Transformers Reactions Thread - No spoilers until July 4th

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2007-08-01 10:34am

Saw the film on monday and frankly, I wasn't disappointed at all.

The action, storyline and characters were all fairly enjoyable to watch, especially the autobots when the action finally came around.

After the battles did begin though, I had no problems following the action or keeping track of who was who...it was fairly obvious due to the different designs of the auto-bots the decepticons. The cam movements weren't much of an issue either, but I suppose I'm a fan of BSG.

There were some disappointing moments...such as Bumblebee peeing on the sector 7 guy, Optimus prime using modern slang at the beginning when they are looking for the glasses and the lack of characterisation by the decepticons...you never really get a feel for them besides they're right there and they want the all spark. That's it as far as I could tell.

Overall though...I enjoyed it alot, it was worth the time taken to watch

ray245 · Post by **ray245** » 2007-08-02 05:03am

Although, the movie should show the helplessness of humans against deceptions...all the way until the autobots arrive. That will add a lot more meaning and impact when the autobots arrive and help.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2007-08-02 05:40pm

[Dumb, dumb idiot. Go read the rules of SDN again. - SirNitram]

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2007-08-02 05:54pm

Someone made the point (Tev I think) that a rationale behind the crazy shaky cam and super dual shock fight scenes could be that since the movie is coming from the humans POV, everything is going to seem chaotic on a brand new level as giant mechanical engines of destruction tear each other apart.

But I do join the camp in hoping that the sequal gives us a much more steady and, well, epic, quality to Transformer on Transformer violence, at the very least when Prime squares off against Shockwave/Soundwave/Decepticon Main Villain

Jaevric · Post by **Jaevric** » 2007-08-02 05:58pm

ray245 wrote:Although, the movie should show the helplessness of humans against deceptions...all the way until the autobots arrive. That will add a lot more meaning and impact when the autobots arrive and help.

Nah, I prefer it the way it was shown, where humans could beat Decepticons but it required enormous numerical superiority and expenditure of ridiculous amounts of firepower.

The movie makes it obvious humanity would be screwed if a real "invasion" with significant numbers of Decepticons involved took place. But we can do more than squeal and run around in circles--the Autobots are saving our butts, yes, but it isn't a simple case of the military saying "Well we'll be running like hell now, you boys have fun."

We can't fight the battles on our own, but we can support the Autobots and maybe tilt the balance of power in our favor if the Autobots get in a little bit of trouble.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2007-08-02 06:22pm

Someone made the point (Tev I think) that a rationale behind the crazy shaky cam and super dual shock fight scenes could be that since the movie is coming from the humans POV, everything is going to seem chaotic on a brand new level as giant mechanical engines of destruction tear each other apart.

That does not work well in practice as Transformers testify. Some other technique should have been used. Stable camera work in battle scenes like SW prequels would only greatly improve the film rather than detract in anyway.

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2007-08-02 06:39pm

Well yeah, we know that NOW

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-08-02 08:22pm

[C'mon Tev, you know the rules. - SirNitram]

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-08-03 12:23am

Opps
Ignore this.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-08-03 04:36am

ray245 wrote:Although, the movie should show the helplessness of humans against deceptions...all the way until the autobots arrive. That will add a lot more meaning and impact when the autobots arrive and help.

No it adds a lot of boring sequences of the humans loosing, then contrived bits where the autobots, despite their weapons not appearing to be THAT much more powerful, kicking ass.

Here the humans WERE able to start fighting back effectively, even if it clearly took an incredible amount of firepower and luck, but it didn't make humans look like yet again the helpless morons who get trampled and completely irrelevant.

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2007-08-03 08:50am

I want humans to be helpless.

When Unicron arrives, that is.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2007-08-03 09:13am

In reality, how long would it take from when Scorponok engages Lennox's squad to their evacuation from the village, taking into account how long it would take UAV to reach them from wherever it was launched, how long it takes to get the two Warthogs into the air from an airbase in Qatar til the Spooky Hercules blasting the shite out of Scorponok until the evac helicopter arrived? I mean, based on where resources are in Qatar and how fast it takes to deploy them in real life.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-08-03 09:28am

Well, that Predator apparently had jet thrusters. Aren't normal Pred UAVs, like, propeller propelled?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-08-03 10:03am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Well, that Predator apparently had jet thrusters. Aren't normal Pred UAVs, like, propeller propelled?

That's actually one of the film's mistakes, it seems. They call it a predator, but it was really a Global Hawk shown.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2007-08-03 08:06pm

Old Plympto wrote:In reality, how long would it take from when Scorponok engages Lennox's squad to their evacuation from the village, taking into account how long it would take UAV to reach them from wherever it was launched, how long it takes to get the two Warthogs into the air from an airbase in Qatar til the Spooky Hercules blasting the shite out of Scorponok until the evac helicopter arrived? I mean, based on where resources are in Qatar and how fast it takes to deploy them in real life.

At the beginning of that sequence, I did wonder that myself, but then the high quantities of exlposive awesome made me forget

One thing that bothered me; did they know Starscream was disguised as an F-22? Because if they did, calling in a strike from those F-22s was a daft idea; they'd have been better using the 2 F-16s that were shown when the Secretary of Defense talked about F-22s

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2007-08-03 08:09pm

The Autobots themselves didn't even know Starscream was there until Ironhide looked up and yelled "WTF" in Mission City, and the humans had no clue which Decepticon was what vehicle until they showed up and started blasting.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2007-08-03 08:14pm

Ah, fair enough. I'd just thought someone would've noticed the F-22 shooting up the generators for Megatron's freezer, and put 2 and 2 together

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2007-08-03 08:48pm

Also, what type of vehicles were Lennox's squad using to escort Bumblebee to Mission City? They look almost exactly like G.I. Joe AWE Strikers. This is the closest match I have after 10 minutes of Googling.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-08-04 03:26pm

andrewgpaul wrote:Ah, fair enough. I'd just thought someone would've noticed the F-22 shooting up the generators for Megatron's freezer, and put 2 and 2 together

Maybe, but comms were out and they were reliant on morse code communication, and the people making that communication hadn't seen Starscream.

His cover was very much intact when he appeared and made trouble.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-08-05 02:04am

I've been following this thread and finally watched transformers, and I don't know if it's because I knew problems would come up and I was looking for them, but it was a good movie, not great. And only because I didn't take it seriously. The whole premise of transforming cars and trucks and planes needs a bit of suspension of disbelief. If it was a serious movie, or if it had gotten preachy and had no jokes, it would've been utter shit like Pearl Harbor.

Secret government agency was pointless. Token black guy was pointless. Signals girl was pointless. Iron Giant moment was pointless. That stuff took up a lot of screen time that could've developed the Autobots or Decepticons more. I wouldn't have minded a montage of scenes of Decepticons planting themselves in the midst of humans. Then, when the Decepticons shed their disguises when Starscream called them up, it would've been a big deal. The way the decepticons were portrayed was stupid, as if they only used brute force. Not enough character development of the big fighting robots, which is a problem because they're the ones fighting. I cared about the humans a lot more than the transformers.

If you're going to have a whole bunch of pointless extras, might as well get them killed off. The stakes weren't high enough. It's one thing to say the fate of the universe is in the balance. It's another thing to raise the stakes with actions. To me it seemed as if the humans were killed as collateral damage, while the Decepticons focused solely on the all spark. What reinforced this was Megatron's "pet" line, barf. Yes, Megatron said that humans didn't deserve to live, but saying and showing are totally different things. Megatron should've been cruel. When he was unfrozen he should've picked up a human in his hands, had the guy cower in fear and then he should've bust out his I am Megatron line and crushed the fleshbag. The Sector 7 guy -- he should've died in a bloody way. The SecDef should've died too. The token black guy should've died, and made the signals girl feel guilty as hell for dragging someone into that mess. At no time did I feel that Sam was in mortal danger, even when he was falling off the roof. I knew Optimus would catch him (which also strained credibility.) You can kill all the redshirts you want, but it won't make me believe that the hero's under threat, especially if the transformers themselves are as underdeveloped as they were.

Still it was worth watching. Not worth the price of admission twice though, which is unfortunate. It's almost necessary to watch it twice, because the first time through it's hard as hell to tell who's fighting what and where. I would almost go as far as to say if you're not a transformers fan, don't go see it, but it's got some great moments, mostly in the start when Bumblebee's trying to help Sam snag the girl.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-08-05 09:36am

Brian, consider this: You are asking for bloody deaths in a children's movie, because Transformers is and always will be a children's toy franchise.

It followed children's movie rules, so the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and few to no people were really hurt, although lots of property got blowed up.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-08-05 09:55am

That's crap and you know it. They managed to sneak tons of sex innunedo, and I think one poster (Stravo) mentioned they put a whole bunch of swearing and didn't make families happy. Death is a natural part of the lifecycle and children seeing it is fine. Maybe it shouldn't be Freddy or Chainsaw Massacre shit, but if you have extras do something with them or don't have them at all.

But of course the thing is they were trying and people did die, tons of people. Like all the people in the office building (it wasn't empty), all the extras in the Section 7 who got killed (one guy was trying with a fire extinguisher to freeze Megatron lol.) Just not the right people, not the right way, and never in a way to make me feel as if Sam was in any real danger.

Elessar · Post by **Elessar** » 2007-08-05 09:58am

Vendetta wrote:Brian, consider this: You are asking for bloody deaths in a children's movie, because Transformers is and always will be a children's toy franchise.

It followed children's movie rules, so the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and few to no people were really hurt, although lots of property got blowed up.

Except Brian has a point: at no point do you feel the hero is truly in danger. Using the Children's Movie excuse doesn't help, because even in the Transformers Animated Movie, you get the feeling that any of the heroes could be killed off. Prime and Ultra Magnus certainly did (though the latter, admittedly, got revived in a weaksauce fashion).

So sure, no bloody deaths because of the rating. That just means the writers need to work harder to pump up the drama.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-08-05 10:10am

Brian, consider this: You are asking for bloody deaths in a children's movie, because Transformers is and always will be a children's toy franchise.

The original movie had graphic character deaths (well, for robots anyway) and disturbing scenes, so it's not like there's no precedent.

And whatever audience Bay was aiming for, children it ain't. Not with Fox's scenes, not with the Qatar scenes, not with a crappy lovestory B-plot aimed straight at pimply teenage boys.

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2007-08-05 10:11am

brianeyci wrote:To me it seemed as if the humans were killed as collateral damage, while the Decepticons focused solely on the all spark.

That's probably because they were focused solely on the Allspark. Y'know, since they've been searching for it for thousands of years and it's the only reason they came to Earth in the first place.