Author Topic: Transformers - The Movie (Read 8902 times)

ElricJC · « **on:** July 02, 2007, 09:28:05 PM »

Ok, here I am immediately after seeing Transformers, downing an industrial sized bottle of Sam Adams Boston Lager and eating a half pint of Gelato and thinking to myself...

WHAT THE &%^$ did I just see? I mean yeah, I know, it was a Michael Bay movie and it was essentially a living cartoon but sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph that had to be the worst dialogue I have ever seen, and how they managed to pull in every military stereotype character you can shake a stick at in the first couple of minutes. My friends (except my best friend's wife - we're both lit majors and writers so we tend to see these things the same way) were appalled at how much I hated the movie - "You hate everything" and "You think too much" were the complaints against me. When is it bad to think too much? I mean it was funny in many parts and the transformers were cool, and there was lots of boom boom for the explosion junkies out there, and all the little nerds will go home happy jerking off to the hot chick, whatever her name was, but is it a crime to have some decent writing? X-Men managed to pull off a pretty good comic trilogy, something I and my far less critical friends all agree on, so why couldn't Transformers get that treatment? The only reason I would buy this movie would be to sit there and mock it.

My best advice if you haven't seen it yet and must see it, go in with this in mind - it's a comedy with action, it's Michael Bay, and there's boom boom (which of course is what Bay is all about), and the script you could swear was written by a 13 year old fanfic writer. Try to enjoy it for what it is, but if you're a little too stuck on dialogue give it a wide berth and let it rumble on by. There isn't more to meets the eye with this turkey.

E-E · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2007, 12:33:39 PM »

Quote from: "ElricJC"

When is it bad to think too much?

when your a Hypochondriac
:lol:

ElricJC · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2007, 12:54:03 PM »

Good point, and well made :lol:

HA1L ILPALLAZZO · « **Reply #3 on:** July 04, 2007, 08:54:01 AM »

hey wasn't the script for the original series sound like it was written by a 13 yr old nowt wong there then XD

Squeezit · « **Reply #4 on:** July 04, 2007, 10:53:45 AM »

i had the oppurtunity to watch it i think it was a week or two before it came out?
idk i could have watched it at AX. but i didn't want to. Anime Expo was boring, i didn't even want to go, lol.

Lord Il · « **Reply #5 on:** July 04, 2007, 02:44:59 PM »

heh... This is the third time this topic was created after the other two disappeared. Well, third time's the charm, huh? ^^

Looks like I'll be seeing it this Saturday..

ElricJC, you've painted a very bad picture of what's to come. X_x Shame on you for putting me into such a depressive state of mind. :wink:

ElricJC · « **Reply #6 on:** July 04, 2007, 03:01:33 PM »

Eh, don't mind me too much, I'm a hard ass when it comes to movies. Maybe I just can't shut off the ol gray matter long enough to enjoy its major point. Apparently I'm one of the harshest critics of it - even Roger Ebert gave it a positive, though he did remark it was quite dumb and not well written at all.

So far according to the sites I was perusing, on a scale of 10 it's hitting in the 6-6.2 range, but that's from critics and pricks like me. I guess when I put my transformers away for the last time when I was 13 they stayed there, out of sight, out of mind.

Frankly, didn't even know there were two other topics about it. Oh well.

Lord Il · « **Reply #7 on:** July 04, 2007, 03:25:44 PM »

I think the other two topics disappeared because the board had to be reset.
I'm glad you brought it back.

I'll admit that when I walk into the movie theater, I'll be quite critical over it. It's something which can't be helped much when The Transformers was my show of choice growing up in the 80s. Followed it pretty much religiously. Some of us used to fake being sick just so we could stay home from school to see an episode or two. I think it was for that very reason that I decided I needed to buy a VCR back then. :lol:

HA1L ILPALLAZZO · « **Reply #8 on:** July 04, 2007, 03:30:18 PM »

Quote from: "Lord Il"

It's something which can't be helped much when The Transformers was my show of choice growing up in the 80s. Followed it pretty much religiously. Some of us used to fake being sick just so we could stay home from school to see an episode or two. I think it was for that very reason that I decided I needed to buy a VCR back then. :lol:

aaahhh the good old days when cartoons seemed relevent enough that we all skipped school just to watch it :lol:

Lord Il · « **Reply #9 on:** July 04, 2007, 03:40:50 PM »

^Indeed, those were the good ol' days for sure. =P
I think Voltron used to have the same effect on us as well. ^^;

But Transformers owned all.

Lord Il · « **Reply #10 on:** July 08, 2007, 09:14:57 AM »

Saw it yesterday and I can honestly say it didn't manage to rape my childhood too badly! :lol:

I think no matter what, any seasoned Transformers fan from way back will probably have some issues to how certain things were handled.
For me, my gripes would include:

The lacking of character development in both the Autobots and Decepticons. Bumblebee and Optimus were reasonably done, but nothing much from the others. Although, Megatron saying, " You failed me again Starscream!" was a nice touch of nostalgia.

Changing the character forms (names) - example: Devastator was in it, but only in name as he was a giant tank. >_<

The shaky camera work! Why do some directors feel that cameras must be purposely shaken so much during fight scenes?? O.o This is what irritated me about the second Resident Evil movie. It's hard to watch what's going on.

Peter Cullen doing the original voice of Optimus Prime literally sent shivers down my spine - it was so damn brilliant!!!! I would've liked to had heard more of the G1 voices to reprise their roles for the movie. Though, I'm not exactly certain how many of them are still around after twenty-plus years. I recently heard someone say that the original voice for Starscream (Cobra Commander in GI Joe), Chris Latta died in the early 90s. In Transformers Beast Wars, it was Doug Parker, a big fan of Chris' voicework who did Starscream's voice when he possessed Waspinator. IMO, he did a good job. Wish they got him to voice in the movie.

HA1L ILPALLAZZO · « **Reply #11 on:** July 08, 2007, 12:01:13 PM »

as far as I remember Frank Welker (the voice for Megatron) pulled out at the last minute for some reasons so Hugo Weaving did his voice

Lord Il · « **Reply #12 on:** July 08, 2007, 01:46:09 PM »

^I'm not certain, but that may have only happened in the animated movie.
But then again, Leonard Nimoy did Megatron's voice after when he became Galvatron.
And when the series continued after the animated movie, Galvatron's voice changed again. O.o
I must look this up after. ^^;;

I was pretty sure that Frank Welker did Megatron's voice for the most part of the series though. hmm...

EDIT: I think you're right about that, HA1L. I've seen more than one source that says Hugo Weaving did Meg's voice for this movie. If only Frank Welker could've done it... The original Optimus Prime voice with the original Megatron voice would have been FTW! =)

HA1L ILPALLAZZO · « **Reply #13 on:** July 08, 2007, 02:39:17 PM »

Quote from: "Lord Il"

^I'm not certain, but that may have only happened in the animated movie.
But then again, Leonard Nimoy did Megatron's voice after when he became Galvatron.
And when the series continued after the animated movie, Galvatron's voice changed again. O.o
I must look this up after. ^^;;

well to answer that frank did galvatrons voice after the movie

Lord Il · « **Reply #14 on:** July 08, 2007, 02:59:07 PM »

^He really did? But he sounded so whiny as Galvatron! :lol:

I guess maybe he changed his voice a bit as Galvatron. Electronic voice manipulation may've had something to do with it as well. But Frank Welker is indeed a genius with his voice range.