I was expecting a children's film, naturaly. But I was actually surprised at how kiddie-fide the dialog was, between the robots. They didn't realy say anything to each other! Particularly the Autobots! The action would stand up with any adult action movie. But the dialog between robots was poor, and that effects characterisation.

What does everyone else think about the dialog?

The dialogue was fine IMO. The dialogue between Jazz and Prime when Bumblebee was captured (both times no less) was well done. And the dialogue between Ironhide and Prime when Ironhide wanted to get rid of Sam's parents was also good.

There were moments where the dialogue was fine. But a lot of the 'jargin' during the backyard scene really didn't shine well with me. Mostly because the scene just went TOO long, and as a result their dialogue felt really forced. Yeah, the dialogue was not the strong point for the robots. Again, not all bad, but I know what you mean.

I also wasn't a huge fan of putting so much emphasis on the internet lines. Prime practically says it like "the WORLD...WIDE...WEB." I exagerate, but that's what it felt like. "E-BAAAAAY," had the same effect. I think a more casual, statement-of-fact line would have worked much better.

Oh. And a personal quirk over the phrase "My bad." Seriously, I've been waiting ten years for that phrase to die.

A bunch of alien death-robots sitting around and discussing. Sounds like a great movie.

Well, look at it from this angle: They're alien robots. They speak in a non-native language, without knowledge of what is common behaviour. "My Bad" is a perfect example: It's totally a faux-pas to use a phrase like that in that context (after destroying someone's garden centrepiece), yet Prime isn't aware of that.

They learned their language from the WWW. I'm just glad they didn't speak in 1337

Ironhide: "Watch out, Prime! Megatron's CHARGIN' HIZZZ LAZZZER!!!

It's been more than 10 yrs. It didn't become mainstream until "Clueless" came out but we've* been saying it since like 1990. *folks with tans like me*

I liked their dialog. I wanted to see Jazz interact with Bumblebee More before he croaked.

Optimus:"O NOES, Jazz are Ded? DO NOT WANT!!!!!"

I kind of want to hear Cullen saying that as an Extra feature on the DVD release.

Aoi

And if he don't...
He seems like a cool guy. Botcon 08.

HAH!


Prime (after killing Bonecrusher): "LULZ U SUXXORS!!"

They should use the audio for the doom3.zoy.org website...

Are you joking?

The dialog was a joke. It was ass. At least with robots. It was like they left fill dialog in place through production with out replacing it with stuff they MEANT to be on screen. The Super Mario Movie had better dialog. There was no characterazaton. The TFs were big pieces of metal hitting each other. WTF?



...Hey, he asked.

TO REVIEW THE TOPIC:

No topic is complete without three things: Someone logically approaching the subject, one really funny post, and one guy who just tries to annihilate the opposing side(if there is one), and ends up sounding pessimistic and jackass-y. Luckily, this topic has all three! Guess:


I totally agree. You guys need to realize that it's an ACTION MOVIE, not a hard drama.


Best post in this topic.


And... you answered. Brutally. I'm bleeding from the Hotspot.

I'm guessing I'm the pessimist and you're the Jackass.

Close?

Dude, you pretty much nailed it.

Guessing you didn't like the movie much?

Not as much as you no doubt.

I totally respect you're opinion, dude, don't get me wrong.

Well, why does good dialogue have to be Shakespeare or tea-party boring? Can't it simply be more intelligent than what we got? Dialogue doesn't just mean "sitting around and discussing." It can be simple, to the point, and still be smart. I think a major portion of the Transformer dialogue was thrown together, with a handful of decent/intelligent/character-specific lines.

I guess I'm getting at this. Why is it we have to expect either cobbled-together drivel, or it has to be some boring five minute monologue--complete with British accent? Extreme exagerations of the point, yes. But there's a lot of room between those two concepts for good chatter that doesn't sound silly most of the time. Some people don't care, the rest of us rather like good chatter. We've heard it in plenty of good movies before this one that weren't Citizen Kane or Meet Joe Black. I think that's why a lot of people weren't happy with the TF dialogue--we know it can be done better, even in an action movie.

Oh, and getting back to "My bad." It wasn't as if it weren't appropriate--I understood its implication. Prime's trying to use the wording of the native species as best he understands it. No different than "What's crackin' Protectobots?"

They were still both pretty bad.

You'd be amazed what 30 seconds of dialog will do.




No Worries. Sorry I snapped at ya.

Well put sir, this sums it up perfectly IMO. Of course it's an action film and we LOVE our giant robots to fight. Overall I thought the film was very good (apart from Jazz unecissarily dying -another topic). But I wanted strateges, points of view, some indepth discussion on dealing with humans etc, even an arguement between 2 Autobots. Megatron hardly had 3 words to say to his troops, although the best dialog I thought was between him and Sam. The dialog for me just wasn't there and characterisation suffered. And as we all know characterisation is what makes Transformers Transformers and what makes us all such dedicated and passionate fans.

I too would have liked more dialogue and characterization, but from a production standpoint I understand its brevity. I'd rather them spend the $$$ on two robots fighting than on two robots talking to each other.

Same here. Lucky for us, the production people have said that the sequel is supposed to focus more on the Transformers with the humans as supporting cast now that they know what they're doing. This was new ground. They weren't going to bother spending their money on banter between the robots when it could be better spent on them fighting with some speaking thrown in there.

And again, the dialogue was fine. Just fine. They weren't going to wast time having the Autobots sitting around discussing a plan. Prime had a plan to deal with the Allspark, and the plan succeeded, except it was Megatron's spark and not Prime's that Sam shoved the cube into.

Also, in regards to someone saying they would have liked to see two Autobots arguing, well, we kinda did. Prime and Jazz. BB's captured, and the dialogue went something like this:

Jazz: Are we just going stand here and do nothing
Prime: There's no way to rescue Bumblebee without endangering the humans
Jazz: Yeah, but it's not right...
Prime: Let them go.

No, it wasn't a screaming match between the two of them, but it was still a small argument. Jazz started up again when they were at what I'm guessing was an observatory.

Jazz: What about Bumblebee. Are we just going to leave him to die and become some human experiment?
Prime: Bumblebee is a brave soldier. This is what he would want.

Then Ironhide kinda/sorta takes up Jazz's side

Ironhide: Why are we fighting to protect the humans? They're a primative, and violent race.
Prime: Were we so different...enter spiel about freedom being the right of all sentient beings.

And sometimes, one word can have more impact than a long drawn out sentence/speech.

It's more effective to just say "eBay." than "Well, to be honest Sam, Bumblebee came years ago to Earth to find the Allspark. He found out about your ancestor Capt. Witwicky through the internet site called Shwiggle (from the prequel comic). After years of following leads, when you posted the glasses on eBay, he made it a point to contact you best he could. By allowing you and your father to purchase him like a regular car. Then he called us with a homing becon and that brings us to now."

And again, just to say it. They're giant ALIEN robots from another planet.

Good point well put. Thanks Masterminicon for your views, you have a way of convincing me things weren't as bad as I thought. However I think Prime-Collector has a very valid point in that just 30 secs of dialog can make a difference. For me it just needed a little touch more depth, just a little.

Okay, there, again. Why is the two extremes? It's what I've been saying, we can't have a middle ground? It was the delivery of the line that made it cheesy. "EBA-A-A-A-A-A-Y." And the fact that it was a one-word response makes it difficult to work with otherwise. In this example, can we not increase that to a five-word sentence of some kind to help remove the cheese-factor? It doesn't have to be technical. Just 'better.'

You can explain something that's cheesy. It's still cheesy. It's just cheese that makes sense.

I'll agree that in CERTAIN places, more dialogue would have been useful, like maybe something other than just the stuff we got that was like ten seconds worth of dialogue between Megs and Starscream. What they should put in I'm not sure, but the point is, is that there, a little more could have helped. I felt that one bit was mildly lacking. Maybe if instead of "You failed me yet again, Starscream. Get them!". It could have gone something like this resulting in Starscream trying to apoligize and rectify his mistake in letting the humans get away.

Starscream: I live to serve you Lord Megatron
Megatron: Where is the Cube?
Starscream: The humans have it
Megatron: You have failed me yet again, Starscream
Starscream: I'm sorry Lord Megatron. However, the humans are on their way to (whatever the city's name was other than Mission City), and the Autobots are...
Megatron: I want no more excuses Starscream. Get them!

Yeah, something like that would have been better. I would also liked to have seen Blackout argue with Starscream, as, apparently as I haven't read the prequel, they're opposed in many respects. A bit of a 'Con powerplay or something!

In the prequel novel - Blackout and Starscream fight in a pretty intense battle in which Starscream's speed owns Blackout's size and firepower. Blackout is a complete Megatron Loyalist who doesn't trust or like Starscream at all. Frenzy also dislikes Starscream a bit and he also seems to be a good Megatron Loyalist too (which the movie just adds to that). Blackout and Starscream have a pretty good powerplay back and forth over what the Decepticons should do.

Bonecrusher doesn't care about anything too much, so long as he gets to fight the Autobots and Barricade is a total opportunist who takes sides only when they help him and his own ideals/survival. Barricade also comes off as the Decepticons' Navigations and Science Officer a bit in the novel.

I thought the dialogue was good enough for kiddies. If anything, they need to read/hear/learn more and not have an action movie dumbed down for them. It's not like it was that hard anyway. If it's great dialogue you're looking for, I recommend...Citizen Kane. Now that was smart writing. But then I can't bloody picture Orson Welles as a Transformer (except for Unicron, of course.........)