Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Official Transformers Movie Thread ... Spoilers

Outnumbered.

And here's Bumblebee, a (Reported as, partial) Megatron, the Autobots in vehicle mode, Prime's arm and his head with the eyes blacked out...

Well, this movie is totally gonna rock -- 'cause I'm in it!

I just got back from a day of being an extra for some exteriors shot in downtown Detroit. Michael Bay had such a good time filming "The Island" here, he decided to give us a little love on this one.

There were no actors present (at least not in the parts I filmed). And, of course, we didn't actually get to see the Transformers, but we had to pretend we did -- and run like hell as they began fighting on the street! That's all we did today (between sitting and standing): cower, run and scream. It was a lot of fun. And now that I've had a few minutes to sit and relax, I can barely move my legs. I haven't done that kind of sprinting since junior high.

Unfortunately, I wasn't one of the select few Bay pulled aside for special close-up screaming, but there are a few shots I think I'll be able to pick myself out in.

So everyone go see it and look for the guy in khakis and a pastel green (with thin blue stripes) polo.

a friend of mine gave me a link to soem of the behind the scenes stuff on the Transformers movie. it's some of the same thing Rebbot posted. but some more stuff.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/transformersmovie/pool/

Cool! those pics currently on page 1 from MH.2 and Withnail1 are from my shoot. Cool to see the truck go up. We were screaming and running away from it so actually didn't get to see it go up except through some terrified glances backwards. As much as that thing was rigged, it was louder than I was expecting, so it wasn't hard to be in character.

I'm still holding out hope that it'll be a good movie, but a lot of my fanboy hopes are dashed. 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.

Dug up this thread because Ain't It Cool News just got their hands on a screenshot of Scorponok attacking some troops in a very big, very ANGRY way.

There's no telling how long this will be online, however, so hopefully it'll be online long enough for a few people to check out. As for me? I'm as excited as I ever was about this, if not more so. I'm one of those people who will probably try to take opening day off from work. D:

D'oh! You just beat me to it, Scott.

I'm not in this trailer, either, but it still looks like it could be awesome.

I got very little sleep yesterday.

I was too busy watching and rewatching that trailer over and over again like the rabid fan that I am. If I'd HAD any decent amounts of sugar or caffeine in my system then, my fiancé's step-mother would have had to pry me off the ceiling with a crowbar. XD

gotta admit i like the new look for Bumble bee

There's an even newer trailer that's just been released here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/transformers.html;_ylt=ArVeQR4mvB1GJYO94lAYZtlfVXcA

I have to admit it looks a quite a bit better than the previous ones.

I dunno -- still reminds me of how they screwed up Godzilla...

The latest trailer was amazing! It's going to be eye candy and I'm ready for my popcorn! IMAX for this one.

So the Burger King toys should be out now. Darn the fact there isn't one up here.

And here's the site for them:

http://www.bk.com/transformers/index.html

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.

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.

For Kippers.

I am going tonight to go watch the movie at the Alamo. Something else else called Robosaurs is going to be there.

Check it out here, with video.

I saw that on AICN!

From the things I've been reading, I'm getting extremely excited about it. I'm going tomorrow, and I can't wait!!!

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.

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.

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.

Just got back. It was alright. It didn't kick my ass. But it didn't do a "Batman And Robin" either.

Much more later (probably Thursday.)

I just saw it as well.


Naturally Prime was pretty much spot-on, but the others-- Autobots AND Decepticons-- were kind of lacking in personality if you ask me.

But I did enjoy the movie for what it was. 8-)

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.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">And he's the only Autobot that dies, just like a lot of token minority characters in action/adventure movies.</span></span>

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:

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??

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.