Forum - View topic[OT] Transformers: The Movie.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18589 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I am hoping that this is sufficiently anime-related to be acceptable to the mods.
The live-action movie had some special advance screenings tonight, so I decided to check one out. I saw a bit of the original Transformers TV series when it first aired back in the '80s but was never a big fan, and usually I don't care much for Michael Bay films because of his overblown style. But he has hit a home run with this one. The trailers don't do justice to how utterly freakin' cool this movie is. It doesn't matter if you're not familiar with the Transformers at all; it is not only the summer's best action movie, but one of the best I've seen in the past few years. It sports Oscar-worthy special effects, lots of military hardware, beautifully-staged action scenes, and even a few bits of silliness. A terribly sexy-looking Megan Fox doesn't hurt if you're a guy, either. 
If you are a fan of the franchise, then seeing this movie will be akin to a religious experience, especially the first appearance of Optimus Prime. They even brought back Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime (and more recently a regular Cartoon Network announcer), to reprise his performance. Honestly, I did not think this could be pulled off, but they have done it. Wow. [EDIT: Added the off-topic tag. -TK] |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Hmm, now you've made me want to see it...and I am on vacation until Thursday...
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16974 |
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My friend is actually taking me in the next day or two as an early birthday gift to see it. I have avoided every online blurb about it and watched every trailer muted because I want Optimus Prime's voice to be a surprise. The transformer's animated movie was awesome so hopefully the live action movie will also rock.
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SharinganEyes92
 Posts: 816 |
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Grr... Key, I was actually making a thread about this myself, but it appears that you beat me to it. I'll just copy and paste my post. Anyway, to my thoughts on the movie:
I felt that overall, it was very well-done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I personally liked Bay's attempt at adapting the concept of transforming robots into a modern setting. I liked how he created the whole spoiler[army/Iraq war setting] to make it seem as if it's in modern times. However, there were certain points during the movie where I felt that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously at all. At those points I felt as if Bay was intending for the audience to perceive the entire film as a complete joke (I'll get to that later on though). I really liked the special effects. They were by far the most entertaining part of the film for me. The action and CGI were very well done IMHO. I was really impressed by the fight scenes, but then again, what mindless teenage boy isn't? 
The acting and cast wasn't bad. Shia LeBeouf did a pretty good job. He's talented, but I thought that he sometimes seemed a little melodramatic, and that added to the overall feel that the film was to be taken lightly. Jon Voight gave a solid performance as well, as did most of the cast. Goddamn! Megan Fox is HOT! (sorry, had to get that out). I thought it was lame when she said "I'll drive, you shoot". That part was just down-right corny, but it added to the humor of the movie. I was cracking up at that part. I was expecting my dad to be laughing too, but he was catching up on some sleep during about half the movie. The music was well done for the most part. I felt the musical score during that action scenes was very well done. I thought it helped add to that epic vibe that the movie gave to me during the climax. I felt that the metal/rock music and Linkin Park that was played was out of place at certain points, and it just made the movie downright corny at some points (not to mention some of the lines spoken), but the corny parts do well to lighten the atmosphere and act as comic relief. I felt that the humor, though hilarious at some points, overall added to the feeling that the movie wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I'm not saying that it made the movie bad or unenjoyable (is that a word?) in any way, but it was just a feeling that I got. The humor made it even more appealing to me, however, and I thought it was well-placed. That's all I can think of as of right now. Again, I thought it was very well done. I actually plan on seeing it again to pay more attention to those kick-ass action scenes. Edit: Oh yeah! Did anyone besides me see spoiler[room for a possible sequel? I mean, Optimus kept part of cube, he's still alive, and a little while into the credits, they show a fighter jet flying out into space, which I believe was Starscream. Perhaps Starscream gathers more Decepticons and comes back to take revenge?!] Edit 2: Added spoiler tags where they may be appropriate. Last edited by SharinganEyes92 on Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:25 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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camelot187757
 Posts: 426 Location: The Nacirema Dream (17 and counting Asuka) |
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People!!!! Spoiler tags please.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I wonder why it released in Asia Pacific much earlier than in US (to the general public, not counting special screenings). In Taipei it ranked #1 last weekend and #3 of all weekend box offices, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End and Spider-Man 3.
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8511 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I've been hesitant to see this, since from the trailers it looks like humans are heavily involved, and that could eat up valuable time meant for the real characters of Transformers, the Autobots and Decepticons. I could care less about Shia LaBoof or whatever romantic subplot they probably have going. But eh, I'll probably end up seeing it, anyway.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18589 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The movie isn't all about the Autobots and Decepticons, but it never puts too much emphasis on the human parts, especially beyond the first half-hour. (Although I could have done with a bit less of Shia LeBoeuf's antics early on.)
As I said earlier, there is a fair amount of silly humor in it, and the best gags do involve the Autobots' very human behavior. I saw it more as comedy relief than a sign that nothing was meant to be taken seriously. (But we are talking about a movie about transforming robots here.) The one knock that people can legitimately make against the movie - and I'm sure that many critics will - is that, at 144 minutes, it's easily 10-15 minutes too long. The final battle scene in particular, for all its high-tech goodness, might have worked better if it had been shortened a bit. Unfortunately that's a pretty common problem in Mr. Bay's movies, as he does have a habit of getting carried away. |
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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That's true, I mean just look at Pearl Harbor, the CG effects were awesome, but the movie just plain sucked.  But at least Transformers got a fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes. I was just watching the TV Guide channel, and Michael Bay stated that he might even make a sequelspoiler[( that's a very stupid thing to do)] and there were some clips of the movie and Shia started saying how the autobots/decepticons were spoiler[Japanese. ]
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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^ Shia's comment is a joke in the movie because they're advanced technology it has to be "japenese". I can't remember if he says definately not american as well but I think he does.
Transformers had options to go to 3 movies, the voice of Optimus Prime was signed up for 3 and I read that in an Empire magazine from when Pirates was still a month off from coming out. Shia also revealed recently he's been signed for 3 films. Sequel has been given thye go ahead just the other day I think, probably very happy with reactions from my part of the world. Best Bay movie since The Rock easily, best blockbuster film this year easily. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15692 |
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Ugh. Why the hell does everyone who hate the cartoon like the Bay version?! It's the same kind of mecha porn you can get from the Power Rangers! |
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Steventheeunuch
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Saw this last thursday as Dormcat mentioned, the Asia Pacific region got this much earlier (why? I dont know). My geography sucks too so sorry if this comes out as being very silly. Didn't want to make a thread because I can't start threads, and given the majority US fanbase on this forum, wanted to wait till most had seen it. I suck at making threads too, which I've already said
All in all it was a good movie, but I absolutely hate the use of 'shaky cam' in action sequences. I don't know about you, but I find it much harder to get engaged with what could be utterly amazing visuals if they hadn't spent all that time making it look like you were in an earthquake. It doesn't make things any more 'realistic' and I wish action movies would stop doing this. FAR too many human characters. I will admit though, Spike and a few others had their pluses, but the army guy seemed like a waste, and the spoiler[Call Centre/Scorpinok and Nervada/GET ME A SCREWDRIVER IM GONNA HOOK THE COMPUTER TO SEND MORSE CODE LOL WAY OF SAMURAI] scenes seemed like far too much in the way of padding that in all honesty, shouldn't have been there. spoiler[Jazz's death] and the spoiler[final fight between prime and megatron] really are testaments to how this is supposed to be a human story, which I find really annoying considering it's a movie called "Transformers". I mean, for example with those two, spoiler[Jazz flies up, says a corny line, Megatron replies with a corny line, and rips him in half. At the end, they find his two parts and it's more or less a "Oh, well then, that sucks. ". There was way more of a deal about Bumblebee's legs being blown off, which from what I could tell, would have grown back anyway, so that was kinda bad. The fight between Prime and Megatron was absolutely AMAZING, except when they cut away to Spike running through that reused The Island set, and showing Mr. army guy doing stuff to blow up Blackout/The Helicopter guy, all the while Prime and Megatron are fighting. The entire nevada thing was more or less too... I dunno, the pacing sucked. Starscream also received not nearly enough love as he should have. Two or three lines, one of which being more or less "I'm Starscream", and some pointless but AWESOME looking jet fights just doesn't seem right, considering the book prequel builds him up as the traitorous assbat he should be. I think it was slightly redeemed seeing him fly into the aptmosphere. Gives off a good vibe I think  ]
All in all, I would watch it again, because it is probably Bay's best film. I'd give it about 8 out of 10. Nothing's perfect but realistically, this is one of the best TF incarnations (if not the best).
No, because despite what I did say, the robots aren't inherantly superfluous to the story, nor are they bad CG/Japanese men in stocky costumes. I like the 80's series fine, as an 80's series. As a modern movie, this works well. Given that you basically don't like popular things or anything that deviates from your twisted concept of "quality", this wouldn't please you unless it was essentially Kawajiri doing a three part, huge budget version of the 80's TF movie. Another thing that didn't exactly appeal about the movie was that due to the dad's casting choice, and well.. Ironhide, I think, it sort of felt like Small Soldiers, but that was in only a few scenes. |
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DragonsRevenge
 Posts: 1150 |
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I threw out all hopes of it bearing any similarities to the cartoon from the start. So with that, I must say, I LOVED it!! I'm surprised at how many genuinely hilarious moments there were (Sam's mom stole every scene she was in). The TF'ing sequences were breathtaking, especially the faster ones, such as in motion, etc. Starscream was brutal and I woudl've loved to see more of him. My big complaint is there were too many supporting characters, and not enough decepticons. The autobots had plenty screentime, but not enough for any one to stand out save Bumblebee and Prime. I was waiting for them stay "One Shall Stand, and one shall fall," my favorite line from the old movie. I loved it a lot- Better than SM3, better than Pirates 3.
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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I'm planning on seeing this either tonight or tomorrow. But, seeing as how Key loved it, I'm pretty confident that I will enjoy this film also. The critics seem to enjoy it somewhat as well. Currently it's one of Bay's best reviewed films based upon the currently 60% "Tomatometer." Also, after seeing Shia LaBeouf in Disturbia (which was quite the pleasant surprise, I might add), I'm pretty confident that he can pull of a good performance (for what it's worth in a Michael Bay film anyway).
I do have a bit of an idea what's to come in the action department, having seen The Island and Pearl Harbor. I very much enjoyed Island, but PH definitely could have been better (although I love PH's soundtrack). Both were both definitely over the top in the action department though, so I expect more of the same with Transformers (although it seems that Transformers has way much more action than the two films I mentioned). The trailers definitely have been looking quite promising, despite my not really being a fan of the cartoons and all. |
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