For the record, I've seen it because my Mom is the voice of megatron.

It was good.

 

Maybe the Moviemakers are just Yanking our Chains (in this case I hope so) and we will still get to see lookalikes from the G1 cartoons.

I'll guess i'll wait until the 22nd ........for now

 

All right, here are my greviances. I'm not aiming to change anyone's opinion.

I should state, right up front, the basic principle I've adopted with this film:

I am interested in this film, as any Transformers fan would be. However, I don't believe that the staff involved in creating this film deserve my money. If a legal way presents itself, I will see this film. However, I will not pay to see the film and I will not pay for any of its merchandise.

My biggest greviance is with the way the staff handled approaching the fandom. Don Murphy, bless his heart, was the first person to ever get the ball rolling on creating a Transformers live-action film and, for that, I gotta offer him a "hats off." It's pretty apparent, from the way Murphy posted initially, that he wasn't as passionate about the Transformers series as, say, us, but he knew what he wanted - giant f***ing robots - and he knew we'd want them to (and I say "we" as a fandom en masse, not just these boards or the internet fans in particular.) Initially (approx. 2 years ago, just about) Murphy - and his boards - were pretty approachable and you could air an opinion on the film there. Granted, even SINCE that time, there has been a steady flow of folks who don't quite understand what it means to offer genuine feedback (I'm mostly talking about folks who make one or two hyperbole-ridden, poorly-phrased sentences and then disappear) but, personally, I'd like to THINK that Murphy - and whatever staff he might have had - could have taken the time to find the well-written opinions that were worth considering and, well, considering them.

It seems like he did. But as the Transformers movie juggernaut began to take shape and folks began to sign on, the shape of the film became more and more concrete - and, as it did, Murphy became more and more jaded with the fans and their disagreements or disinterests. This is the point where I became skeptic and uninterested in funding this film. Murphy seems to have just become a bible-thumper for the film at this point. Then again, his job is done, sort of - he's sold his product to the Hollywood-types and now has to just move on to pushing it in the press and media, fans be damned.

This I find irksome, particularly because he approached the fandom first, for our opinions on the film and our feelings about Transformers. HE CAME TO US. WE GAVE HIM OUR THOUGHTS FOR FREE. HE WILL GET PAID - A LOT - FOR SAYING "FUCK YOUR THOUGHTS, WE'RE GOING WITH THIS." This doesn't gel with me.

My doubts became further cemented when Bay was brought in as the director. This is blatant, straight-up personal preference: I don't like him as a director. However, I also want to point out that most of the interviews with Bay have demonstrated him to be aloof, disconnected and generally entertained by the fandom, as if he's pretty sure we'll be eating out of his hand no matter what he does. This is a fine attitude if you're a member of the fandom. It certainly makes you look like a real asshole if you're the director of a film FOR that fandom.

Orci has left me unconvinced. He's aware of the premise of this film and the general premise behind Transformers, but there are a lot of nuances about the series that he seems to have missed. The video and written interviews with him have left me uninterested in giving him my money.

What changed my opinion from dark gray to black, though, was the arrival of the Hasbro representative (I believe he was an executive at Hasbro?) when the Megatron designs were released. If I remember correctly, he made two posts, where he basically indicated that he was shocked - SHOCKED - that the fandom didn't simply accept the Megatron designs with open arms. It was as if, all along, he and the rest of this movie production staff were just expecting any fan - internet, offline, child, whatever - to just accept the movie designs with a coke and a smile and to STFU. Truth hurts, doesn't it, Hasbro? Not everyone likes it. The fact that this dude balked in the way that he did pretty much convinced me that this is not a film I plan to financially support.

...sigh.

Formally (i.e., within the context of the film itself) I'm on the fence about the robot modes. I will buy the premise that these are "robot aliens from another world," who have to design a suitable alternate mode that fits their general bodytype and design, but I simply, honestly, hate the designs for each head we've seen so far. The bodies, I can almost gel with - I kinda figured we'd get designs similar to what we've seen so far. (I've indicated before that I was hoping we'd get stuff that's a bit more boxy, but I'll roll with the designs.)

In my opinion, the faces of each of the Autobot characters are "detached," figuratively - they do not resemble faces that put out a range of emotions (i.e., human faces, something we're all relatively familiar with.) Now, I know exactly where this point leads - it leads to that "so what IS human and what does a realistic alien look like?" thread that went on for nearly a month - but, for each counterpoint I've seen to the face designs, I still can't see these as being characters whose facial expressions we will recognize, sympathize with and understand. For a series of characters who will have only a few lines, their facial expressions will be important and recognizable for the few minutes that they're on film. I just don't think we'll get that with what we've seen for Jazz, Optimus, Ratchet and Bumblebee.

The Decepticon faces look ridiculous, if simply for the fact that they're obviously designed to look stylistically evil. The "I'm bad because I've got tons of pricklies and spinies coming off of my face" idea for each face just makes the Decepticon faces we've seen look goofy. I think the idea of visually portraying these guys as bad guys TO THE EXTENT THAT their faces look like the mechanical version of robot Chinese Dragons is piss-poor.

The rough draft for the script that we saw is...par. I've heard everyone shout that it's going to change and Ohmahgawd! This is just the rough draft!...but I haven't seen much from the stills that have been released and the merchandising we've seen to indicate that the script has changed dramatically. I'm not looking for a piece of cinematic gold when it comes to the lines and scipt decisions, but I've seen better scripts for a Transformers film, particularly some of the stuff on the old usenet groups and the one GrungeWerx was working on.

The actors? I don't care. So long as they respond to the Transformers, I really just don't care. LeBouf has demonstrated himself to be a real fool and the rest of the cast seems to be so much eye candy to lure in the rest of the movie-goers. Fine, whatever. That doesn't really register or matter to me.

If what we've seen - script draft, interviews, leaked photos, movie production staff's reaction to all this, etc - is an indicator of the film we're going to receive, than no thanks. I'll spend my $10 at the box office on Die Hard 4. I'll spend the ~$200-$300 I usually spend on Transformers merchandise per year on other stuff. And, above all, I don't really plan to mention the film to my friends.

I should note that I am just one person. Will my personal decision affect the way Hasbro does business or cause changes to the final product, the film? Really, probably not. The money I spend on Hasbro toys is a ridiculously tiny flash in the pan compared to what they pull in every quarter - I know, I owned stock in them and paid attention to that stock like a hawk. Will my conscious decision to tell people that I, a big, diehard Transformers fan, am not interested in the film, affect other movie-goers? Probably not; I'm only affecting maybe 30-40 people (if that) out of millions of potential movie-goers.

...but here's the clincher: I'm not the only one that has negative opinions like this. And I'm not the only one who will vote with my voice and my wallet. So, honestly, I don't feel like my opinion is moot.

* * *

I want to point out to anyone who's planning to extract this post and disseminate it point-by-point that, in the course of my life, the opposing political party to the one which I vote for has spent thousands of dollars trying to convince me to vote in another manner, using any number of eloquent, blunt and articulated messages. I still vote the same way I did since I registered. There's a high likelihood that your response to my post is not going to change my opinion, either.

 

I don't understand why the producers of this movie couldn't have taken a Spiderman, Superman, or Batman kind of direction with this movie. They mythos for all of those are deep and well-loved by their loyal fan-base. The same with Lord of the Rings. Every one of those movies BASICALLY kept the general premise of the mythos and developed on top of it. If anything, the sequel would be where I could see them making a departure from the 1st movie and becoming more creative once they knew they audience liked the first movie. To "throw the audience into a pool of ice cold water" with the first movie was not a good idea.

Its amazing how much home-made stuff I've seen on the TF websites. AWESOME pics, exquisite kitbashes, great stories, great 3D renders, great animations, great music montages, great trailers. Why can't Hasbro tap into this potential? Why pay people who have no real, personal interest in the TFs create the movie when you have people who passionately care about the TFs make the movie? Doesn't Hollywood realize that they are losing this war? They keep churning out movie on top of movie with the same formulaic ideas and same production crews. Things like YouTube and independent music artists having their own website will bring about the downfall of these goliaths.

The Hobbit was one of the first cartoon movies I ever saw. Frankly, it wasn't that greatly drawn but it had a certain charm to it. The movie didn't have all the bells and whistles, didn't have blockbuster actors being the VAs, etc. Heck, Lord of the Rings didn't have any big name blockbuster actors either. The movie simply rocked though because the ENTIRE crew was passionate about the movie.

Anyways, I will end my rant here. I think anyone can see why I have a problem with this movie. I rarely go to the theatres to watch movies now-a-days simply because I will not monetarily support Hollywood's formulaic crap. I was hoping that the TF movie wouldn't be caught in all that, but unfortunately it has and has been mutated into something unrecognizable by me.

Here's to hoping that the Japanese CGI TF movie will be better!

 

I wasn't "here" ie part of on-line fandom when that happened, so the anger that I'm sure loads of you feel about that doesn't affect me beyond a feeling of comraderie with you all.

What DOES annoy me, and I'm a supporter of the film, is the immature manner certain people involved in the production have conducted themselves either in interviews and/or online.
On the one hand, we've Josh Duhamel who's coming across as a profesisonal actor who's LOVING his job on this moive, clowning around with the others on camera and in interviews.
Other OTHER hand is Shia "f**king this, that and the f**king other" Le Beuf. Who is coming across in interviews as a right wally.

Which of these is the better image to get across?
Yeap, Duhamel's. Even if it's an act, it's the right impression you want audiences to have going in "you know, those actors had a good time making the movie. Maybe it'll be a good movie". Not "geez it was a hard movie to make. I hope it's not going to come across that way".

Now, Murphy's rants at fans. Yeah we can be right wallabies sometimes. But mate, you've got the last laugh. You're being paid to do this. It's you're name on the screen. Grow up. You openned the door by asking for our opinion. Now you're stuck with it.

 

I'm more than sorry this ever happened now. But everyone will know soon enough. That's all I'm going to say.

 

The only thing he loves is making money. The irony is in how he chooses to make it.

 

Bumblebee Bent License plate.

 

I wonder how many people that constantly complain are not even going to PAY to see the movie and instead illegally download it or find some other method of watching the movie for free.
Like voting if you pay to see the movie you may bitch, if not, comments matter not.

 

Undoubtedly several of the people involved in making the movie like/love TFs (Seriously, a lot prolly do). However, most of those are not in charge or in any position to change stuff. They just do as ordered. Whether or not Bay likes TFs, I'm sure he sees his movie as his own creation and therefore his own artistic freedom and I'm sure he'll want to make something he wants to be proud of, nobody wants an abomination under their name. The question is, if 'we' can enjoy his interpretation. (With his, he may get too much credit btw, he's got an art team under him, but he and the producers obviously have the final say. The Hasbro design team most likely follows the movie and provides advice and what they themselves are able to produce, but not much more, the final decisions seem to lie with the movie makers - and Hasbro's board approval).

The main problem is a lot of us can't agree where this artistic freedom ends, or rather, where he doesn't think it ends and what part of his artistic freedom is preoccupied.

 

All right, Sally. What if you get a coupon to see the movie for free, or a gift certificate, or if the person who you see it with pays for you. Is your opinion then invalid too?

For that matter, what if you go to a half-price matinee? Is your opinion only worth half as much?

Laughable.

(Disappreciation thread with twice as many posts FTW)

 

Nice edit from Roscoe. I guess that wasn't insulting and condescending enough, hrm? I wonder how much it'll have changed by the time I post this.

What he was trying to say (before you resorted to attempting to make fun of him - a recurring trend on these boards unfortunately, especially amongst people who don't like a movie they haven't even seen yet) was that a lot of the people who are saying they won't pay to go see the film on principle will still download it. Which is highly hypocritical of them. And yes; if you don't PAY, your opinion doesn't mean ANYTHING as far as the people making the movie are concerned.

Exactly what I thought when I read your post. Crap like that is why this thread has so many more posts; people simply can't be bothered to put their opinions out there, just for people like you to pick at.

People who like what they see, but are fed up with being shouted down over it FTW.

 

I'm not a fan of being told my opinion doesn't matter.

Bittorrent FTW.

 

And how do you know his name's NOT Sally?

 

No-one else is either. Doesn't stop you.

Ahhh, I see. Must have PM'd you and corrected you from "Roscoe".

 

I wouldn't lower myself to do such a thing. I'm on record as hating this as much as GINO.

 

I suppose I'd be quite the br00ding d00d as well if I got pissed off at every condesending post in a thread titled The Transformers Movie DISAPPRECIATION thread. Hrm.

 

100th post yay