The 2007 Transformers Movie (No Spoilers)

Ikijigoku · Post by **Ikijigoku** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:00 pm

I saw the new Transformers movie last night. For some reason, my local theater released it a day earlier than all the other theaters.

When the concept design art for the character were made public a couple of years ago, I was not very happy. I originally was going to boycott this movie. The character designs just looked ridiculious. As many of you know, I am avid fan of the toys. The concept art designs looked nothing like any Transformers I'm familiar with.

Putting all that beside, along with my stubbornish, I saw the movie last night anyways. All I can say is this movie is AWESOME. It actually all came together. This movie has tons of action. The action often moved a little too fast. Some fight scene were hard to see because the robots were moving just way too fast. I noticed some scenes had to be shown in slow motion so that we woudn't lose sight of any of the action. Cullen being Prime made the movie for me. Peter coming back as Prime was a very nice acknowlegement for us old-school fans. You also have to watch this movie very closely. There are also a lot of "easter eggs" plugged in to acknowledge the hardcore fanbase. I really thought this was a really god movie, even though the storyline reinvents the whole Transformer (G1 or otherwise) mytho.

My girlfriend was not a Transfomer fan nor has she seen any of the cartoons. Lets just just say, after seeing the movie, she is one now.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:36 pm

I can't believe we still have weeks till this is released in the UK.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:47 pm

Weeks? Ouch. I'm going tonight.

Might pick up a BK Happy Meal to get a little Transformers toy. Or maybe I stop by a Toyota dealershp on the way and transform my ride.

Methinks a movie thread should be A, Stickied, and B, put somewhere else, although the posters are right, it doesn't quite fit in G1.

Leatherneck · Post by **Leatherneck** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:01 pm

I enjoyed it as well.

Also, for the UKers, I'm sure it's available through less than legal methods if you're th at desperate.

anna · Post by **anna** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:14 pm

as i wrote in the news section i loved the movie and give it 2 thumbs up and 4-4 and a half stars my only actualy complaint is that the robots looked too much alike(and like bugs) however that did not ruin my over all experience so i reccommend you go for it.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:45 pm

I'm thinking that if I go into it thinking "This is THE Transformers Movie," I will walk out of there more pissed than if I think, "This is the first movie of a trilogy, and as such, it A, is going to be full of set up and a bit lame in points as they work themselves into the story, and B, needs only to be somewhere between Episode I and Spiderman in quality.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:09 pm

Is it defininitely a trilogy then?

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:25 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Is it defininitely a trilogy then?

Yep

Definitely actors signed up for Part 2 (which will start shooting soon AFAIK) and probably 3, with the possibility of another 2 after that

From the studio's perspective the movies look like they'll make good summer popcorn flicks, they are varied and have a wide source to draw stories from, and work well as a '360degree franchise' (i.e. movie, comic, cartoon and toys- marketting from all sides).

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:26 pm

It's probably just waiting on box office returns. But I've got a feeling in my gut that this is going to do extremely well. The reviews have all been quite generous and the word of mouth about the CGI should help as well.

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:27 pm

Shanti418 wrote:It's probably just waiting on box office returns. But I've got a feeling in my gut that this is going to do extremely well. The reviews have all been quite generous and the word of mouth about the CGI should help as well.

I must say the reviews have been very forgiving- most highlight the film has no brain, a flimsy plot and little in the way of characterisation but as far as big, loud, explosiony things go it's generally entertaining.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:00 am

I think one of the reasons for the UK delay could be do to with the 5th Harry Potter film being release last night here in the UK, the film execs probably want maximum coverage for TF.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 2:30 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:
Shanti418 wrote:It's probably just waiting on box office returns. But I've got a feeling in my gut that this is going to do extremely well. The reviews have all been quite generous and the word of mouth about the CGI should help as well.
I must say the reviews have been very forgiving- most highlight the film has no brain, a flimsy plot and little in the way of characterisation but as far as big, loud, explosiony things go it's generally entertaining.

Well, the MAJORITY of the reviews I've seen have put it in the B- to A- range, which is pretty damn generous in my opinion. People aren't interested in quantifying words, they just want to see the grade. lol

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:10 pm

Well my first reaction:

so much for all that 'no mass shifting' baloney- even Bumblebee changes size.

I fully sympathise with those who comment they can't understand a lot of the action sequences, I can't either.

It's a little early to tell, but I don't think I like it. I don't think I hate it, I'm just not overstruck with it. More later

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:29 am

My full review/worthless input on the subject:

Transformers (2007)
Cast:

Shia LaBeouf ... Sam Witwicky
Megan Fox ... Mikaela Banes
Josh Duhamel ... Sergeant Lennox
Tyrese Gibson ... USAF Tech Sergeant Epps
Rachael Taylor ... Maggie Madsen
Anthony Anderson ... Glen Whitmann
Jon Voight ... Defense Secretary John Keller
John Turturro ... Agent Simmons
Michael O'Neill ... Tom Banachek
Kevin Dunn ... Ron Witwicky
Peter Cullen ... Optimus Prime (voice)
Julie White ... Judy Witwicky
Bryan Cox ... (voice)
Amaury Nolasco ... ACWO Jorge "Fig" Figueroa
Mark Ryan ... Bumblebee (voice)

Remarks
I’m certainly not one to ‘geek out’ easily, and I’m also pretty hard to impress unless something manages to hit just the right formula and makes me care about what I’m actually watching. I can safely say ‘Transformers’ brought neither reaction from me.

The film follows the exploits of Shia LaBouf and Megan Fox as Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes as two common-to-every-film teens stuck in a war between the warring alien robotic factions of Autobots and Decepticons.

Assisted by ample doses of lingering soft-focus shots of American soldiers and many scenes of mechanical carnage, these two characters are on a mission to help the Autobots recover the AllSpark and save the Earth from the Decepticons.

Good
Surprisingly, the human interest in the story worked. In fact, I cared a surprising amount about Sam and Mikaela. They came across as relatively genuine characters, if a trifle clichéd, and seemed to have a genuine chemistry working between them.

Aside from that, Industrial Light and Magic have done an excellent job realising the mechanoids from beyond the stars, with my only gripe being a massively over-complicated transformation sequence (overcomplicated to the point of looking plain unrealistic) and character models which I have a hard time telling apart. Never the less a great achievement and the robots are all well rendered with realistic tones- they might as well be made out of real metal.

In terms of pacing, whilst I feel a lot of the film is littered with needlessly repetitive shots of the various robots wailing on each other (which would have meant something if I could tell them apart or cared about them as characters- more later!), the pacing was fairly slick with, it’s fair to say, few moments where nothing was happening on screen.

Bad
I shan’t touch on the geek criticisms here, for they are indeed legion. Geek of course is entirely perspective- I include in it complaints about romantic licence with physics, which I wouldn’t care about if not for the opining to the contrary before release from the director, or the obvious gaping holes in the plot.

Megan Fox seems unable to remember for more than 40 seconds whether she is meant to be taking the gigantic robotic aliens in her stride or if they surprise her. If I were feeling charitable I’d say this was a conflict in her character- her inner concern shielded by an outer bravado. Sadly I don’t believe that for a second- as Mikaela she veers from being confused and baffled as to the presence of the Autobots to being utterly unconcerned by their presence.

I remain unconvinced by LaBouf as Sam. It isn’t that Sam is a dislikeable figure, in fact as teenage leads go he is relatively innocuous, it’s more that I can’t distance the character from the actor (apparently suffering from Tourette Syndrome) who spent every interview exclaiming how wonderful the movie was (with many expletives). That said, I felt the pair worked surprisingly well together and, as human elements go in Transformer stories (classically VERY badly) they got on fine.

My primary complaint with the film is it lacks, more than plot, characterisation or charm, any soul. The film is bright, metally and shiny and completely devoid in my view of any of the heart which makes Transformers, or perhaps I should say some of its more endearing characters, survivors for over 20 years in the highly competitive children’s market.

For all the explosions, rockets and atrocious US military softcore pornography none of the Autobots came across as particularly stirring to me. At best it was nice for my nostalgia to hear Prime again, and at worst Jazz felt like an embarrassing throwback to 70’s blacksploitation flicks. All in all, I didn’t really care for these characters, their one dimensional backstory about a destroyed homeworld or a lost plot-device called the All Spark. I could have been watching any other movie about anything else, I couldn’t really have cared less about the robotic main characters.

That I feel is the worst thing about this movie- I was expecting something which was a ‘remove brain at entrance’ affair, and I was expecting it to be sold mainly on the basis of ‘LOL- GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING!’ but I had hoped I might actually care about the protagonists.

The Autobots came over like a bunch of bumbling non-entities (“Gee, can’t you guys be quiet for ten minutes?” BANG CRASH “Aw shucks, keep it down will ya?” etc.) whilst the Decepticons might as well have been alien-controlled, mechas, Gundams- it doesn’t really matter, none of them had anything vaguely regarding a personality.

Did Megatron win? Did Prime win? To be honest I stopped caring about halfway through, between action sequences too difficult to follow and characters I only gave half a hoot about because of some lingering allegiances from my childhood.

In short, at over 2.5 hours, I feel at least 45 minutes could be culled from the movie quite easily by doing away with needlessly repeated ‘and another big unidentifiable-because-it-moves-too-fast robot gets smacked around by another big unidentifiable robot’ scenes, or at least replacing them with something to actually make me care about these metal leviathans and their stupid war. So Megatron is big and evil? And got greedy? Or something? Boo-hoo.

Overall
Don’t get me wrong, as mindless Sci-Fi goes this is perfectly all right. Surprisingly. I’ve seen far worse- it’s much better than Lost in Space for example quite easily. My only problem is big, loud and dumb does nothing for me. The novelty of seeing big foil-ish, spindly, wirey things kick the hell out of each other wore thin on me after the first few scenes- it was lacking something integral.

What I fundamentally felt this film was lacking was heart- something to make me care about the stars, who are undeniably the robots themselves. I could quite easily enjoy the set pieces, the bangs and the total absence of plot beyond ‘ALLSPARK, FIGHT, BANG!’ if for an instant I felt like I was even vaguely interested in any of the protagonists.

I wasn’t expecting Shakespeare, Christ no. To be frank, I wasn’t expecting anything beyond the cartoon personalities of the robots (the cartoon being this movie’s obvious source material), yet I wasn’t exposed even to that.

None of the Decepticons did anything for me as convincing villains beyond being ‘nasty machines’, and of the Autobots only Bumblebee genuinely had any real personality (Prime I felt mostly had personality only through extension of his cartoon persona- to someone with no such prior exposure he would in my view have been just as one-dimensional a hero as Megatron was a one-dimensional villain).

In any case, for all my griping and grousing, it’s hard to knock the film for three simple reasons. Firstly, it’s making money and investing new life into the franchise- always a good thing in my view as it naturally keeps things ticking over and usually results in some new toys, a few of which might be worth collecting. Secondly, it might spawn some sequels which, now that the opening gambit is played, might pick up on some of the lacking characterisation or plot. Finally, it’s spawned a new cartoon which, despite a rather unique style, sounds like it’s shaping up to be something rather tasty.

If the movie generates even a half of that- good on it. I’ll happily sniff my way through it’s flaws for the promise of some cool toys, a decent cartoon and perhaps a good sequel in a couple of years.

If you like explosions or are likely to be awed by Transformers on the big screen regardless what they get up to since it was your dream since childhood (which is fair enough), this film is for you.

If not, try it anyway. It’s harmless and brainless enough to be not-dislikeable, although I can’t say I was exactly taken with it either. If I see it in a bargain bin in six months for £4.99 I might get it for the sake of it. If it’s £5.99 or over, I’ll pass, thanks.

2.5/5.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:40 am

Wrong thread Karl. Please copy and paste this before my eyes bleed!

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:16 am

spiderfrommars wrote:Wrong thread Karl. Please copy and paste this before my eyes bleed!

?

If you mean spoileries it is spoiler free i think- its just my opinement

I reread it a few times and I don't believe I've given away any plot beyond the basis synopsis listed on IMDB

Do you still want it moved?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:06 am

I hadn't read it, but I don't see any problems with it now that I have. Ignore me.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:14 am

spiderfrommars wrote:I hadn't read it, but I don't see any problems with it now that I have. Ignore me.

long as I'm not causing hassle

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:07 pm

Certainly not.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:08 pm

spiderfrommars wrote: Ignore me.

So, stick to the usual then, eh?

If we are getting a Trilogy of this, I can imagine that this being the first one is to draw people into the franchise, make it a big blockbuster action packed mofo to get the not-us in to watch it. Then hopefully in the second and third ones build up the characters and plot more.

Kind of imagine the opposite of the Matrix trilogy.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:36 pm

the opposite to all triolgys in fact - except Star Wars of course.... but we knew that.

rusty_herring · Post by **rusty_herring** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:57 pm

Kind of imagine the opposite of the Matrix trilogy.

/shiver

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:49 pm

BOOM!

Went to see it with one of me best mates yesterday, ( Oi! How come the movie's been available in most countries since the 28th of last month or so?? Odd.) and it was quite mint.

It makes no mark on trying to do anything brainy or add anything new to scifi, and it doesn't therefore take itself serious in any way. It's action from top to bottom, some of the actors are so-so, but you hardly notice because even tho the movie itself is 2 and a half hour long(!) the pace and speed is freakin' breakneck, unbelievable, edge of your seat style!

By golly, I actually think I in some ways actually enjoyed this movie more than Spider-man 3...

Cullen's return as Prime was a fit in a glove, and Weaving did a pretty good job as Megs, even tho he could have had more lines. I do believe we actually have a new classic line for the big M, whenst he speaks to that whipper-snapper Whitwicky.

All in all, I'd give it a 6.5 on a 10-grade scale. Nah, forget it. A 7! ^^

TransformersRodimusconvoy · Post by **TransformersRodimusconvoy** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:43 am

Transformers is a good movie! I like it!

The film is awsome! I thought Michael Bay would screw the fans because of the changes he made to the characters, But the film was good.

It was good but not great.

I am hoping for Transformers 2!

Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime is always awsome!

Hugo Weaving is good.

All in all. Transformers was not a disappointment.

TransFans.co.uk

The 2007 Transformers Movie (No Spoilers)

hmmm

Transformers is a good movie! I like it!