Just got back from watching it. That was a good movie. Seriously.
The only major qualm I have with it is that the Decepticons seriously lacked any characterization. Megs got a bunch of lines, but everyone else was lucky to get a sentence or two.
The Autobots were just plain awesome. Optimus Prime goes without saying, but the others were also remarkably well-characterized. Jazz kicks the bucket, though, which is too bad. I think I may pick up the Ratchet & Ironhide toys, if only because their original toys really sucked.
The special effects were, expectedly, beyond awesome. I think the best one of all was Prime holding on to Megs in jet-thingy form, and the two of them crashing through a building together.
And I think there were some humans in the movie too, but who cares about them?
So... Awesome special effects + Good plot + Decent acting + Cheesy references to the original cartoon/movie = Money well spent.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I am going to watch it, but I am really pre-hating the romance sub-plot between generic-butch-goodguy and generic-hot-female-mechanic. I don't care about their safety or future when there are two-story robots slugging it out in the background.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Nor did I. But when two-story robots were comically trying to stay hidden during an American Pie-esque sex comedy storyline, I was laughing my head off, and so was the rest of the audience. Furthermore, the generic butch goodguy was hardly butch at all - it's far more of a geek-makes-good-while-wanting-to-get-laid kind of story. Hell, it even had Spicoli in it.
The Decepticons were largely there to fight the Autobots and with the exceptions of Megatron and Frenzy had little real screen time - but that was intentional as we kept the characterizations on the much more interesting Autobots. Jazz is indeed killed almost as a throwaway to show just how destructive Megs is, but they do follow up on his death and mourn him. There's plenty of room for a sequel too, with the last shot of the movie showing a certain jet leaving Earth being the strongest implication.
The Allspark plot overall was almost glossed over in favor of the human story, which was fine by me as it was hilarious. However, the implication of THAT was quite significant - Megatron wanted the Allspark to create an army to conquer (why did the Allspark create only mean, destructive Transformers?) while the Autobots were willing to destroy it to prevent this, effectively dooming their own race. If there is to be a sequel (and the writers are confirmed to already be on it) the plot ought to revolve around the resolution to the continuation of their race.
I will easily say that this is the best Michael Bay movie I've seen. At no point was I finding the movie dragging on or groaning TOO loudly at the dialogue. And thankfully, the flag-waving typical of his movies was also minimized - he even jabs at the government at several points, to large applause from my Canadian audience.
Mark
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I'm afraid I know absolutely nothing about Transformers, but as long as there's a thread up I thought I'd ask something - is there every a reason put forward as to why alien robots from the other side of the galaxy all turn into Earth machinery (or animals - Best Wars, was it called?)?
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: The Allspark plot overall was almost glossed over in favor of the human story, which was fine by me as it was hilarious. However, the implication of THAT was quite significant - Megatron wanted the Allspark to create an army to conquer (why did the Allspark create only mean, destructive Transformers?) while the Autobots were willing to destroy it to prevent this, effectively dooming their own race. If there is to be a sequel (and the writers are confirmed to already be on it) the plot ought to revolve around the resolution to the continuation of their race.
The personality of the bot created probably has something to do with who is using the Allspark, kinda like how it worked with Vector Sigma in the original cartoon. After all, the three bots created (the cell phone bot, the X-Box bot, and my favorite the Mountain Dew bot), were created by humans who really had no idea what they were doing with it, so they might have just had instinct. Prime mentions several times that they (and I took that to mean Autobots) were once like humans long ago, so maybe it kinda works like Stargate? Genetic memory? The default personality is violent (Decepticons = Goa'uld) and some learned later on to be better than that (Autobots = Tok'Ra)?
And yes, I'd like to see more on that plot point myself. Prime's opening narration establishes that nobody knows where the Allspark came from in the first place, so maybe we'll get some backstory on that. Maybe it came from Unicron...
quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: I'm afraid I know absolutely nothing about Transformers, but as long as there's a thread up I thought I'd ask something - is there every a reason put forward as to why alien robots from the other side of the galaxy all turn into Earth machinery (or animals - Best Wars, was it called?)?
In the movie, it was basically so they could sneak around while looking for the Allspark. It was established pointblank that the military did have weapondry that could hurt the TFs.
And in Beast Wars, the reason they had beast forms was that the high levels of energon would fry their robot modes after too long. The organic (or semi-organic or whatever) forms could shield out all that.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The Allspark may have trouble with human machinery, making transformers based on our technology inherently nuts. The Mountain Dew machine transformer was great, though.
Ooh, a sequel incorporating Unicron somehow would be great. How they'd fight a planet-sized transformer without getting TOO cartooney would be a challenge, though.
Mark
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: The Allspark may have trouble with human machinery, making transformers based on our technology inherently nuts. The Mountain Dew machine transformer was great, though.
Ooh, a sequel incorporating Unicron somehow would be great. How they'd fight a planet-sized transformer without getting TOO cartooney would be a challenge, though.
Mark
Ahem.... Minmei Defence, anyone? 'My Boyfriend is a pilot now, he's a pilot nowwwwwwwww....'
I shall see this movie with glee!
Now if they can get Transformers to look good, why cant they do live action Macross or (something sings to me especially) Battletech?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Macross will never happen in Hollywood due to an ongoing 20+ year lawsuit between various companies on both sides of the pond. It may eventually happen over THERE, but it'll never get released over here. In the meantime you can wait for the next Macross TV anime, due out this fall.
Battletech has been in development hell for years now. Even with an epic storyline (and Battletech has 'em in spades), the franchise does not have the traction that an 80s cartoon series has. They may try again with the ultimate box office success of Transformers in their pocket, but otherwise anyone thinking to produce a film based on an RPG video game need only look as far as Dungeons & Dragons or Wing Commander for how successful THAT tends to be...
Mark
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
Seen it. Wowed by it. Peed twice thru it. Very Very Awesome movie.
*Yeah, the hipe speaks true*
Does that mean that you can classify T as, oh, Kaiju? Live action, after all...
and WTF was that movie preview for 1-8-08? i didnt get a name but it implied that it was gonna be a Giant *Monster film (Seeing Lady Liberty's head tossed downtown NYC pretty much was a clue something was up.)
A US version of gamera? with little catholic kids?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
This is the first movie I've seen in a long time which I'm actually considering seeing again in theatres. There's just SO much detail on the effects that BEGS it to be dissected only on a large screen!
As for that 2008 movie trailer, the working title is "Cloverfield" and it's a project written by JJ Abrams, who's penning the next Trek feature. The concept is just what you saw - a giant monster attacking New York, as seen through people's camcorders and cellphones. Think "Blair Witch" meets "Godzilla".
Mark
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
(I am totally going to call out Mark here. "Cloverfield" isn't written by Abrams, it's written by Drew Goddard, and Abrams is producing, and the next Star Trek movie is being written by the two guys who wrote this Transformers movie, and Abrams is directing. Maybe. As in, presumably he is, but I'm not sure it is an official fact yet.)
So, um, this movie here was nice. Like, were there robots doing karate with other robots? Yes? Mission accomplished. Also John Turturro.
(("Hey guys, let's draw the killer space robots into the heart of a huge city OK?"))
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
That was awesome! I wasn't expecting Shakespeare for the plot (or dialogue for that matter), but it was a lot better than I'd hoped. I saw it yesterday at a 1:00pm showing, and the theater was absolutely packed. I think the average age in there was at least 25, with my 7 year old son and 3 year old daughter helping bring down that average. There was even applause at the end of the movie!
So, they left it WIDE open for a sequel. (Not surprising.) At the end, they dumped the Decepticons into the Laurentian Abyss, which would supposedly ensure they wouldn't reactivate due to the cold and pressure. Was that where the G1 cartoon Decepticons had their base? At the very least, it was at the bottom of the ocean.
Admittedly, there wasn't enough time to really flesh out the various characters, but I liked what I saw. Frenzy actually lived up to his name, and he seemed like was just about to go over the edge the whole time. Barricade's vehicle mode was just damn intimidating ("To punish and enslave" - heh). About the only thing I though was lacking was we hardly saw much of Starscream at all.
Overall - three thumbs up! (It might have been four, but my daughter fell asleep 2/3rds of the way through!)
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
In the show, they were in the Pacific...but whatever.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I've never been convinced by the geography of the G1 series. They apparently crashed in Washington State somewhere, and the Decepticons left the Ark to build their first base and launch pad within walking distance for them (or at least driving distance for the Autobots). Eventually the Autobots attack this base, and the cruiser crashes down within visual range of that base, in the ocean. I dunno about you guys, but even 1980s coastal Washington was NEVER that barren.
(It gets worse in Beast Wars, where characters are able to RUN from their base close to where the Ark is, to an arctic environment, within a matter of hours...)
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Saw it. I was amazed that I really really liked it completely. The first half of the movie featuring the romance angle with Bumblebee trying to hook Sam up was worth the ticket price alone and was freaking hilarious!
Sam's mom is soooo funny: "We dont have to call it that- we can say "Sam's happy time" Holy shit, I've never laughed that hard in a movie. Best masterbation gag ever.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Thing is, you'd NEVER expect that in ANYTHING related to the Transformers - and that's why it worked so damn well. I can imagine Bumblebee asking them about it later. Or for that matter, what all the hubbub was about on his hood at the end of the movie.
Incidentally, it makes PERFECT sense that everyone learned English by absorbing the internet. It further explains everyone's names and mannerisms and how they were still a little foreign to them. Reading a book about Earth ain't the same as actually visiting the place. Prime's deadpan "eBay!" reply was priceless, as was Barricade's iterrogation of Sam. Such absurdities were never so well justified.
Mark
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Oh man, not to be contrarian, but those jokes were so, so bad. Like, Porky's 4 was accidentally pasted into an hour of the movie.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: Battletech has been in development hell for years now. Even with an epic storyline (and Battletech has 'em in spades), the franchise does not have the traction that an 80s cartoon series has. They may try again with the ultimate box office success of Transformers in their pocket, but otherwise anyone thinking to produce a film based on an RPG video game need only look as far as Dungeons & Dragons or Wing Commander for how successful THAT tends to be...
Mark
True, but I think that even those who aren't familiar with the universe and it's accompanying literature, video games, and the TV show (which was great IMO) would still enjoy a movie based on the universe. Even if some of the FMV sequences from the games (especially the first Mechcommander, the opening movie was fantastic)were redone on the big screen it would totally blow the britches off a lot of people. I just hope I'm not a 40-something old man before that movie comes to theatres.
I've not seen the Transformers movie yet, but from what I've just heard it sounds like something worth taking in. I usually just wait for the movie to come out on Movie Central since $9 for a ticket and $4 for a coke is a total fucking rip.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
That's why you sneak in with a can of coke.
Here's a great little interview with the movie's art director, who turns out to be none other than the designer of the Akira class starship himself, Alex Jaeger!
He even says that twelve years later, most of his fan e-mails are requests for more art of the Akira. Tons of pictures in that articles, including some nice beauty shots of the Transformers themselves. Among things, Jaeger also designed General Grievous from Star Wars Epiosde III, which if you think about it is very similar to his TF designs...
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Just saw it last night and have added it to my list of will-buy DVDs. I thought the romance subplt dragged on a bit and I couldn't get past the obsurdity of a top secret government organization going around flashing their top secret badges, telling everyone their top-secret name, and then expecting them to do whatever they wanted even though they'd never heard of them (and never will). And Turturro's character was just obnoxious. But whatever.
If you have to have the romance subplot, I can't think of anyone better to have it with than this gorgeous Megan Fox. She needs to be in some more movies.
I thought we needed more of Starscream, Barricade was great. I'll be buying some of these toys for sure. Freny was a little annoying with his Jawa-esque jibber.
The in-jokes weren't really too bad. For instance, parking an old yellow VW Bug next to Bumblebee in the used car lot... that was beautiful. Prime's "Autobots... roll out" HAD to be in this film, and I'm glad it was. Getting "more than meets the eye" in the movie stretched it a little.
Couple questions: What was the name of the scorpion Decepticon in the Middle East? He was the only transformer who had a non-tech based disguise form. Guess the first thing he saw when he landed was a scorpion.
Wasn't Bonecrusher one of the Constructicons? He looked like some kind of earth-mover.
I really liked the military presence in the movie. It was kind of like a Transformers/G.I Joe crossover.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I think the scorpion transformer was scorponok.
Also weren't some new transformers created by the all spark. I think at some point a transformer is made out of a telephone booth. Were those transformers destroyed by the autobots too?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
One thing I dont get: Jazz is killed (brutally) by Megs ripping him in two, but Frenzy survives decapitation and Sam punting his head down the block.....seems wrong somehow.
Maybe it's a Spark to mass ratio thing or something making larger 'bots less rebuildable?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
IT's not necessarily that - it's probably more about how they were made in the first place. As an infiltration expert, Frenzy having all his critical stuff in his head makes a certain about of sense, and he could jettison his body to re-create a smaller form as needed. This suggests at the end of the movie when he decaptiates HIMSELF that he may still be around there, in YOUR girlfriend's purse, disguised as her Nokia, lipstick, or tampon!
Jazz was riped in half along his torso... This may have caused irreperable damage to his generator or spark chamber or whatever was powering him. No Spark, no Jazz.
As for the extra transformers that were created by the Allspark, the Autobots probably took care fo them without too much trouble, as they were pretty small. One of them had a cannon that fired Mountain Dew cans - unless they were explosive, they couldn't have caused THAT much damage, no? BTW, they weren't created EVIL - according to the writers, they were simply "feral" and had no base programming. Concievably, the Autobots could have captured and then programmed them to be somewhat nicer.
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: IT's not necessarily that - it's probably more about how they were made in the first place. As an infiltration expert, Frenzy having all his critical stuff in his head makes a certain about of sense, and he could jettison his body to re-create a smaller form as needed. This suggests at the end of the movie when he decaptiates HIMSELF that he may still be around there, in YOUR girlfriend's purse, disguised as her Nokia, lipstick, or tampon!
We actually made a "Frenzy vibrator" joke just after the movie but decided "Rumble" would fit the bill better for that one.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Oh, and as for Scorponok... The toy, and I'm pretty sure the CG model, both had military signage like "DANGER" and "NO STEP" all over them, suggesting that he was another form first and then somehow adopted his arachnid form afterwards. We don't know how intelligent he really was in the first place - all he did was skulk around killing Americans without really saying anything. His beast mode could reflect his primal nature more than anything else.
Mark
Posted by Ventriloquists Got Shot (Member # 239) on :
He was Blackout's butt, and part of the helicopter. Hence the USAirforce markings. Also, he had no robot mode. He was just a metal scorpion. It was, I guess.
The toy has a lame-ass robot mode, but that is because then it wouldn't be a Transformers toy.
Also, even though the comic adaptation has a deal with Optimus and Barricade, the intent was to have: Barricade, Frenzy, Starscream and Sk/corponok alive by the film's end. So maybe Sk/corponok would be all, maybe he will turn into a jetski or a milk truck in the next movie and have a robit mode.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"We actually made a 'Frenzy vibrator' joke just after the movie but decided "Rumble" would fit the bill better for that one."
Also didn't Scorponok survive? I mean his tail broke off when he was bombed and he just seemed to dig into the sand. Plus his tale seemed to still function despite be disconnected. Maybe he can regenerate like Frenzy.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
So I went to see the movie last night, it was pretty good. But not exactly an instant fave of mine. I liked the original Transformers TV show, and Beasties/Beast Wars, and to a lesser extent the show that came after that (The name escapes me ATM).
In the original series I seem to recall the Decepticons to have largely taken the shape as aircraft of some form or another. It's a little disappointing to see only a hand full of them stuck to the idea.
Some of the potty humor was a little overdone.
quote:Wasn't Bonecrusher one of the Constructicons? He looked like some kind of earth-mover.
I think Bonecrusher is one of those new APC's that the army is developing. Called the "Buffalo Mine Protected Vehicle.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
The sequel to "Beast Wars" was "Beast Machines".
And the Decepticons (initially, anyway) had more aircraft forms than the Autobots. The Autobots stuck mainly to cars and trucks. But there were plenty of Decepticons that were not aircraft. Megatron, Soundwave (and his tapes), the Constructicons, Shockwave, the Insecticons. Reflector, even, if you really want to go that far...
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
one of the original differences between the As and Ds was that the Decepticons were almost uniformly able to fly - only a few Autobots were able to fly on their own. Notable exceptions included Optimus Prime himself, who had to borrow Sideswipe's rocketpack to do so.
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