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Post by arek on Jul 1, 2007 17:12:54 GMT 8
Saw the movie last night. Good blend of action, humour and a small bit of inconsistent storyline
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Post by kalkamel on Jul 4, 2007 14:50:16 GMT 8
After a wave of lousy stale summer movies this year (Spider-man 2, POTC 3, Fantastic Four 2 to name the main culprits), finally a breathe of fresh air! Michael Bay may be the king of action overload, but Transformers was an absolutely fantastic movie! With references through other movies scattered throughout (Armageddon for one, Kill Bill for the other, when Bumblebee makes his reappearance! ;D), non-overkill humor (except for John Turturro and Anthony Davison), absolutely dazzling visual effects (great job, ILM!) and hot babes (a lot of people seem to oogle over Megan Fox's Mikaela, but I like the Aussie hacker chick better!  ), this is the movie to watch this summer, just as "300" was the movie to watch during the Spring release. The casting of Peter Cullen as Prime's voice was inspiring and you can bet there'd be lines from the animated movie appearing in this one! Hugo Weaving was ok as Megatron... he's hardly recognizable through the synthesizing. But the biggest surprise to me was Shia Leboeuf, who I honestly thought was gonna be downright annoying. But he turned out to be quite likeable and funny at times, which raises my hopes for Indy IV next year. Definitely a fun movie to watch! |
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Post by vkkf1977 on Jul 16, 2007 12:36:11 GMT 8
Me too finally watch it. But IMO, found it too action'ed oriented. But then again, typical of Micheal Bay's films. Lots ka-boooooom going on and really fast moving scenes, heck, you can't even see what was happening!
Characters wise, Shia wasn't bad. Mikeala... oh puhleeeeeeeeeeeze... so lame. The last part of she driving and BumbleBee shooing, nice touch, but sooooooooo corny! BUT still so cool! They could have done without the final scene of those 2 on the hood. Really spoils the movie...
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Post by fishyahoo on Jul 16, 2007 13:21:59 GMT 8
They could have done without the final scene of those 2 on the hood. Really spoils the movie... I agree! Like all the Autobots were there looking.... |
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Post by kalkamel on Jul 16, 2007 14:33:41 GMT 8
Hehehehehehe, pervy Autobots!
No wonder I heard that the sequel will be pitting the Autobots against cross dressing Decepticons from the planet, MardiGrasatron. It's titled "Transformers II: Transvestites".
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Post by Plo Strax-Avix on Jul 16, 2007 22:19:38 GMT 8
I've seen it 1.5 times and I still don't know what's going on...
I know, I know, I shouldn't try to make sense of everything...
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Post by tylerdurden on Jul 19, 2007 12:20:16 GMT 8
wow, haven't been to this forum in months! anyway, here's my 2rupiahs' worth abt transformers: THE GOOD - the visual effects: ILM will win an oscar for this. if they don't, it only reinforces the motion picture academy's increasing irrelevance. - peter cullen: every time optimus prime spoke, i was 8 years old again! ;D - that ONE scene of the autobots regrouping on earth for the first time (in that back alley), and then transforming one after another. there have been very few moments of pure wonder such as these in the cinema recently. and i don't mean entire movies, just singular scenes. "wonder" is when u sit back in your seat and you are just absolutely filled with a feeling of awe at the magic on the silver screen. in this case, it may be mostly due to nostalgia, but whatever works, right? - prime being a total bada$$, taking bonecrusher down with almost ruthless efficiency (and a giant frickin sword!!!) too bad his showdown with megatron wasn't anywhere as satisfying. - bumblebee. he may not look the same, but in spirit, he is still the same lovable character that we grew up with. hats off to bay and his team for successfully imbuing a mechanical being with genuine heart. - megan fox's midriff. nuff said. THE BAD - the script. the film's problems essentially stem from the script. kurtzman&orci have a lot to answer for regarding the story's structural flaws. the 2nd act, or the middle portion of the movie just grinds to a screeching halt when the plot dedicates 15 minutes to... looking for a pair of spectacles. wtf? i mean, it's the so-called macguffin (a term coined for an object that motivates the characters into action but is not essential to the overall plot)... but too much time is wasted on what could have been dealt with in a few simple scenes. that precious running time could have been spent fleshing out either the autobot or decepticon characters better. that's why when bumblebee is captured it's meant to be emotional, but the scene falls short. when jazz is ripped in half by megatron, we are meant to be horrified, it is instead strangely unmoving. well, there's nothing strange about it, we barely got to know them, let alone care about them. - too many peripheral characters and subplots. betcha a billion bucks that if you removed the hackers' involvement in the overall story, u wouldn't miss a thing. (the annoying fat black dude, the aussie chick with the kampung aussie accent). - john turturro's performance as the sector7 agent. so irritatingly over-the-top, you'd think he was acting in a totally different movie, in fact a whole different genre. - certain robot designs. eg: frenzy. fine, it's one thing to "re-imagine" designs, it's another to make them so unrecognizable, and worse, illogical, that even non-fans question it. exactly how does frenzy's build match ANY of the surface structures of the objects he imitates? (eg: boombox, cellphone). bay's rationale that the complexity/busy-ness of the designs were necessary for reality just doesn't hold water for examples such as frenzy's. having said that, i do like prime and bumblebee's new robot forms. ironhide is cool too. - the score. kinda disappointing and reverts to awfully predictable "rawk" music whenever there's a chase scene. also, the "2-note" dramatic music is suspiciously similar to batman begins. proof? check out the music in the scene when christian bale is in the batcave surrounded by bats, then compare with transformer's scenes in the pentagon. okay, sorry for being long-winded, but just wanted to share my feelings about a movie that's based on my all-time favourite cartoon/toy series from my childhood. overall, i'd still say transformers is a success, and i'm grateful cos it could have turned out much, much worse!  |
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Post by kalkamel on Jul 19, 2007 14:48:52 GMT 8
Hey, welcome back, dude! THE GOOD - the visual effects: ILM will win an oscar for this. if they don't, it only reinforces the motion picture academy's increasing irrelevance. Agreed, although there were problems with scaling from time to time; the Allspark cube for example, it looks the same size held by Bumblebee and when held by Sam... go figure! - that ONE scene of the autobots regrouping on earth for the first time (in that back alley), and then transforming one after another. there have been very few moments of pure wonder such as these in the cinema recently. and i don't mean entire movies, just singular scenes. "wonder" is when u sit back in your seat and you are just absolutely filled with a feeling of awe at the magic on the silver screen. in this case, it may be mostly due to nostalgia, but whatever works, right? Yup. I've been waiting for a Transformers movie for as long as I can imagine and that scene really fulfilled that dream for me. - prime being a total bada$$, taking bonecrusher down with almost ruthless efficiency (and a giant frickin sword!!!) too bad his showdown with megatron wasn't anywhere as satisfying. Gotta love that "one shall stand, one shall fall" line! - bumblebee. he may not look the same, but in spirit, he is still the same lovable character that we grew up with. hats off to bay and his team for successfully imbuing a mechanical being with genuine heart. Actually, I felt the movie Bumblebee was more lovable than that horned G1 VW robot. - megan fox's midriff. nuff said. Down boy! ;D - the script. the film's problems essentially stem from the script. kurtzman&orci have a lot to answer for regarding the story's structural flaws. the 2nd act, or the middle portion of the movie just grinds to a screeching halt when the plot dedicates 15 minutes to... looking for a pair of spectacles. wtf? i mean, it's the so-called macguffin (a term coined for an object that motivates the characters into action but is not essential to the overall plot)... but too much time is wasted on what could have been dealt with in a few simple scenes. True, but at least it wasn't as convoluted as the other summer blockbusters (Pirates 3 comes to mind). But there were unexplainable gaps in the script, for eg, what the heck happened to Barricade? He was chasing Sam on the highway together with Bonecrusher, Prime kicks Bonecrusher's ass but Barricade just disappears? Oh and I have to disagree with on on the spectacles being the Macguffin... I think it was the Allspark rather than the specs. Just a technicality!  when jazz is ripped in half by megatron, we are meant to be horrified, it is instead strangely unmoving. well, there's nothing strange about it, we barely got to know them, let alone care about them. My nephew will disagree with you! He cried when Jazz died! ;D - too many peripheral characters and subplots. betcha a billion bucks that if you removed the hackers' involvement in the overall story, u wouldn't miss a thing. (the annoying fat black dude, the aussie chick with the kampung aussie accent). I don't mind the Aussie chick... its Anthony Anderson and John Turtorro I can't stand! They were hamming it up too much and really disrupted the tone of the movie with their slapstick antics... although I loved that "Bumblebee, stop lubricating on the human!" scene! - the score. kinda disappointing and reverts to awfully predictable "rawk" music whenever there's a chase scene. also, the "2-note" dramatic music is suspiciously similar to batman begins. proof? check out the music in the scene when christian bale is in the batcave surrounded by bats, then compare with transformer's scenes in the pentagon. The music was composed by Steve Jablonsky, a Media Venture alumni, so whaddaya expect? Every Media Venture score sounds like each other, thanks to Hans Zimmer (the head of Media Venture). Examples? The Rock, Crimson Tide, Gladiator, POTC, Batman Begins et cetera ad nauseum... |
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Post by tylerdurden on Jul 19, 2007 15:55:23 GMT 8
hey kalkamel, always good to get feedback from a fellow forummer, esp one who is well-versed with the film world.  i had actually kinda forgotten abt this forum for a while. in the words of optimus, "my bad!" regarding the macguffin, actually it IS the spectacles, not the all-spark cube. by the great alfred hitchcock's definition (it was he who popularized its use in movies), the macguffin is a motivation for the characters which turns out to be minimally perfunctory. it is usually introduced in either the 1st or 2nd act, then is quickly forgotten. notice how irrelevant the spectacles became as soon as their sole purpose of revealing the coordinates were addressed. now, it could be argued that the all-spark cube is the macguffin, but by that above rationale, it is not irrelevant to the plot, because the movie's climax centres around the usage of the cube (destroying the bad guy and saving the world). but like u said, it's just a definition, and ultimately what matters more is whether these plot devices were effective or not. i'd say they were. i never liked steve jablonsky's stuff. like u said, too generic. hans zimmer on the other hand has given us some really solid work. i loved his gladiator score. my favourites are still ppl like john williams, jerry goldsmith, alan silvestri, howard shore, vangelis and even basil poledouris (robocop). if i was ur nephew's age, i prob would have cried when jazz got killed! i remember crying when optimus died in the transformers animated film.  |
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