The movie's special effects are good, but I think seeing it twice is enough. I'm certainly in no hurry to buy the DVD. I like the action parts of the movie and special effects are fantastic, but there is too much crap in between that I have to tolerate. In a way, it makes the movie tragic; so close yet so far away from being truly good.

I like Rushmore.

 

*goes back to watching the Mario Bros. movie.*

 

The movie's special effects are good, but I think seeing it twice is enough. I'm certainly in no hurry to buy the DVD. I like the action parts of the movie and special effects are fantastic, but there is too much crap in between that I have to tolerate. In a way, it makes the movie tragic; so close yet so far away from being truly good.

 

Where were you when the whole board was stealing my Fries at lunch?

The movie's special effects are good, but I think seeing it twice is enough. I'm certainly in no hurry to buy the DVD. I like the action parts of the movie and special effects are fantastic, but there is too much crap in between that I have to tolerate. In a way, it makes the movie tragic; so close yet so far away from being truly good.

If that's how you feel about the stuff you like...

The movie's special effects are good, but I think seeing it twice is enough. I'm certainly in no hurry to buy the DVD. I like the action parts of the movie and special effects are fantastic, but there is too much crap in between that I have to tolerate. In a way, it makes the movie tragic; so close yet so far away from being truly good.

If that's how you feel about the stuff you like...

 

 

I know your trying to trap me so that you can then Starscream about how dumb people who don't like the movie are. It's complicated, okay. I certainly don't hate the Transformers movie, so what is the opposite of hate?

No trap, dude. I just think you should be honest with yourself.

 

I only Starscream about dumb people when they say dumb stuff like, "I don't like the movie because it isn't a 20 year old cartoon".

 

"I didn't like the movie because it just didn't entertain me" is totally cool with me.

In my long career of movie Starscreaming Hobbes has never been anything but an honest discussion companion, even when we disagree. Though I am expecting a herd of "I hate G1 Fanboyz!" posts any time now...

 

I think what MP is trying to get at (MP forgive me if I'm wrong too) is that the movie was OK and he liked it as an OK movie and nothing more, and that if it had been a GOOD movie that he had liked he'd be willing to purchase it. But even though he liked it, it was just OK.

Well, I guess it's worth noting why I really like the movie, despite its flaws:

 

1) Story Quality - This certainly isn't my favorite movie...it might not even be my favorite movie of the year. But, in the long, long history of Transformers entertainment, this falls somewhere in the top 10% of storytelling, easily. It is more, or as, coherent as all of the 80s content: comics, cartoons (including the '86 movie), but not as well told as Beast Wars. And it's certainly better than any of the (admittedly few) comics I've picked up from Dreamwave or IDW. So, as a Transformer fan, it was great.

 

I know a lot of people, myself included, were hoping for something that elevated Transformers storytelling to another level, rather than just fitting in with everything else...but I find it hard to fault the movie for only being as good or better than all the fiction I already really enjoy, instead of being simply the best.

 

2) The Allspark - This originless origin of the Transformers is by far my favorite explanation of the Transformers, and the notion of the "newborn" Cybertronians is bursting with expandable potential in, not just sequels, but lots of other Transformers media in the same way that Beast Wars seeded the entire franchise with protoforms, sparks, and stasis lock.

 

3) They're So Real! - People say, "yeah, the effects were great" as if we're talking about Terminator 3 or something. The effects were more than great. It wasn't just the photorealism of the Transformers, but the way they moved and transformed (including the resulting full of holes new look) and interacted - these bots were there, standing in front of me. And for a fan of the franchise since inception, I felt like I was finally seeing what I'd waited a lifetime for...

 

4) The Decepticons Were Scary - Finally these machines of war are depicted as actually dangerous. No shrill-voiced, comically incompetent Air Commanders. No rubber-ducky-playing-with commanders putting hand to forehead and bemoaning how he's surrounded by idiots. These Decepticons are evil, effective, and strong.

 

Sure, Glen could be completely removed from the script. Sure, the robot screentime was smaller than I would've liked...but honestly 2 hrs. of bots would've been too little for me. Sure, the cut between Starscream's dogfight and the attack on Megatron has caused fanboys to assume too much and see things that aren't there. So what? The movie was still awesome.

I am Lazy and have just quoted myself from an earlier post.

 

"I would have liked more TF characterization/dialogue. But I didn’t expect any more TF screen time than we got. I think what I would expect in a transformers movie would be about at 2/1 ratio of human/TF time in the Humans favor. This could have been achieved by eliminating the hackers, DOD, and character soldier scenes. (Not all army mind you just the ones with names). The TFs don't NEED more screen time the movie needed to be more balanced.The human stuff could, (should) have just been Sam & Co. and Sector 7. There was no reason for this story with that amount of TFs to be 2hr 15min when 90 min would have done. Shia Lebouf was great. I take no qualm with his scenes or screen time. But why so long with out TFs? Useless subplots.All those subplots did is solve problems they created. IE: If you remove the Character soldiers (whose names I can't even remember) you eliminate the discovery of ammo that really hurts TFs. If you eliminate the ability to really hurt TFs you remove the need incapacitate the military cuz now they can hurt TFs you remove the need for the virus. Remove the virus you remove the hackers, (whose names I can't even remember) and the needing to use a 386 to send Morris code.Sector seven showed up and took everyone to the allspark anyway, and the military would have shown up anyway at the end. I would expect jets to show up if Giant F-ing robots start tearing up a city, I don't need to see how they made the phone call to NORAD. Sure there would be Army vs. Decepticon scenes but those could just be to show case and Primus for bid develop the characters of Decepticons not what they're stepping on.While I was not 100% happy with several aspects of the TFs they are not what turn me off this movie. I think they same movie at 100 min would have had me."

 

I was also disappointed by the confusing shot structure and editing.

 

The following link also explored the quality of the movie.

http://www.TFans.com/talk/index.php?showtopic=73495&hl=

I don't disagree with any of that, but we've been through all that already. The film is flawed. The removal of the subplots as you've described, P-C, would produce an altogether more enjoyable film. That doesn't mean the film as is isn't awesome in its own way, either.

 

I just felt this thread could use a shot of positivity.

I just don't get "the robots are a bunch of spaces and don't work" as they paid ILM and designers a whole lot of f*cking money to not only make them look good, but be believable. If you've looked at high-res pics from the designer or in the DK Movie Guide, you'll see everything goes somewhere on all of the bots. I just won't buy that for a minute. Sorry the robots have spaces here and there, but they don't have to have human muscles and skin.