Rate Transformers

[Mallus]

Yes. The robots are supposed to be surprising. It is, in fact, the plot.

What is this 'plot' you speak of?

In fact, while people were constantly surprised of giant robots from space posing as earth vehicles killing each other, nobody blinked twice at the hot hacker girl. Despite the fact that the two are nearly as rare as each other

You've got a point here.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

While the stereotype of the 'fat, nerdy computer geek' isn't COMPLETELY wrong, it isn't completely right, either. Even at those kind of levels.

Besides, what's wrong with breaking a stereotype like that, anyway? Sure, we had a few others get nailed hard in the movie, but shouldn't gamers be HAPPY the whole fat geek thing isn't completely played to? (Though, of course, it is to a point with her friend, but still)

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

It's not that she is hot. It's that the second best hacker on the planet is a 23 year old hot girl. And yes, you have met people WITH DOCTORATES, which means they are not 23 years old. And if their field was computers and computer security, the odds are DRASTICALLY against them still being in good physical shape.

I mean come on guys, who are we kidding here. We are D&D players. We know reality. Why are you guys pretending like reality isn't what it is suddenly in defense of this movie? I liked the movie fine, but admit it's a fair criticism that Rachael Taylor isn't who would be the second best hacker in the world.

Feh. Movie reality always inflates hotness. Since I'm married to a woman in a historically "un-hot" profession who defies the ever-loving heck out of the "hot girls aren't geeks" convention, I'm certainly not going to concern myself whatever hotness inflation occurs in tech professions in movies. In my experience, it is no more egregious than if she was a hot waitress or a hot doctor, or... whatever you like. If she were a barista or a jewelry salesperson, would you find it so far outside the norm?

Pretty much ALL people in movies are a standard deviation or so above the norm. With that caveat built-in, and a meagre attempt to explain the youth with the "we're recruiting them right out of high school these days" throw-away comment... they did exactly what I would have expected. Summer movies have hot girls. In my experience, tech professions are ALSO in possession of hot girls (increasingly, in fact. Heck, library science is starting to look like an indie-rocker's wet dream.)

As such, of all the minor and major deviations from reality that occured, "ZOMG! That computer nerd is unrealistically hot" just didn't bother me

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

This may be thinking too much, but one thing that bugged me was how the Autobots and the Decepticons knew that the co-ordinates to the Allspark were imprinted on the elder Witwicky's spectacles. Was it that obvious from the pictures on Ebay and in the Government files?

Both sides apparently had figured out that it was on Earth. There were more Decepticons on Earth at start of the movie (Barricade, Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy) than there were Autobots (Bumblebee), which suggests that they were the ones who figured it out (probably by tracing Megatron's movements), and the Autobots followed them.

I suspect that there was a lot of scanning and such that took place before the start of the movie, as the Decepticons crept around the planet looking for any sign of the Allspark and/or Megatron. Of course, they didn't find anything.

I also suspect that the Decepticons might've stumbled across a clue somewhere about the military having information on the Allspark and Megatron, and that led them to abandon cover and take direct action. This is after they've exhausted other sources; while they might hold the vermin in contempt, it's still a bad idea to reveal yourself. Note that they were trying really hard to make sure there wasn't any direct proof of their existence; Scorponok was following the SOCOM team, and only attacked when the guy mentioned that he did have a picture of it. That seems to indicate they were willing to let these guys go if they didn't have any concrete evidence of the Decepticons existence, since an attack on them could provide the very evidence they were trying to suppress.

So, in any event, the Decepticons brutally hacked into a classified network that had the information on it. The first attempt (by Blackout) got them confirmation that the vermin knew something, and the second attempt (by Frenzy) got them the name Witwicky. That then led to them finding Sam/Spike*'s eBay auction. A bit of Cybertronian image enhancement later, and voila.

The Autobots' method is not shown, but Prime mentions that they found it on eBay, too. They may have been using different search parameters than the Decepticons, looking for "weird crap" online that might suggest the Allspark, and hitting paydirt when they found Sam's eBay auction. (I also suspect that "they" may have almost entirely been Bumblebee.)

Brad

* - I so want to call the kid Spike, dagnabbit. And his dad should be nicknamed Sparkplug!

 

[Chain Lightning]

The thing about 1-10 scales is that some people use it like the way school grades use it and others use it differently. Example: average movie to some is a 7 (70% grade= C), to me ... I make an average movie at 5 (right in the middle of the 1-10 scale).

So for me, 5 being a decent enjoyable movie (nothing to write home about, only buy it on DVD if its in the $11.99 bin)...then I rate Transformers a 3.

I know I'm gonna get flamed for that but hey, its my personal review. Special effects looked fine and all. But, even for a popcorn movie it had too many flaws with story/directing for me to give it a higher score.

 

[Pants]

I gave it a 6 for two, BIG reasons:

1) Waaaay too long.

2) Despite it being long it doesn't develop half it's characters properly even the transformers don't get more than a passing nod. The decepticons are woefully under-represented and are reduced to the 'here's my name and I'm coming rargh' scene near the end.

Honorable Mention: Too much time is devoted to extraneous characters that don't do crap or lame side stories when that time could either be devoted to a) shortening the story a tad, b) developing the already large amount of characters (or at least making an effort to) or c) at least ramping up the robot on robot action just a wee bit more.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Its was a 7 BUT could have been a 9 if Micheal Bay actually cared about making a movie about a war between Transforming robots instead of a "movie about a boy and his car"

 

[delericho]

I gave it a 4. Frankly, I found it a bit lame.

Reasons:

1) It was about 40 minutes into the film before Sam even started to interact with Bumblebee as anything other than his 'demon car'. It was another 10 minutes or so before the rest of the Autobots arrived. That, IMO, is far too long. By then, I was already looking at my watch, which is NOT a sign of a good movie.

2) The action was really badly filmed. I basically couldn't follow most of what was going on, even to the point where when

Spoiler

Megatron ripped Jazz apart

, I thought "Poor

Spoiler

Ironhide

!"

3) The whole "Section 7" was really badly handled. I can accept there being hidden government agencies looking into all this wierd stuff, but I hate it when they are cartoonishly inept.

4) A personal hate - I hate it when movies try to talk science in areas I know about and get things so utterly wrong. "

Spoiler

You need to stop talking about Fourier transforms and start thinking about Quantum Mechanics,

" indeed. And don't get me started on

Spoiler

needing to hotwire a computer into the radio in order to send Morse code

! Either hire people to help you get the science right, or just make up technobabble. Don't just use the jargon incorrectly and try to pass it off as real.

5)

Spoiler

They took an item giving off high levels of radiation out of the concrete bunker, and tried to hide it in the middle of a city? WTF?

So, as I said "4". I didn't hate it (Phantom Menace would be a "3", Catwoman barely rates a "1"), but I was unimpressed. Re-edit the fight scenes so I can actually follow them, and I'll give it a "7", but without that...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Good movie. Solid 7.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I've seen it twice and it is now twice as good. A high 9 nearly a 10 but, as someone already said, not enough Starscream.