Transformers

Batutta

Batutta

Major Contributor
Saw it, and as a long time Michael Bay hater I have to admit it was bizarrely awesome. Came out of the theater with a big dumb grin on my face. It's not perfect, but it tickled the 12 year old boy in me to death, and I was never really into the Transformers when I was twelve. Bay's style seemed a bit more disciplined here and not so obnoxious. Shia carries the movie and is a very likeable lead, and Megan Fox will be the subject of many late night wanks by teenage boys across the country this summer. I'd put this at the level of movies like Jurassic Park and Independence day, films that haven't dated particularly well but at the time were state of the art rollercoaster rides.
 
I loved the cartoon. Hated the movie. In the cartoon the robots were the main characters, in the movie it's the humans. Acting like heros in situations where they would never normally act that way. Spewing out cheesy one liners. I kept getting this horrible feeling like I was watching Mad Max meets Tremors meets the Power Rangers. If the movie was about the robots and not the humans it could have been a much better movie. Hollywood is so afraid to deviate from formula. That's the problem with all these movies. No pioneers. No leaders. No independent thinkers. Just sheep feeding the machine that feeds the other sheep. And Michael Bay is a real piece of work. He has the audacity to go on "On The Lot" and critique and rip apart other directors work. He needs to look in the mirror.

Transformers, more than meets the eye?

Where?
 
My expectations were in the toilet when I saw it because it was a Michael Bay film, but I had a blast watching this movie. I suppose if I loved the source material I would feel differently about it, but I don't ever recall watching a single episode. As a concept it doesn't get much sillier than this (Autobots? Decepticons? What 5 year old thought of those names?), and for me Bay nailed just the right tone to make it all work. I honestly thought he gave the robots more personality than I was expecting. I'm not going to defend it all day, because objectively there is much about this movie that is thin, but for me it's one of those movie's that was so much fun to look at I didn't really care about its flaws while I was watching it.
 
Last edited:
Jurassic Park and Independence Day are good comparisons--though Jurassic Park did have ground breaking history making fx. The story and characters were messy but I gave it thumbs up for the 10 minutes of fx. Transformers is not so groundbreaking fx wise--they could have done transforming robot cars in the early 90s-and there have been commercials and fan made fx shots that showed what it would look like. Not as innovative as is claimed. Inorganics are always easier to do than organic creations.

I remember the cartoon and saw the 86 movie in theaters. It was neat to go from the afternoon cartoon to a movie set 20 years into the future. But it went downhill after they killed off(or shut down) all the major characters. Those toy companies are so harsh with kids!
 
I haven't had fun like that for a while, I mean like real fun at the movies. I too left with a smile on my face and I had one the entire movie. Story wasn't perfect, neither was dialog but my God, what an excellent ride it was. Some of those shots either made me smile, drool, or a drop of pee came out....and in some cases all three.

Go see it, its just plain fun.

- Kyle
 
Two things to watch for, budding directors (No Spoilers. Promise).

Two things to watch for, budding directors (No Spoilers. Promise).

p.s. there were some moments of just bad -people- directing, namely between Shia and Megan Fox. Here were two emotional turns that were mishandled.

The first scene, when the car stops, and she is diagnosing it. based on the movie she just sorta gets tired of working on the car and leaves. Based on the dialogue she leaves because of his inappropriate question about dating shitty guys. But because of her acting, and the way its set up, it just isn't clear.

Second human flop is between the same two. He drops her off at her house, and he fumbles the line ("stupid line") and is berating himself. They cut to a shot of her walking into the house and then back to him and he is celebratory, "I love this car, I love this car" as if something good had happened. When nothing had, he'd still been brushed off "See you in school."

They needed a shot of her stopping, turning and saying "Maybe you can call me some time" or "BTW, that's a nice [engine], I'd be more than happy to clean it for you sometime", Even just a turn and smile, SOMETHING so that he would have a reason for the emotional turn from frustrated to joyous.

IMO.
 
machardi said:
p.s. there were some moments of just bad -people- directing, namely between Shia and Megan Fox. Here were two emotional turns that were mishandled.

The first scene, when the car stops, and she is diagnosing it. based on the movie she just sorta gets tired of working on the car and leaves. Based on the dialogue she leaves because of his inappropriate question about dating shi*ty guys. But because of her acting, and the way its set up, it just isn't clear.

Second human flop is between the same two. He drops her off at her house, and he fumbles the line ("stupid line") and is berating himself. They cut to a shot of her walking into the house and then back to him and he is celebratory, "I love this car, I love this car" as if something good had happened. When nothing had, he'd still been brushed off "See you in school."

They needed a shot of her stopping, turning and saying "Maybe you can call me some time" or "BTW, that's a nice [engine], I'd be more than happy to clean it for you sometime", Even just a turn and smile, SOMETHING so that he would have a reason for the emotional turn from frustrated to joyous.

IMO.
Click to expand...

You don't go to see a Michael Bay movie for his way with actors. It's been pretty established by his body of work that his ability with thespians is workman-like at best. I'm not giving him a pass, I just see no point in scrutinizing his work in this way. It'd be like going to a Woody Allen movie and saying, man, that brief car chase in there was poorly filmed, and poring over every detail of why it was bad. That said, your analysis of the first scene is valid, the second I thought was pretty clear in the film. Even though he fumbled the line, he was still happy he got as far with the girl as he did, which he wouldn't have if not for the car.
 
I managed to dodge a spoiler. Post spoiler alerts or risk having your post reported. That's unfair to those whom haven't seen it.
 
Apart from the amazing SFX (the transforming etc) the movie was a pile of sh*t and the story was horrible (although its pretty hard to make the whole robot from out of space thing believable it could have been much better). It was much to focused on the humans and not the transformers, if you are not an old school transformers fan (such as myself) it would be hard to feel any sort of emotion for them at all.

Thanks for ruining transformers Michael Bay :dankk2:
 
dude above ^ shut the **** up.

ok I HATE MICHAEL BAY.

BUT I LOVE TRANSFORMERS. one of the most entertaining films I seen in the theater all year....
I thik the past and present of transformers made me enjoy it. and shia has proven to me once again he is going to be big. humor and action was intergrated well. for pg 15 it was great.

why i like it:

they did it. they made transformers they made it work.
PHOTO REALISM seamless transformations.
the transformation effect awesome and they did it while movie awesomier.
ORIGINAL VOICE WORK
ORIGINAL TRANSFORMER SOUND EFFECT
Shia made the human story fun.
no room for breathing something around each corner.
intergration of action and humor made this watchable
length = I think it was long enough.

Sequel = YES! IF IT DOES WELL!?

so I think anyone can say finally michael bay has mad his opus I said this before I think MB needs to do sci fi action films. This helps proves it.

anyway stupid entertaining fun and I enjoyed every moment.
 
spidey said:
I thik the past and present of transformers made me enjoy it.
Click to expand...

How? 80's transformers rocked, yet in the movie all they are are cheesy one liners. Prime's face looked horrid and Bumblebee wasn't even a VW beatle. I agree Shia was pretty good, but the movie wasn't funny, unless the whole token black dude humor is your thing.
 
I thought the movie was awesome and it kept my heart pumping the whole way through. I was wondering why all the comedy trailers in the beginning but after the first 10 minutes of laughing my ass off I know why. It has some really great comedic timing in it. I actually have to go again to hear what I missed because the audience was laughing so long you miss the punch lines and then some.
 
TRANSFORMERS - Roll Out!!!

TRANSFORMERS - Roll Out!!!

Just saw it ... in a word ... WICKED!

Michael Bay is a decent human being, so I don't hate him. Some of his films are clearly all about the popcorn but I don't hate the man. Mr. Bay did an outstanding with The Transformers. A great time at the movies. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top