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THE OFFICIAL TRANSFORMERS MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD


Haggisjin

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totally, that street fight was super-intense... like, there's so much going on that PRIME AND MEGATRON FIGHTING are in the background at one point. Almost a bit cinema-verité-ish....

 

and how come the whole time I'm watching this movie, I'm NOT thinking "yeah I'm watching a Michael Bay movie"? It really felt like Transformers, just with 1000% more OMFG

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Just saw it.

 

Holy Blot where to begin.

 

Definitely not disappointed. Didn't expect to be. Some observations. Though the script itself was very tight the first three quarters felt like watch three seperate movies that only came together with the arrival of Optimus Prime & the Autobots. From that point onward everything felt on the same page. I didn't have any problems following the movie & though a fair bit of exposition is given to explain things I can honestly see how some critics viewers could become easily lost in everything happening. This is kind of what I had feared from the beginning & it's proving true with a lot of less open critics. The movie basically has everybody already on earth in alt mode with no real explanation/introduction to who's who. The prequel comic does a really good job handling all of this & with it absent from the final film it just feels like you're dropped off in the middle of something. Especially if you're a reviewer who doesn't know jackBlot to begin with.

 

That aside this easily Bay's most impressive film to date. It's big/loud & carries a sensability admist the chaos that is often absent from many of his movies. A much better outing than his Badboy films & though I know I'm going to get slaughtered for this on par with Pearl Harbor. I really don't care how many people hated Pearl Harbor because of its historical inaccuracies/love triangle setup it still didn't prevent it from being an entertaining/technically impressive movie. Transformers was a lot better paced & had a lot more humour attached to it but was still a millitarized special effects movie. As far as a science fiction movie goes this is nowhere as near as heavy handed as Bay's Island clone flick. Nobody really at anytime is given a direct explanation as to how the Transformers exist or how they function or the science behind their various capabilitys. Theirs a little blurb about the all spark cube being able to create transformer life but aside from that all scientific logic is thrown completely out the window. I really liked that I could watch this & enjoy it without all the science that makes Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica what is. I'm not a big scifi buff so the less I came out knowing the better. (Starwars IMO was better without the bullBlot explanation for Anakin's conception & what not)

 

Okay having read as many reviews as I have I specifically watched for key moments that had pissed off the critics & kept them from enjoying the movie for what it was. Number one Starscream, Script. So uh what were these people expecting from a Bay/Transformers movie anyway? Your guess is as good as mine because though it's not the most elaborate script in films it holds the movie together well enough for what it is. I for one was awed about exactly how much had been stripped from the comics adaptation. The whole subplot around the Voight, & the Aussie hacker was missing as was a lot of the key scenes involving Sheia, Fox & Bumblebee. Not entirely effective but a lot of it gave Transformers some variety & it all played together nicely. I really have to wonder about some critics. Make something as elaborate as Spiderman 3 & it's confusing & convoluted. At the same time make something as simple/straight forward as Transformers & it's dumbed down & for children only. Powerglideing critics. I really didn't see a lot more plot in the critically aclaimed Live Free or Die Hard than there was in Transformers. Hell Live Free ended on the cliched note of having Willis having to rescue his daughter from the lead terrorist. Transformers at least offered something different than more of the same. I swear some critics are just biased.

 

Enough ranting. I really enjoyed Transformers. The ending I think was a little over rated & the freeway scene was a blur as was Bonecrushers inception/demise but everything before had me wowed beyond belief. Blackout's transformation in the very beginning as a whole was perhaps one of the coolest things ever & that was just the beginning. I absolutely loved Frenzy. Had a very Stitch/Max vibe to him that was a lot of fun when he was on screen. There was really no way of telling when production was using a stand in puppet or cgi model. The character was absolutely flawless. Same goes for Bumblebee. I had no idea throughout what was real or on screen CGI. ILM has gone as far with this to make it virtually impossible to tell one from the other. The remaining characters were easily as impressive. The transformations were shot pretty quickly but no less impressively. Seeing Barricade just unfold & stand up in the scene with Sam was unlike anything on that level of complexity I have ever see. Bonecrusher easily had the most memorable transformation scene during the freeway chase. Even having seen it on the trailer it takes absolutely nothing away from the cinematic experience. (Just wish he could have stuck around a little longer) So with the visuals as impressive & smoothly represented as they were I was really blown away by the intergration of the character in the real life enviroment as well as interaction with the human characters. Not one shot takes you outside the movie & has you thinking it's fake. When Shia, & Fox climb into Prime's hand & are holding onto him before they fall it's all believable. I challenge any other movie this year to pull off better visual CGI effects than ILM has done with Transformers. The only one I can think of in recent memory that pulled off this many effects shots without looking out of place or fake is 97s Starship Troopers. Directing was pretty solid & for the most part not half as confusing/incoherent as The Bourne Supremacy (according to one critic) I had a pretty good idea at all times who was battling who. The Ratchet/Jazz/Devastar fight was a bit of a blur & I really don't recall Ratchet doing a hell of a lot until Bumblebee strapped to the tow truck blows him apart. Starscream basically drops out of the sky twice to wreck a bunch of cars as well as take flight to destroy some inbound fighters but not much else. Jazz get's Pawned by Megatron, & Ironhide kind of faces off with Blackout before the military guy blows him apart on Arcee. Yep I'm pretty sure that was the scrapped alt for Arcee. The Prime/Megatron fight was a little to quick & ended much too soon so aside from seeing Megatron tear Jazz in half not a lot to really end the movie on a high note. Oh & where the hell was Barricade? After the freeway chase I don't remember seeing him anywhere. Also I thought Blackout was going to release Scorponok a second time for the final fight. Can't help but feel that some of this was seriously trimmed for length. Astonishingly this whole bit being the final 40 minutes or whatever rushed right by leaving a viewer wanting/expecting more. Seriously you'd have to be ADD not to love the action being played out on the level it is.

 

The comedic bits were another thing that seemed to really annoy critics. (Jeeze take all the fun out of it why don'tcha) The only two instanses that kind of felt out of place was the "MTMTE" line Sam says (an absolute groaner in the theater I was in) & Bumblebee pissing on Agent Simms. It got the laughs but looked so wrong. What a place to have an oil filter in bot mode. :07laugh The introductory sequence was well recieved & though it brings Tranformers dangerously close to a TMNT mentality I really didn't mind. The autobots had individual personalitys & that was more than I had hoped for. The G1 stereotypes are definitely in place I just wish more could've been done with them. Optimus Prime was wonderfully characterized & it was great to hear Peter Cullen giving it all he had with the character. The voice is definitely the one used in G1 only with a more toughness then we're accustomed to hearing. Personally I thought it was pretty much dead on with his potrayal of Prime in the 86 movie where he battles Megatron. Overall Cullen was definitely the way to go. I also didn't mind the whole hidden scene at Sam's house. It ran a bit long but was a nice comedic diversion until things really heat up for the final act so no complaints.

 

I really liked the way the ending set things up for the sequel. The remaining Autobots remain on earth in alt mode as Earth's protectors & Starscream leaves for space. With the first film being a near perfect introductory film the possibilities for a sequel are endless. Here's hoping Bay can bring in the numbers required for that to happen.

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I don't feel like quoting or editing posts, because that = effort

 

But about the explanation for the Transformers, I liked (a lot) the bit at the beginning about how they don't even know where they came from -- all they know is that this Allspark thing created them. That was really great IMO because it lifted the burden of exposition from the shoulders of the Autobots. There's no need for Sam to be like "what the f*ck where did you come from and what are you and etc." and then have Prime give this big long speech about TF origins because it's been established up-front that nobody really knows. It was a nice bit of mystery that added to the whole "alien" nature of the Transformers.

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totally, that street fight was super-intense... like, there's so much going on that PRIME AND MEGATRON FIGHTING are in the background at one point. Almost a bit cinema-verité-ish....

 

and how come the whole time I'm watching this movie, I'm NOT thinking "yeah I'm watching a Michael Bay movie"? It really felt like Transformers, just with 1000% more OMFG

Agreed 110%

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I don't feel like quoting or editing posts, because that = effort

 

But about the explanation for the Transformers, I liked (a lot) the bit at the beginning about how they don't even know where they came from -- all they know is that this Allspark thing created them. That was really great IMO because it lifted the burden of exposition from the shoulders of the Autobots. There's no need for Sam to be like "what the f*ck where did you come from and what are you and etc." and then have Prime give this big long speech about TF origins because it's been established up-front that nobody really knows. It was a nice bit of mystery that added to the whole "alien" nature of the Transformers.

Agreed Again.

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I don't feel like quoting or editing posts, because that = effort

 

But about the explanation for the Transformers, I liked (a lot) the bit at the beginning about how they don't even know where they came from -- all they know is that this Allspark thing created them. That was really great IMO because it lifted the burden of exposition from the shoulders of the Autobots. There's no need for Sam to be like "what the f*ck where did you come from and what are you and etc." and then have Prime give this big long speech about TF origins because it's been established up-front that nobody really knows. It was a nice bit of mystery that added to the whole "alien" nature of the Transformers.

That was really cool. Prime narrating that gave me chills. It set the mood for the movie. Man this movie was awesome!

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