Transformers Reactions Thread - No spoilers until July 4th

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2007-07-08 02:53pm

I saw it last night, and loved it.

Pros:
The humans were more than just cannon fodder, and actually got to contribute to the fighting instead of being the Redshirt Army. I also liked that Lennox and his squad were the ones who took Blackout down.

The funny parts were, IMO, actually funny, which was a good thing, as they probably would have killed the entire movie had the jokes fallen flat.

And of course, the fights scenes. The only problem I had with telling Transformers apart was when Devastator was first defeated. One of the Autobots pulled a buzzsaw on him, and for the life of me, I can't remember who it was.

Cons:
I agree that we probably needed at least one more fight scene between the Bumblebee/Barricade Brawl(Sorry Devestator), and the climatic fight.

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2007-07-08 02:54pm

Oddly enough, by the time we got out, they had put Jazz and Barricade replicas out in front of the theater. I could've sworn they weren't out when I got there.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2007-07-08 03:47pm

Ratchet was the buzzsaw guy.

Anyway, point taken about an inaccurate (but exciting) depiction of the USAF. But is anyone else disturbed that the last of the videos Jadeite posted was listed under "entertainment?"

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2007-07-08 04:48pm

The figures are in: $152 million domestic, $93 million foreign for a total of $246 million so far. Not a bad start and Paramount has already bagged in close to a $100 million profit, considering it took $150 million to make the movie. Their numbers are going to drop significantly,however, when Harry Potter opens up this Wednesday. I think a total of $350 million is doable.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-07-08 05:01pm

That's not bad, but as you say Harry 'Licence to Print Money' is coming out soon. In AU the holidays will be over by then, but the US has their huge summer holidays about now, don't they? It's a shame really: in the US their silly 'fourth of July' thing almost certainly cost them money.

As an aside, I know BOM has become suck in the last few years, but since when is '1000 As, 100 Bs' a 'B+'? The TF marketing budget would have been HUGE - in AU it's been almost an Armageddon-style blitz.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-08 05:32pm

Stark wrote:In AU the holidays will be over by then, but the US has their huge summer holidays about now, don't they?

They were already put out last week: Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers were the big movies for Independence Day weekend (technically the weekend before the holiday, since July 4th fell on a Wednesday this year).

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-07-08 05:45pm

I meant 'kids will be back at school already = bad for Harry Potter'. I kid myself that Southbank isn't full of teenagers every day, and that in twenty years those kids will have some kind of skills.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-08 05:50pm

Stark wrote:I meant 'kids will be back at school already = bad for Harry Potter'.

Well maybe in the crazy upside-down side of the world where you live.

It's summer vacation up here: kids pretty much get the whole months of June, July, August off unless they go to some weird school that doesn't follow the status quo.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2007-07-08 06:51pm

Since when will the Fourth of July hurt moviegoing? The fourth is a huge time for people to attend the movies, at least over here.

I saw it on the fourth. It was fucking packed.

UCBooties · Post by **UCBooties** » 2007-07-08 08:28pm

I thought the frenetic shaky cam really hurt the movie because except for the wide shots, every action sequence was just piles of indistinct CG slamming into each other. I thought the movie started out pretty well but sank fast once the autobots got into full 80's cliche mode and the "plot" started moving forward. All of the "lol hackers" plot was a complete waste and by the end I didn't give a shit about any of them. Also, the really explicit collateral deaths bothered me a bit more than usual.

I'm not saying that movies should be white-washed and that we should never see death. But in this film I just couldn't escape the feeling that I was supposed to be enjoying all of the extravagant carnage. Case in point: The bitchy girl in the SUV. Clearly, I'm supposed to be pleased when she and her friends die, but I just felt sick at the thought of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting eviscerated by their own suddenly living steering wheel.

Aeolus · Post by **Aeolus** » 2007-07-08 08:44pm

Stark wrote:I meant 'kids will be back at school already = bad for Harry Potter'. I kid myself that Southbank isn't full of teenagers every day, and that in twenty years those kids will have some kind of skills.

School doesn't start back here for like 6 more weeks.
As to the Movie, I just got back from a sold out showing and LOVED it. Frenzy was so much fun to watch. Megan and Shia were a really cute couple. The movie was very funny and it had giant robots. A perfect summer movie.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-07-08 10:13pm

Got back from it and I had mostly positive thoughts.

While we only got basic hints of the Autobots personality and almost nothing of the Decepticons, I liked the Decepticons anyway, because they not only did bad guy things, but they were dicks. I got the impression that when Scorponok jumped those soldiers, he wasn't trying to just kill him, he was sitting their fucking with them. His blasters were having no problem blowing chunks out of buildings and moving quickly. He could have easily have killed every last soldier there easily, since that brick wall they were using for cover couldn't possibly have stopped him, but he was standing their randomly blasting about and just taking their small arms fire. He underestimated, of course, the damage from airsupport and had to run off, but that is standard Decepticon arrogance.

That was a good touch.

However, it just doesn't feel like Transformers to me without Starscream openly trying to screw over Megatron. Yeah, he may have taken a shot at him, but he didn't do the real classic Starscream Betrayal.

I'm still utterly mystified why they took the Allspark and lured the Decepticons into a city though.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-07-08 10:24pm

Don't try to make too much sense out of the decisions made by the characters. Just try to imagine the decision-making here in light of the competence and logic shown by the real-life Bush Administration and its top officials, with military logic being determined by the people who ran Abu Ghraib.

As for the shaky-cam, I thought the battle sequences were kind of incomprehensible, but Rebecca said she thought that was actually a point in favour of the film. The way she saw it, the film was really about Sam Witwicky, and the incomprehensible chaos would be the way a civilian like him would perceive the battle.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2007-07-08 10:31pm

^ Yeah, I agree. The battle is comprehensible for a crazed fan who sees it twice (cough, cough, me) and frightening for the typical moviegoer. The audience's POV is Sam. The first time I saw it, I didn't even have a particularly great seat and yet I was flinching and ducking in the theatre.

The next film, especially if it lacks Bay, will probably have more beauty shots of robot combat, because both the audience and Sam know what the deal is now.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-07-08 10:42pm

I have a question though. Did Devastator get his tank form from a rousing game of Command and Conquer, or something?

"I'm a Mammoth Tank!"

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-07-08 11:35pm

The negative thoughts I had on the movie, on thinking of it is thus: the pacing was kind of bad.

Once they got out of the desert and till they got to the third Act, the movie kind of dragged. Frankly, Act II of that movie needed a decent battle and the movie could have easily stood to remove the hacker and Sector 7 plots without significantly altering the movie (there was no reason to do the Bumblebee Capture Scene at all, as far as I can tell).

For example, that scene where the Autobots are skulking around in Sam's backyard and hiding from the parents could have been easily edited down and the humor of it could have been perserved without too much trouble. If you want that joke done well, "The Iron Giant" did it. In this movie, it was a major pacing flaw for me. Of course, comparing Brad Bird's directorial skills to Michael Bay's is alot like comparing Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice to Sunny D.

Really, Act II should have been shaved down and added more character development on the Autobots themselves.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2007-07-08 11:36pm

You know what's funny? I don't know why, but in the past, I never had a single problem following shaky camera sequences in Michael Bay films. The only two movies I ever watched where the shaky cam detracted were Batman Begins (which was really only one fight scene,) and Alien Vs. Predator.

With this, there were only two scenes where I thought the camera was too shaky to comprehend, but they lasted less than 3 seconds each, so I don't know if that's considered a detractor.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-08 11:42pm

Davis 51 wrote:With this, there were only two scenes where I thought the camera was too shaky to comprehend, but they lasted less than 3 seconds each, so I don't know if that's considered a detractor.

Actually, you mean individual shots, not scenes.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2007-07-09 12:47am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Davis 51 wrote:With this, there were only two scenes where I thought the camera was too shaky to comprehend, but they lasted less than 3 seconds each, so I don't know if that's considered a detractor.
Actually, you mean individual shots, not scenes.

Umm....

erm...

Yeah.

Kojiro · Post by **Kojiro** » 2007-07-09 02:33am

Gil Hamilton wrote: While we only got basic hints of the Autobots personality and almost nothing of the Decepticons, I liked the Decepticons anyway, because they not only did bad guy things, but they were dicks. I got the impression that when Scorponok jumped those soldiers, he wasn't trying to just kill him, he was sitting their fucking with them. His blasters were having no problem blowing chunks out of buildings and moving quickly. He could have easily have killed every last soldier there easily, since that brick wall they were using for cover couldn't possibly have stopped him, but he was standing their randomly blasting about and just taking their small arms fire. He underestimated, of course, the damage from airsupport and had to run off, but that is standard Decepticon arrogance.

That was a good touch.

Where as I got the impression Skorponok had suddenly become retarded, much like Devastator. I cannot imagine, with their so successful infiltration of the US military that the Decepticons were unaware they were vulnerable to human weapons.

If he'd wanted to be a dick he'd have killed them one by one, terror style, through the night. If he wanted to be a retard he'd wait til they got to a human settlement, assume there was no communication devices, then stand in the open and 'play' with them.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-07-09 02:56am

Kojiro wrote:Where as I got the impression Skorponok had suddenly become retarded, much like Devastator. I cannot imagine, with their so successful infiltration of the US military that the Decepticons were unaware they were vulnerable to human weapons.

If he'd wanted to be a dick he'd have killed them one by one, terror style, through the night. If he wanted to be a retard he'd wait til they got to a human settlement, assume there was no communication devices, then stand in the open and 'play' with them.

I kind of think that is was more arrogance. I would think that the Decepticons, Scorponok included, didn't think it possible for mere human insects to be able to harm them.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-07-09 03:15am

The battle sequences would have worked better if Blackout hadn't been so fucking powerful in the opening sequence. The guy was using some kind of pulse blast that sent fucking M1 Abrams tanks flying through the air like toys, goddammit. It does make you wonder what the film would have been like if that level of power had been maintained for future scenes.

But you have to remember that the film is an amalgam of Herbie the Love Bug, Independence Day, and the Transformers TV pilot. They had to make the transformers weak enough for a Herbie storyline of government agents abducting Sam's new friend, but they also had to have the ID4 "we're gonna open a can of whoop-ass on your fleshling asses" opening scene.

But let's be realistic here. For all this movie's flaws, it is still a far more grown-up film than the original animated Transformers movie, whose storywriting flaws made this movie's story look downright solid. Who in the audience didn't groan during the old movie when he realized that they were killing off all the old toys in order to make room for new ones on the store shelf? Or when he realized that after establishing that transformers could be killed by torso wounds early in the movie, the writers decided to ignore that precedent and bring Ultra Magnus back to life despite being blown to small pieces? And then the whole film ends by wanking to the OMG unstoppable power of the Matrix. I don't know what people were expecting when they paid money to see a Transformers movie. At the end of the day, it's about a line of toys, for fuck's sake.

Kojiro · Post by **Kojiro** » 2007-07-09 03:19am

Who knows? As I said, it's the impression I got however accurate that was.

Devastator seems to do a similar thing though, just kinda standing there and taking it from the humans. Sure Bumblebee finishes the job but the humans do put him down at one point, and presumably could have finished him off had they pressed the attack rather than letting him 'heal'.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2007-07-09 03:19am

Saw it today, and I liked it. But it needed some editing. The sub-plot with the guy and his baby girl should've just been cut. Talk about a complete waste of time. The hackers plot was totally needless as well. The technobabble nonsense was almost as unbearable as the stuff on 24. Honestly, what purpose did the "super hax0rs ZOMG" characters serve in the end? None. As hilarious as it was to see the guy who played Antwon Mitchell in The Shield play a geek living in his grandmother's house, it really wasn't needed.

I also really, really missed the Decepticon bickering. I guess that the movie was more about the humans involved than the Transformers, but I would've liked to have seen Starscream dressed down by Megatron at least once.

And where was Hot Rod?! Wasn't he the Autobot featured in that leaked demo of a Transformer actually transforming?

But on the good side, I loved that the humans and Autobots had to actually fight together to stop the Decepticons. It wasn't like in the series, where the humans were basically useless and along for the ride. Any combat scenes that involved massive guns firing at big robots were just awesome.

And you know, I didn't mind the "dorky guy gets the hot girl" plot at all. It was fun and provided some humor. The boy's parents were particularly hilarious.

The Kernel brought up an interesting point. Where did Megatron learn the English language? He crash-landed before it was even invented. Also, why didn't the people running that secret facility have Megatron wired with a shitload of C4? It seems like an incredibly obvious security measure in the event of a cryogenic cooling failure. And what the hell was with "Sector 7"? What, they went through a whole 6 other sectors before that one?

Overall, very cool. It needed some cutting, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2007-07-09 03:26am

I think it was called Sector 7 because it was founded by 7 members (the guys who's potraits you see in the office), as for learning english Megatron had escaped once already.

as for the lack of security the Sector 7 people weren't exactly the shapest tool in the box (more like about as sharp as a hammer)