So, who's going to see the Transformers film?

POSTED BY: Guywhowantsafireflyofhisown
UPDATED: Saturday, July 14, 2007 14:36
VIEWED: 10256
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FINN MAC CUMHAL

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 1:34 PM

It’s better then I thought it would be and there were some scenes that were nothing short of amazing, but any movie that I’m glad to get out of can’t be all that great. The movie constantly undermined itself. Part of the problem is that I fail the demographic test. I missed the Transformer era by about two or three years. My brother would probably have cut out a lung for this movie.

It started off great with an attack on a USAF base in Qatar. The attack by some evil Transformer type (I’m not going to try to name anything) was an experience in itself. In fact most of the Transformer scenes were pretty spectacular. The CGI was flawless and completely believable. The talking though was annoying – it gave the Transformers a bit of a GI-Joe-ish appeal, diminishing their imposing otherworldliness. I was somewhat intrigued by the anti-authority dichotomy of shape between two Transformer types: the good transformers were all represented by private automobile types, but the bad transformers were represented by military and police vehicles. It’s an observation that is probably obvious to the broader Transformer fans and one that probable existed in the original Hasbro toy line, but one I found curious.

The human characters are much less interesting. Shia LaBeouf is an excellent actor, but he was mediocre here. I’ve always thought LaBeouf would go far in Hollywood since I thought he was an exceptional actor even as a kid, but I’m not sure he’s action-hero material. Perhaps he’s too tied into playing the mischievous sidekick. Megan Fox was okay too, but she looked nothing like an 11th grader and casting her probably had a lot more to do with pandering to the target audience. I was marginally intrigued by the 80-ish feel to the movie. The quirky family of the nerdy boy and the bigger-then-life, deeply covert American military on the brink of world-wide nuclear war could have been taking right out of War Games. War Games is one of my all time favorites, but the Cold War is over and it just doesn’t have the same impact today.

The biggest problem was that it was way, way too long. Truth be told it would probably have been a great movie if they had left more on the cutting room floor. It’s not the quality of the scenes was lacking necessarily, just that a movie about transforming GI Joe robots has no right being that long. My biggest problem was that two-thirds the way into the film I was desperate to leave. I probably could have been persuaded to keep my interest a little longer if the human character scenes had been more interesting or if the Transformers didn’t talk like GI Joe characters, but in the end none of the problems with this movie were particularly bad; it was just too long.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

CRUITHNE3753

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:01 PM

Hmmmm... Nah.

FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 10:40 PM

I got dragged to it by the girl, Cybersnark did a pretty good job of banging it on it's flaws, but yanno, in spite of all that... I liked it, really.

Well worth the six bucks I paid, even with the kid kicking the back of my seat, grrrr.

The army guys were pretty realistic, and a kind of side nod to GI Joe by the production team, I think.
(And I wasn't the only one who called out "Yay, go spooky!" either..)

Pity starscream didn't get more dialogue, but the original voice actor cacked in in 1994, and he had this PERFECT nasty-whiny voice for him.

Pete Cullen totally brings it for Optimus, NOBODY else can really "do" Optimus, just something about his voice, I dunno...if honor itself had a voice, it'd be Optimus Prime.

It's not perfect, and a bit too violent for PG-13 in my opinion, but it's definately a step above the usual hollywood crap, and well worth what I paid to see it - not sure if some of the stuff is gonna carry well to DVD unless you got a real nice audio system with a big TV.

I'm surprised the LAPD didn't try to hire Blockade, talk about takin "Bad Cop" to the next level, yeesh.

So go see it, it's entertaining enough for the price.

-F

FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 10:50 PM

Quote:
I was somewhat intrigued by the anti-authority dichotomy of shape between two Transformer types: the good transformers were all represented by private automobile types, but the bad transformers were represented by military and police vehicles. It’s an observation that is probably obvious to the broader Transformer fans and one that probable existed in the original Hasbro toy line, but one I found curious.

Finn, as I understand it, not having been a huge fan, but having seen/read a bit of the stuff in my time, the Decepticons originally were military in nature, and more or less things started off with what amounted to a military coup, and the Autobots originally were primarily civvies, a basic theme throughout which is carried over through most storylines, with the Decepticons being somewhat more of a rigid heirarchy and more organized, versus the Autobots being less authoritarian and based on Prime's leadership by example.

So yeah, good spot on that, and it's an intentional recurring theme, I think.

-F

CYBERSNARK

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:08 AM

What Fremdfirma said.

In the TV continuity (*) the Decepticons were created (by the alien Quintessons) as military hardware, while the Autobots were consumer goods. The Evil police car is new though; civil defense used to be the province of the Autobots (most notably in Prowl, G1 Optimus Prime's second in command, who turned into a police car).

(* The other G1 continuity is the comics, which has Autobots and Decepticons being created literal "machinae ex deus" by Primus, with the Autobot/Decepticon divide being mostly political. In this continuity, "Prime" is a religious title --bearer of Primus' Matrix.)

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Quote:
I was somewhat intrigued by the anti-authority dichotomy of shape between two Transformer types: the good transformers were all represented by private automobile types, but the bad transformers were represented by military and police vehicles. It’s an observation that is probably obvious to the broader Transformer fans and one that probable existed in the original Hasbro toy line, but one I found curious.

Finn, as I understand it, not having been a huge fan, but having seen/read a bit of the stuff in my time, the Decepticons originally were military in nature, and more or less things started off with what amounted to a military coup, and the Autobots originally were primarily civvies, a basic theme throughout which is carried over through most storylines, with the Decepticons being somewhat more of a rigid heirarchy and more organized, versus the Autobots being less authoritarian and based on Prime's leadership by example.

So yeah, good spot on that, and it's an intentional recurring theme, I think.

Okay. That explains it.

I never quite got into the Transformers, and we didn’t own a TV in those days so I would have had a problem watching the cartoon, even if I wanted to. My brother obviously figured out a way to watch it though, but I’m not sure how. Must have been one if his friends.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
In the TV continuity (*) the Decepticons were created (by the alien Quintessons) as military hardware, while the Autobots were consumer goods. The Evil police car is new though; civil defense used to be the province of the Autobots (most notably in Prowl, G1 Optimus Prime's second in command, who turned into a police car).

That’s good. I actually started to think that these Transformer toys weren’t so good for children if we are teaching them the police are the bad guys.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

SPEAKFIRE

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:27 PM

I think it's important to remember (or know, for those of you who haven't seen this yet) that the movie is done from the perspective of the humans. The cartoon was all done from the perspective of the robots. So where in the cartoon, human involvement is minimal, it's a huge part of the motion picture. And because the Autobots have more contact with humans, as a result you will see far more of those in the movie than you will the Decepticons.

I saw this last Sunday and *loved* it. I loved how it was both a fun movie, and was funny. Tons of action... I know that a lot of the shots were done from that ultra-close shakey cam that many people don't like, but to me this is a truer depiction of what happens in fights. If you are involved a real fight or seeing it up close and personal, most of the time you have no idea what is happening, because everything happens so fast its a blur, you can't stop to think out every action. I think nowdays many movie goers are spoiled by the fact that a lot of fight scenes have the 'big stuff' put into slow-mo, so we can see exactly what's going on. Compare this to the rough and tumble close up fights in The Bourne Identity and Supremacy, where everything happens so fast that it's hard to see exactly what is happening unless the director specifically draws your attention to it (pen/magazines used as weapons). I watch UFC and in big fight matches, 75% of the time you won't know exactly what happened when someone is knocked out (neither will the guys calling the fight) until you see the replays in slo-mo. We're spoiled by slo-motions and the instant replay, is what it boils down to.

I really liked that the Decepticons were truly evil, with no regard for humanity at all. In the cartoon, of course censors would never allow them to be as evil as they truly were.

I rank it the best movie of the summer that I've seen, a close second behind Oceans 13.

1STCNDARMY

Saturday, July 14, 2007 5:31 AM

I'm gonna have to say I agree with pretty well at the critiques of the movie, but I was still giddy watching the thing.... both times. Maybe cause it was apart of my childhood... maybe because I go for the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing, but I loved that movie. Optimus is after all, my hero. And if you guys thought that movie wasn't that great, try watching the old 80's cartoon (Optimus: Bumblebee, could you go get a flux quantum capacitor. Bumblebee: Sure, I'll just drive into town and get one) Anywho. Though was anyone else really confused at the beginning? The police car was Baracade sure, but for a bit I was wondering why Jazz was being all evil like.... (Jazz was a police car in the original series). And on that note... A SOLSTICE! GM MADE HIM A SOLSTICE!!!!!! I think what happened to him happened for that shear reason... loti. And I hear there's gonna be 2 sequels and I'm gonna see em both. Go Optimus.

___________________________________________________
did Nathan go to your university? No? Well he went to mine ;)

CYBERSNARK

Saturday, July 14, 2007 1:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1stCndArmy:
(Jazz was a police car in the original series).

Actually, Jazz was a Porsche ( http://www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Jazz/jazz.htm)

(There's a repaint of movie Jazz coming out in G1's running-shoe-like deco: http://www.allspark.com/index.php?set_albumName=g1moviejazz&option=com
_gallery&Itemid=4&include=view_album.php)

The police car was Prowl ( http://www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Prowl/prowl.htm)

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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