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Will the live-action Transformers movie fail?




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halochief_90



Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 466
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:30 pm Reply with quote
As many of you are probably aware of, the live-action Transformers movie trailer has started appearing as a preview in theatres. I myself have not seen the trailer yet, nor do I really care for Transformers (the series sort of feels aimed more towards the Pokemon audience than say, the Gundam audience), though I can assume that the movie has probably upped the target audience, so I may get interested.

What disturbs me the most though is people's reaction to the trailer. In particular, one stood out the most: Two guys were talking, the one said he was watching the trailer and he thought it looked like it could be a huge sci-fi movie, but then when he saw that it was Transformers, he was just like "Okay...WTF!" Given that Transformers is anime, I want to be on its side, and hardcore Transformers fans will probably go and see it multiple times, but obviously, that isn't enough when it comes to the box-office. It really doesn't seem to me that the Transformers movie (whose name I’d say most likely brings up kids toys to most people’s minds) will gel very well with the casual audience.
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7585
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:34 pm Reply with quote
The transformers I watched as a child wasn't an anime, it was an American cartoon.
I've felt a Transformers movie was inevitable ever since the first Citroen transforming car advert.
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Shigurei



Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:55 pm Reply with quote
Lol Transformers brings back memories it's like the 5th american cartoon show i ever watched as a kid lol.
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Lynx



Joined: 09 Jan 2002
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:12 pm Reply with quote
I'm waiting to see more about it before I decide whether it will be worth watching in theaters or not. The only preview I saw for it was several weeks ago and there wasn't much info you could glean from it. Since it's not supposed to be released until summer next year there's probably a ton of production work still ahead.
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blind_assassin



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 755
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:13 pm Reply with quote
I don't think I ever watched transformers as a kid. I was too late to watch the original and they didn't have any spin offs that I remember until after I would have cared. Thus I grew up on Power Rangers (I still remember the Red Power Ranger telling me not to drink and smoke) and Beast Machines (the animal version of Transformers).

So I don't have too much to say directly about the movie. I haven't gone to see anything recently (last movie I saw in theaters was X-men 3 back in like July or something) but I have seen an 80's Transformers movie. It was almost kinda brutal now that I think about it (Megatron jumping onto the ship and blowing Star scream in half gangster style and alunching him into space comes to mind). If I see a trailer and it doesn't look like crap then I might just go for the hell of it.
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Shigurei



Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:14 pm Reply with quote
yeah im gunna wait until the full trailer comes out so i can decide to go or not
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:34 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
The transformers I watched as a child wasn't an anime, it was an American cartoon.
I've felt a Transformers movie was inevitable ever since the first Citroen transforming car advert.

Was that the one that aired about 12 years ago? I'm starting to think though, that it was a dubbed version of the Japanese show, though I could be wrong. The only thing that surprises me about this movie is the fact that Megatron is not a gun or a tank.
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blind_assassin



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 755
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:39 pm Reply with quote
The original transformers was definately American. It was made in the mid 80's. Try finding the old movie of it. It has the worst music I've ever heard. I don't even know what genre it is, it's like easy listening rock/up lifting inspirational pop. Transformers was big too, and I don't know how big anime was in the 80's but I doubt it would've reached the level of popularity that Transformers did. Hell, I know about Transformers and it was a good half a decade before I was born.
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kusanagi-sama



Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 1723
Location: Wichita Falls, TX
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:36 pm Reply with quote
Try reading the entry for the original series. Season 1 was animated by Toei Animation, and then the rest was animated by a Korean studio called AKOM Production Co. (1986-1987)

Transformers (original series)
Transformers: Headmasters

The first series was a US creation, but the Japanese took over to create their own, beginning with the Headmasters that is canon to the original series. It ignores the final 3 episode 4th season, and continues with what happened at the end of the 3rd season of the original series.
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SharinganEyes92



Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 816
PostPosted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:50 pm Reply with quote
I personally don't think the Transformers movie will fail. The only Transformers show I've ever watched was Transformers: Armada on Toonami, and that was 4 years ago. Many people, even people who aren't fans, are gonna' go out to see the movie, either as die-hard fans or casual viewers. I personally plan on seeing it at a midnight showing (I do this with every movie that plays at midnight: Star Wars, various Marvel movies, and the Harry Potters). Plus, there are just going to be people who are curious to see how it'll turn out. With all those different people going to see the movie, I think that the movie will most definitely not bomb. I'm not saying it'll be a hit like Spiderman, but I'm saying it won't turn out like Dragonfly (a good movie which went out of theatres literally 2 days after it was released!).
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4558
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:04 am Reply with quote
I think the best-case scenario is that it'll top out somewhere around $150 million domestic.

Next summer is just too packed with sure-to-be-huge films (Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Harry Potter 5, among others) for a film like Transformers to really stand out. It'll probably have a decent Independence Day opening weekend frame comparable to Superman Returns this year (around $40 to $50 million), but it'll be completely front-loaded and will soon be lost in the flotsam and jetsam of the summer silly season.
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Abarenbo Shogun



Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 1573
PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:32 am Reply with quote
At best, it ranks up as one of the "bigger" films out next year. At worse, it makes a mockery of the original G1 cartoon.

I mean, you have several MAJOR character changes, it's made by Hollywood (ergo, anything made by Hollywood = instant fail), all the Autobots is America-centric rubbish ----boxes (granted, you stick a worthwhile engine into the Pontiac Solstice and it is a great car), and the premise.....eh.

Like I said, it's gonna be at least neutral. Recoup the costs, but expect alot of fanboy rants and raves.
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Riyousha



Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:20 pm Reply with quote
I hope it doesn't fail. As long as the movie is good, it definately won't fail. However, the movie-images of the Transformers aren't so bad, right?
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Nagisa
Moderator


Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:08 pm Reply with quote
Abarenbo Shogun wrote:
At worse, it makes a mockery of the original G1 cartoon.


For the last time, this is not an adaptation of G1 Transformers. It's an independent interpretation of the Transformers concept, just like all those awful anime series like Armada and Energon are. Yet just because it's a big Hollywood production, it gets all this flak for being some heretical abomination.

Is this just another "Hollywood can do no right, Tokyo can do no wrong" thing or something? I mean honestly, for all the stupid things Japan's done with Transformers, they haven't gotten nearly as much hell as Michael Bay has. And yet both productions are basically the exact same thing.
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