Transformers

[Viva La Grinch]

I will try to be as spoiler free as I can. I went to the early preview, along with all sorts of nerdy guys without any girlfriends. Anyway, after watching the movie...I have mixed thoughts.

 

First of all....I expected far worse. The movie actually had some adult humor, and far better screenplay then I would imagine. However, I could do without all the "cute" references like Ebay and such. Also, while the special effects are great....at the end I felt that I had no real connection to any of the robots. Why would I care about a sequel? I totally agree with most of Eberts review here...

 

Ebert Review

[Schlitz001]

Thanks. I plan on watching this sometime this next week. I would hope that this has some adult humor in it seeing that most of the audience is likely in their mid 20s, having grow up watching Transformers. Watching the previews, the plot (or possible lack of one) is what scared me because the visuals look pretty amazing.

 

I dig your avatar btw.

[craigharmann]

I'm still unsure if I'm going to see the movie, as what I expected when I heard they were making a movie was based on my beloved childhood Transformers. You know, Autobots vs. Decepticons, etc, etc. It seems, from the previews that I've seen that there are the "bad" transformers who wants to take over the earth and the "good" transformers who are protecting it. No mention of Autobots or Decepticons. That said, the visuals look amazing, but I'm not sure if it's worth my money if I'm going to be disappointed.

[cweber39]

I thought it was great, my girlfriend liked it which was shock and the 2 other people I went to see it with originally did not want to see it and both really liked it afterwards.

 

Go to the moive with and open mind and enjoy it. Don't sit there and look at every little detail. I grew up on Transformers and I thought it was a great movie

[GAME05]

growing up on the Transformers is just why I'm hesitant to see it, not wanting to spoil an old memory with flashy special effects and most importantly, without that cool sound effect they always had when the cartoon-bots transformed.

[craigharmann]

Yes! That's the biggest thing (again from the previews) that I've missed. The noise when they transform! Whenever I played with my transformers, I had to make that noise!

[bjkrautk]

Watched it on Tuesday.

 

It's very much one of those movies that you can enjoy only if you shut your brain off and just accept that all of these things are happening. It looks great, and the acting is good enough....but the script/plot is insanely awful. I didn't like the character re-designs (too many angles, as opposed to the simple-by-necessity look of the 80s Transformers), but I feel like I could have looked past that if the script wasn't as bad as it is.

 

For a movie about giant "Robots in Disguise," they seem to hide an awful lot as giant robots. Of course, that's when they're actually on the screen. Half to two-thirds of the movie is seemingly spent dealing with the human characters. Aside from Optimus, none of the transformers have dialogue that even remotely resembles their cartoon counterparts.

 

...oh, one more thing...I don't mind product placement in movies - generally speaking - but Bumblebee literally speaks through the power of XM Satellite Radio.

(Sidenote: if you're going to make a yellow sportscar into a Transformer, and make him nothing like the VW bug from the cartoons...call him Sunstreak and not Bumblebee.)

 

 

The more you remember about the Transformers series....the less you should want to go and see the Michael Bay version.

 

[FWIW, I think they make the noise once....at the very beginning of the film.]

[cweber39]

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FWIW, I think they make the noise once....at the very beginning of the film

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The noise is made throughout the movie.

[MKE alz]

I haven't seen it and I doubt I will...at least probably not until at least DVD. I'm just not the kinda guy that can ignore stupid things in a movie. For example, I watched Live Free or Die Hard yesterday and while it was entertaining, I wouldn't say I liked it. Nor would I recommend it. I'm not going to "check my brain at the door" if something's just really dumb, and I kinda fear that here. The problem here is they've probably ruined something I absolutely loved as a child and I don't want to tarnish that memory.

 

However I think it's important to note: They wanted to make Bumble Bee a VW Bug but VW wouldn't allow the licensing. They don't want to be associated with anything "war". While I can understand where they're coming from, previously being the car of Hitler, it's FREAKING TRANSFORMERS. Hasboro ran into the same problem when they were trying to rerelease generation 1 toys.

[stoops17]

saw the movie on Tuesday, I thought it was better than I expected, decent story, lots of action, and good effects

 

I like the little nods back to the cartoon transformers too

 

I heard the vw bug / bumblebee thing was because they didn't want him to remind people of Herbie the lovebug, and I am sure GM wanted to have it be a GM car too

[MessiahRp]

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I heard the vw bug / bumblebee thing was because they didn't want him to remind people of Herbie the lovebug, and I am sure GM wanted to have it be a GM car too

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Actually the script writers said that they made Bumblebee a Camaro because they saw Sam ("Spike") as being an adolecesent boy who would want a cool hot rod car not a VW beatle.

 

The problem I see with this is it negates the point of Bumblebee if you ever watched TF Gen 1. Bumblebee was the solid soldier, the smaller vehicle who was most used in spy situations not in actual combat missions.

 

There's frankly, a ton of issues to have with this movie as a Gen 1 fan (namely why they look like twisted metal and not robots at all, Megatron looks hideous).

 

Rp

[mattsr0625]

not to take anything away from the tf gen 1 but correct me if im wrong, the movies out now are nothing like what we remember. and thats the point. for example, batman begins, nothing like the 80's version. superman, the new halloween, ect. michael bay put his own spin on the transformers. a new modern movie. that being said i thought the movie was great along with the special effects.. ill buy it on dvd

[DuWayne Steurer]

I LOVED transformers when I was a kid, between them, GI Joe, and Star Wars, I lived the crap. I loved G1, I never missed an episode, if I could help it.

 

So why does it matter if the plot/look/sound, etc, etc, etc is all the same? I don't want to see the same thing I loved as a kid, I want something new.

 

In no way does the new stuff "ruin my memory" of the old crap. I don't get that. I'd consider myself a "purist", but in my opinion, I don't see any reason to make them look and act and sound just like the originals, or there's no point in doing an update.

 

At the end of the day, I guess you can't make everybody happy, but I took the family tonight, I loved it, my 12 year old son has proclaimed it the best movie he's ever seen, and my wife even enjoyed it.

 

If anything, to me, this only reinforces my strong memories of enjoying the transformers as a kid.

 

My 2 cents........

[cweber39]

I agree with both of you Matt and RoBo.

 

Matt is right on how they change everything, but I think it is for the better most of the time. I thought Batman Begins was the best Batman movie, very dark action movie. It was much needed movie to revive the franchise.

 

RoBo, I am a huge GEN 1 fan as well, and I thought the new movie was great. I agree, I remember seeing the original Transformers in the movies with my parents. This new Transformers brought back some great childhood memories. So what Bumblebee was a Camaro in the new one I will always remember he was a VW bug.

[UeckerAddict]

After Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, I don't care if it's a Godfather prequel, Michael Bay gets no more of my time.

[PKBadger]

In my opinion, this is why Sam Raimi did such a great job with the Spider-Man franchise.

 

Sure, everyone knows the story behind the characters if they read the comic books as a child. But is that any reason to try and create a completely different plot/environment? No. People want to see the cartoons/comic books they read as a child brought to life.

 

Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie. I did pop in the DVD's I have of Gen 1, Season 1 last night though, and there is so much good material that could have been easily woven into a visually-stunning movie, given today's special effects technology. You're telling me you couldn't fill 2 hours with the following scenes (modernized with amazing visuals)?

 

1. Wheeljack and Bumblebee getting chased by Decepticons on Cybertron

 

2. Intergalactic battle aboard the Ark

 

3. Ark crashing into volcano

 

4. Battle above Sherman Dam (Prime and Megatron dueled for 2 minutes in the cartoon, but in a movie you could stretch this out to at least a 10-15 minute fight scene).

 

Just my opinion, I guess, but they could have taken the 3-part "More Than Meets The Eye" premiere episode and stretched it out into an awesome live-action film. Then use the obviously forthcoming sequel to introduce Dinobots, Constructicons, etc.

[Katuluu]

The noise is made throughout the movie.

 

No it isn't. They use it for the first transformation oncscreen, then drop it for most of the film, then use parts of it towards the end.

 

And yes, the film is terrible, which segues nicely into my shameless plug for my review.

[bjkrautk]

Quote:

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4. Battle above Sherman Dam (Prime and Megatron dueled for 2 minutes in the cartoon, but in a movie you could stretch this out to at least a 10-15 minute fight scene).

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Without getting too spoiler-y, a big plot point takes place on a dam in the movie....and I was so waiting for that exact moment. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

 

 

As a big fan of the original series, I'm surprised how many positive reactions I've seen in the thread. My biggest problem with the movie is still how little any of the transformers not named "Optimus Prime" had dialogue that was in any way reminiscent to their 80's counterparts.

 

...and that's when they actually had dialogue, and the story wasn't focused on the SecDef and cliche super-hackers too old to still be living in their mom's house. (The script is a much bigger problem to me than whether Bumblebee was a VW....although a Chevy Aveo or Pontiac Vibe would at least preserve the feel of the character.)

[cweber39]

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The noise is made throughout the movie.

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Yes it is, unless there was some kid in the front row making the noises, they were heard at during ending fighting.

 

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And yes, the film is terrible

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And yes, that's your opinion

[pretendastronaut]

I have to agree that the transforming sound is used repeatedly throughout the movie. It wasn't used all the time, but it was used pretty frequently I thought.

 

I thought it was a decent movie. Even though they were different, I thought the Autobots were pretty cool, but the Decepticons were pretty lacking. The action was fun, I was able to get behind the characters, etc. There's plenty of negatives too for sure, but all things considered, I enjoyed myself.

[Katuluu]

I agree with Ben that the characters aren't very true to the cartoon versions of themselves. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to reveal too many spoilers. I'd even argue that Prime wasn't very true to the cartoon.

[saget]

This was probably the stupidest movie I've ever seen.

 

Everything except the actual Transformers was terrible.

 

It should just have been one continuous hour long battle between Prime and Megatron.

[TerraceReserved]

Sheesh, I'm surprised about all the negative reactions to this. I'm hardly a movie critic or know much about movies at all, but I do know this. This movie was enjoyable, made me laugh, had good action, and a (what I thought) was a good enough plot. That's all I want in a movie. I've never seen the old transformers, but from what it sounds like the other Autobots had more personality. That was my one thing that I thought was lacking. They didn't develop them at all, which was dissapointing.

 

But for those of you who didn't like it and thought it sucked, what exactly did suck about it? I didn't see anything wrong with the script/acting/plot. What was it that was so bad?

[MessiahRp]

Here's a good article that compares this movie with the original TF movie, and expresses many of my feelings about the current one:

 

www.slate.com/id/2169619

 

And for all the TF fans, you will probably love this comic strip:

 

www.lilformers.com/comic0001.php

 

This links to the first strip, click through "Next" to see more.

 

Rp

[RobertR]

Reading through this thread, I understand how Al must feel at times.

 

I've no nostalgia for the Transformers, but I don't begrudge anyone their nostalgia. I have to say though that it looks exactly like what I imagine a Michael Bay directed Transformers movie to look like.

 

Robert