn't understand. Now imagine if that child was armed with more than a really loud voice for crying!

Add to that the fact that concepts like morality, the sanctity of life, good, evil, etc. are learned and not ingrained...

Of course, all of this is simply my theory, and your mileage may vary.

[Muz]

i have another question :(

how come the electronics , the cell phone, the mountain dew machine, the escalade, and the xbox 360, went hostile as soon as they animated?

Clearly, Autobots are harder to make. :smallsmile:

[JadedDM]

I saw it for free, because I work at a theater. I probably wouldn't have seen it, otherwise.

I was a fan of the old cartoon when I was a child, although I admit I barely remember any of it 20 years later.

I felt that there was a little too much emphasis on the human characters, some of who were not even the least bit important to the story (like the sound analysis and her hacker friend). The only Autobots who got any serious screen-time were Prime and Bumblebee. Megatron didn't even appear until pretty late in the movie (who does he think he is, Venom?). Starscream, always a fan favorite, only had one line. The other Deceptacons pretty much just existed to be destroyed, having no personality or character development (except for maybe Frenzy).

But I figure when the sequels are released (and they most likely will be--not only did the movie do well, but Dreamworks greenlit two sequels all ready. Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Peter Cullen have all signed on to return. Producer Tom DeSanto has envisioned a storyline introducing the Dinobots, the Constructicons, and Soundwave), there will be less exposition, and more screen time for the actual robots.

[Daze]

Saw the movie as soon as it opened.

Normally.. I loathe Michael Bay and am generally pretty much a curmudgeon when my old childhood favorites get re-made...
However...

WOW!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!!

The action was just unbelieveable in this one. Best summer flick I've seen in years. It's true there could have been a bit more dialogue among the robots, but there was enough to keep you entertained.

And that opening scene, where Blackout destroys the military base? freakin amazing... that beam cannon of his was dominating! had me munching my popcorn from the get go!

[DreadArchon]

Yay for awesomeness, though I am sad that the Autobot to die was the first transformer that I ever had a toy of. :smallfrown:

I liked that there was no goofy "teenagers save the day by going against the trained soldiers, who for some reason are all way older than most real soldiers" action. Huzzah for versimilitude.

As for the Spark making everything hostile: My guess is that Megatron actually reprogrammed it to do that while it was still on Cybertron. I got the distinct impression that the Decepticons were in control of the Spark before it was lost, which also explains why Megatron was the only one able to easily follow it.

[Gavin Sage]

I am pleasantly surprised to announce that the faults I have with this movie are more along the lines of what I could say about any movie:


-My biggest one is that aside from Prime the Transformers never become full characters. Aside from prime they hardly have any dialogue at all which is especially annoying on the part of Bumblebee. Some of this is the price for effectively linking the humans into the story (which was actually well done) but it doesn't help that most of the robots are just eye candy.

-In a similar vein I never really got to apreciate the robots themselves. The character designs actually work in the movie if nowhere else, but you never get any good shots of the robots as robots. It was all so busy that with there complex designs I had a hard time following. A bit slower on the action and some well lit portrait shots would have been nice.

-Umm product placement much. Parts of the movie felt like an GM comercial. I swear how much did some of these companies pay to have Michael Bay suck their ***** for them? I actually could dig Bumblebee as an old busted Camaro, it worked for his character. But noooo he had to upgrade and couldn't even get some original music to do it. I wouldn't have been suprised to see Optimus Prime be a new year Hummer or something, since all the other Autobots said "buy me" with their choices. Further more with things like the X-box, and little things like the Mountain Dew on Air Force One.

-Some of the movie was just too silly. I will say though that G1 was pretty silly too, and while we whitewash it with nostalgia it isn't the best cartoon ever or one of those that says cartoons are more then kids stuff. But the movie doesn't need to lower itself like that. I liked the SecDef a great deal, but the rest of the government felt like a bunch of sissy wimps. I mean honestly, does anyone believe Sector 7 could find its butt in a darkroom with two hand, a map, and a flashlight. And the computers angle was similar too loads better in Die Hard which I saw last week.


Despite this I can say I did enjoy myself despite my misgivings and do not think there is really any shame on the Transformers name because of this movie. Especially considering some of the abyssmal expectations I almost had.

[Mr._Blinky]

@TheNovak: By loud, I meant the CG was too important. It took away from every other aspect of the movie. It was saying 'don't pay attention to the plot or what the human is saying, look at bumblebee doing nothing in the background'


Wita, what do you mean important? That it was too good? Because I thought, the CG was beautiful, but that didn't detract from the movie at all, it only enhanced it. In a movie, you want better CG, not worse, or we'd still be stuck with Tron CG, just so it wasn't too "important".

Oh yeah, and Starscream was a complete badass. :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:

[Nightmarenny]

I don't get peoples love of VW Bumblebee. That doesn't seem important. So sequel? Starscream takes over and the Allspark makes us a galvatron?

[Siric]

It's been said a thousand times, but that movie rocked hard core. I enjoyed it more than 300, which is hard to do. I honestly expected it to not be that great. Michael Bay did a wonderful job.

No Robot Dance and BUMBLEBEE OWNS YOU! He was all up in our faces. Not to mention the females were quite attractive to say in the least.

[AtomicKitKat]

I disagree that the old cartoons weren't really meaningful. Sure, the Autobots invariably came out victorious(what Saturday morning cartoon shown in the States doesn't have the good guys win every time?), but they did always try to make it so the Decepticons would come almost to complete victory, except for some small, fatal flaw(which really, makes this a must-see series for any aspiring future overlords). Besides, there were at least a few scenes that, on re-watching, brought tears to my eyes. Like when Sparkplug had to transfer Spike's mind into a mishmash of Autobot spare parts. Or watching Prime get taken apart by the Constructicons. My only complaint was how frequently they got the colourings mixed up between Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker(and in several cases, you would see 2 of them with the same colour in the same shot).

[Hushdawg]

I caught it Monday night and was absolutely floored.

I was a big fan of Transformers from 1983 until now.

People tend to make a few fatal flaws in assuming that they know jack about the Transformers.
The biggest is that G1 is everything.
G1 cartoons are a small part of the entire Transformers universe. There was a long comic book series published by Marvel, G2 toys, Machine Wars toys, R.I.D. toys, Armada toys and cartoon, and more that weren't released in the USA. There was a second comic series in the mid 1990s, a third right after 2000 and a fourth that is ongoing now.

While the G1 forms are the ones that are most heavily used there are inherent flaws within them.
Firstly, none of the first wave of transformers ever chose their forms.. like everything there is an in-world explanation and a meta-explanation.
The in-world explanation is that all the transformers were beat the hell up when the ARK crashed on Earth and after millions of years it was the ARK (whose on-board systems finally had drawn enough thermal energy to repair itself) who sent out a probe to find disguise forms and enact emergency repairs on the transformers with whatever forms it could find.
The meta-explanation is that Takara and Hasbro released the first wave of Transformers using transforming toy forms that came from multiple toy lines which were pre-existing in Japan throughout the 1970s. If you compare the first wave of transformers to the second and third wave, you will notice a massive difference in the construction, most notably is the absence of "pilot space" for drivers since a large volume of Transformers came from the Diaclone series of toys (which had pilots to drive the large robots).

Additionally, the G1 forms used a lot of mass-displacement, particularly among the Decepticons. Mass-displacement transformations consume a great deal of energon, leading to another reason for the greed and energon hunger that the Decepticons had.

Over the years the transformers have all taken various forms and Megatron's first move was to create a tank form which would still contain his ion cannon.
Later he would return to Cybertron and form a massive jet alternate mode which went through a few different ground-travel interpretations.

When Michael Bay initially turned down the Transformers, his reasoning was that he didn't want to make "a stupid toy movie" but upon reflection he realized that he'd made the same mistake with Raiders of the Lost Ark and, as we all know, that turned out to be a huge blockbuster. So not wanting to repeat the mistake, Bay went to Hasbro and studied the mythology.

As someone who has followed the Transformers mythos for the last 24 years, I can say that homeboy didn't do so bad. NOTHING that was introduced in the movie is foreign to the Transformers mythos.

I really enjoyed the movie. I admit getting a little misty-eyed when I heard Optimus Prime's voice echo across the theater in the prologue.

I do understand why Frank Welker didn't reprise his role as Megatron. To be honest, his voice has just aged far too much. The other voice actors have either already died or were no longer interested or suitable for the roles. Michael Bay DID actually invite the surviving voice actors to try out for the movie role, but of the ones who returned, only Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Charles Adler (Silverbolt in G1, Starscream in the movie) really hit the mark. I honestly can't understand why people would expect the same voice actors to be able to reprise a role that they last performed 20 years ago. That's a lot of time for a voice to change into something totally different. I could even hear a slight shift in Peter Cullen's voice.

One thing that Michael Bay did that NONE of the preceeding series have done is pay attention to real-world math when it comes to the amount of mass in an object. He made sure that each alternate mode held the exact same mass as the robot forms (which factored greatly into the specific vehicles chosen).

I like the appearance of the robots, they are more realistic than the simple blockiness of the G1 transformers. What works well in toys doesn't really translate into realism. This is why the cartoon robot forms have always looked so different from the toy forms. With the way the Movie was done, you could actually construct and transform these robots. The computer models were basically one, they actually TRANSFORMED in the computer with the same model as used for the robot. THAT is a great accomplishment.

The movie was not perfect. I would have liked more characterization with Rachet and Jazz. Ironhide's character came across loud and clear though.

I do understand the lack of character development with the Decepticons. Evil creatures need far less development and work, it is easier to fear creatures that are so ominous as to lack real communication. Heck, most of the Decepticons only spoke in Cybertronian! Frenzy was very well played as a spastic infiltrator, very natural to the original character.

I never watch movies twice in a theater. Can't stand it. I'm a major pennypincher and would rather save the $9 to get the DVD after it gets in the discount bin at Blockbuster. Precious few movies can get me to buy the special edition DVDs new upon release. Fewer movies will actually get me into a theater twice. I've seen exactly three movies twice in a theater and Transformers will be the fourth.


One last note: There was a Prequel comic book that came out with IDW press (the company doing the current comic series) which I would recommend picking up. It explains everything that has happened right up to the beginning of the film. It isn't essential to read this to understand the film, but it does help fill out the details.

[DudeGolem]

For what its worth, I haven't been more disapointed in a movie in a long time. The level of product placement in this film is disgusting: go ahead, count the brands. I know a lot of people wouldn't care about this, but to me its one of the most soulless things possible. Not that I didn't see, say, a few car product placements coming, but that certainly wasnt the end of it.
Also, robot sneaking and the romance were both painful to watch. Most human characters were cliches, and painful to watch.
If something was blowing up or transforming into a vehicle or robot, it was sweet. Thats about all the good I can say.

[DreadArchon]

The level of product placement in this film is disgusting: go ahead, count the brands. I know a lot of people wouldn't care about this, but to me its one of the most soulless things possible.:smallsigh:
There's less in the movie that you'd see in a real life situation.

[DudeGolem]

:smallsigh:
There's less in the movie that you'd see in a real life situation.

real life situation at the mall.

Granted, its a movie on a huge franchise with shirts toys whatever, and why not plug apple and mountain dew whatever...

People were applauding when they brought out the new Camero though. Really rubbed me the wrong way.

[Nightmarenny]

That was more cause what Bumblebee did was cool I'd bet. If anyone has a problem with the Mountain Dew robot you have no soul.

[Hushdawg]

That was more cause what Bumblebee did was cool I'd bet. If anyone has a problem with the Mountain Dew robot you have no soul.

Totally true, besides that; MD has had the Mountain Dew robot on the website for well over a month now in a playable game. I would have been upset if they didn't have it in the movie.

[Hushdawg]

:smallsigh:
There's less in the movie that you'd see in a real life situation.

Also very true. There was more product placement in any of the Spider-Man movies and I never heard a single person complain about that.

Heck, even the friggin' Garfield movie was smothered in product placement. But you're right. NONE of these movies have had anywhere near the volume of advertisements that one is likely to see driving down an average road in an average town for five minutes.

[Hushdawg]

Also, regarding the vehicles. It actually costs the FILM PRODUCTION money to have multiple brands of cars. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper to have one line of cars for all the main shooting.

So it's not just product placement, it is wise spending of money.

I think product placement critics should read up on how much things like this actually cost the filmmakers if they don't make product placement agreements with various brands.

There are only three official brands represented: General Motors, Mountain Dew and Burger King

That's it. Total. Anything else in the movie is incidental branding and the film production company had to pay money if those other brands got in the shot. That is also why the used car lot had all the cars over a certain age. Any newer and they would have had to pay for THOSE.

[Logic]

Saw it, and loved it. It is the perfect summer movie.

Don't stay for the entire credits, just until...
One of the decepticons gets away, specifically...Starscream

[Arang]

Just got back from it. It's really worth a watch.

I didn't notice much product placement, but then again, I have a ridiculously small knowledge of cars and had no idea all the Autobots were GM cars until I read it here. I also didn't really notice the product placement in I, Robot, so you might not want to trust my judgment on this. Clearly, I must be a brainwashed mindless slave of cynical consumerist society.


My (completely irrelevant, IMO) complaints:
- a little too chaotic battle scenes
- a few of the Transformers (namely Ironskin, Starscream and Brawl, as well as Bonecrusher and Megatron, I think) looked a little too similar to suit my tastes. I couldn't really see who was who during the battle scenes.
- Megatron and Optimus Prime weren't powerful enough. Megatron tears Jazz in two, and Optimus Prime kills Bonecrusher in a couple of seconds, but that's where the "even more powerful than the rest of the invincible sixty-foot death machines"-ness ended. Maybe the rest of the movie was just too over the top, I don't know.

[Ranis]

A question for you guys:

Was Jazz in the original Transformers movie?

The movie was EPIC. Me want to see again. And again. Though I do really wish the Decepticons had more air-time, or, hell, more lines.

A couple more questions:

1) Is Megatron supposed to be the epitome of the Transformer race? Is he, like, the most powerful one?

2)Was Megatron the ruler of Cybertron before the war, or was Optimus?

3)I remember something about how Optimus's spark is special in some way. He is like the heart of the Transformer race, or he carries some kind of special spark that sets him apart from the rest. Is this accurate?

[blade_runner]

Note, Anything within the [opinion] tags can be ignored by anyone and everyone.

[opinion] I just saw this movie, and I must say that it is...lacking. Make no mistake, taken in its proper context (that of a summer action movie) it is beyond compare. I think that, as a movie overall though, it is missing a few key elements.

When I watch a movie, I expect it to have a few things in it, nothing fancy, just things like a plot, and a few believable characters. To the best of my knowledge, the "plot" is a 2.5 hour slugfest. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but some semblance of originality would have been nice. Ditto on the characters. I came out of the movie not even remembering the main character's name.

Also, the camera work. I prefer enough time between shots to see what's happening. It doesn't make sense to max out Industrial Light and Magic's computer banks on animating, then not let us see it right.

Bottom line: as an action movie, beyond compare the best movie I've ever seen. For those of us who prefer at least some kind of a plot, not the best. Lots of mediocre and semi-good things, but the only great things were that little Decepticon guy, the army actualy doing some damage, and the LP music in the (interminable) closing credits. [/oppinion]

[Gavin Sage]

Also, regarding the vehicles. It actually costs the FILM PRODUCTION money to have multiple brands of cars. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper to have one line of cars for all the main shooting.

So it's not just product placement, it is wise spending of money.

I think product placement critics should read up on how much things like this actually cost the filmmakers if they don't make product placement agreements with various brands.

There are only three official brands represented: General Motors, Mountain Dew and Burger King

That's it. Total. Anything else in the movie is incidental branding and the film production company had to pay money if those other brands got in the shot. That is also why the used car lot had all the cars over a certain age. Any newer and they would have had to pay for THOSE.

Hundreds of thousands more? Only? Why do I find this uncompelling in light of a budget I'm sure into the hundred millions at least?

Here's where it crossed the line and started bugging me:

Bumblebee as a old Camaro actually kinda worked. It fit his character as not so stylish and since we weren't going to have a Bug (I can see visual reasoning behind this, especially for today's day and age) an old beat up car is a fairly close vibe, something distinctly low on the list. However there is no tangible reason to do an upgrade scene aside from a moderately good joke. And it wasn't half as cool enough to get House of Blue Leaves playing behind it. Its being a poser, and feels exactly like a GM commercial. Nice big shot of a fresh new car with 'hip' music playing, Marketing 101 right there.

Also there was Nokia, Microsoft, and Sony (IIRC but Frenzy could have been someone else) in there prominently too. I'm sure if I go see it again I could spot some more.

[Mr._Blinky]

By the way, did anyone else come out wanting to make a bumper sticker that says "My Other Car Is A Transformer"?

[Haggis]

Just saw the film a couple of days ago and I'm still stoked! I hope to see it again soon and I even plan on taking my little sister once she comes home from camp.


A question for you guys:

Was Jazz in the original Transformers movie?

1) Is Megatron supposed to be the epitome of the Transformer race? Is he, like, the most powerful one?

2)Was Megatron the ruler of Cybertron before the war, or was Optimus?

3)I remember something about how Optimus's spark is special in some way. He is like the heart of the Transformer race, or he carries some kind of special spark that sets him apart from the rest. Is this accurate?

I have a decent understanding so I do my best. I could always be wrong though.

I don't recall off hand, but if so it would have been a bit scene and quite frankly I think he died off screen. Most early autobots did.

1. He's pretty much one of the most powerful the only normal autobot who could face him is prime. The toys come with stats and while a stong TF will get mainly 7-9's. Megs and Prime get all 10's and maybe a 9 or two.

2. He was more or less trying to take over and pretty much winning. But never the real leader. Nether was prime he was just needed to stop the cons and had leadership placed on him.

3. Prime carries the Matrix. In the comics it was 'of creation', and could create robotic life, in the cartoon it was 'of leadership' and in the first movie saved the day.


By the way, did anyone else come out wanting to make a bumper sticker that says "My Other Car Is A Transformer"?

Yes indeed!

[Suraht]

I'll just go ahead and mark this whole thing with the spoiler tag, just in case.

Humans were focused on heavily:

I'll copy something that someone else wrote on another forum, and it sums up how I feel about this complaint:




The problem with that (not that I think it's an inherently bad idea) is that it is actually incredibly tough to pull off well. And by "Well", I mean "at all".

The problem with using a character other than the protagonist as a viewpoint character, IOW a lens through which the audience sees and interprets events, is that you're left trying to draw the audience into the story from a perspective that makes none of the important decisions, and has no net effect on the progression of the story, and in general audiences don't respond to that.

It's simple human nature to want to identify with The hero of the tale, rather than with the hero's friend who really doesn't do much. While it's not impossible to draw people into the story via a route that isn't the protagonist, it's going to be really easy for the tale to feel flat and unengaging; like watching a badly-done documentary.

The major reason this movie was done with a human in the protagonist role was to give it broader appeal; the people out there who wouldn't normally see themselves as the sort who could, or who would want to, empathize with a Giant Alien Robot from Beyond the Stars are going to be able to empahtize with a human teenager who wants a car and a girl. Then, through Sam empathizing with the Giant Alien Robots from Beyond the Stars, those people who would normally scoff at the very concept of enjoying a movie about Transformers are drawn in.

The problem with making, say, Bumblebee the protag is that those people, who are normally drawn just fine to the human teenager, are left wondering why they should give a flip about the choices some Giant Alien Robot from Beyond the Stars is agonizing over. Whereas they can understand perfectly the problems and choices a human teenager suddenly faced with Giant Alien Robots from Beyond the Stars might have to make.

I would seriously doubt that any of the film-makers involved in this movie would choose to alienate the larger part of the film-going market (those main-streamy non-robot-empathizing mother [censored]) from future sequels in favor of solidifying the niche-OldSchoolTransformersYayHotRodandKup fanbase, when they could pretty much just as easily satisfy (if not nerdgasm) both crowds by doing pretty much what they did right here.

If the sequel does more of a Pirates of the Caribbean(the first one) trick, wherein we've got a single protagonist driving the story but are tricked through wonderfully-written trickery into thinking it's an ensemble piece, then I think they'll do well.

Product placement:

As far as the product placement goes...yeah. Pretty standard fare for today's movies, since they usually cost far too much to make($20 million, just for a lead actor in a good deal of cases. Throw in the cameo appearance by people like Bernie Mac and Hugo Weaving, and the cast price skyrockets). However, with any of the cars, there was going to be product placement, just because they were going to use real world models, instead of creating their own(and if they hadn't used real world models, Transformer fans would have boycotted). Making all the vehicles from the same manufacturer was just an incredibly smart way of doing it...instead of paying a bunch of people to use their property, they got paid to use it. The vending machine-o-doom, well, I liked the idea of a brand on the machine rather than a generic "Cola" scrawled across the front. The 360 freaking out and attacking it's owner and the Nokia, though, could have been just generic electronics. If you want to see the worst examples of product placement, check out Cast Away(aka FedEx: The Movie) or I, Robot(Converse, vintage 2004).

(As an aside, I'll mention again that Bay wanted to get the classic VW bug to use for Bumblebee to at least break the GM monopoly on the Autobot models, but VW said no, claiming that they didn't want their models used in a violent movie in that fashion.)

As for what was up with the machines that the Allspark brought to life, the newborn babies analogy actually isn't far off. The machines aren't evil, they're just feral...basically akin to wild animals. They wake up, they see all the strange beings walking around them and screaming at them or find themselves imprisoned in glass or cardboard, they get scared, they attack.

And now, some odds and ends:

Hushdawg:

I do understand why Frank Welker didn't reprise his role as Megatron. To be honest, his voice has just aged far too much. The other voice actors have either already died or were no longer interested or suitable for the roles. Michael Bay DID actually invite the surviving voice actors to try out for the movie role, but of the ones who returned, only Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Charles Adler (Silverbolt in G1, Starscream in the movie) really hit the mark. I honestly can't understand why people would expect the same voice actors to be able to reprise a role that they last performed 20 years ago. That's a lot of time for a voice to change into something totally different. I could even hear a slight shift in Peter Cullen's voice.

Actually, Welker didn't reprise his role in the movie due to scheduling conflicts. He's still voicing Megatron for the game.

Ranis:

A question for you guys:

Was Jazz in the original Transformers movie?

The movie was EPIC. Me want to see again. And again. Though I do really wish the Decepticons had more air-time, or, hell, more lines.

A couple more questions:

1) Is Megatron supposed to be the epitome of the Transformer race? Is he, like, the most powerful one?

2)Was Megatron the ruler of Cybertron before the war, or was Optimus?

3)I remember something about how Optimus's spark is special in some way. He is like the heart of the Transformer race, or he carries some kind of special spark that sets him apart from the rest. Is this accurate?

Jazz was in the original TF movie from 1986, and he was voice by Scatman Coruthers, just as he was in the G1 series. Jazz even managed to live through the movie.

1) If you've seen the original movie, then you'll remember how powerful Unicron was...but from the other questions, I'm guessing you didn't, so I'll do a little explaining. Megatron was nowhere near the top of the food chain then(Unicron even managed to reform Megatron into a more powerful Decepticon called Galvatron that could vaporize Starscream in one shot), and I'm still curious to see if Prime could have beaten Megatron in a fight when he wasn't so concerned with collateral damage to humans in this iteration. I have a feeling we'll have a new threat similar to Unicron show up in the third movie, if not the second.

2) If I've understood the lore as it was told to me, then I don't think either Prime or Megatron was in charge to begin with. The way I've heard it goes something along the lines of "All of them were Autobots to start out with, but Megatron gathered a group of them and rebeled, starting the war."

3) In the universe that the movie was working with, Prime's spark wasn't any more or less powerful than anyone else's. However, in the original series, there was no 'spark' that each 'bot and 'con had. Prime, however, had something called the Matrix of Leadership that he carried inside of him that made him more powerful(and he passed it on when he died in the movie, although Hot Rod managed to stumble his way into claiming it next).

[Tor the Fallen]

Hundreds of thousands more? Only? Why do I find this uncompelling in light of a budget I'm sure into the hundred millions at least?

Here's where it crossed the line and started bugging me:

Bumblebee as a old Camaro actually kinda worked. It fit his character as not so stylish and since we weren't going to have a Bug (I can see visual reasoning behind this, especially for today's day and age) an old beat up car is a fairly close vibe, something distinctly low on the list. However there is no tangible reason to do an upgrade scene aside from a moderately good joke. And it wasn't half as cool enough to get House of Blue Leaves playing behind it. Its being a poser, and feels exactly like a GM commercial. Nice big shot of a fresh new car with 'hip' music playing, Marketing 101 right there.

Also there was Nokia, Microsoft, and Sony (IIRC but Frenzy could have been someone else) in there prominently too. I'm sure if I go see it again I could spot some more.

It may be that ceratin companies will only let their brand be used if their competitors can't use their brand. Also, I think a movie makes money with product placement. However, stipulent on being paid that money (or goods for use by cast, crew, etc), the movie maker must agree not to, say, have the characters drink pepsi products.


Did any of you huge nerds actually think it a was a terrible, godaweful movie?

[Ranis]

Thanks a million, guys. I've only been told sketchy/hazy things about the original series, and the movie left me confused about a few things. Your time taken to answer my questions is very much appreciated. :D

[Hushdawg]

A question for you guys:

Was Jazz in the original Transformers movie?

1) Is Megatron supposed to be the epitome of the Transformer race? Is he, like, the most powerful one?

2)Was Megatron the ruler of Cybertron before the war, or was Optimus?

3)I remember something about how Optimus's spark is special in some way. He is like the heart of the Transformer race, or he carries some kind of special spark that sets him apart from the rest. Is this accurate?

One thing to bear in mind here is that the live-action movie universe has a slight shift from the G1 universe. In the Prequel comics for the movie a lot of these questions are answered.
Firstly, yes, Jazz was in the original G1 movie and even appeared long into the 1987 series as Scatman Crothers had recorded many episodes before his death in late 1986. Jazz was commander of Moon Base One orbiting Cybertron for the first movie.
Megatron and Optimus Prime are very evenly matched, they are the most powerful Cybertronians; but there are more Transformers than just on Cybertron. Megatron's Ion Cannon is reputed to be most powerful weapon in the galaxy in the comic books, but in the toy tech specs Optimus Prime's cannon is equally powerful. OP has always had greater leadership skills than Megs.
In the Live-Action movieverse Optimus Prime was appointed the leader of Cybertron and Megatron was his chief lieutenant, The Cybertronian wars began when Megatron formed the Decepticons to steal the rule and the power of the Allspark for himself. Optimus Prime shot the Allspark into space to prevent it from falling into Megatron's hands. It was during that last battle that Megs crushed Bumblebee's throat and destroyed his vocal processor. Megatron shot off into space after the allspark and by the time he reached Earth his energy was far too depleted to effectively get out of the icy water in the arctic (the ice cap melted under the combined heat from entering Earth's atmosphere and the weight of his body).
This is why the other Transformers used Protoforms for space travel, it seals the systems against the cold of space and allows for much lower power consumption during travel. However, once they land, finding disguise forms is a primary concern.

Last, but not least: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons have a matrix of leadership. The Decepticon version is flawed though since it is passed through combat rather than willingly given up so the power of wisdom is not actually poured into the Matrix as with the Autobot's version. This is why the Autobot Matrix is so powerful and so prized.

In the Live-Action Movie-verse, the Allspark released a portion of itself into the leadership caste of Cybertron. Optimus, Megatron and a handful of others have such Sparks in their chests. It is not like the Matrix was in the G1 series, but it does give the leadership caste a special kind of connection to the Allspark.

Unfortunately the Allspark's destruction seems to mean the end for Cybertron, hence the parting words from Optimus Prime in the movie.

Coincidentally, Cybertron in the original series is less than half the size of Earth.

Hope that answers the questions.

[DreadArchon]

However there is no tangible reason to do an upgrade scene aside from a moderately good joke. Its being a poser, and feels exactly like a GM commercial. Nice big shot of a fresh new car with 'hip' music playing, Marketing 101 right there. Well I thought it was worth the joke. Also, I'm not inclined to agree about the marketing. Hot Girl could have said something like "Whoah, a [whatever the hell kind of car it was]! Much better!" That might have crossed the line. As it is, I had to ask what kind of car it was, and I wasn't the only one. I'd think that failing to even identify one's product makes for poor marketing.

Even now, I'm still not clear on the significance of the car (new Camero, right?)--did they just like it because it was new and shiny, or is that actually supposed to be a good car? Isn't a Camero the kind that got outrun by a crappy ranch truck in Dukes of Hazard? If that scene was primarily intended as a marketing attempt, it failed hard.

[Artemician]

Before I start, let me just say that I, being a young lad, have never, ever seen the Transformers cartoons in my life. My knowledge of transformers primarily comes from wikipedia.

Now, on the the movie. I went into the cinema with an expectation that it would be a badass movie. From what I know of Michael Bay, he likes to do explosions and cool fight scenes. Plus, it has Giant Mecha. No matter how much you screw it up, Giant Mecha has an internal amount of badass-ness that will permeate through.

However, Michael Bay managed to prove me wrong. He gave far too much screentime to puny nonmechanical humans, and as a result, I got the vibe that the US military was many, many times more badass than all the Transformers put together. Except for Starscream. Because he is awesome.

There were only two action scenes that really stood out, and they were Optimus beheading Blackout, and Starscream playing havoc with the F-22s above and amongst the skyscrapers.

Blackout's death was cool because Optimus beheaded him with a wrist knife. Which just screams badass. However, in later scenes, that knife is never seen, and Optimus seems to want to jump around and hug people instead of utilizing a perfectly functioning and powerful weapon that he has already been shown using. While I understand the lack of lasers and projectiles due to power constraints, I don't understand how the Transformers fail to see that they can improvise almost anything as a club. Giving them proper melee weapons would add a great deal to versimilitude (as well as badassness).

Starscream jumping from F-22 form to mecha form in midair and destroying aircraft was fantastic, because it fully shows off the true power of a Transformer. That should have been how the other fight scenes should have gone. However, we are instead treated to jerky camera angles and blurred visuals, which kind of makes me wonder why they went to so much detail doing up the Transformers, if you wouldn't be able to see them anyway.

That brings up another point: The Transformers, in my opinion, looked very clunky and fragile. You're a super-advanced alien race, show it! Jazz, with his transcluscent and elegant armour, looked far better than the others, who had gears and cogs basically sticking out all over the place. A prime example of this: Optimus and Bumblebee both looked much cooler when they were wearing their helmets.

Aside from Jazz, the Decepticons in total were a much more badass bunch than the Autobots. Which is cooler, a transforming MBT, or a transforming monster truck? That should not be the case!

Sam Whitwaker was also a weepy, annoying, immature fool. He's like those over-emo teen mecha pilots from bad shonen anime, only with a buttload of sexual innuendo and lust for the hot chick thrown in. I don't get what Optimus sees in him. He almost doomed the Transformers, by choosing to try to reach the EZ on foot instead of in a truck. Only because of the intervention of Ratchett and Jazz who held Megatron off, did he survive. And due to his thick-headedness, Jazz was slain by Megatron.

And at the end of it, he gets the chick, the favour of Optimus, AND a cool car. Talk about annoying.

Verdict: Some people would say that you should watch the movie for an epic experience. I would say otherwise. Sorry Michael Bay, but it just plain wasn't badass enough.

[Suraht]

Sam Whitwaker was also a weepy, annoying, immature fool. He's like those over-emo teen mecha pilots from bad shonen anime, only with a buttload of sexual innuendo and lust for the hot chick thrown in. I don't get what Optimus sees in him. He almost doomed the Transformers, by choosing to try to reach the EZ on foot instead of in a truck. Only because of the intervention of Ratchett and Jazz who held Megatron off, did he survive. And due to his thick-headedness, Jazz was slain by Megatron.

And at the end of it, he gets the chick, the favour of Optimus, AND a cool car. Talk about annoying.

Of course Sam Witwicky was annoying. He WAS a teen, so him being kinda whiny and over-hormonal makes perfect sense. However, I don't think there was much choice other than for him to go on foot while carrying the Allspark. If he'd gotten in a truck, there's a good chance that what had already happened to the Escalade, the 360, the Mountain Dew vending machine, and the cell phone would happen again, and the truck would come to life and kill him. the only other real option was to hop inside Ironhide or Ratchet and try to ride there, but that would only give Megatron and Co. a bigger target. Add to this that Ironhide kept yelling at Sam to just keep running and moving, and he wasn't going to think twice about it.

[blade_runner]

I already threw in my opinion, but I just have a few more things to say (spoilered, just in case anyone who reads this actually hasn't watched the movie):

1. What happened to Optimus's sword, you know, the one he decapitated Bonecrusher (the truck with the crane on top) with? It apparently went away to action-movie land.

2. Dido on the two "wave form analyst" guys. They were in the computer room at Hover dam, and were absent in the final chase.

3. Did the military guys have the infinite ammo cheat on in the last battle?

4. The ending. It might just be my ignorance, but how did that cube suddenly become a "thermal lance of death"? Also, it just bugs me that the cube can change in size and density like that. I don't know why, it just does.

5. I say it again, the camera operators must be fired. The only descant action shot (or perhaps shot in general) was Starscream taking out the F-22's.

EDIT: I take that back. Seeing all those robots sneak around Sam's house was worth admission by itself.

6. How the heck could a robot decapitate himself with his own weapon (remember the little Decepticon guy)?

7. How can a robot who travels in deep space be frozen by guys with liquid nitrogen backpacks?


I'd go on, but I'd just be repeating what everyone else has said (even more than I have already).

[asqwasqw]

I already threw in my opinion, but I just have a few more things to say (spoilered, just in case anyone who reads this actually hasn't watched the movie):

1. What happened to Optimus's sword, you know, the one he decapitated Bonecrusher (the truck with the crane on top) with? It apparently went away to action-movie land.

2. Dido on the two "wave form analyst" guys. They were in the computer room at Hover dam, and were absent in the final chase.

3. Did the military guys have the infinite ammo cheat on in the last battle?

4. The ending. It might just be my ignorance, but how did that cube suddenly become a "thermal lance of death"? Also, it just bugs me that the cube can change in size and density like that. I don't know why, it just does.

5. I say it again, the camera operators must be fired. The only descant action shot (or perhaps shot in general) was Starscream taking out the F-22's.

EDIT: I take that back. Seeing all those robots sneak around Sam's house was worth admission by itself.

6. How the heck could a robot decapitate himself with his own weapon (remember the little Decepticon guy)?

7. How can a robot who travels in deep space be frozen by guys with liquid nitrogen backpacks?


I'd go on, but I'd just be repeating what everyone else has said (even more than I have already).


1. No idea, actually...

2.The final chase was right after the Hoover Dam thing. They left the Hoover Dam with the cube, some people stayed, and then Frenzy attacked.

3. Yup!

4. The cube reacted with the core of Megatron to destroy him. If it hit Optimus, it would have killed Optimus too.

5. There were some other good shots... ditto on the robots sneaking around.

6. It apparently bounced off the metal and richoted back.

7. They traveled in a container.

[Artemician]

Of course Sam Witwicky was annoying. He WAS a teen, so him being kinda whiny and over-hormonal makes perfect sense. However, I don't think there was much choice other than for him to go on foot while carrying the Allspark. If he'd gotten in a truck, there's a good chance that what had already happened to the Escalade, the 360, the Mountain Dew vending machine, and the cell phone would happen again, and the truck would come to life and kill him. the only other real option was to hop inside Ironhide or Ratchet and try to ride there, but that would only give Megatron and Co. a bigger target. Add to this that Ironhide kept yelling at Sam to just keep running and moving, and he wasn't going to think twice about it.

Just because someone's teenage doesn't give everyone a free license to make him an annoying idiot. I found the part where the girl sat in his lap particularly distasteful. And the bits before, where he was trying to use Bumblebee to impress the girls, they were stupid as well.

From the very moment he uttered his first line, I wanted him to die. What kind of annoying sod uses his high school presentation to hawk his great-grandfather's possessions? Not only is it morally reprehensible, he was bad at it to boot.


But enough about him.. he was but one character.

I have a lot of beef about the horribly annoying extras as well. That British systems analyst, the DDR-playing hacker, the car salesman, they were completely unimportant to the plot, and had horribly stererotypical, annoying personalities.

[JadedDM]

The sound analyst was Australian, not British. And easy on the eyes as she was, I felt her and the hacker were completely unnecessary and only wound up taking time away from the giant robots.

[Jibar]

Okay, while I have yet to see the movie, I have a really major complaint. This is over CGI-ed.
Seriously, I'm having trouble distinguishing between Transformers, where their heads are, what's going on.
Just watching a trailer left me with the same confused and disappointed feelings that the Hulk Move That Never Existed would have left me with if it never existed.
Ever.

[Inyssius Tor]

First off: see the movie, it's awesome.

Second: that only happens in fight scenes, since Bay apparently is a big fan of the Can't-See-What-The-Hell-Is-Going-On shot.

[Hushdawg]

I already threw in my opinion, but I just have a few more things to say (spoilered, just in case anyone who reads this actually hasn't watched the movie):

1. What happened to Optimus's sword, you know, the one he decapitated Bonecrusher (the truck with the crane on top) with? It apparently went away to action-movie land.

2. Dido on the two "wave form analyst" guys. They were in the computer room at Hover dam, and were absent in the final chase.

3. Did the military guys have the infinite ammo cheat on in the last battle?

4. The ending. It might just be my ignorance, but how did that cube suddenly become a "thermal lance of death"? Also, it just bugs me that the cube can change in size and density like that. I don't know why, it just does.

5. I say it again, the camera operators must be fired. The only descant action shot (or perhaps shot in general) was Starscream taking out the F-22's.

EDIT: I take that back. Seeing all those robots sneak around Sam's house was worth admission by itself.

6. How the heck could a robot decapitate himself with his own weapon (remember the little Decepticon guy)?

7. How can a robot who travels in deep space be frozen by guys with liquid nitrogen backpacks?


I'd go on, but I'd just be repeating what everyone else has said (even more than I have already).


1. Optimus Prime's sword came out of a sheathe in his arm. If you watch closely you can see it retract after he does the decapitation.

2. I agree, they did seem to disappear.

3. They did the magic action movie off-screen reloading :smalltongue:

4. The cube has the power to create and destroy life; by merging it into the energy core in Megatron's chest it was overpowered and melted down while destroying Megatron. Optimus Prime explained that it would do such a thing earlier in the film. As for the change in size and density, this is the only item in the Live-action movie world that incorporates the mass-displacement ability by shedding off mass with an energy exchange, the energy becomes compressed within the cube and is discharged by creating or destroying.

I'm just glad they were careful to maintain mass ratios with the robots and alternate forms.

5. A lot of the action shots were very chaotic; but they are a definite mark of improvement above Michael Bay's previous films. It did tend to mirror the sort of chaos that one would feel actually being in that situation.

6. If you are wielding a chainsaw, do you think it would be impossible for someone to cause you to decapitate yourself with it? Weapons that are designed to kill will kill indiscriminately.

7. That is why they use protoforms, it seals them off with heavy plating during the travel through space and keeps them from using up all their energy on the trip. Megatron was heavily depleted of energy when he landed on Earth chasing the Allspark. That's why he was unable to react and save himself when the ice cap collapsed under his heat and weight.

[Gaelbert]

The whole jumpy cameras were to show the chaos of battle. I've noticed that a lot more recently, and, while most of the time it bugs me, I thought it was the best done example I've seen. And I thought the movie was awesome, especially the music.

[Arang]

On the matter of the action shots, I thought they were much less chaotic the second time around. Maybe it was me knowing what would happen, but they were much easier to follow if you paid attention to who was who.

[Lord of the Helms]

Well I thought it was worth the joke. Also, I'm not inclined to agree about the marketing. Hot Girl could have said something like "Whoah, a [whatever the hell kind of car it was]! Much better!" That might have crossed the line. As it is, I had to ask what kind of car it was, and I wasn't the only one. I'd think that failing to even identify one's product makes for poor marketing.


Seeing how there was a big shot of the side of the car featuring bright, silver "Camaro" written on it, you must be even better than myself at ignoring ads :smalltongue:

I liked the movie, myself. The best part was

Optimus Prime downing Bonecrusher without breaking a sweat. I do agree the Transformers were somewhat over-cgied and hard to distinguish in battle, except for Optimus and Bumblebee due to their superbright colours.

My main complaint, other than product placement: Prime wasn't near badass enough against Megatron. The latter seemed to have the upper hand pretty much all of the time, which just doesn't do Optimus justice.

And I'm still wondering if Starscream was with the F-22s that shot Megatron or not. Stabbing him in the back before he achieved ultimate power WOULD have been true to his character after all

For the sequels, I demand:

1. Dinobots.
2. Galvatron.
3. More Dinobots.
4. Constructicons.
5. Starscream being more of the traiterous backstabber that he should be.
6. Again, Dinobots.
7. Hot Rod. Yes, that's right, I like Hot Rod. I could do with Rodimus Prime in the third movie, too.
8. Unicron. Duh!
9. Dinobots.
10. Dinobots.

[Hushdawg]

For the sequels, I demand:

1. Dinobots.
2. Galvatron.
3. More Dinobots.
4. Constructicons.
5. Starscream being more of the traiterous backstabber that he should be.
6. Again, Dinobots.
7. Hot Rod. Yes, that's right, I like Hot Rod. I could do with Rodimus Prime in the third movie, too.
8. Unicron. Duh!
9. Dinobots.
10. Dinobots.

1 - possible

2 - not likely

3 - perhaps

4 - definitely (already in the requirements for TF2 via Dreamworks)

5 - Most likely

6 - We'll see

7 - Rodimus, definitely not. The reason Optimus Prime came back in the original cartoon series is because Rodimus was actually loosing the core audience. Rodimus fails as a leader, Hot Rod on the other hand I could see.

8 - Third movie possibility, not possible with the plans already being discussed by Bay and Dreamworks for the second film

9 - there's a chance

10 - okay now you're just being silly.. at least the other mentions had another thing in between... :smalltongue:

[TheEmerged]

Saw it this weekend.

TLDR summary: I enjoyed it. I don't see myself buying the DVD though, it's a "enjoy once and go on with your life" kind of movie. I enjoyed "Nancy Drew" more, but that sounds more insulting than I mean it.

A good movie? Yes. Best movie ever? I didn't feel it was as good as the original, although I say that as one of the dozen or so people who saw it in the theatre. Best movie this year? I think I covered that one.

CGI: A+. I think we can officially call this the Jump The Shark moment for a movie being able to market its computer effects (in the original, not-insulting definition of Jump The Shark).

Politics: F-. I'll leave it at that. I had better leave it at that or I'll come across as flaming. Must... not... rant...

Casting: B-. They deserved a B+ for getting the original Optimus voice, so yeah I thought the rest of it stunk pretty bad.

Big Explosions: A+

Ability to follow fight scenes: C+. What is it with movies lately going into absurd closeups on fight scenes, making it hard to followthe action?

Pet Peeve: For a movie that so thoroughly & persistently violated the "show don't tell" rule, there were a heck of a lot of times some more explanation would have been nice.

Again, let me make sure this is understood -- I enjoyed the movie and recommend going to see it. Just keeps your inner fanboi in check.

[sealemon]

Ahem.

http://www.pvponline.com/article/3413/thu-jul-05?y=


Now, with that out of the way, the movie was really, really good. Total geekgasm. I hadn't done any research on the movie before going to see it, so to hear Peter Cullen's voice as Prime...hell, that alone was worth it.

Of COURSE the robots looked different! CAn you imagine how lame they would have looked in live action if they had kept the original look? The fight scenes were all kinds of awesome, and I'm actually a fan of Shia Lebeouf, and thought his character was pretty good...comic releaf characters are usually Jar Jar horrible, but Shia pulled it off. And yes, Megan Fox...wow.

And yes, I wish Bumblebe had been a VW. I also wish I had a pony. The Camero was fine.

[sealemon]

Oh, yeah...I also liked the self depreciating line Bay working into the scene where the Deceptacons were crashing into the Earth.

"Oh, man! THis is a hundred times better than Armegeddon!

Then again, I liked a few of BAy's previous movies (The Rock, Armegeddon, Mystery Men)...not nearly the best director out ther, but decent enough at blowing @$@#$ up. Which is all this movie really needed.

I also REALLY liked seeing Megatron getting the respect he deserves...during the big battle, as soon as the Autobots hear the Megatron is coming, Prime immediatly orders the Autobots to fall back. The final fight was really nice too.

[Behold_the_Void]

That was enjoyable and entertaining. Well worth the ticket price.

[AtomicKitKat]

Of COURSE the robots looked different! CAn you imagine how lame they would have looked in live action if they had kept the original look? The fight scenes were all kinds of awesome, and I'm actually a fan of Shia Lebeouf, and thought his character was pretty good...comic releaf characters are usually Jar Jar horrible, but Shia pulled it off. And yes, Megan Fox...wow.

Lame? LAME?! http://youtube.com/watch?v=ol49i2OUM_k Unpaid work.

There's probably a couple more out there, and I found them a whole heck of a lot more believable than the mish-mash of scrap Bay chose to put on screen.

[Hushdawg]

Lame? LAME?! http://youtube.com/watch?v=ol49i2OUM_k Unpaid work.

There's probably a couple more out there, and I found them a whole heck of a lot more believable than the mish-mash of scrap Bay chose to put on screen.

yeah, actually that was pretty lame.

One of the biggest problems with G1 is that the mass of the robots did not match the mass of the cars. That is one of the problems that had to be overcome with the live-action movie and I think that Michael Bay did a good job.

The truck that was chosen for Optimus Prime is the largest in production because a standard Peterbilt cabover would have only made him about 23 feet tall (as you can see in your lame video link).

Also, how believable would it be in 2007 to see cars that are nearly 30 years old? The 1970s camaro was a stretch only because enough of them were made to keep the hunks of junk running out of wreck parts for the last 30 years. Given all the changes to the Transformers over the years I would have been disappointed if Ironhide turned out to be a lame-ass 1970s van and Ratchet had been a look-alike ambulance.

Really, do you think about these things or are you just concentrating on Optimus Prime's alternate mode?

[Reinforcements]

Lame? LAME?! http://youtube.com/watch?v=ol49i2OUM_k Unpaid work.

There's probably a couple more out there, and I found them a whole heck of a lot more believable than the mish-mash of scrap Bay chose to put on screen.
Yeah, sorry dude, but the transformers in the movie look about a hundred times better than that. It's technically impressive for an amateur work, but it does look pretty lame.

[AtomicKitKat]

I'm not arguing that the cars couldn't necessarily be updated(of course, I'd prefer if the updates were in the same "family"), but having seen the designs for Starscream, et al, and the overall drabness of just about everyone except Optimus and Bumblebee, I have to say that the CGI budget was apparently wasted. The robot forms looked horribly incomplete and exposed, as though they'd been beat up till the armour plating fell off. Sort of like Warforged vs Full Plate Knight. THAT is what bugs me most. That they could have streamlined them even a little bit, and didn't.

[Artemician]

You should see the closeups. You can find a link in the clip description. They show a very high level of details and sophistication. In fact, I quite like the smooth, elegant look that the guy gave to Optimus, compared to the jagged, messy one that Michael Bay gave him. You can also actually see that he was a truck. You couldn't recognize any transformers in robot form in the movie; they didn't so much transform as metamorphosize.

EDIT: I agree totally with AtomicKitKat

[Jibar]

Yay, people who agree with me!
How am I meant to enjoy a film where the robots are the main cast, when I have no idea who is who?
As it is with their designs, I can only just tell which one is Optimus Prime and that's about it.
All the other robots look like masses of metal that move. I can't make out legs, arms, hands, heads, anything.

[Gaelbert]

I watched the movie again today looking for advertisements and really didn't find any. I saw Nokia, GMC, and maybe Camaro, but the Camaro would be hard to consider advertising because the glare of the sun makes it hard to read the name of the car.

[sealemon]

I'm really sorry, AtomicKitKat, but that video did not change my mind. It looked pretty cool for an amatuer Youtube, but for a summer blockbuster? Lame. It looked cool, but fake. The film version was simply cooler looking. I put this in the catagory as the Thing's, the X-Mens', Doc Oc's and even Wonder Woman's makeovers in the movies. What looks cool as a drawing or animation does not necessarily work in live action.

[Artemician]

I don't think AtomicKitKat was saying that the amateur model he presented was good, as much as it was still better than the model used in the movie.

Which I must say, I agree with. The movie model is cool on its own, but as a transformer model, it fails utterly. It doesn't transform. That's one of my beefs with the movie.

[AtomicKitKat]

That's my point. If you cannot tell who's who, what's the point? I don't want to be going like "Ooh, Starscream just did that fancy ass drop-kick to Jazz. Wait. Or was it the other way around?" How can you root for someone if you can't tell who you're rooting for?

[Argent]

That's my point. If you cannot tell who's who, what's the point? I don't want to be going like "Ooh, Starscream just did that fancy ass drop-kick to Jazz. Wait. Or was it the other way around?" How can you root for someone if you can't tell who you're rooting for?

That's one of the problems I have -- as cool as the movie is, it's much harder to tell who the individual characters are. In the cartoon show, the robot forms were much cheesier, but they were definitely more distinctive and easier to tell apart.

[Emperor Ing]

I actually didnt find it too hard. Its pretty obvious to me. Good guys, blue eyes, bad guys red eyes. :smallwink:

[Hushdawg]

Which I must say, I agree with. The movie model is cool on its own, but as a transformer model, it fails utterly. It doesn't transform. That's one of my beefs with the movie.

*SIGH*

Then you obviously weren't paying attention.

The computer models used in the movie are completely transforming. Each computer model is made of thousands of pieces which shift and change. Each computer model completely transforms from vehicle to robot and back to vehicle in the program, that is then overlaid and seamed with the stunt cars after the transformation sequence.

[Lenlalron]

Before I start, let me just say that I, being a young lad, have never, ever seen the Transformers cartoons in my life. My knowledge of transformers primarily comes from wikipedia.

Now, on the the movie. I went into the cinema with an expectation that it would be a badass movie. From what I know of Michael Bay, he likes to do explosions and cool fight scenes. Plus, it has Giant Mecha. No matter how much you screw it up, Giant Mecha has an internal amount of badass-ness that will permeate through.

However, Michael Bay managed to prove me wrong. He gave far too much screentime to puny nonmechanical humans, and as a result, I got the vibe that the US military was many, many times more badass than all the Transformers put together. Except for Starscream. Because he is awesome.





You basically summed up my opinion on the movie. I liked it, don't get me wrong, and it was better than most movies. However, at the end, I told my brother that this movie should have been named "The Allspark: Starring the humans, and the transformers every once in awhile when we feel like it."

I think what really signified this was the girl/romance. Totally unnecessary, except as a tenuous bridge to get bumblebee introduced (although it could have just been the "my first car" schtick, girl wasn't really necessary). It just annoyed me to death.

More transformers, less humans.

Also, Optimus Prime v. Megatron was dissapointing. It smacked of Alien vs. Predator, when the silly human gets the killing blow. It just feels so wrong.

[Gamiress]

Okay, now it's my turn to be the heathen scum and say that I didn't mind the romance bit.

I found it presented Bumblebee with a lot of opportunity to show off his personality - eagerly yet misguidedly helpful. It's established that he talks through his radio, making his attempts to help with Michaela even more silly and fitting of Bumblebee.

[slipnslide]

i thought the whole bumblebee romance interaction was funny too. i liked it.

[Hushdawg]

I agree, the whole "A Boy and His Car" theme was really cool.

To be honest, a lot of the first season cartoons were like that.

It actually got MORE involved in the human side of the story than the movie did.

I think people have selective memory with the cartoons though.

I don't... I have them all and watch them through at least once a year.

:D

[Muz]

Plus humans are just plain cheaper to have on screen. Judging from how well the movie's doing financially, that will likely translate into more FX money spent on the sequel, and as such, more giant talkin' robots.

[Megalomaniac2]

I thought it was really good. Not ****ing amazing, which I think is what they were going for, but a good, solid spectacle. Say three and a half stars.

One of the things I especially liked was the unironic treatment of the subject matter. This is a Michael-Bay movie based on a 1980s toy line about giant robots blowing the crap out of each other, and is completely unapologetic on that point. Optimus Prime's first monologue to Sam, where he explains that they're friendly giant robots and that "The fate of the Earth rests with you, Sam Witwicky", is simply straight out of a children's cartoon, and could well have been a case study in cheese. But they didn't care. They play it completely straight- no snarky remarks afterwards, none of the Autobots making fun of Prime's pontificating- just Peter Cullen's majestic voice laying it out flat for us. And damn if it doesn't work.

Similarly, when Megatron proclaims (after being frozen for centuries, natch) that "I... AM... MEGATRON!", does anyone make a joke about him being a cliche? Does anyone compare him to a Bond Villain. No, they GET OUT OF MEGATRON'S ****ING WAY. Because he's ****ing Megatron, and that's that.

In other words, while there's obviously a lot of humour in the movie, almost none of it is at the expense of what the movie's about. The film isn't self-conscious.

There are certainly some gaps in the story... like why the rest of the Decepticons waited a couple centuries to come get their leader and cube. Also, why, in Gods name, with a bunch of killer robots bearing down on them for an imminent smackdown, do the good guys decide to lead them to the most heavily populated area they can find??? Do they get paid extra per civilian casualty or something???

I also thought the whole "Sector 7" thing could've been dropped. They're essentially a plot device to get the protagonists, the Allspark, Megatron, and the Decepticons all heading together for the final fight, and I think that could've been accomplished without the addition of another faction.

Obviously, the action scenes are beyond compare. I'm a hardcore Battlestar Galactica fan, so I'm completely used to battles so filled with chaotic pyrotechnics it's hard to tell what's going on. The fights here were no exception, and I loved them. I also had no trouble telling the robots apart when they weren't in vehicle mode, even the briefest-lived of the Decepticons (alas, poor Bonecrusher) managed to gain a definitive presence and even personality while onscreen for me. Here's the Guidebook to Common North American Transformers, for those who were confused:

Optimus Prime: He's the one with the red and blue and fatherly voice. Pretty easy to recognize.

Jazz: Second smallest in the movie, after Frenzy.

Ironhide: Since he's so dark-coloured, it's easy to mix him up with a Decepticon. The face and the arm-cannons are what sets him apart.

Ratchet: Coloured yellow, which can lead to confusion with Bumblebee. Ratchet has a narrower, more pointed face, and orange stripes though, and his yellow has a greenish tinge to it.

Bumblebee: Bright yellow, clearly displayed. Easy to spot.

Megatron: He's the one pwning your sorry ass, fleshling. Also, look for the distinctive hands and head if you get confused.

Starscream: Always in the air, and he has a sort of triangular body shape, with four-clawed feet.

Barricade: Pretty nondescript once he's transformed, but he's not in the final battle so it's hard to mix him up with anyone.

Frenzy: C'mon people. How many Decepticons this size are there?

Bonecrusher: He has roller skates and three arms. Kinda a giveaway.

Scorponok: HE'S THE ONE THAT LOOKS LIKE A SCORPION.

Devastator: By far the largest, this brute has a rectangular head that's hard to miss.

Blackout: He's got a rotor on his back and on his hand, and is constantly firing off EMPs.

[Prustan]

Also, why, in Gods name, with a bunch of killer robots bearing down on them for an imminent smackdown, do the good guys decide to lead them to the most heavily populated area they can find??? Do they get paid extra per civilian casualty or something???

Man I'm glad someone else thought that was weird. I've been thinking, and thinking about why they headed to a city, and can only come up with one possible reason - cover. Out in the open, the killer robots would be able to surround and squash/annihilate the humans without a problem, while in a city they have a better chance of surviving - just have the collataral damage skyrocketing.
I still think it weird though, because the Autobots would be as hampered as the Decepticons in a city, if not more so, since they do care about the humans that are getting squished.

[....]

I think they picked the city just so that, in the script, they could mention Mission City (its wasn't LA or anything).

And aparently I'm the only one who didn't have trouble telling the robots apart. The only one that gave me trouble was Blackout and Devestator, but Blackout has rotors.

Only complaint I have is none of the Autobots besides Bumblebee and Prime got any kills. I wanted to see Ironhide just blow someone away.

[Arang]

Man I'm glad someone else thought that was weird. I've been thinking, and thinking about why they headed to a city, and can only come up with one possible reason - cover. Out in the open, the killer robots would be able to surround and squash/annihilate the humans without a problem, while in a city they have a better chance of surviving - just have the collataral damage skyrocketing.
I still think it weird though, because the Autobots would be as hampered as the Decepticons in a city, if not more so, since they do care about the humans that are getting squished.

Also, it's easier to hide a small cube in a city than on the desert floor.

Of course, nobody ever thought to put it under some boxes in a basement somewhere until the Air Force showed up, but still. It could've been in the plan.

[....]

Also, it's easier to hide a small cube in a city than on the desert floor.

Of course, nobody ever thought to put it under some boxes in a basement somewhere until the Air Force showed up, but still. It could've been in the plan.

They can sense the cube's energy.

[Hushdawg]

Similarly, when Megatron proclaims (after being frozen for centuries, natch) that "I... AM... MEGATRON!", does anyone make a joke about him being a cliche? Does anyone compare him to a Bond Villain. No, they GET OUT OF MEGATRON'S ****ING WAY. Because he's ****ing Megatron, and that's that.


My wife commented at that point "Never forget, whenever you break free from being frozen always announce yourself, even if nobody asks."



There are certainly some gaps in the story... like why the rest of the Decepticons waited a couple centuries to come get their leader and cube.


They were searching for it. Megatron chased the Allspark from Cybertron in his spacecraft mode, depleting all of his energy in the process. The rest of the Decepticons had to scan for signals and follow the energy trail, it just took longer because they were not actively CHASING the cube.



Also, why, in Gods name, with a bunch of killer robots bearing down on them for an imminent smackdown, do the good guys decide to lead them to the most heavily populated area they can find??? Do they get paid extra per civilian casualty or something???


That was explained in-movie. The reasoning was that they needed to get it inside a dense building to mask the energy signature



I also thought the whole "Sector 7" thing could've been dropped. They're essentially a plot device to get the protagonists, the Allspark, Megatron, and the Decepticons all heading together for the final fight, and I think that could've been accomplished without the addition of another faction.


I agree, I think it could have been readily accomplished by just making it a top-secret military operation along the level of Area 51 or similar.

[Foeofthelance]

There are certainly some gaps in the story... like why the rest of the Decepticons waited a couple centuries to come get their leader and cube.

This actually got explained in a book they put out before the movie. Apparently sometime around the 1960s Sector Seven manages to reverse engineer enough of Megatron to build a small shuttle. Unfortunately, said shuttle ends up getting sucked off to another system through a worm hole, where it ends up getting dumped between the Autobots and Decepticons. That's how they knew the Allspark was on Earth, as well as explaining that Starscream was deliberately hampering the Decepticons in their search, as he didn't want Megatron back.

[Gaelbert]

This actually got explained in a book they put out before the movie.

Book? What's it called?

[Hushdawg]

Book? What's it called?

"The Official Movie Preqeul" it was a four-issue comic book run. Ask your local comic shop, they should have some copes around.

[beholder]

does anyone know the name of the song that plays when bumblebee upgrades himself?

[Arang]

does anyone know the name of the song that plays when bumblebee upgrades himself?

According to YouTube, it's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" by Tomoyasu Hotei. It's track number 9 on the Kill Bill soundtrack.

[beholder]

thanks. how did you figure that out? genius

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

"The Official Movie Preqeul" it was a four-issue comic book run. Ask your local comic shop, they should have some copes around.

Not to mention Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, yet another prequel, which is an actual novel.

[Hushdawg]

Not to mention Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, yet another prequel, which is an actual novel.

I heard of that book, but I didn't realize that it was canon with the live-action movie. I thought it was just another random Transformers novel.

I'll have to pick it up then.

[sealemon]

One of the things I especially liked was the unironic treatment of the subject matter. This is a Michael-Bay movie based on a 1980s toy line about giant robots blowing the crap out of each other, and is completely unapologetic on that point. Optimus Prime's first monologue to Sam, where he explains that they're friendly giant robots and that "The fate of the Earth rests with you, Sam Witwicky", is simply straight out of a children's cartoon, and could well have been a case study in cheese. But they didn't care. They play it completely straight- no snarky remarks afterwards, none of the Autobots making fun of Prime's pontificating- just Peter Cullen's majestic voice laying it out flat for us. And damn if it doesn't work.

Very well said. And nwo that you mentioned it, you are exactly right: Treatign the subject matter as deadly serious at all times was a great move on Bay's part. It's one of the movie's main strengths, that's for sure.

And as I said before, I LOVED the way everyone was all "Oh, $@@#$!!! Megatron's thawed! Run, suckas!" Pure awesome.

[Corvus]

Saw it last night - very good, and I'm one of those who grew up with transformers.

I don't know if it was just me, but did the young chick (Megan Fox) remind people a bit of a young Jennifer Connelly?

[Gamiress]

Saw it last night - very good, and I'm one of those who grew up with transformers.

I don't know if it was just me, but did the young chick (Megan Fox) remind people a bit of a young Jennifer Connelly?

Not in a million years, I've seen a young Jennifer Connelly. Go watch Labyrinth, Jennifer plays Sarah in that movie.

[....]

Saw it last night - very good, and I'm one of those who grew up with transformers.

I don't know if it was just me, but did the young chick (Megan Fox) remind people a bit of a young Jennifer Connelly?


In that they both have black hair are beautiful faces.

I think Fox has the better body though.

[Psychotic]

I've got to say, the fact that Barricade had "To punish and enslave" stamped on his side made me a very, very happy man.

[Holy_Knight]

Before I start, let me just say that I, being a young lad, have never, ever seen the Transformers cartoons in my life. My knowledge of transformers primarily comes from wikipedia.

Now, on the the movie. I went into the cinema with an expectation that it would be a badass movie. From what I know of Michael Bay, he likes to do explosions and cool fight scenes. Plus, it has Giant Mecha. No matter how much you screw it up, Giant Mecha has an internal amount of badass-ness that will permeate through.

However, Michael Bay managed to prove me wrong. He gave far too much screentime to puny nonmechanical humans


See, I had just the opposite take on it. I grew up watching the cartoon, and before I saw the movie, I thought:

"Well, crap, it'll probably just be a bunch of big explosions and CGI, and have little relation to the actual show and even less of a plot."

So, I was presently surprised by how good the movie was. For a story with the basic premise of "giant alien robots fight each other on Earth for the fate of the universe", it had a pretty good plot, and it was very faithful to the old Transformers lore. On that note, let me echo everyone who's been saying how great it was to hear Peter Cullen once again as Optimus Prime, and add to that the inclusion of classic Prime lines from the cartoon, like "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"! Man, that was great.

Some other comments:

I agree that some of the robots were tough to tell apart, and could have used more color and perhaps more plating. I liked Bumblebee as the older camaro better than the newer one, since it had more character, but the newer one was cool too. And I liked both Bumblebee and Sam as characters, too.


Okay, now it's my turn to be the heathen scum and say that I didn't mind the romance bit.

I found it presented Bumblebee with a lot of opportunity to show off his personality - eagerly yet misguidedly helpful. It's established that he talks through his radio, making his attempts to help with Michaela even more silly and fitting of Bumblebee.


i thought the whole bumblebee romance interaction was funny too. i liked it.

Definitely! I really enjoyed all of the beginning interaction between Sam and Bumblebee, where he's alternately chasing after/running away from his own car. And the scene with Michaela and the Witwickys in the bedroom was priceless.

"Mom, she can hear you talking." :smallbiggrin:


I've got to say, the fact that Barricade had "To punish and enslave" stamped on his side made me a very, very happy man.

I noticed that too. That was great.

Oh, and about the very end of the movie... well, I guess I'll spoiler this, although surely spoilers are to be expected in a thread like this:

If your car is also your friend, because he's actually a living alien robot who talks to you... don't make out with your girlfriend on top of him. Am I right? :smalltongue:

Anyway, all in all I was very pleased with this movie, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

[Gamiress]

If your car is also your friend, because he's actually a living alien robot who talks to you... don't make out with your girlfriend on top of him. Am I right? :smalltongue:

I dunno, I would certainly be a little embarrassed about it... But Bumblebee would probably just be thrilled that he's useful.

[Artemician]

That reminds me.. at one point in the film, I think it was the part where Sam blackmailed that Section 7 guy to remove the girl's criminal record,

I spontaneously blurted out "That is so not badass." Really loudly. The entire cinema erupted into laughter.

[Arang]

thanks. how did you figure that out? genius

Heard it in the Kill Bill trailer ages ago, found said trailer on YouTube, found someone who wondered what the name of the song was (there's always one), found the Wiki on the movies (Kill Bill and Transformers), found the Wiki on the Kill Bill soundtrack, and then found the Wiki for the song. All of them checked.

Yeah, I wish it was easier too.

[ravenkith]

I was expecting this to be a horror.

But when I was a kid, Transformers were my thing, man.

I had a whole lot of the toys (still have quite a few, but none of them are mint), and an almost complete run of the transformers comics.

...and I grew up in England, where these things were significantly harder to get.

There was no way I wasn't going to be giving Michael Bay my money for this one...and I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.

Prime's personality didn't change much, and Bumblebee was right on, despite wearing a different set of clothes...

Megatron was a badass, and Frenzy annoying, dangerous to humans, but not other robots, and starscream was a coward.

I really liked how the chosen forms of the decepticons demonstrated the planning and effort they'd put into trying find the giant cube...they chose military and police vehicles, and innocent-looking objects. They chose forms for their advantages, such as the tank, the helicopter and the f22.

The autobots just grabbed whatever forms were handy and appealing to them, wherever they landed, which helped explain why they were all cars, completely unarmed in their disguised modes, and why none of them had the ability to fly.

Of course it helps that somewhere in the back of my brain, there remains a pool of thought, at the bottom of which lies the concept that, at one point, it was stated that the autobots were mostly formed up of robots that were built for building, while the decepticons were mostly made up of robots that were made for war and destruction...and that's why the decepticons were kicking the crap out of autobots on a regular basis, at least in terms of one-on-one.

It's also why Megatron was so dangerous to everybody except Prime: he was the peak of the robots built for War, while Prime was the peak of the robots Built for creation.

It's basically how he beat jazz so easily...and why he was handing Optimus his ass in a sling, towards the end there: he was heavily armor plated, with a lot of redundant systems, as any machine built for war would almost have to be.

As to how he was frozen: they stated early on in the movie that he had miscalculated something, and gotten frozen as a result...which jibes with Megatron's impulsive, over-confident nature from the cartoons, which was nice.

Ironhide, the 'weapons specialist' would theoretically be the second strongest on the autobot side...but even the best civilian technology adapted to the purpose of war will lose when put up against something purpose-built for war.

Or put another way: Tank vs. Pickup? Tank wins.

The Camaro thing was lamentable, but VW was holding out...and the end result was that Bumblebee finally demonstrated competence, and took out a decepticon!

So it's forgivable, I think.

...and the movie was fun!

Is it wrong for me to think that Megan Fox is totally smokin'..?

I mean, the scene where she's checking under Bumblebee's hood was just...breathtaking.

And the whole making out on top of bumblebee thing was kind of...rude...

Let's not even mention where a lot of 'first times' happen....<shudder>

[Pendragonx]

The Camaro thing was lamentable, but VW was holding out..<shudder>

Not according to the Wiki. According to that, you have no one but Micheal Bay to blame.

Wikipedia Page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_(film))

relevant section:


Don Murphy wanted to retain Bumblebee's Volkswagen Beetle form,[43] but Bay rejected it to avoid comparisons with Herbie the Love Bug,[44] and chose the Chevrolet Camaro instead, which he described as having a friendly quality.[5]

[Solaris]

. . .
However, Michael Bay managed to prove me wrong. He gave far too much screentime to puny nonmechanical humans, and as a result, I got the vibe that the US military was many, many times more badass than all the Transformers put together . . .


Maybe that's 'cause we are.

Actually, that whole opening sequence with Blackout wiping out an entire installation all by his giant mechanical self kinda indicated that the Transformers had the upper hand. I actually thought it quite fitting that the surviving soldiers did get to kick some butt of their own, rather than have it be just the robots beating the crap outta each other like every other freakin'-stinkin' movie ever. Sure, the Transformers had advanced technology, but there comes a point where nothing argues with what you're using (generally, this is before you resort to nuclear weapons - but why should they be the last resort?)
Hey, soldiers are allowed to get testy when the US military is portrayed as totally and completely incompetent (and to be fair, it bugged me before I joined the Army).

[Muz]

I actually thought it quite fitting that the surviving soldiers did get to kick some butt of their own, rather than have it be just the robots beating the crap outta each other like every other freakin'-stinkin' movie ever.

Oh, yes, definitely. In all those hordes of other movies where robots from outer space, coming down and fighting, the military never gets involved. If there's one thing I'm sick of seeing, it's the flood of robots from outer space who come down to Earth to fight each other. EVERY. OTHER. WEEK. Thank goodness we've finally got one of the thousands of giant robot movies that's--

...Hey, wait. :smallwink:

[sealemon]

Oh, yes, definitely. In all those hordes of other movies where robots from outer space, coming down and fighting, the military never gets involved. If there's one thing I'm sick of seeing, it's the flood of robots from outer space who come down to Earth to fight each other. EVERY. OTHER. WEEK. Thank goodness we've finally got one of the thousands of giant robot movies that's--

...Hey, wait.
__________________

True, dat, but is WAS refreshing to see it happen compared to all of the sci-fi movies where the invading hordes are basically unstoppable...Independance Day and The War Of The Worlds remake comes to mind...That stoopid Godzilla remake comes to mind too, unfortunatly. :)

This movie had more of that Old School War Of The Worlds feel; The military COULD do some damage, but the aliens still had the upper hand...much more fun that a god-like enemy, IMO.

[Rare Pink Leech]

I really enjoyed it. Optimus' lines of "Oops, my bad" when he crushed something in the Witwickys' yard, and "Oh fu-" when Sam's dad nearly saw him looking through the winow were priceless.

My biggest disappointment with the movie by far was Hugo Weaving's voice. When I heard he was going to voice Megatron, I basically jumped for joy. But then they had to go and synthesize the voice to crap, to the point that his voice was completely unrecognizable. What a waste of such a great voice. They could've hired some homeless guy to do the voice, and it wouldn't have made a difference - they could've saved a bunch of money, too.

[Space-Is-Curved]

I gotta say that I really liked this movie. Wasn't the best, but I enjoyed it.

I, for one, enjoyed the humor of the movie. It was a little unrealistic at some points and didn't add to the plot, but it entertained me. This might just be that I came into it with very low expectations...

I never did watch the cartoons, so it made me laugh out loud when the robots created by the allspark had rockets and chainguns built in from the beginning. I always thought those things were upgrades.

I actually liked the product placement because it gave it a more "real" feel. What kind of world is it without advertisements thrown in your face wherever you go?

One thing that did bug me a little was that the seemingly bulletproof minibot got its head cut off with a saw. And later with a shuriken.

I really do think that the chaotic camera angles added to the perfect confusion in the scenes. Yeah, you might not have been able to tell which robot was which, but that's the way it should feel in my opinion. It's a friggen battle after all. I will say that the second time, it was much clearer.

Also, is it wrong for me to like the scenes with robot v. man more than robot v. robot? Blackout destroying the military complex at the beginning was by far my favorite scene in the movie, and the scorpion robot fighting the survivors was cool because it said that yeah, they're tough, but you actually can kill them.

Oh, and bonecrusher on the highway with the skates rocked too.

[Artemician]

The Transformers had built-in chainguns?

*recalls a certain annoying Nokia robot with a crotch gun*

Oh yeah, so they do. Which begs the question of where they were on the Autobots.

[Dispozition]

The Transformers had built-in chainguns?

*recalls that annoying Nokia robot with the crotch gun*

Oh yeah, so they do. Which begs the question of where they were on the Autobots.

That nokia was awesome...I really want one now...I mean...Missiles, chain gun...just awesome!

[Saithis Bladewing]

Well, maybe it was just me, but having gotten back from seeing this lastnight (at the first pre-viewing at Birmingham Star City!), I thought it was an awesome film. Only a few things disappointed me...

Ironhide never got to say 'bust some deceptichops' or call anyone a 'decepticreep'.

Ironhide never got to really show how much exhaust he could truly kick.

Starscream's voice was too ominous and not nearly whiney enough (I liked his whine! It made him even more awesome!)

Optimus seemed a LITTLE too easily dominated near the end.

Jazz... :smallfrown:

Needed more robot interaction!

[Hushdawg]

Ironhide never got to say 'bust some deceptichops' or call anyone a 'decepticreep'.

Ironhide never got to really show how much exhaust he could truly kick.

Starscream's voice was too ominous and not nearly whiney enough (I liked his whine! It made him even more awesome!)

Optimus seemed a LITTLE too easily dominated near the end.


I agree, I did miss Ironhide's typical slang. Heck, if Peter Cullen could reclaim the voice of Optimus Prime, why not let him re-claim Ironhide as well?

Starscream has been voiced (in English) by the following people:
Chris Latta - Original series - died in 1994

Tom Kenny - Transformers: Animated - Same Guy that does Spongebob Squarepants

Michael Dobson - Transformers: Cybertron, Transformers:Armada - very generic sounding voice IMO

Charles Adler - Transformers 2007 movie - Also voiced Silverbolt in the G1 animated series, Low-Light from G.I. Joe, Cow/Chicken/Cousin Boneless/I. B. Red Guy/I. R. Baboon from "Cow and Chicken," Buster Bunny in "Tiny Toon Adventures"

So if Charles Adler is not qualified to voice Starscream, you pick someone better. I'm open to suggestions.

Optimus did what every great hero does; you have to be beaten down in order to come back and be victorious in the end.

After all, Megatron was Optimus Prime's head of planetary security. It's kinda like a four-star battle-hardened general getting into a fistfight with the President of the United States (well, a real president, not the one wasting good air now).

[Saithis Bladewing]

I'm not criticising Starscream's voice actor in the slightest, I just think that his voice should have been a lot less deep and booming than it was, and a little more whiney. Starscream always came off as kind of sniveling and backstabbing like the true Grand Vizier he was, whereas here I didn't get any of that kind of feeling. Mind you, I still loved him all the same.

I guess I don't mind Prime getting beaten down too much, it just seemed a little disappointing to me that he didn't even seem to stand any remote hope of a chance. I don't even recall him landing any good shots. Prime was supposed to be the only one who could beat potentially beat Megatron, and he didn't seem to have any hope of that.

That said I still thought it was a very good movie, well worth my time and money. I'll be going to see it again when it comes out properly in the UK.

[Hushdawg]

I'm not criticising Starscream's voice actor in the slightest, I just think that his voice should have been a lot less deep and booming than it was, and a little more whiney. Starscream always came off as kind of sniveling and backstabbing like the true Grand Vizier he was, whereas here I didn't get any of that kind of feeling. Mind you, I still loved him all the same.

I guess I don't mind Prime getting beaten down too much, it just seemed a little disappointing to me that he didn't even seem to stand any remote hope of a chance. I don't even recall him landing any good shots. Prime was supposed to be the only one who could beat potentially beat Megatron, and he didn't seem to have any hope of that.

That said I still thought it was a very good movie, well worth my time and money. I'll be going to see it again when it comes out properly in the UK.

I dunno.. I think the fact that Prime killed at least two Decepticons single-handedly counts for something. Yeah, he got in some good shots against Megatron but he had to fight Megatron AND look out for humans at the same time.

[Tom_Violence]

This film was horrible. An utterly wasted evening.

I was hoping to see a film about Transformers, but instead I was 'treated' to an hour and a half or some annoying teenage kid trying to get laid. Is it too much to ask that a film called 'Transformers' might actually have the big robots as the main focus? Anyway, about halfway through the film when they did show up things didn't exactly improve. They looked stupid, for a start, with most of them seeming to be indistinguishable masses of nuts and bolts. When Prime started talking I did indeed feel transported back to my childhood, however it was the wrong bit as it felt like Mufasa was back from the dead.

On to the 'comedy'. First off, have people still not learned the lesson of Jar Jar? Evidently not. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/MovieFrenzy.png) I know it was a movie not exactly aimed squarely at adults, but come on! The jokes really somehow managed to sink the tone even further.

Even the special effects were nothing to brag about. And the director certainly lived up to his Pearl Harbor credentials. I had serious suspicions of someone slyly reducing production costs by little tricks such as focusing on one stupid wheel whilst a transformer changes then panning out again. And when Prime and Megatron started fighting, do you know what I really wanted to see? It certainly wasn't that annoying little kid hiding in a ditch, that's for sure!! Oh, and did anyone else get the impression that Bay was perhaps trying to steal the Unnecessary Overuse Of Slow Motion Shots from Peter Jackson?

Bad bad bad. Still, at least there'll be sequels to look forward to! :smallfrown:

[Lord of the Helms]

I dunno.. I think the fact that Prime killed at least two Decepticons single-handedly counts for something. Yeah, he got in some good shots against Megatron but he had to fight Megatron AND look out for humans at the same time.

Bonecrusher and...who, again? He might've killed Barricade, but not shown means hasn't happened as far as I'm concerned, really. I'd rather he didn't, personally, then we could have Barricade and Prowl face off next go round. Cop car vs. cop car! Not quite Dinobots vs. Constructicons, but it's a start :smallwink:
Prime is supposed to be Megatron's equal in combat. They were, for all intents and purposes, both crafted for battle. Also, I'm plain annoyed that it was not Prime who got to take down Megatron, but the puny humans. Well, and possibly Starscream - if that had been more clearly done, THEN I may have been somewhat satisfied after all).

[Saithis Bladewing]

Prime is supposed to be Megatron's equal in combat. They were, for all intents and purposes, both crafted for battle. Also, I'm plain annoyed that it was not Prime who got to take down Megatron, but the puny humans. Well, and possibly Starscream - if that had been more clearly done, THEN I may have been somewhat satisfied after all).

I for one would like to believe that Starscream back-stabbed him. You know it's got to be true, it's exactly the kind of thing he'd do!

[Hushdawg]

Bonecrusher and...who, again? He might've killed Barricade, but not shown means hasn't happened as far as I'm concerned, really. I'd rather he didn't, personally, then we could have Barricade and Prowl face off next go round. Cop car vs. cop car! Not quite Dinobots vs. Constructicons, but it's a start :smallwink:
Prime is supposed to be Megatron's equal in combat. They were, for all intents and purposes, both crafted for battle. Also, I'm plain annoyed that it was not Prime who got to take down Megatron, but the puny humans. Well, and possibly Starscream - if that had been more clearly done, THEN I may have been somewhat satisfied after all).

Prime is NOT Megatron's equal in combat in the Movie-verse. The Prequel Comic clearly indicates that Prime was the legislative and administrative leader but that Megatron was the military genious.

STOP COMPARING THE G1 CARTOON TO THE MOVIE!!!!!

They are two completely different interpretations of the universe.

[Hushdawg]

I for one would like to believe that Starscream back-stabbed him. You know it's got to be true, it's exactly the kind of thing he'd do!

Starscream did take potshots at Megatron while he was taking out the F22s

[Saithis Bladewing]

Starscream did take potshots at Megatron while he was taking out the F22s

I don't remember seeing if it was actually him or if it was another F22, but I'll watch more closely when I go again this week.

[Lord of the Helms]

I for one would like to believe that Starscream back-stabbed him. You know it's got to be true, it's exactly the kind of thing he'd do!

Oh, I would, too. It's just that it's very unclear whether he did or not, and personally I would've liked it to be plain to see.



STOP COMPARING THE G1 CARTOON TO THE MOVIE!!!!!

They are two completely different interpretations of the universe.

That's exactly my point: The re-interpretation for the movie annoys me to no end. I wanted to see Badass Prime. What I got was only half Badass Prime, the other half being Whipping Boy Prime. That is not good.

[Hushdawg]

That's exactly my point: The re-interpretation for the movie annoys me to no end. I wanted to see Badass Prime. What I got was only half Badass Prime, the other half being Whipping Boy Prime. That is not good.

I think you're being awfully hyperbolic here considering that Prime took out two of the Decepticreeps single-handedly and would probably have beaten Megatron a lot harder if he hadn't had to stop every few minutes to save Sam and whatever other human was about.

But the hero is not supposed to simply hand the ass over of the antagonist. He is supposed to suffer and hurt.

heck, even in the G1 cartoon Prime got handed out several times and eventually killed by Megatron.

So yeah, Megs has always been a tough act for Prime regardless of the universe interpretation (you should see the Transformers: Cybertron variation for some real ass-stomping done to Prime by Megatron).

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Ok, finally got to see it and... what a dumb, dumb movie. Fun, but dumb.

I never watched the cartoon as never had any interest even when I was a kid.

The movie was...entertaining, but I think it took itself far too seriously... except when it didn't. It was way too exaggerated, but considering the source I'm thinking that probably was quite fitting. However, the transformers leaping down and saying their name for the third time as if posing for a picture? That got on my nerves.

However, gotta ask... what was with that 'Happy Time' scene? That was so unneeded and so completely creepy. It and a couple other scenes did not belong in the movie in the slightest. It was as if they were trying to appeal to every age group at the same time and making a bit of a muddy mess.

As an action-filled, cliche fest, this was fun (but I cannot stress enough, also dumb).

What I do not understand is why it was so popular however. It wasn't THAT fun by a long shot.

[Pendragonx]

I never watched the cartoon as never had any interest even when I was a kid.

[snip]

What I do not understand is why it was so popular however. It wasn't THAT fun by a long shot.
(emphasis: mine)

I think that's the reason why you won't understand. Glad you enjoyed some of it though :)

[Artemician]

Ok, finally got to see it and... what a dumb, dumb movie. Fun, but dumb.

I never watched the cartoon as never had any interest even when I was a kid.

The movie was...entertaining, but I think it took itself far too seriously... except when it didn't. It was way too exaggerated, but considering the source I'm thinking that probably was quite fitting. However, the transformers leaping down and saying their name for the third time as if posing for a picture? That got on my nerves.

However, gotta ask... what was with that 'Happy Time' scene? That was so unneeded and so completely creepy. It and a couple other scenes did not belong in the movie in the slightest. It was as if they were trying to appeal to every age group at the same time and making a bit of a muddy mess.

As an action-filled, cliche fest, this was fun (but I cannot stress enough, also dumb).

What I do not understand is why it was so popular however. It wasn't THAT fun by a long shot.

Arr.. Hell yes.

They try to make an action-filled cliche fest. I'm cool with that. Then, they put in gratituous product placements, courtship scenes and lowbrow humour (Bumblebee lubrication much?).

Even a movie about giant fighting robots can only take so much before it loses its baddass-ity.

[AtomicKitKat]

What I do not understand is why it was so popular however. It wasn't THAT fun by a long shot.

Do you mean why the original was popular, or why the movie was popular? The cartoon, for all the bad press it gets for being an ad machine, was actually decent enough, compared to all the stuff I've heard about the movie(yes, I'm still sticking by my principles and not spending any money on this travesty).

[Pilum]

Looking back, I feel it's a bit of a mess. An entertaining mess, but a mess. I won't say much about the (alleged) "humour", it's already been said, but I think with a bit more faith in the franchise AS a franchise, then just the basic ideas in the script could have provided at least 2, maybe 3 films.
Have the boy and his car as the #1, introducing the world and having Bumblebee and Barricade go at it for a bit together, #2 perhaps that whole Government Agency subplot, hunted by both the Decepticons and the government, #3 the war/soldiers plot.

Obviously these are a little vague, and have the obvious objection that #1 would have had the internet erupting with such comments as "WTF??? Where's Prime/Starscream/Insert favourite character here ?" but they could be fleshed out easily enough by someone earning considerably more than an amateur GM :smallwink: But then, such commitment is (obviously) rare. Might have produced better films though.

[Archonic Energy]

just got back from a movie marathon... well 3 movies in 1 day.

Transformers was brilliant!
what was the track they played during the flight of Bumblebee?

i'd post more but i can't be bothered to spoiler tag the rest of my thoughts.


UKers go see it.

[Holy_Knight]

what was the track they played during the flight of Bumblebee?


Just the way you phrased your question makes me really want to say the track was "The Flight of the Bumblebee". :smalltongue:

[Dhavaer]

what was the track they played during the flight of Bumblebee?

If you mean the one from when he 'upgraded', it's Battle Without Honour or Humanity, by Tomoyasu Hotei. It was originally in Kill Bill, I believe.

[Archonic Energy]

Just the way you phrased your question makes me really want to say the track was "The Flight of the Bumblebee". :smalltongue:

That's what i was aiming for :smallwink:


If you mean the one from when he 'upgraded', it's Battle Without Honour or Humanity, by Tomoyasu Hotei. It was originally in Kill Bill, I believe.

no. when BB is being chased by the "cop" (memo must remember the Decepticons names better)

Before he "upgraded"
i loved that scene "my car has feelings" heh

[Tom_Violence]

(emphasis: mine)

I think that's the reason why you won't understand. Glad you enjoyed some of it though :)

Wait, are you saying that one of the main reasons why people liked this film (in fact, are ranting and raving about it) is simply because it was about Transformers? That is, despite the fact that the film was turd, people love it regardless? No wonder I got the distinct impression that they phoned this one in.

[Artemician]

Wait, are you saying that one of the main reasons why people liked this film (in fact, are ranting and raving about it) is simply because it was about Transformers? That is, despite the fact that the film was turd, people love it regardless? No wonder I got the distinct impression that they phoned this one in.

I should think so. At least, that's how I feel.

Giant Transforming Robots slugging it out is just one of things that make people like stuff. It's like Spider Pigs, or women in lingerie.

However.. that's why I'm pretty disatisfied with it, to tell you the truth. Not enough Giant Transforming Robots, not enough Guns, not enough epic fighting scenes.

[Reinforcements]

I honestly don't understand how anyone could have come out of this movie unhappy. I loved it so hard.

[Tom_Violence]

I should think so. At least, that's how I feel.

Giant Transforming Robots slugging it out is just one of things that make people like stuff. It's like Spider Pigs, or women in lingerie.

However.. that's why I'm pretty disatisfied with it, to tell you the truth. Not enough Giant Transforming Robots, not enough Guns, not enough epic fighting scenes.

My sentiments exactly. The irony is, it seems to me, that the oh-so-adored Transformers (that sold the film regardless of quality) were strangely absent from most of it, and criminally underused even when they were present.

I wanted a brainless action film. Somehow I was let down.


I honestly don't understand how anyone could have come out of this movie unhappy. I loved it so hard.

Can you explain why?

[....]

Can you explain why?

Bumblebee trips Barricade and his door flies open. Kids get in.

Next shot it Bumblebee shooting out of a plume of black smoke, pursued by Barricade to heavy metal rock music.

That was pretty much the point I knew I'd love this movie.

Oh, and Megatron's, "PRIME!" line.

[Chaos Perfected]

I loved this movie. Any movie that can make Bumblebee badass has to be badass.

[Hawriel]

I as well hated the movie. I wanted to slap the hell out of sam. they couldnt even get spikes character right. he was supposed to be a grease monky. the Chick was cool but other than the herby the love bug moments with bumblebee I thought the movie sucked. why the hell would a move with Spielburg's name on it have such a lack of plot and masterbation jokes in it? I thought the decepticons acted like terminator gremlins on crack. (yeh the 80s movie gremlins.) It was a bad movie. the fact that its so popular only comferms my opinion on TV and Hollywood. they are so lazy they only make crap. they dont invest in good writing. the public is so used to seeing crap in the theater and on TV they begin to like it. So then transformers seems really good.

well that was a rant.....

any way I dont hate the movie becouse I think it "ruined my childhood memories" I dont like it becouse it was a bad movie. Poorly written and direction phoned in by a ham of a directer.

edited for some spelling.

[Mr the Geoff]

Say what you like, I enjoyed it. Theres a time and a place for highbrow thought provoking movies and there's a place for giant robots!

The film itself I believe had fantastic effects, got away with the changes to bumblebee ok (except the '07 Camaro sucks, the clapped out 70s/80s model was way cooler), and did the important job of making me feel 20 years younger for an afternoon. Fast approaching middle age, I want that in a movie sometimes.

Yes the human characters were even more one dimensional than the robots, and the injection of american teen movie was a little irksome, but if I wanted a movie I could critically analyse the plot of, I wouldn't have gone to see transformers.

[Saithis Bladewing]

no. when BB is being chased by the "cop" (memo must remember the Decepticons names better)

That was Barricade. Not that I would know anything about Transformers, or the new movie. I definitely didn't go to see it a second time yesterday because I enjoyed it that much, and I definitely don't care what all you haters think of that. :P

[Tom_Violence]

Say what you like, I enjoyed it. Theres a time and a place for highbrow thought provoking movies and there's a place for giant robots!

The film itself I believe had fantastic effects, got away with the changes to bumblebee ok (except the '07 Camaro sucks, the clapped out 70s/80s model was way cooler), and did the important job of making me feel 20 years younger for an afternoon. Fast approaching middle age, I want that in a movie sometimes.

Yes the human characters were even more one dimensional than the robots, and the injection of american teen movie was a little irksome, but if I wanted a movie I could critically analyse the plot of, I wouldn't have gone to see transformers.

I think you've summed up my objections to the film perfectly, actually. My biggest gripe was that I guessed who the real bad guy was way before the end! It's philosophy was half-baked! It's plot completely see-through!

Or is it Option B: It failed utterly as even a mindless action film. There is a place for giant robots, but for some reason the makers of the Transformers film decided that it was not to be it.

A person what draws things has probably summed it up better than I: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=241

[Malic]

I've seen the movie 2 times so far but I have to say it pales in comparision to the up in coming movie Gobot's http://www.black20.com/virals/?s=167 (lol)

All jokes aside I loved this movie. It OWNED.