Transformers

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

You're certainly entitled to your preferences, but I really dislike the technique. Or rather, it's just fine in moderation, but I've rarely seen it used that way.

When I go to see a movie, I want to be able to tell what I'm looking at. With the whole "jerky camera" bit, I often find that I have trouble following the action. Even now, I'm not 100% certain which of the Decepticons survived the final battle, for instance.

[sblock]I believe the only Decepticon that is shown to have definitely survived is Starscream in a clip in the final credits.

-Megatron is definitely dead. (Hooray for Galvatron!)
-Bonecrusher got axed by Prime.
-Blackout was taken out.
-Frenzy killed himself.
-Devastator(or Brawl, depending on what source you ask) is dead.
-Barricade kind of disappeared, but his door was on the ship that was dumping Megatron into the see, so that wound suggest he was taken out off screen.
-Scorponok seems to have survived, as he just dug into the sand after losing his tail.

So one survivor definitely...two probably.[/sblock]

 

[Mouseferatu]

[sblock]I believe the only Decepticon that is shown to have definitely survived is Starscream in a clip in the final credits.

-Megatron is definitely dead. (Hooray for Galvatron!)
-Bonecrusher got axed by Prime.
-Blackout was taken out.
-Frenzy killed himself.
-Devastator(or Brawl, depending on what source you ask) is dead.
-Barricade kind of disappeared, but his door was on the ship that was dumping Megatron into the see, so that wound suggest he was taken out off screen.
-Scorponok seems to have survived, as he just dug into the sand after losing his tail.

So one survivor definitely...two probably.[/sblock]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't 100% certain. (Particularly about

Spoiler

Barricade, whom we didn't see in the final battle.

)

But the point, at least for me, stands thus: I should have been able to tell based on the details of the final fight. And I couldn't. I loved the movie, but a bit more clarity and a bit less frenetic camera spasming would have been better.

 

[Acid_crash]

I see the camera shaking as the ground shaking when there was a ground collision, or something of an equivalent. For me, it puts me into the movie more, as if I was actually there.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm okay with the shaking camera in small portions. I'd much rather see giants robots beating the snot out of each other from a bit further away so that I can see as much as I possibly can.

 

[paradox42]

You know what? I've never heard a single person say how much they like shaky cameras during action scenes. Why on earth do they keep doing it. It's like you can't appreciate the action because the camera is gyrating all over the place.

Amen.

Thirded. Or fourthed. I haven't finished reading the thread.

EDIT: Okay, thirded. But I also agree that the shaky camera was used mostly where one would expect the ground to shake, so it works in that sense.

 

[Felon]

The shaky camera technique is sort of a cheat, to make the CGI in the shot look more real.

I enjoyed this movie immensely. As joked by one of the characters, it's much better than some other epic globe-spanning apocalyptic summer blockbusters from the past decade. It does follow the formula set by its predecessors in that the action focuses on a diverse cast of everyman misfits who all get pulled together at the end. In fact, there are direct analogues to Will Smith's and Jeff Goldbloom's characters from Independence Day.

The humor is spot on here, and does its job perfectly--namely, it gets the audience so relaxed that suspension of disbelief becomes a non-issue (well, for 99% of the audience anyway). I don't understand how "not taking itself seriously" is a legitimate criticism of a movie that has a premise that would fall flat on its face if a director tried to play it with a completely straight face.

It got a round of applause when the credits rolled. I was happy to join the clapping.

 

[Felon]

Oh, one thing I wanted to comment on by itself--in fact, it may even deserve its own thread:

What the hell is this crap with trailers that don't give us a freaking title for the movie they're advertising? We got two in a row. One was some goofball comedy about some loser Super-Dave wannabe, and another was some kind of Godzilla movie shot from the clueless screaming extra's point-of-view (you don't get to see the monster, just stuff getting smashed while the masses get all scared and slack-jawed). I actually thought for a second that the first one's title was "August 3rd", as it was presented in big crazy text in place of where a title would go.

I can only suppose there's some half-baked "leave them wanting more" theory at work. Seems pretty insipid to me, since if you overuse the technique, it just makes the trailers run together into some thoroughly forgettable hodgepodge of scenes.

 

[Jeysie]

I'd like to state my own feelings that this movie was two-and-a-half hours of pure awesome.

Aside from the sheer coolness of seeing giant transforming robots fighting (and hearing Peter Cullen's classic bass), the movie *did* have more character and depth than I was expecting. For instance, at the point where

Spoiler

Bumblebee got damaged in the city fight scene and he was dragging himself along after Sam

I was thinking to myself, "Damn, I'm actually getting *weepy-eyed* about a *CGI-generated giant robot*."

And I didn't even notice the shaky cam, to be honest. *sheepish look*

Other than that, I can't really make any nitpicks or specific praises that weren't already made.

Peace & Luv, Liz

 

[drothgery]

Saw this afternoon. Definitely a fun romp. The plot-lines got a little cheesy. Hollywood's insistance that 3/4 of all star computer geeks be something other than dorky white or Asian guys (unlike the vast majority of real computer geeks) grates. Continued small arms against giant robots that have proved immune to small arms fire, especially when they're disguising themselves as things that normally wouldn't be bothered by small arms fire grates; you'd like to see someone break out a grenade, or a shoulder-launched missile if you're not going to give the 'important' humans tanks or planes.

But that's nitpickery. Best geek movie so far this summer.

 

[thatdarncat]

and another was some kind of Godzilla movie shot from the clueless screaming extra's point-of-view (you don't get to see the monster, just stuff getting smashed while the masses get all scared and slack-jawed).

Per IMDB, that'd be "Untitled J.J. Abrams Project". You've summed up what's known about the movie pretty well.



Went again tonight, with a different group of friends. Just as good the second time around.

My only problem goes behind a spoiler tag:

Spoiler

Why, after they rescue the kids from Sector 7, does Prime not shift to truck form and drive the kids out?