posted
The latest trailer was amazing! It's going to be eye candy and I'm ready for my popcorn! IMAX for this one.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Due to the release date of Transformers being moved up I get to watch the preview showing of it on Monday afternoon. Which has made me in a breakdancing mood.
posted
OK, I just got back from a screening, and the robots are awesome!
They were absolutely amazing. It's just too bad they (and the humans) were sometimes saddled with some of the worst dialog I've heard in a very long time.
But dang, they kicked butt.
I didn't see myself, but the scenes where I'd appear sped by really fast (fight scene at the end), so I still have hope. I'm going again Monday with a bunch of the other extras, so maybe we can spot each other.
-------------------- Geek Watch
From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
A few quick non-spoilery notes on the film:
Voiceless Bumblebee didn't bug me as much as I thought he would. The process of reformatting seems way too simple. Cullen did a good job while most of the time I didn't really find Movie-Megatron's voice very imposing. Sadly most of the Autobots and Decepticons characterization is boiled down to stereotypical traits. Not that the humans are written that well either. It's a good summer blockbuster but fans of the series in general should try to disconnect with their memories of the other versions and accept it as a fairly unique take on the concept.
-------------------- ActorLad
Friendly Neighborhood Performer
Visit my official hangout ActorLad's Cool Luau over at the Mission Monitor Board!
From: Alaska | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Well, it is a Michael Bay film. He couldn't do a Gilligan's Island movie without changing at least two of the main characters, killing off three of them (senselessly) and blowing up the island.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
So, I went to see this today.
It was okay. There were a few pretty good moments, but, overall, it didn't do a whole lot for me. I guess it was a bit too much "generic summer blockbuster" and not enough "here's the cool stuff I remember about the Transformers from my childhood". And even some the moments that do invoke memories of classic Transformers seem just randomly inserted in the movie, such as Megatron and Starscream's brief interaction.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I love the Transformers, but I wasn't expecting much.
I think the only thing that delivered was Peter Cullen's voice for Optimus Prime. Good idea to have Optimus narrate, too.
I hated the mute Bumblebee "talking" in pop songs and other pop culture tidbits -- he's Bumblebee, not Wreck-Gar!
It's rather telling that the Jazz from the 80s cartoon didn't sound like a racial stereotype, but the 2007 Jazz did.
Click Here For A SpoilerAnd he's the only Autobot that dies, just like a lot of token minority characters in action/adventure movies.
For that matter, many of the human characters were a disgusting assortment of racial stereotypes.
The Decepticons sucked. They don't even appear til the movie's almost over, and they have no personalities. Megatron and Starscream both have generic bad-guy voices, but I think even if Frank Welker hadn't been passed over for the role of Megatron, he wouldn't have been able to do much, if anything, with this sorry version of a classic villain. (Btw, I think the versatile Welker could have done a reasonable approximation of the late Chris Latta's Starscream voice -- Welker's Galvatron sometimes sounded like Starscream.)
And dear god, does this movie take forever to get from Point A to Point B! And even when the Autobots finally appear, the movie gets sidetracked with that excruciating scene where they're trying to hide from the kid's parents. The "comedy" scenes are always the worst thing in a Michael Bay movie, even worse than the incoherent action sequences.
Shia La Beouf is, like many movie stars these days, uncharismatic and sexless.
Megan Fox, on the other hand, IS charismatic and sexy, as well as the only one other than Cullen who "gets" the right way to perform in this kind of thing.
Earlier in this thread, Drake described the flaws in the robots' designs far better than I could:
quote:Originally posted by DrakeB3004: The redesigns remind me of that American made "Godzilla" movie -- that it's just totally wrong-headed. They look like walking scrap heaps - there's just no elegance to the designs and I imagine that when these guys run around the details will be completely lost anyway.
The redesigns on the latest Transformers cartoon were bad enough, overloading on details so that the humanoid form is lost, but this looks worse.
In the end, this isn't really a movie for the hardcore, highly knowledgeable fans. Just like with the animated movie 21 years ago, they over-simplified it for newcomers and casual fans. I can accept that, BUT I don't even think it works on those terms.
Oh, and how can they have Optimus Prime say "Transform and roll out" and then cut away to something else BEFORE we can see them transform and roll out??
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
One of the big problems for me is that Transformers, as far as I'm concerned, should feel mythological in scope. I always thought one of the coolest parts of the cartoon was that it was about this ancient war between the forces of good and the forces of evil, and these robots had crashed on Earth millions of years ago, and suddenly wake up and resume their war. You got a little bit of that in Prime's narration at the beginning, but very little of it.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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