Transformers

[Waddley]

You don't need the nostalgia. It will still be an entertaining movie, Menolly. You just won't get a few of the "in" jokes. But it doesn't really take away from the movie. If you want to know where they are, just pay attention to when the rest of the audience whoops and laughs at random seemingly not-that-funny parts

[ItisWritten]

I saw it this week. It's a good popcorn flick with giant robots (and annoying humans). I didn't need to know anything about transformers to enjoy it. If you like this type of movie to begin with but never heard of Deceptocons or Autobots, or developed an attachment to individual characters from the original show, you probably won't miss what the movie makers couldn't get in and appreciate the movie magic for what it is.

That said, I wouldn't rate Transformers higher than a 6 (out of 10). As some have said here, some human elements (keeping Sam's parents from knowing about the robots, Section 7) were not needed. In many respects, the script is derivative of Independence Day, and more annoying--even without Jeff Goldblum.

Btw,

Spoiler

if you're gonna take a dangerous artifact into a populated zone, you might want to begin evacuating it. Also, why even try to keep giant robots secret?

Lotsa plot holes, but what Michael Bay movie doesn't have them?

[Loredoctor]

The more I look at the design of Megatron, the more I like it. He's stunning and his alien jet mode is wonderful.

[Menolly]

You don't need the nostalgia. It will still be an entertaining movie, Menolly. You just won't get a few of the "in" jokes. But it doesn't really take away from the movie. If you want to know where they are, just pay attention to when the rest of the audience whoops and laughs at random seemingly not-that-funny parts

Thanks Wadds. That's what I wanted to know.

Appreciate it.

[Loredoctor]

I just watched it for the second time. I like the movie more.

[matrixman]

I'm still waiting for the Mighty Orbots movie.

[Cheval]

Took one of my grandsons to see the flick last night and he LOVED it.
(I'm too old to be a Transformer fan and he is too young to know that Transformers were popular toys.)
However, the movie was enjoyable and IMO, Bumblebee was my favorite. (Did I mention that the new Camaro is one of my favorite cars?)
The battle in the city was far-fetched, but the special FX were great.
Other than my , I have to agree with the other posts made.
On a scale 1 - 10, I give it a 6 also.

[Cagliostro]

I was never a Transformers fan, so I was not eagerly anticipating it, but a friend wanted to see it and the girlfriend has not been wanting to see movies lately, which sucks for me. So I saw it, and found it pretty average. I'm not a big action movie fan, but it was certainly entertaining. I just wish they would have done more with what I enjoyed out of the movie, and cut a lot. It was definitely too long. Action movies really need to have decent editors, and honed down a nice little fun-nugget, which it seems as if they are more and more exceeding 2 hours. And this I mean to be a rule that can be broken. Particularly if it is based off a book. Lord of the Rings could have been longer and I wouldn't have minded (my ass disagrees, but hey). But there really wasn't enough here in Transformers to need the running time they had. But whatever. It was fun, but if it was shorter, would have been more fun.

[exnihilo]

I knew almost nothing about the Transformers growing up (a bit after my toy-playing prime), but I actually liked the movie. It was pretty good.

[Nav]

So awesome!!!

I went at the weekend with my girlfriend, who I think was slightly reluctant (I went with her to Harry Potter though, so fair's fair) but really enjoyed it also.

Michael Bay's ability to keep you caught up in the action is supreme and I didn't notice a single plot-hole until I read about them here, and things like that normally leap out at me so kudos on that. My favourite sequence was the big fight with Scorponak, Blackout's attack was great and all but I felt Scorponak made the Decepticon's strength seem a bit more 'real'.

I didn't mind the boy and girl at all (although she doesn't really fit the reformed delinquent template) and the Autobots hiding from the parents did provide plenty of gentle humour, even if it didn't serve any other purpose. I didn't think the Section 7 thing worked very well and the Aussie analyst and her hacker pal showed just how superfluous they were by not appearing again after they'd called in the airstrike.

I quite liked how they slowly and carefully introduced Bumblebee and Barricade, culminating in the nice chase-and-fight sequence, concentrating on Sam's situation and his family's importance set the scene nicely. Megatron spent a bit too long frozen, so we didn't really learn anything about him other than that he is both powerful and evil, and the anticipated feuding with Strascream was only alluded to. The film was on the long side though, so credit to the writers and Bay for not just playing it by the numbers.

Somebody mentioned how expensive the film looked, I was interested to hear that General Motors and the US Armed Forces gave a lot of help in order to keep the budget down ($150 million, quite reasonable for a film of this scale I think). GM obviously get the kind of product placement opportunities marketing execs drool over and provided the vehicles, I guess the Army and USAF provided the military vehicles in return for some positive PR.

[CovenantJr]

I saw it last week, and found it alright but nothing special. The first half was like a cheap straight-to-video movie, but with an excessive budget. Once the government turned up and started making a mess of things, the film hit its stride. I thought there were too many humans, as well. The various incarnations of Transformers have always been 'told' from the Transformers' point of view; the increased emphasis on the humans in this version made the Transformers themselves more alien and less sympathetic.

Not a bad film in its own right, but not Transformers in any sense - and almost ruined by its weak first half.

[CovenantJr]

Decided to copy and paste a more detailed post I made on a different site:

Ok, my high esteem for the old Transformers probably stems more from being a fan of the comics - particularly Simon Furman's 'Target: 2006' story arc and its follow-ups - than from growing up with the godawful cartoon. Having seen what can be done with the Transformers in Simon Furman's hands, this incarnation was irritatingly sub-par.

The first half of the film seemed to be a cheesy straight-to-video affair, with a budget larger than it deserved. "Oh no! My car's driving around by itself!" It was like Herbie. Yuck. The second half, after the government showed up and started making a mess of things, was much better. I still have a few major issues with it though:

1) There was too much focus on the humans. All previous incarnations of Transformers have been 'told' from the Transformers' point of view; the fact that this film was mostly done from a human POV made the Transformers themselves seem a little too alien and unsympathetic, in my opinion.

2) Optimus Prime is the strongest and most skilled of the basic Transformers (later additions such as Ultra Magnus put him to shame though) with the exception of Megatron, yet he took a beating every time he showed his face. He didn't even put up a half-decent fight against Megatron.

3) Stuffing the cube thing into a Transformer's chest causes probable death, but it never occurred to anyone (before 'Sam' *gag* Witwicky) that it'd be a better idea to shove it into Megatron's chest than Prime's?

4) The cube itself. The...something Spark, yes? Why? Why not just stick with the Creation Matrix, which has a long and illustrious history? And if the cube idea had to be used in place of the Creation Matrix, couldn't it have been given a better name?

5) The camera work during the action scenes was horrendous. It was all but impossible to tell what was going on. In some films, such as Batman Begins, this actually works quite well; in Transformers, though, it was just very annoying.

6) If the Transformers can choose their vehicle forms (as indicated by Bumblebee's modification of the Camaro), why not choose more practical forms? If I recall my Transformers mythology correctly, the reason they all have vehicle forms is because the computer that designed their secondary forms while they were in their millennia-long coma mistook the dominant life-forms on the planet (in a similar fashion to Ford Prefect of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy). If this has been altered and the Transformers are able to choose their own secondary forms, there's no reason for all the Autobots to be really impractical vehicles like vans and ambulances and elderly Camaros.

Now, does anyone care to speculate on possibilities for a sequel? I see Megatron's return on the cards; after all, he wasn't destroyed, just dropped in the sea, and Prime made it clear that there was a slim chance of survival if he'd shoved the cube into his own chest. I reckon Megatron's alive, and will be back. So what next? Well, we're talking about Michael Bay - what can possibly better than giant robots fighting? Bigger giant robots fighting! Yes, I foresee the arrival of the 'teams': the Constructicons, Aerobots, etc. I'd be amused, though, if Mr Bay (or whoever is reponsible for the decision-making - I don't really know anything about this stuff) decides to re-do the original Transformers movie: Galvatron, Unicron, Cyclonus, Scourge, Rodimus Prime, *snigger* Arcee...

[bloodguard bob]

Awsome!
Just saw it for the first time.CMJ took me and Julie to the IMAX downtown. Yeah, the plot was thin as a cigarrette paper but the explosions and transforming had me yellin',"Radical!!!" everytime.
I think that because I'm a fan and was a collector I'm able to forgive the acting, plot, and the fact that all the female characters seemed kinda skanky.

[lucimay]

Awsome!
Just saw it for the first time.CMJ took me and Julie to the IMAX downtown. Yeah, the plot was thin as a cigarrette paper but the explosions and transforming had me yellin',"Radical!!!" everytime.
I think that because I'm a fan and was a collector I'm able to forgive the acting, plot, and the fact that all the female characters seemed kinda skanky.

oh dudes. you all suck for going without me (#1) and going while i'm sitting in class sweating nails over iterative or particular examples of support (#2)!!!


(btw, is that a camberwell carrot or are you just glad to see me?)

[bloodguard bob]

Jenn knew you had classes.
Tell you what. You and me and a bucket of popcorn anytime you say...Transformers! Robots in disguise.Transformers! Fighting for our lives.

[lucimay]

Jenn knew you had classes.
Tell you what. You and me and a bucket of popcorn anytime you say...Transformers! Robots in disguise.Transformers! Fighting for our lives.

Sunday?

Right, here's the plan. First, we go in there and get wrecked, then we eat a pork pie, then we drop some Surmontil-50's each. That way we'll miss out on Monday and come up smiling Tuesday morning.

[bloodguard bob]

We'll go on holiday by mistake?

[lucimay]

No you won't, you're not leaving me in here alone. Those are the kind of windows faces look in at.

[Cameraman Jenn]

You two are CRAZY! Lucimay! The guy in the movie rode a pink beach cruiser just like mine AND he had a chihuahua that looks alot like Moose!

[Sunbaneglasses]

mikeredona.imeem.com/video/gep5nVkL/the ... mus_prime/