posted
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.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
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.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
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?)?
Registered: Jul 2005
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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.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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.
Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
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?
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
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...
Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
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?
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
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".
posted
(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?"))
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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!)
Registered: Jul 2002
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
In the show, they were in the Pacific...but whatever.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
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...)
posted
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.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I shall see this movie with glee!![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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