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Author Topic: Transformer (2007): BEWARE  (Read 31329 times)
AnubisVonMojo
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« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2007, 07:46:23 AM »

That's the saddest part: I have no problem with no-brainer summer blockbuster popcorn flicks. But once shakey-cams, extreme close-up fight scenes, quick cuts and an obnoxious cast (including Anthony "waste of space" Anderson) are added on top of Michael Bay, it's a downward spiral... not unlike the same downward spiral made by the water when flushing a toilet.  Twirling

Even if I could look beyond Michael Bay and tune out the entire cast, focusing solely on the Transformers themselves, shakey-cam and lazy fight scene shooting is a monstrous pet peev of mine. Horribly shot fight scenes that used the same method of direction are what put the hurt on my opinion of Batman Begins and made me start to question how much Christopher Nolan should be allowed to make action movies in the future. Begins was awesome, going great and, though not without it's problems, gave me absolute faith the DC could finally compete with Marvel in terms of legitimate movie adaptations again... then the fight scenes started and as I was darting my eyes back and forth trying to figure out what the Hell it was I was looking at, I wasn't so sure. Again, adding that to a movie I already have little-to-no-faith in just guarantees my $11 will stay in my pocket... and hopefully will continue to stay in there, long after Alvin & the Chipmunks has come, died on arrival, and been carried back to the homeworld by the Scientologists.  TongueOut

... the poster of which of course hasn't made it's way onto the internet yet, so I can't top this post off in all of it's intended glory. Damn it, foiled again! I really need a "fist shaking" icon.
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Him
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« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2007, 08:55:59 AM »

So far I'm in the minority here, but heck, I enjoyed the hell out of it.  I expected giant robots causing havoc and I got it.  I don't need to get hung up on the smaller details.  I'm quite happy to wait for the Neon Genesis movie if I need a fix for an intelligent Giant Robot movie...

My only disappointment is the treatment of Jazz.  That plot point was kind of glossed over.


Giant robots causing havoc is only entertaining if you can actually see the action. In this movie, everything was just a shakey, quick cut blurr. And this film had a very generic feel to it. Like it was just going through the motions.

Now I will say that the non-action moments were pretty good. The characters and dialog were decent, but the action was very disappointing. And whats worse is there was no payoff. I was waiting for the Prime vs Megatron show down and when it finally came it lasted about 2 seconds. That's not acceptable.
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Pilgermann
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« Reply #17 on: July 03, 2007, 01:39:28 PM »

SPOILERS

I almost had the impression that they didn't have time to finish all of the effects sequences.  The battle with Bumblebee and whoever the cop car Decepticon was was hardly shown.  Instead we get to see Sam and his girlfriend scramble around and fight with that little crazy Transformer.  Same deal with the battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron.  They freakin' used the great "One shall stand, one shall fall" line, but rather than showing Optimus speak Sam is running around a blown up crevice in the street and we hear the voiceover.

Other things that were idiotic:

"Cute" moments like, "Excuse me, are you the tooth fairy?" and the little kid who sees Prime and  Bonecrusher (I think) battling and looks at his mother and says, "Cool, mom!"

John Turturro was wasted on a craptastic character.  I like how he reveals the girl's big secret of her past.  Oh no, here dad is in jail 'cause he used to steal cars and she helped!  WOW, THAT'S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  From this point on you can assume she'll hotwire a car at some point, and OH LOOK, she hotwires a tow truck to help Bumblebee!

The early scenes of dialogue between the soldier and his wife were funny, and not intentionally.

Computers that can do ANYTHING.

Bad music.  Oh, and Bumblebee's use of music and various audio clips for communicating was funny at first but then it just gets annoying.

As I've mentioned the Transformers were wasted.  The one with the most screen time was that little guy who was busy hacking government files and shooting blades at everyone, and I have no idea who he was supposed to be.

Michael Bay CANNOT keep his camera still.  One of the only moments I noticed where it was static was in the interrogation room scene.  Don't try to tell me that this is essential to his style, either.  It's just poor direction and camerawork.

There're other silly things but  I don't wish to ramble on forever.

I truly wanted to like this film.  I expected it to be lots of fun, but instead it's boring, unfunny, and inept in nearly all areas of filmmaking.  What was so hard about making a fun action-packed spectacle based on the Transformers?
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Bill C.
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« Reply #18 on: July 03, 2007, 02:01:12 PM »

Oh, God, how I feel your pain, Pilgermann.

In its defense--somewhat--the film isn't rampantly stupid past about the halfway point (God, how I wanted to crawl through the screen and punch Shia LeBoeuf in the %#*&%*! face during the first third), but by then all the major pieces are in play save one.  But the showers of glass and concrete that obscure damn near everything in the big sequences...do just that, obscure everything.  And damn that hurts this film...yes, even more than Optimus Prime saying "My bad..." or Megatron busting out a vague Smith-ism.

On the other hand: Megan Fox is absolutely stupid hot.  (EDIT: okay, and Rachael Taylor isn't bad either.  Kind of Anna Nicole-ish, though.)
« Last Edit: July 03, 2007, 02:41:18 PM by Bill C. » Logged
AnubisVonMojo
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« Reply #19 on: July 03, 2007, 02:11:47 PM »

On the other hand: Megan Fox is absolutely stupid hot.

Does that mean that she's so stupid it's hot or so hot that she'll make you stupid?
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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead
"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons
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Bill C.
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« Reply #20 on: July 03, 2007, 02:25:48 PM »

In this case, (b).
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AnubisVonMojo
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« Reply #21 on: July 03, 2007, 02:35:10 PM »

ok then  Cheers
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« Reply #22 on: July 03, 2007, 03:49:30 PM »

You guys HAVE noticed Bay is in talks to direct TRANSFORMERS 2, right? 
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AnubisVonMojo
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« Reply #23 on: July 03, 2007, 04:19:08 PM »

You guys HAVE noticed Bay is in talks to direct TRANSFORMERS 2, right? 

Man, that's no surprise. Any action movie based on a licensed property is immediately targeted for a trilogy deal before the first even hits the screens, which includes trying to keep the cast and crew together in the hopes of cloning what could be a blockbuster success. In some cases everybody's happy with it (Pirates of the Carribbean) and in others it starts to get on the gang's nerves (Spider-Man).
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"Don't make me stain my last clean shirt with the back of your head." - Shatter Dead
"A grizzly bear with a chainsaw. Now THERE's a killing machine!" - The Simpsons
"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder." - Jaws: the Revenge
BTM
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« Reply #24 on: July 03, 2007, 06:45:42 PM »

Well, me, I REALLY liked the film, but I did have some quibbles...

(spoilers below)

First up: too many humans!  The writers said they split the time in the film about 1/3 human, 1/3 Autobots, and 1/3 Decepticons, but I REALLY don't think that's accurate (granted, maybe it was in the script.)

It's not that I'm bothered by the humans being important characters, but to me, there were too many of them, and a lot of the roles were just pointless (save to add "comic" relief.)  For instance, the blond girl computer expert and her "adviser".  Their parts were really gratuitous and added nothing to the film.

Not to mention other pointless time wasting scenes, Section Seven guy captures our heroes, Autobots rescue them, heroes get captured AGAIN less than five minutes later, this time with Bumblebee.  Er.. okay.  Could we just had had Bumblebee with them to begin them, have them all get capture at once, and that be that?

Second, the Decpticons.  WAAAY too little screen time.  I was told, for instance, Starscream would have the same personaility he did in the cartoon, but he got, what, two lines?  And it's about an hour and a half into the film before we even see all the Deceptions as they head towards the military base.  We spend a ton time watching Frenzy do stuff, but that's about it.  (I guess he was cheaper to animate or something.)  Megatron doesn't show up till a looong way into the film, which is a HUGE mistake.

Third, Mike, Mike, SLOW IT DOWN!!  I know, it's an action movie, but a lot of the s**t was happening so fast, I could NOT tell what the hell was going on.  Especially the "Lets do a EXTREME closeup shot of the robots fight" shtick.  Wait, who's winning?  What just happened?  Er.. damn.

For instance, I didn't even realize till the end of the film that it was Jazz that Megatron killed.  And I can NOT for the life of me tell you which Deception Prime managed to KO with his sword.

I don't know if all this upclose, confuso-vision action stuff is Bay's directing choice, or if it was just the fact that the CGI was so damn expensive that they wanted the giant robot fights as short and quick as possible, but still, gave me a freaking headache trying to keep up with things.

anyway, there's a few more minor things I could mention, but those are main the points.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2007, 06:53:39 PM by BTM » Logged

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« Reply #25 on: July 03, 2007, 07:01:04 PM »

^I was also disappointed with the lack of screen time the Decepticons got. Starcream and Megatron both had very well developed personalities in the original cartoon. they didn't just rely on brute force. They were both very sneaky, and scheming and tricky, but in this movie they are reduced to mindless monsters.

Optimus Prime was the only character who resembled his original cartoon self, but why did they alter his face?  In the promo images, primes head and face looked similar to the cartoon, but in this movie they gave him a mouth.

This movie would have been so much better if Bay had treated the Transformers the way Spielberg treated the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Let us see the transformers clearly, let us see them transform, let us see them fighting. Give us some scenes to remember.

and what was with the un-imaginative opening credits? I remember back in the day movies like Starwars and Superman opened with exciting theme music. This Transformer movie had nothing like that. Just the word Transformers appears on the screen. I expect more than that from a movie like this.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2007, 07:02:35 PM by Him » Logged
Joe the Destroyer
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« Reply #26 on: July 04, 2007, 03:57:21 AM »

I just got back from the film, and I have to say I really, really liked it. 

I dunno.  I really had no problem telling what was going on.  The camera was shaky, but usually at a time when robots were don't nothing in paricular like falling or tumbling.   
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Jordan
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« Reply #27 on: July 04, 2007, 12:32:32 PM »

I personally very much enjoyed "Transformers" and I plan on seeing it again. As Trekgeezer pointed out, its a big ole summer blockbuster and is an escape from the real (crappy) world that all of us movie nerds . All of you that have complained about the film make valid points, but you just sound so damned cranky! (If you don't like Michael Bay, then don't see his movies! Problem solved!) I was looking forward to this flick for months and it didn't disappoint me at all, in fact, it surpassed my expectations. I had a lot of fun in the theater, and the audience ate it all up.

Perhaps everyone on this board that didn't like the movie should, in the future, either a) not go alone to the theater to see any movies because you can't really lean over to a stranger and make a snide remark or exclamation of joy or b) go with a crowd of people that are enthusiastic about seeing a film. Sometimes a movie can be made better (or at least more bearable) if you go with the right people.  TeddyR

And shame on you all for not even mentioning the really odd movie trailer that was attached to "Transformers." You know the one: It's shot on a hand-held digital camcorder and takes place at a guy's going away party. Suddenly the ground begins to quake, the lights flicker out, people are running through the streets in a panic, a strange "roar" is heard in the background, explosions are seen in the middle of the Big Apple and finally, the Statue of Liberty's head rolls down the street. This film has been dubbed as the "Cloverfield" project and is apparently a shot on video kaiju flick. (It's being described as Blair Witch meets Godzilla.) There's almost no information about it on the web (the same two paragraphs of regurgitated material appear on every movie news website) and it seems to me that this trailer caused more of a buzz than Bay's "Transformers."
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Bill C.
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« Reply #28 on: July 04, 2007, 05:41:30 PM »

Actually, Jordan, thank you for reminding me of that trailer.  I was wondering what that was all about...though I'm kind of leery of J.J. Abrams doing a giant monster movie...
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Acroyear
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« Reply #29 on: July 04, 2007, 10:18:18 PM »

First Michael Bay movie for me, and last. Boy, do I agree with the author of this thread.
Humor is juvenile. The screenplay is pathetic. I wasn't thrilled with any of the action. I got bored with the battling CGI robots real fast. I probably spent more time looking at my watch than what was up on the screen. Michael Bay is a wretched film maker. He lacks class and style. This movie is for people with a short attention span.  It's like watching a XBox video game. This movie is for people who loved ID4 and Godzilla (1998)

A real, genuine, popcorn action movie would be a little movie that goes by the name of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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