| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Downtown |
Posted - 06/20/2007 : 22:42:09
I hope any male FWFRers in their 30s are as psyched as I am about this (females, too...girls are allowed to play with robot dolls instead of Barbie dolls, although I don't recall any classmates that actually did...). I've been waiting over 20 years for this movie, even if I didn't know that until I first heard about it. I just wonder if they can top the animated film, but Unicron voiced by Orson Welles is tough to beat.
These were by far my favorite toys growing up, I loved them even more than my Masters of the Universe collection (I didn't have any of the first generation He-Man and villains anyway, so no matter how big that collection was it could never be impressive). But alas, I grew up with a father that insisted on teaching me the value of a dollar, so what did I get when I asked for Transformers? You guessed it: Go-Bots. That's a horrible thing to do to a kid. But at least my friends all had them so I could play with theirs', including one friend that had not one but several of the most coveted Transformers, including both Megatron and Shockwave, making it possible for us to have gunfights (yeah, I don't see these two toys being considered proper in 2007).
To any non-fans, I must be speaking a foreign language. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Beanmimo |
Posted - 07/31/2007 : 16:49:11
Saw this last week and my inner teenager had a ball.
Sploier spolier sploier Spoiler (see how it transformed)
Did you not see the cars and trucks miraculously turning into huge artificially aware robots?? How wasn't that fun...
What about the sequence when the jet fighters were being picked off by a nasty transformer who kep bouncing off them in the air and then turning back into a jet fighter.
It proves that they can do anything with CGI these days.
As for the length and plot... I'm glad that we weren't thrown into the action, the deliberately slow pacing made me relish the action that was on it's way. Kinda reminded me of The Hulk (another unsung hero of a movie in my opinion) |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 07/30/2007 : 15:33:17
quote:
Originally posted by damalc
quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
Seriously, this movie is just as bad as ... Batman & Robin.
whoah, slow down MBI. B&R was memorably bad. Transformers was just forgettable. i don't think my party mentioned it once after we left the theater.
Point conceded. I retract that statement and substitute "Wild Wild West," which also relied on meaningless spectacle, giant robots, and bad bad jokes. |
| damalc |
Posted - 07/30/2007 : 13:15:22
quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
Seriously, this movie is just as bad as ... Batman & Robin.
whoah, slow down MBI. B&R was memorably bad. Transformers was just forgettable. i don't think my party mentioned it once after we left the theater. |
| TitanPa |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 20:00:29
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by TitanPa
its also weird that a Robot, from a robot world, would be named Bone Crusher
I'd never heard of Bone Crusher before, and was also struck by this.
Bone Crusher was a Consructicon in the cartoon. 4 or 5 different transformerws made him. In the movie he's 1 robot. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 15:06:59
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
But of course all the names come from the original cartoon and toys anyway, so I'm not sure what your point is if you're criticizing that feature of the movie.
I'm criticising that aspect of the franchise, not of the film specifically (although the film-makers chose to keep that name whereas they changed other things). |
| Downtown |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 13:52:42
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by TitanPa
its also weird that a Robot, from a robot world, would be named Bone Crusher
I'd never heard of Bone Crusher before, and was also struck by this.
They learned to speak English from the internet. They could have picked up usernames along the way.
But of course all the names come from the original cartoon and toys anyway, so I'm not sure what your point is if you're criticizing that feature of the movie. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 13:14:56
quote:
Originally posted by TitanPa
its also weird that a Robot, from a robot world, would be named Bone Crusher
I'd never heard of Bone Crusher before, and was also struck by this. |
| demonic |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 02:22:38
Yup. Sucked as bad as a Michael Bay film should... although there was plenty to commend it for the first half of it's absurdly overlong running time. I liked Shia LaBeouf a lot - he was a likeable presence, even doomed with the utter banalities he had to deliver throughout. Megan Fox was easy on the eye, even if she was totally shallow, so that made the love-story bearable. The supporting cast were pointless - Voight and Turturro brought in for credibility but looked like they were only there for the pay packet. There were some funny moments, and some gleefully cheesy ones, and even some early on that verged very close to actually being cool, but I realised during the rather good Bumblebee/Nasty police car chase that Optimus Prime hadn't even been mentioned yet and it had to be well over an hour in. For a film aimed at the 10-16 market it seemed extremely laboured, especially the last half hour which was incredibly boring. Robots shooting each other and rolling about, crashing through buildings with the traditional modern wobbly camera so you don't notice the CGI (or have the first idea what's actually going on) doesn't make for an involving conclusion. Prime was so dull - and only Bumblebee had an ounce of character development. The evil CD player was awful I thought - mugging at the camera several times that made me think of the worst excesses of CGI-era George Lucas. The soundbite dialogue was cringeworthy. At what point did Megatron actually have to state to the room of fleeing scientists "I AM MEGATRON!" - just to remind everyone who might have forgotten, or perhaps give the fanboys a reason to wet their pants in excitement. So shameless.
Not to mention the little kid in the car stating to his mother that massive and frightening robots trying to kill each other and potentially crush him were "cool". Much like the kids in Spiderman 3 it smelt of a desperate attempt to tell the audience of kids that what they were watching was cool, because they had so little faith in what was being created digitally to invoke the actual sensation. The other stinker was "this is 100 times better than Armageddon". I don't know if I'd go so far - Armageddon being one of the worst mainstream blockbusters that I have ever seen - if 100 times better than that makes this film still pretty mediocre, then it's a fair appraisal.
A note about the violence - it seemed to be an astonishingly out of fashion movie seeing it glorified the use of violence and warfare - all the red and dusty long shots of people getting in and out of helicopters in slow motion at sunset; seemingly endless gun play. Also entirely typical of a Bay movie not a single character death was referenced, mourned, or reflected upon. Admittedly the boring special forces team had no character whatsoever but their gradual diminishing numbers just seemed like a handy device to show some more deadly robot action. Human life is utterly redundant in Bay's hands, unless he can pontificate about how we are a young race and have much to learn about loving one another, not fighting. Not if we watch his shitty movies we won't. |
| silly |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 00:07:01
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I haven't read this thread yet, so don't know others' thoughts, but I found this film far too long and the dialogue dreadful (particularly cringeworthy was Optimus Prime's philosophising).
I think you make excellent points. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 07/22/2007 : 20:21:46
I haven't read this thread yet, so don't know others' thoughts, but I found this film far too long and the dialogue dreadful (particularly cringeworthy was Optimus Prime's philosophising). I hardly ever find a film too long. It is an age before the majority of the Autobots and Deceptacons turn up, and the conclusion of the film is really dragged out too. The special effects are obviously good, but the robots transform too fast to be able to see any detail, and in most cases their robot forms display no correlation with their car (etc.) forms, which is disappointing. |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 15:25:56
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
I haven't seen the new TMNT movie - nor do I want to - but when you say it was "pretty damn bad," Mr. B, I really have to wonder, "compared to what standard?"
You keep saying you're not going into these movies with unreasonable expectations, but I'm finding that hard to believe. I really think you're just seeing the wrong kind of movies and setting yourself up for disappointment.
What do you mean, compared to what standard? Compared to the only standard, that of "Is it worth watching"! The plot was incomprehensible and the humor was not funny. I like it when the plot is comprehensible and the humor is funny, that's why I didn't like Transformers and TMNT. Transformers was a gigantic movie that a lot of work went into, TMNT was a dinky thing that very few worked on, but what they have in common is: The action sequences sucked, the plot was incomprehensible and the humor wasn't funny.
Look, I don't know what you want from me. I flat loved Final Destination 3, I gave the thumbs-up to Snakes on a Plane, I enjoyed the Jackass movies. I liked Jason Statham's Crank, I liked Bad Boys II, I liked Mission Impossible III, I'm still one of the only defenders of Spider-Man 3. TMNT and Michael Bay's Transformers don't live up to the standard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I and the Transformers cartoon movie (and remember, I'm not a Transformers fan). |
| Downtown |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 14:57:26
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
quote:
Originally posted by silly
I'm dying for an Electra Woman and Dyna Girl for the big screen. But I think perhaps I'm older than some of y'all... 
Ooo! Ooo! And Land of the Lost! And Captain Marvel! And Isis!!!!!!!
Movies of these shows can do nothing more than make them better. 
I can't say I'm interested in Land of the Lost. I like the adventure element of it, but the family aspect of it bores me. I prefer the "motley group stranded somewhere together" formula better.
But I still think Patrick Warburton would make a perfect Captain Marvel. |
| Downtown |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 14:53:28
I haven't seen the new TMNT movie - nor do I want to - but when you say it was "pretty damn bad," Mr. B, I really have to wonder, "compared to what standard?"
You keep saying you're not going into these movies with unreasonable expectations, but I'm finding that hard to believe. I really think you're just seeing the wrong kind of movies and setting yourself up for disappointment. |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 14:19:12
Man, I never watched any of those shows, including Transformers and Voltron and what have you. I did watch a lot of Ninja Turtles though, and that new TMNT movie was also pretty damn bad. |
| silly |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 12:31:43
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
quote:
Originally posted by silly
I'm dying for an Electra Woman and Dyna Girl for the big screen. But I think perhaps I'm older than some of y'all...
Ooo! Ooo! And Land of the Lost! And Captain Marvel! And Isis!!!!!!!
Movies of these shows can do nothing more than make them better.
Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell, I think.
Shazaam! |
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