Transformers the movie thread

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ZeonfromHell
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I personally found it to be absolutely terrific. Yes, it is not the original and took a few liberties, but for waht it was, I enjoyed it. As far as the US Military involvement goes, I didnt think it was such a bad idea. I mean come on, if two superpowers were fighting over your very survival, wouldnt you try and tip the scales in your favor? I didnt like the Sector Seven garbage though, but that still didnt spoil the movie for me.

And for the record, Optimus Prime got his ass kicked by Megatron. I wish he would have at least fought a little better. And how can you sneak around a house when youre a gaint robot? :oops:
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I saw it last night and I liked it as well. It was entertaining, despite all of the claims my friends have made saying it sucked. While the Sector Seven crap was annoying as hell, it worked in finding a way to get the writers out of their mess with sticking Megatron in the Arctic Circle at the beginning of the movie. There were also a few useless characters stuck in there as well...

Now... I've never been a major Transformers fan before watching this, so I dont have much to compare this movie to. But as a movie, it was good and lived up to the hype in my opinion.
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Nagi
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Here's the thing, though. I'm not saying they shouldn't have had any sort of military angle at all, I'm saying they overdid it to the point that it superceded the Transformers themselves in overall importance far too many times. When half of the Prime/Megatron duel is not shown on screen because Bay is too busy pimping Army men kicking Brawl and Blackout to the curb, there's a problem.

I go to a movie called Transformers to see Transformers. I don't go to a movie called Transformers to see a comprehensive mockumentary of how our military would counter a pending giant robot invasion. The movie would not have suffered at all had it placed some twenty-odd minutes of its absolute military focus onto the real intended focus of the movie, being the Autobot/Decepticon war, and kept the human countermeasures as a notable aside and not a main focus.
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Well from what I've read, Bay heavily relied on the US Military for support throughout the movie, so it only make sense it ends up looking like a fusion of Terminators and an Army of One commercial. As for the hacker, I really never got what the point of that was, could have used that to give the Decepticons much needed screentime.
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Aegis
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Frankly, I had nothing against the humans holding a spotlight with the Transformers, especially considering that one way or another, they've always played a role with the rest in some form. I also liked the fact that the Autobots were goofy, complete with hiding behind the backyard of a house, or wanting to kill that 'infestation problem'. ;p It just gives them a nice quirk to go with their otherwise serious personas without sacrificing the core character. Hearing Peter Cullen say 'Oops, my bad' was one of the high points in the movie for me along with Ironhide showing off his big cannons. ;p

Mind you, I have to agree that the military was a sore point for me; nevermind it made me think 'Transformers and GI Joe' only with a different name, I was never really a fan of the blatant 'AMERICA F**K YEAH!' treatment myself, and it was oozing with it during the final battle. To Sam: "You're a soldier now!" Uh, no, he's still a punk kid at the wrong place at the wrong time. :roll: You're the professional soldier, YOU do it yourself. :P

That, plus they didn't really give a good reason of why they should take the All Spark into a populated city beyond having an excuse to see a bunch of TFs mash up buildings. Really, what's the point of Sam giving the All Spark to the chopper, other than for said chopper to get blown up? :P Even if it was a success, what the heck is the chopper going to do? :P Still, it's nothing compared to the little hacker subplot, which really didn't do a whole lot to advance the movie, other than to show another pretty face.
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wing zero alpha
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At least the actress was actually Australian, according to imdb.com.
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Aegis
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Quite a sexy blonde indeed. Mind you, she could be a cute Chinese girl like Mei Ling, and the whole hacker subplot would still be near pointless. ;p
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wing zero alpha
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Aegis wrote:Quite a sexy blonde indeed. Mind you, she could be a cute Chinese girl like Mei Ling, and the whole hacker subplot would still be near pointless. ;p
She could be Natalie Portman for all I care and it'd be the same thing. I was just responding to some earlier post that claimed the accent was fake.
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okay we are in agreement that the hackers subplot was lame but the chick aka rachael taylor can sneak into our bedrooms anytime soooooo back to the gist of the movie...

for anyone with a good eye for detail, was the decepticon hologram they used mr. stonefaced mustache guy, was he the same guy for all 3 holograms they used in blackout, starscream, and barricade? just wondering if that was maybe one of their first unlucky victims and they decided to continue to use his face a la terminator 2 style.
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You sure are a nitpicker for minute details... it seems the holograms are indeed the same for Blackout and Barricade's, but not sure about Starscream's (his hologram had a helmet on).

It states that Blackout is the largest Decepticon in the movie alt-verse, so i was wondering can he transport all the Decepticons in the movie a la Astrotrain?
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It states that Blackout is the largest Decepticon in the movie alt-verse, so i was wondering can he transport all the Decepticons in the movie a la Astrotrain?
What, Blackout was larger than Megs in the movie? Or did I misunderstand something?
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Thundermuffin
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The tech spec profile with Blackout's toy claims he's the largest Decepticon. (Which is ironic, as his toy is smaller even than Starscream, Ironhide, and Ratchet, who are in the same "size class" as him).

Vehicle-wise, he is the largest vehicle in the movie. But we never really see him next to any other Decepticons in robot mode.

I'd say he's at least as tall as Megatron, maybe taller.
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Malancthon
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Nagi wrote:Here's the thing, though. I'm not saying they shouldn't have had any sort of military angle at all, I'm saying they overdid it to the point that it superceded the Transformers themselves in overall importance far too many times. When half of the Prime/Megatron duel is not shown on screen because Bay is too busy pimping Army men kicking Brawl and Blackout to the curb, there's a problem.

I go to a movie called Transformers to see Transformers. I don't go to a movie called Transformers to see a comprehensive mockumentary of how our military would counter a pending giant robot invasion. The movie would not have suffered at all had it placed some twenty-odd minutes of its absolute military focus onto the real intended focus of the movie, being the Autobot/Decepticon war, and kept the human countermeasures as a notable aside and not a main focus.
There's a couple of things to consider. First, even though it was, what a 150 million doller movie to make, it's still a cheaper movie to make than Spider-Man 3 or Pirates 3. Trying to make the Transformers look as good as they did cost alot of money- so much that Bay took a pay-cut to add more to the CGI budget. I think he in the end decided to use more quality than quantity to make the few scenes with the Transformers better.

Same goes with using the military and GMC. Both agreed to let Bay use their respective identities on the cheap as long as they got the extensive product placement.

Lastly, Hollywood doesn't really like to take risks. Scratch that, no industry likes to take a risk. To draw a parrallel, the original Gundam series still had alot of Super Robot cliches in it, because that's safe for the industry. Hollywood would much rather have a big screen name like Shia Lebauf than Optimus Prime be the draw, because they cannot count on a cartoon character to be a box-office draw, but can count on star power.

However, now that Transformers is a bona fide hit, the filmmakers can focus more the Transformers and less on the humans. All the military and high school drama can be put into the back to focus on Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons for the next movies.
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wing zero alpha
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Ravager wrote:You sure are a nitpicker for minute details...
Welcome to MechaTalk :roll:.
It states that Blackout is the largest Decepticon in the movie alt-verse, so i was wondering can he transport all the Decepticons in the movie a la Astrotrain?
The answer is no. Blackout might be the tallest Decepticon, but he's not that big; Starscream and Megatron are just one or two meters under his full height.
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Ok then, we've been through the Dinobots, now what about the Constructicons? If they're going to debut in the next movie, i see problems with that since Bonecrusher is a part of that gang and he's already got head-capped by Optimus.
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Nightwing03 wrote:Can you actually give a reason why it's "lame"? you cant just critisise a movie without giving a reason why.
I waited 3 hours for a plot twist or an ending. The ending came first
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swordoath
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Something I just found out. Weird Al is playing Wreck-Gar in the new Transformers show. I may have to watch it after all. :shock:
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razgriz
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regarding constructicons, i think that a lot of us agree that to have a gestalt in these presumptive sequels may not translate so well. i would stick with piggybackers like how blackout carried scorponok or barricade carried "decepticon on crack" frenzy
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Nagi
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Ravager wrote:Ok then, we've been through the Dinobots, now what about the Constructicons? If they're going to debut in the next movie, i see problems with that since Bonecrusher is a part of that gang and he's already got head-capped by Optimus.
There are six Constructicons total, though. It wouldn't be too much of a problem to just axe one and make Devastator a five-bot combo instead.

In fact, having a few of the Constructicons out for revenge for the death of their 'brother' Bonecrusher could make for a nice subplot.
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swordoath
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The problem is that Mixmaster exists in movie continuity as well. He's a heavy drone in the various games. This may not affect the situation if they make it into the next movie, but it is a point to consider.
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