Transformers: Review and Discuss (TF2 Confirmed for 2009)

[Mazda6sTuner]

I thought the Movie was actually pretty good. Lots of action scenes and plenty of laughs.

Although, i did find it kinda interesting (and a little annoying) how GM pretty much dominated the movie.... at some points in the movie... i expected the annoucer voice to pop in saying "An American Revolution. Buy today and get 0% APR!" lmao.

I Do want that new Camaro now....hell, i'll even take that Modified Solstice!

 

[Mazda6sTuner]

Spoilers:
What the hell was the "all-spark" finally? They never really went into that at all, just said "oh it's a big cube very powerful cool." And didn't Bumblebee kill Barricade? I specifically remember a scene, after the first fight, where Barricade was lying in ruin. Then a few scenes later he came back. WTF? Also - what happened to Starscream? His last scene was him fighting the jets in mid-air...then that's it he was cut off.[/QUOTE]

I wondered about Starscream too.

Spoiler: Do you think a sequel could be in the mix?

 

[Giancarlo]

Do you think a sequel could be in the mix?

That's not really a spoiler.

And yes, if there's money there they will take advantage of it.

 

[FoolKiller]

It was signed for a trilogy before this movie finished production. And I bet we will see Galvatron.



Now for my thoughts.

I really, really, really wanted to like this movie, but there is so much to distract from the good. As my friend put it, this is the best of a long line of bad Michael Bay films. And the only way I would use the F word would be to tell Robert Orci what he can do with the multiple plot holes in his script. I hope he never writes another one.


The good: Shia LeBouf (or however you spell it) was actually good. I was very apprehensive about him, but he was the best actor in the whole movie. Optimus Prime was pure Prime. It was beautiful. The action was incredible. I continually found myself getting giddy, but then something would happen to ruin it.


[rant]The bad: Spoilerish because I can't rant discreetly. Highlight if you want to read. I can't count the plot holes. How many times can Decepticons be left in scrap heaps only to return? How many one-liners can we put into a movie? All but three humans were pointless for the storyline. Can we not hold a camera steady? It was hard to see the action because it didn't stay still. Jazz's first line was so out of place for an Autobot it wasn't the joke it should have been. The Megatron/Starscream relationship was rolled into one line? And I have gone on about the frozen Megatron while the rest have no problem in space scenario. And the All Spark ONLY creates Decepticons? I thought it was the source of ALL life on Cybertron. Every single thing dealing with CIA analysts could have been left out and saved me 30 minutes. And for the love of God, can Michael Bay not make a movie without a love interest? Someone please explain how Cybertronian weapons do not kill Cybertronians, which is their design, but a human bullet does the job in one shot? Huh? [/rant]

I'll stop before I blow an O-ring. Note that none of that was a G1 related issue but more movie/Bay related issues. Michael Bay should be the one kissing my smelly butt to make up for my $7.

But with all that said it was a fun action film and I will probably buy it on BD when it comes out. Unless G1 cartoons actually make it back out of bankruptcy oblivion to good quality DVDs. That might make me forget the movie altogether.



But I may be wrong about my feelings. Everyone in the theater was clapping and I looked over at my friend and asked if we were the only ones that noticed the problems and he said, "guess so." So, I suggest everyone interested see it for yourself to determine the movie's merit. I just think it forgot to try and be a good movie on its way to being a wild ride.

 

[Jedi2016]

Should have stayed for the credits:

Spoiler

There's a brief shot of Starscream flying up and leaving the atmosphere.

Bumblebee did defeat Barricade, but he didn't kill him, he just whooped his ass. I wish they had shown more of that fight.

 

[FoolKiller]

Should have stayed for the credits:

I saw that. I always sit through credits, even if it starts with annoyingly non-funny fake interviews....

 

[Giancarlo]

Yeah, i agree that Michael Bay's action scenes were really bad at times, because i very often couldn't tell what the hell was going on. Hell, once i had even seen a transformer i couldn't discern the identity of at all.

 

[Turbo Lag]

I saw that. I always sit through credits, even if it starts with annoyingly non-funny fake interviews....

Same.

 

[YSSMAN]

FoolKiller asked if I liked Pearl Harbor: The answer is no. Personally, the only redeeming part of that movie was the attack on the base, as I otherwise was very bored the whole time. However I did like The Rock, Armageddon, and I guess Bad Boys (so-so).

===

I think the plot holes are something that only the real fans are really going to be pissed about. I noticed them, but I went in not really thinking about them (despite reading about them constantly on AICN), and by the end, I wasn't too worried about it.

The whole Barricade/Starscream/Scorponhook issue, IMO, was left alone to leave a clear opening for a second film. Optimus made it pretty clear at the end that he was calling all Autobots to Earth, and furthermore, Starscream's exit pretty much showed that he was off to gather more troops for the battle.

I think the question largely come down to who is going to show up in the next movie, and furthermore, how/why they will be fighting in the next one.

However, I will give into the fact that the single lines between Megatron and Starscream were a HUGE disappointment. But I was so caught up in the movie, I really didn't care to notice.

Spoiler topic:

The whole death of Megatron seemed like an awkward ending in general. Given that he is the main reason why everyone is fighting, it seemed like a pretty awkward cop out to kill him right away. But then again, if they would have killed Optimus, that would have been even more strange.

One must assume that Starscream takes the lead role again, but it just seems so likely that somehow Megatron will return...

Oh, and I agree that Peter Cullen rocks. Having the classic Transformer sounds (compared to whats on today, Energon last I checked) was nice, and it really took me back.

Other autobots thoughts: Bumblebee was awesome, as I really felt an attachment to the character. I liked Ratchet as well, just as before, but Ironhide really took off in my book. Not that I didn't like him before, but his pissed-off/bad-ass feel was a nice change. As for Jazz, not so much. He was a bit too "funky" for me to like him.

But, I definitely feel the need to create a few more Autobots or Decepticons in Forza 2, as I already have Barriacade as of now...

 

[Christhedude]

i remember playing with transformers when i was younger. The movie will be out tomorrow here (5th) and i already booked a ticket

 

[Tangled Web]

Unless G1 cartoons actually make it back out of bankruptcy oblivion to good quality DVDs. That might make me forget the movie altogether.

What kind of DVD's did they bring out over there. I have bought the original series up until the movie. I wasn't really a fan of Transformers after the movie.
The ones they have over here seem good.

Here is a shot of the three packs I have, in front of a Transformers poster of course.

The covers are very cool, they are all artwork from Dreamwave Comics.

Also here is a picture of the entire series in one pack that came out not long ago.

And just for fun here are some shots of my Mini Optimus, sorry about the pictures being crap.

Can't wait to see the movie. 👍

 

[Anderton Prime]

Not horrible, like I feared, but not spectacular, like I hoped. Instead, we get a solid offering from the ever-unpopular Michael Bay, with enough visuals to induce an orgasm in most males. I saw it in DLP, and it seemed to me that the dialogue was waaaaaaaay too quiet, for the benefit of the sound effects which I would have assumed were going to shake my spine, which they did not.
I was worried this was going to be another flop until all the Autobots met up with Sam for the first time and transformed into their characters, and all of a sudden it felt like I was watching the animated series again! Thanks Bay for that!
The audience loved it, and of course it was 95% men in there, but so what?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Shia was actually REALLY GOOD as Sam. The chick has GOT TO GO, though. She was beyond awful; they haven't even invented a word for what she is.

8/10.

 

[Giancarlo]

Megatron is so NOT dead.

 

[FoolKiller]

I think the plot holes are something that only the real fans are really going to be pissed about. I noticed them, but I went in not really thinking about them (despite reading about them constantly on AICN), and by the end, I wasn't too worried about it.

It had nothing to do with Transformers but were just bad storytelling, which is why I place that more on Orci than Bay. The money a script writer gets paid should be enough to prevent gaping holes like that.

To answer your spoiler questions - if they remotely stick to any of the cartoons' storyline we will see Galvatron. Or this is sci-fi and plothole ridden and they could just go TADA!

Other autobots thoughts: Bumblebee was awesome, as I really felt an attachment to the character. I liked Ratchet as well, just as before, but Ironhide really took off in my book. Not that I didn't like him before, but his pissed-off/bad-ass feel was a nice change. As for Jazz, not so much. He was a bit too "funky" for me to like him.

I agre totally with this, although I want somoene somewhere to explain Bumblebee at the end.

What kind of DVD's did they bring out over there. I have bought the original series up until the movie. I wasn't really a fan of Transformers after the movie.
The ones they have over here seem good.

We were given some versions by Rhino that had a bad remake with colors mixed, voices placed over the wrong animation sequences, etc. Sony bought the rights to kind of do a hand-in-hand thing with the movie, but the branch that was working on it went bankrupt in the fall, so they are in limbo as of right now.

 

[YSSMAN]

I agre totally with this, although I want somoene somewhere to explain Bumblebee at the end.

What about Bumblebee?

Spoiler-ish:

He was assigned as Guardian to Sam, and they seemed to be quite fond of each other. I assume thats why he stayed, and why the other Autobots remained close by.

Or how he got his voice back? I assumed it was because of The Cube, although Ratchet had said that he was working on it.

Or are we talking about them practically having sex on top of him?

 

[Revheadnz]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Shia was actually REALLY GOOD as Sam.

I agree, he's a pretty good actor and he really carried the human side of the movie. He was the only redeeming feature of the non-giant-transforming-robot cast.
The soldiers were decent but the hackers annoying and pointless, the Sector Seven guys decent as well (mostly helped by Turturro doing as best he can with a ****** script). Jon Voight was there for the paycheck and the chick, while very hot, cannot act at all. Not even slightly.

 

[Casio]

Jon Voight was there for the paycheck and the chick, while very hot, cannot act at all. Not even slightly.

I actually think if they deleted every scene with Jon Voight in I would rate it a very good movie, rather then an average to good one. Could of saved a lot of the scenes for the Special Edition DVD actually

But I find it funny that everyone that I spoke to (A few transformers die-hards, including my Girlfriend who dragged me along) thought it was the greatest movie of all time after seeing it, then after a few days say 'Yeah, it wasn't excellent, but the action was good!'

 

[FoolKiller]

What about Bumblebee?

Spoiler-ish:

He was assigned as Guardian to Sam, and they seemed to be quite fond of each other. I assume thats why he stayed, and why the other Autobots remained close by.

Or how he got his voice back? I assumed it was because of The Cube, although Ratchet had said that he was working on it.

Or are we talking about them practically having sex on top of him?

I got the whole guardian thing. That was cool, and in character.

spoiler-ish (maybe we should deem the thread spoilerish and end this?)
The voice thing..... There better be a deleted scene or something. If it had happened post-Ratchet repairing his legs it would have made sense. But Optimus is standing there juggling Jazz around (that was bad) and he just suddenly ups and talks.

I'll have to listen to Bay's horrid voice commentary when the disc comes out to figure this out.

The whole makeout scene at the end: Who knew the Autobots were voyeurs? They were all in alt-mode facing them. Can you say performance anxiety?


Another question: Does the All-Spark only make Decepticons? Everything it touched turned into vicious killing machines.

I agree, he's a pretty good actor and he really carried the human side of the movie. He was the only redeeming feature of the non-giant-transforming-robot cast.

I heard this morning on the radio that he is signed on for three more movies now.

The soldiers were decent but the hackers annoying and pointless, the Sector Seven guys decent as well (mostly helped by Turturro doing as best he can with a ****** script). Jon Voight was there for the paycheck and the chick, while very hot, cannot act at all. Not even slightly.

Turturro's character would have been great, but they couldn't decide whether he was supposed to be funny or serious.

I actually think if they deleted every scene with Jon Voight in I would rate it a very good movie, rather then an average to good one. Could of saved a lot of the scenes for the Special Edition DVD actually

HD-DVD is adding an editing feature, where you can reorganize the scenes and make your own story, on the 300 disc. I can only hope that Sony will add this kind of feature to BD before this comes out. I can make this into an awesome movie.

But I find it funny that everyone that I spoke to (A few transformers die-hards, including my Girlfriend who dragged me along) thought it was the greatest movie of all time after seeing it, then after a few days say 'Yeah, it wasn't excellent, but the action was good!'

The initial entertainment value is high and the action sweeps you away, but the moment you look back to analyze the movie there are glaringly bad problems, all of which have to do with details of quality movie making and none that have to do with Transformers or even the changes from the original canon.

For a first attempt at a Transformers live action this was very good. In comparison it was much better than Masters of the Universe (He-Man) and will probably be better than the future planned GI Joe and He-Man movies.


So, did anyone else notice Hasbro's product placement? I saw at least a My Little Pony and a Furby.

 

[TopHat]

Woo! I'm leaving to see it in about 3 hours. I can't wait.

 

[Brett]

Well I saw it yesterday and am going to go with some friends and see it again today. I have to say that I thought it was excellent. The action was great and I have to agree that the camera could have shaken a little less, but that may have also taken away from the feeling of general chaos and destruction that was present in many of the battles on screen.

I think the update Bumblebee got with the Camaro is somewhat odd, but not absolutely terrible. I really like the update to Starscream though, as the F-15 was the top fighter plane in the world at G1 times, but is no longer the top honcho with the F-22 now in service.

I have to say I like the "To Punish and Enslave" on the Decepticon cop car. That is a very nice touch to put on the car.

I have to say I went into the movie somewhat skeptical of what it would be like. I expected a couple cheesy parts, and there were a couple, but they were not too bad. I also expected some product placement in this type of movie and there was plenty of it, but I did not let it become a distraction. All in all, the action was great, the story a little less involved than what I would like, and it was just a good movie.

 

[Tangled Web]

We were given some versions by Rhino that had a bad remake with colors mixed, voices placed over the wrong animation sequences, etc. Sony bought the rights to kind of do a hand-in-hand thing with the movie, but the branch that was working on it went bankrupt in the fall, so they are in limbo as of right now.

Hope they bring out better quality version for you, it is really fun watching the old Transformers episodes. The ones released over here are from Madman and are great imo.

Anyway, everytime I come into this thread, makes me want to see the movie even more.

 

[FoolKiller]

Hope they bring out better quality version for you, it is really fun watching the old Transformers episodes. The ones released over here are from Madman and are great imo.

Oh, and our poor quality versions are no longer available in retail because Rhino no longer owns the rights, so you can only get them for outrageous prices on Ebay.

Go see the movie. Even with the issues I have I think every TF fan should see this movie in theaters.

 

[Tangled Web]

You could always buy the Madman version, but then there would be the issue with the zones and it being Pal.

Yeah, I plan to. It's just so busy at the cinemas since it is school holidays at the moment. I might wait till it calms down. 👍

 

[///M-Spec]

Well, I saw it last night on the huge DLP screen at the AMC Lowes Lincoln in NYC. This move probably saved the last 30 minutes of the movie for me because the high picture quality helped alleviate the blurry mess from the ADHD cinematography.

I thought it was fun for the most part, but filled with missed opportunities. I'm not surprised in the least bit that Bay allowed a better movie to slip right out of his hands, but I AM a little surprised Executive Producer Spielburg didn't step in and assert some creative changes that would have undoubted made the film better.

I guess I'll get the b***hing out of the way first. (highlight to read spoilers)

I agree with all of Foolkiller's plot hole complaints. However, I will note that I purposely don't analyze plots in too much detail during movies (only afterward) so the holes didn't cut into my enjoyment of the film.

There were two serious problems with this film. The first is there wasn't enough editing.

The kiddie analysts (that were no doubt put in the film so the young people mostly seeing this film can feel like they can take part in saving the world--except this is completely redudant because SAM is supposed to serve that role) deserved about 40% of the screen time they ended up getting. The fact that Bay had to cast a scarcely believable hot chick as a top crypto-analysist and a walking, rolling sight gag as the World's Greatest Hacker in order to sell the roles tells you how useful the characters served the story.

The soldiers had a better role in the story; they were there to show us how feeble humanity was compared to the power of the Transformers. Okay; I can buy that. But they needed to fade into the background when the real story began rolling, ie when the Giant F---ing Robots that we all paid good money to see appear. By the time Megatron wakes up, they should be reduced to extras.

You could make an argument it was important for Uninteresting Random Soldier with Young Daughter Hes Never Seen to take revenge on Blackout for killing all his buddies back in Qatar. And I can buy that too. But that can be done in a couple of shots -- I don't need the camera to focus on them for excruciating minutes while waiting to get back to the REAL BATTLE BETWEEN THE GIANT F---ING ROBOTS.

John Voigt as the Believable Provider of Exposition. Someone said he was just there to collect a paycheck. Ditto that. Was there a reason for he and John Turturro's character (Creepy Government Type) couldn't have been rolled into one person?

Also, what was the point of the 6 hour long gun battle between Frenzy and all these people? Honestly, I was hoping Frenzy would just kill them all so the film could stop wasting its time on characters that have served their purpose and get back to the giant f--ing robots.

All of these extraneous characters running around at the end dragged down the pacing of the title bout at the end. Several times I found myself wondering where so-and-so was. Where's Optimus? Where's Star Scream? What happened between Jazz getting ready to fight Megatron and Megatron tearing his gangsta-ass in half?

Some useless scenes that needed to be cut or reduced considerably in length.

-Sam being chased by junkyard dogs
-80 foot tall Giant F--ing Autobots 'hiding' in the front yard
-Unfunny American Pie scene in Sam's bedroom
-Creepy Govn't Types invading the Witchabaticiyees' house looking for E.T.
-Soldiers turning on Creepy Gov Types at Hoover Dam. This scene simply sucked in every way.. I don't know how else to say it.


The second problem was the missed opportunities. What COULD have been if the script was better. In no particular order:

-Megatron and Starscream's relationship. Reduced to one line. 👎 They not only could have played this up, they could have figured their antagonism and Starscream's treachery into the Decepticon's eventual defeat.

-The Decepticons could have played better villains. Yeah, they blow s--t up and kill people indiscriminately. But the screen play could have given them other villainly traits outside of excessive violence. They know that the Autobots actually care about humans. How about using human shields to gain an advantage? Or maybe instead of Megatron's feeble attempt at offering Sam his life in return for the Allspark, there should have been a strong sub-plot of Decepticons working with human turncoats (knowing that they will eventually betray them anyway)

-The Autobots could have played better heros. Someone... Ironhide, probably should have taken a bullet for Mikaela or one of the soldiers. You got the impression that Optimus and Bumblebee were the only Autobots with real compassion while the others were just around for fighting.

-Sam. He risked his life for the Allspark. Yeah, it was bravery, but of a fairly generic sort. I'm not sure what they could have done given the context of the battle, but I wanted to see him give a strong confirmation of his character.

Whew. That was a lot of b----ing. But I did like it for the most part. The production was slick. The Autobots and Decepticons looked GREAT. When the camera was steady, the action was AWESOME. Bay does know how to deliver the goods there. I even liked the first 20 minutes of the film where you get to know Sam.

Shia put in a very good performance and played everything off really well. I'm looking forward to seeing him in Indy 4. Megan Fox was attractive furniture, but I knew that was coming. Turturro, as someone else said, did the best he could with a dodgy script, but the flamethrower bit was a little overplayed.

I'd say it was a 7/10; good fun. Not too deep.


M

 

[YSSMAN]

I found your points to be agreeable for the most part, but I did my best to not walk in and expect too much. Its Mr. Bay at the helm, so you do what you can.

There is a lot left for the second movie, and I think with the amount of input thrown in thus far, one would hope that Bay gets a good idea where to go. Of course, we thought the same for Bad Boys II, but then again...

Its a good summer movie. People are excited about it. I enjoyed myself in Transformers more than I did in Spider-Man 3, which is something in itself.

Although I would have preferred more fighting like you said...

 

[TopHat]

I thought the movie was great! The only issues I had was that the robots were really odd to look at. Not as clean as the old designs.

Also Optimus had LIPS.


Bumblebee was a CAMARO.



Also they didn't play the original theme song at the end of the movie.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

I enjoyed it however, I felt the transformations were far too complex. They would either happen really quickly so you couldn't figure out what was going on and it seemed an excessive number of pieces had to change places several times, or they happened far too slowly during the dramatic scenes. and yes, Optimus has lips. Blah

Also, If, as Optimus said, the machines learned to talk by the world wide web, how was Megatron able to speak considering he was frozen for a couple thousand years, which is considerably earlier than the start of the world wide web.

The eye-candy was nice, and I thought the leading gal did okay considering the horrible dialogue that was written for her. I knew prior to watching that the script would be weak and the dialogue suspect, so I actually enjoyed it.

 

[Swift]

Saw it yesterday. Well, since I didn't expect much it was excellent! But looking back, yeah there were some major things missed. FK and M-Spec hit on them.

But just for nestalgias sake, why wasn't "The Touch" played, possibly in remix form, at the beginning of the battle with Optimus and Megatron? They put the line "One shall stand, one shall fall" That was dead center in the middle of The Touch!(in the first animated movie). That's a big miss for me as I understand that it's not a generation 1 movie but they could've payed homage to all the 25-35 year olds that remember that as THE defining moment in the movie.

Anyway, good stuff overall, worth seeing more then one. Absolutely incredible CG and I really like the fact that there are Transformers that die. I didn't spoil anything, you know going into it that somebody has to die.

 

[Omnis]

I just came back from the film. I'm wearing my Optimus Prime T-shirt.

It was an incredible movie; the best I've seen so far this year.

About OP's lips: If you notice, his "mask" extends over his face in battle. I think that makes up for the lips, although they could've done well to not give him a total underbite.

About Bumblebee being a camaro: I think the first scene is a homage to his real character, the camaro next to the beetle. I think it would've been a better idea to introduce the "scan-and-morph" before bumblebee was introduced and to then have him change from the beetle into the camaro to appeal to Sam.

I agree with Swift about OP and Megatron, though. Their fight just didn't seem to have as prolific a set-up as one would desire. Optimus fighting Bonecrusher was more epic. That, "Megatron must be stopped... not matter the cost." line is the greatest.

I think all of the side-characters were just there for introduction. They all did well enough besides the analyst girl. The "young team" was stupid, but maybe they'll have some role in the next movie with incoming autobots. My best guess is that they'll run the autobot HQ along with Ratchet and the others. I think Mikaela did well too, but her dialogue wasn't the greatest. She sure looks the part.

Speedy, I think Megatron learned to speak while hooked up to the Hoover center. The other decepticons could've also forwarded him the data just as they did the location of the Allspark.

 

[YSSMAN]

I saw it again for the second time, and it is still awesome, plot holes and all. I took a bunch of friends from work, two of which didn't want to see it at all, but they came out saying that they really liked it.

...I love it when I'm right...

Either way, you notice a lot more the second time around, and although I knew about the issues going in, it really doesn't take much away from the movie. Sure, they've managed to take down the rivalry between Starscream and Megatron to just a few lines, but it serves its purpose I guess. None of my friends knew the difference, so they didn't care.

Really, its the hardcore fans that notice the little things, and everyone else just goes along for the ride.

I really didn't even think about the fact that Barricade really doesn't show up to fight there in the end. I never even noticed it, I just figured because he was en-route that he fought someone. Hmmm.

Either way, the sequel is coming, and I can't wait.