Transformers

[Nuclear Platypus]

Word.

And possibly a performance of Dare to be Stupid.

And maybe Grimlock...

And Astrotrain....

Yup and yup and a maybe. I never thought a Weird Al song could be used as a fight song til the original movie. With a kind of odd end to it when Spike's son, Daniel, El Kabongs Wreck-Gar IIRC.

Heck, if Starscream starts off as Decepticon leader in the sequel, they could do some more lines from the original movie:
"Coronation Starscream? This is bad comedy."
"M-megatron?"
"Here's a hint!" *Starscream gets obliterated*

But I like Starscream (RIP Chris Latta) so a really painful wound would suffice.

From the original soundtrack, I'm partial towards Instruments of Destruction too. In maybe 5 minutes, more Autobots were killed than in all the episodes of the cartoon. Especially how Megatron sent Ironhide offline. "Such heroic nonsense."

 

[John Crichton]

You wouldn't know that from watching this movie. Now, the cartoon didn't exactly have loads of characterization for the Decepticons either, but this movie didn't have even that low level of characterization. Ditto for most of the Autobots. Sure, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime each won a fight with a Decepticon, but for the most part, the Autobots were only there to provide the Decepticons with things to shoot at until the humans came along and beat them.

Bumblebee took out Barricade & Devastator/Brawl. Yes, he had help with Devastator, I'll give the humans a quarter-kill on that one. Prime took out Bonecrusher and weakened Megatron enough to give Sam a killshot (giving Sam 25%, here). The humans, on their own, managed to take down Blackout the second time around.

Autobots: 3.5 kills
Humans: 1.5 kills
Decepticons: 1 kill

Frenzy took himself out.

This movie was a tremendous disappointment.

As usual, I'll just ask what were you expecting.

 

[DonTadow]

No, you couldn't make out anything. I saw plenty of robots shooting each other and punching each other in the face, as well as protecting young Sam.

It served as entertainment and dwelling on it is an exercise in futility. Were you looking for deeper meaning? It was a silly moment topped off by a masturbation joke followed by a reveal that was even funnier (the mom's reaction).

If you didn't dig it, that's cool. But don't try and insert meaning or insist that it be replaced by something else. It was a joke scene and ludicrous to boot. Most importantly, it was fun and showed that Prime basically got humanity a little bit, if not all the nuances.

Wish I had your eyesight, but all i saw was a bunch of robots shooting and moving and you couldnt make out who was who most of the time. You probably enjoyed the chaos, but I'd prefer to pay 15 bucks to see the movie and not be moved to vomit.

I thoguht the seen was funny, but it made everyone in the movie look real stupid. It's like telling a joke at a funeral. The joke may be funny, but it is badly out of place. That scene was badly out of place and implausible. The movie's job is to make things "somewhat" belieavable, not treat the audience as total idiots for a few chuckles.

 

[John Crichton]

I thoguht the seen was funny, but it made everyone in the movie look real stupid. It's like telling a joke at a funeral. The joke may be funny, but it is badly out of place. That scene was badly out of place and implausible. The movie's job is to make things "somewhat" belieavable, not treat the audience as total idiots for a few chuckles.

Badly out of place, eh? It's a movie about transforming robots and about zero plot. Where should it have been? It was a silly moment before "the serious stuff" began.

Didn't like it or find that part entertaining? Fine by me. But to say a cornball scene doesn't belong in a cornball movie makes no sense. And why does it have to make anything believable? All it has to be is internally consistent, which it was.

 

[Arkhandus]

Too much humans, too little of the Transformers. The thing that bugs me about Bay is he could make a great movie if he cared too, but just takes the easy way out. He always casts for beauty, not for talent, always has plot holes in his movies, and always has the shaky camera work, and a point in a movie where you have endured so many explosions, and chases, that you do not really care anymore.

The aspect of Transformers I have always found fascinating is that you have two armed sides that have been battling each other for centuries, that have gone from large armed organized armies to a mere handfull of combatants on each side. The cartoon obviously had the luxury of more time to build up that antagonistic but intimate element of the relationship between Autobots & Decepticons.
Bay did next to nothing on that front, which is a shame. Look at something like Kill Bill, and Tarantino made it a point to bring out that intimate aspect, that sense of one character truly knowing another, with brand new source material. Bay could have used the cartoons as a guide.

The movie is called Transformers not Section 7 and the Sec Def. The camera work left me with a headache in the action sequences. I also had a headache from the Bourne Identity or Supremacy, the shaky camera work is a huge impediment to me, I can not follow the action, and have an adverse physical reaction.

While not common I also know I am not the only one that the camera work has that effect on.

Amen!

I fully endorse these statements. Though I did enjoy the movie, as I did not expect too much out of Bay and a live-action Transformers movie, it still could've been made better without much difficulty.

(Edit: Also, the Cybertronians had been battling one another for millenia, not centuries. )

Minor disappointments aside, there was enough to entertain me and my childhood icons were not brutally abused, so I still like the movie. Hopefully there'll be a superior director's cut of the DVD when it eventually comes out.

And Rangerwicket: Muahah, great.

 

[Arkhandus]

Can someone tell me what Starscream actually did during the movie to fail Megatron? I identified some other failures on the part of other Decepticons, but not that one..

/ali

1) Starscream is Megatron's lieutenant, right? At least to start with. Therefore any other Decepticon's failure is Starscream's failure, as their leader, while Megatron's absent.

2) It took too dang long for them to find Megatron and free him, giving the autobots time to catch up and start to close in on the All-Spark. When Megatron himself had already tracked it down decades (or was it centuries, or millenia, I forget?) ago, and just got stuck in the ice after crash-landing. Ergo, Starscream was too stupid or something, and took waaaay too long to catch up and bring the rest of the Decepticons to Megatron's aid in getting the All-Spark.

3) Starscream didn't even get the All-Spark or Megatron out of that human facility; he got there too late, as the All-Spark was already being carried off by humans and Autobots trying to escape with it. Megatron practically freed himself, after Frenzy did a little work to mess with the cryonic suspension controls. Starscream got to the party way too late to do Megatron any good, let alone stop the Autobots from taking the All-Spark first.

Starscream was awesome when he finally did get into the fight, and I'm fairly sure he escaped afterwards, but he definitely screwed up in his main tasks after Megatron ran into misfortune (crashing and getting frozen).

 

[Grog]

Bumblebee took out Barricade & Devastator/Brawl. Yes, he had help with Devastator, I'll give the humans a quarter-kill on that one. Prime took out Bonecrusher and weakened Megatron enough to give Sam a killshot (giving Sam 25%, here). The humans, on their own, managed to take down Blackout the second time around.

What I saw was Megatron about to kill Prime, then getting blasted by a bunch of fighter jets. Then, when he was on his knees, Sam killed him with the cube. That looked like a 100% human kill to me.

As for what I was expecting, given that the movie was called "Transformers," I was expecting that the movie would be about, you know, Transformers. Not about a bunch of humans with some Transformers thrown in. Failing that, it could at least have been a decent action movie, but the directing, editing, and camera work ruined that, too.

Obviously, everyone is welcome to their own opinion, but for me, this movie was probably the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace.

 

[DonTadow]

Badly out of place, eh? It's a movie about transforming robots and about zero plot. Where should it have been? It was a silly moment before "the serious stuff" began.

Didn't like it or find that part entertaining? Fine by me. But to say a cornball scene doesn't belong in a cornball movie makes no sense. And why does it have to make anything believable? All it has to be is internally consistent, which it was.

There's a level that a person suspends there belief too. My belief just wasn't too suspended for that scene. 5 30ft+ machines trodding around a yard in a dense neighborhood raises the ire of no one.

 

[D.Shaffer]

The TF Geek in me cant let this go uncorrected.

Protectobots (?) -Defensor
Stunticons (Menasor)
Terrorcons? -Abominus
had the 2 headed dragon you're thinking of IIRC - Hun-Grr
Predacons (Predaking), one of which might've been Rampage (a lion I think but they also had a tiger IIRC) but it did have 6 members - Razorclaw was the lion. Rampage was the tiger.
A sea creature themed Decepticon team (Piranhacons?), unusual as one of which would form the weapon I think, one of which was a nautilus. - Seacons. The combined form was Piranacon. And yes, it was a 6 member gestalt. Any of the limbs could form a weapon though. Remember most of the gestalt teams could interchange the legs/arms with the toys. The Nautilus was named Nautilator I believe (Yet another in the line of classic TF names, that one)

Sideswipe's "twin" was Sunstreaker (the yellow one).

As far as I can tell, only 2 Decepticons escaped - Starscream and Scorponok but since Barricade didn't get killed onscreen, there's a chance he survived (slim to nil tho).

Someone mentions that you can see pieces of him on the ship so...looks to be slim chance. Of course, nothing says they cant bring them back anyways. If they took a cue from the original cartoon, they had the Decepticons come back after being dunked in molten lava, after all. The first MTMTE series had them all in the drink too.

I sort of figured that the more someone liked the Transformers, the more they'd hate this movie...because it seems to me to be a long insult to fans and source material alike.

*cringe* After having to deal with about a years worth of people saying that 'True fans' must only like things a certain way, I REALLY wish you had worded this differently as it invokes an immediate gut reaction that I doubt you meant. Fans of the material come in a wide spectrum, and this incorporates the various changes that have occured to the franchise over the years. Some people like it, some people wont. As a long time fan of Transformers, no I dont find it an insult. I find the idea that someone gets to decide whether I'm a 'real fan' or not based on a particular change to be the true insult. I find something like TF Masterforce to be FAR more offensive to the line then the movie is.

 

[Jubilee]

1) Starscream is Megatron's lieutenant, right? At least to start with. Therefore any other Decepticon's failure is Starscream's failure, as their leader, while Megatron's absent.

2) It took too dang long for them to find Megatron and free him, giving the autobots time to catch up and start to close in on the All-Spark. When Megatron himself had already tracked it down decades (or was it centuries, or millenia, I forget?) ago, and just got stuck in the ice after crash-landing. Ergo, Starscream was too stupid or something, and took waaaay too long to catch up and bring the rest of the Decepticons to Megatron's aid in getting the All-Spark.

3) Starscream didn't even get the All-Spark or Megatron out of that human facility; he got there too late, as the All-Spark was already being carried off by humans and Autobots trying to escape with it. Megatron practically freed himself, after Frenzy did a little work to mess with the cryonic suspension controls. Starscream got to the party way too late to do Megatron any good, let alone stop the Autobots from taking the All-Spark first.

Starscream was awesome when he finally did get into the fight, and I'm fairly sure he escaped afterwards, but he definitely screwed up in his main tasks after Megatron ran into misfortune (crashing and getting frozen).

That all makes very good sense! Thank you =)

/ali