Damn painful Transformers Review.

TJDIV · 06-24-09, 08:34 AM

Why would I even watch it after reading this?

Damn, does this dude hate Michael Bay or what?

I thought the first one was fun...in a "glad my name isn't Sam Witwicky kind of way"..

And Megan Fox. Come on!!!

I think the writer's a douche.

BG_TX · 06-24-09, 08:40 AM

Growing up I was a Transformer fan... had tons of toys, read the comics, etc. I still have Marvel issue #1 in a case hanging on my wall...

Unfortunately the movies suck... I saw the first one and thought it was pathetic and I have no desire to see the second. This review is probably accurate.

Spook50 · 06-24-09, 08:46 AM

All the hype was saying that this was supposed to fix all the issues the first one had, but every review I've read so far has been absolutely horrendous. Even less character development than the first one, bad stereotyping, and way too much reliance on crude humor (robot testicles? Gimme a fucking break) for a movie that's not even supposed to be a comedy.

Odds are I'll probably still see it for just the eye candy aspect (Megan Fox ooooh baby), but I'm sure not expecting anything beyond hot chicks and pretty special effects.

Edit: That CNN review is actually one of the nicer ones I've read.

Cruisified · 06-24-09, 08:48 AM

I hate being force fed Chevy's the whole time. Bumblebee is a fucking Beetle!

CG work is badass and I would like to make babies with Megan Fox.

lt1fire · 06-24-09, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisified

I hate being force fed Chevy's the whole time. Bumblebee is a ****ing Beetle!

CG work is badass and I would like to make babies with Megan Fox.

yeah that would make it cool and old beetle

Sporin · 06-24-09, 09:00 AM

It's a Michael Bay movie about Giant transforming robots.... who was expecting Casablanca???

I also don't understand the fanboi-ism about the original commercials (cough) I mean "cartoons." Most of the stuff that is getting recycled now (transformers, gi joe, land of the lost, etc.) was junky to begin with and only designed to sell us, as small kids, some toy or or other tie-in. Only through the foggy mist of time were any of these originals "good" or worthy of reverence.

When I go see Transformers 2, I'll expect more of what I got in 1. Big, flashy robots, big explosions, amusing quips from Shia, sexy Megan Fox, and a brain-off couple of hours of entertainment.

nat · 06-24-09, 09:05 AM

It should be a fun movie to take kids too. I know my boy is looking forward to seeing it.

I laughed at all the Star Wars nerds who were at the first one.

Trekkies are so much cooler.

Cruisified · 06-24-09, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lt1fire

yeah that would make it cool and old beetle

Cooler than and new Camaro.

wob · 06-24-09, 09:09 AM

So does the US govt have to step in during this movie and bail out the GM robots?

Cruisified · 06-24-09, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wob

So does the US govt have to step in during this movie and bail out the GM robots?

ZING!!!

Hey I wonder if Obama is gonna fire Optimus Prime.

POW!!!

lt1fire · 06-24-09, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisified

Cooler than and new Camaro.

And with that statement I question your sexual preference

scottm · 06-24-09, 09:16 AM

We just rented the first one, and bought my boy some surprisingly complex transformer toys, ready to see #2 whether it's good or not.

wob · 06-24-09, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisified

ZING!!!

Hey I wonder if Obama is gonna fire Optimus Prime.

POW!!!

He's just going to cap his pay.

Cruisified · 06-24-09, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lt1fire

And with that statement I question your sexual preference

Yes please.

IronYuppy · 06-24-09, 09:50 AM

Meh, Michael Bay isn't really a good director, and - as many have already observed - it's a story about giant robots.

Don't expect too much, and look at it as an exercise in escapism.

I don't fine Megan Fox particularly hot, though; she looks like trailer trash. Way hotter chicks in Hollywood than her.

What is tragic is that Bay is slated to direct (and certainly ruin) remakes of two classic films: The Birds, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

chet · 06-24-09, 09:54 AM

like Sporin said anyone who is expecting anything more than a good special effects and T&A show should pick a different movie (maybe the Hangover?!)

I for one like it. There is never anything saying the characters have to match the '80's toys. They all changed as the show progressed through the years

calico kid · 06-24-09, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wob

So does the US govt have to step in during this movie and bail out the GM robots?

where do you think the bail out money went?

The Transformer?

Jomama · 06-24-09, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sporin

I also don't understand the fanboi-ism about the original commercials (cough) I mean "cartoons." Most of the stuff that is getting recycled now (transformers, gi joe, land of the lost, etc.) was junky to begin with and only designed to sell us, as small kids, some toy or or other tie-in. Only through the foggy mist of time were any of these originals "good" or worthy of reverence.

Ding ding

T Y L E R · 06-24-09, 10:04 AM

My kids played with transformers ... like most Dads I spent xmas day bullding them for the younger son, but I didn't have a clue about the back story behind it all.

I went to the first movie and actually really enjoyed it. Entertaining for sure ..

Sometimes you have to simply enjoy things as entertainment without thinking too hard while you do.

Relax?

Sporin · 06-24-09, 10:05 AM

saw this on another forum regarding the characters changing from the tv cartoon and thought it made some good points...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angina

I just watched the special features disc that came with the 2-disc Transformers blu-ray, and they have a good featurette that goes into why they did certain things, and how they had to contend with all the transformers Gen 1 fans, and I gotta give them a lot of credit for what they did in the first movie.

First off, if you watch the cartoons, the decepticons are usually never vehicles, but usually objects (guns, radios, satellites) or planes. They felt that making the leader of the decepticons a gun would be ridiculous in a live action movie, and I completely agree. They went with a theme of using military/police/munipical vehicles, and I think it worked.

Second off, they mention the whole idea that the robots "transform", not "morph", so all the parts of a car needed to be somewhere in robot form. They also had Hasbro (who owns Transformers franchise/licensing) to contend with, who wanted to make sure they could easily translate movie characters into toys that also "transform" in similar fashion.

Third, they wanted to use many of the favorite characters from the cartoon (optimus, bumblebee, jazz, ironhide, ratchet, megatron, starscream) but obviously wanted to keep the vehicles current. I definitely love what they did with the camaro (as opposed to using a old or new beetle). I don't like the fact that they had a partnership with GM and had to stick with crappy cars like a Pontiac Solstic (original porsche would have been great), Hummer, and GMC truck. The creators of the movie also pointed out that in the cartoons the robots take vehicle form from the beginning on cybertron, which makes absolutely no sense (Hummer trucks on a intergalactic planet?) So they went with robots with a more organic form that eventually adopted the more mechanical parts from vehicles on earth. Which brings me to...

Megatron. He probably had the biggest change, and obviously because they weren't going to make him transform into a 1/10th scale pistol. They figured that he should be huge and arrogant, so rather than taking on a earthly vehicle form, he would look more like his Cybertron form, and transform into an alien aircraft. That was why they made him look more bony and nasty looking. The featurette goes onto show the original concepts of Megatron (which were originally leaked online), and took into account fan response, and scaled down the more raw look to become what you see in the movie.

As far as Frank Welker (original voice of megatron) is concerned... The featurette does a voiceover with a video of the movie megatron comparing Frank Welker and Hugo Weaving (movie voice), and the Frank Welker version is ridiculous. It looked like this huge robot had asthma with the wheezing sound. Perhaps they could have just taken Frank Welker's voice and digitized it and resampled it to make it sound more deeper so that they could say that they used Frank Welker. But didn't they do a good job of using the original voice actor for Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). No complaints here.

My biggest gripe with the first movie (after re-watching it last night) was that stupid little radio robot, that reminded me of all those annoying Jar Jar Binks/Dobby/Gollum characters. The creators said that they didn't want to use the Soundwave character, but instead a similar character... I thought that little thing got way too much screentime, and it looks like the new movie has similar characters. The featurette also goes on to say that they had other characters planned for the movie based on characters from the cartoon (the pink female robot for instance), but they didn't have the budget.

so all in all, I don't think we have much to complain about as far as staying true to the original. If the movie looked exactly like the cartoon (and I'm not talking about the sleek Marvel comics look..thats not original cartoon look), it would have looked ridiculous.