I have been deeply disappointed by both films. All my friends make jokes about the films and talk about how it's the worst things they have ever seen. I just feel embarassed to be associated with what is considered the cause of Hollywood's downfall. Crap story, crap acting and too much CGI. Who here believe I am wrong in my deduction or who agrees?

 

You believe Transformers & ROTF have caused the downfall of Hollywood?

Really?

 

'Sup, Ebert.

OK, I can understand bad story and acting, but......

Seriously, why are you complaing about too much CGI? What, do you want the Transformers to be, like, stop-motion animation or something?

 

Marionettes or GTFO.

 

Crap story and crap acting I agree with. The CGI was decent, and only lost points for a lot of the robots looking similar - they should've looked more distinct from each other to the point where you can instantly tell them apart at a mere glance.

 

I thought the first movie was good starting point. Flawed, but fun.

Then ROTF steered into the opposite direction for me. Took almost everything I didn't like about movie 1 and made a new movie out of that. Haha.

So no, I don't think they're taking it into the right direction, but I'm awaiting final judgment until I see what TF3 becomes. No strikes, no excuses this time.  

In the end it's making buttloads of money though, and the general audience seems to like it. Not something to be really ashamed of as a TF fan, I reckon.

 

The only CG in Bay's movies are the bots, and they have to be to look good. Explosions and car crashes are all real - this is what Bay does well. If you want to talk about crap CGI there are tons of movies out there lately to complain about, G I Joe for one.

 

Yes. I really do believe they're taking them in the right direction.

They stay very true to the source material (specifically G1), but they make it a little bit more realistic, and add a little bit of lewd humor to it.

And this is coming from someone who loves every Transformers series except the Unicron Trilogy.

Also, my non-hardcore (like me =P) Transformers fan friends love the movies... just sayin'.

 

Define 'right direction'.

 

While I enjoy discussing the movies, whether they're good or bad really has no bearing on my life. They certainly aren't causing the downfall of Hollywood, that's for sure. Ultimately, it is up to Hasbro to decide whether the movies are taking the franchise into the right direction, and I don't think they're complaining at this moment.

Obviously, you must have missed the CGI destruction of the Battleship, the CGI destruction of multiple buildings and one full of humans, and multiple CGI shots of Sam and Company in both movies. Yeah, the only CGI is the bots.

 

Feed him to the Sharkticons.

Sorry to take your quote, Optimus Sledge.

 

Robot action that sells toys?

Kid, this is no "direction", Live-action is the freaking CORE of Transformers.

 

I think describing them as "the cause of Hollywood's downfall" is a little over the top, to be honest. The films are designed to be big budget, blockbuster summer aciton films. While this variety of cinema is not to everyone's taste -- I myself can grow a little bored of the explosions and "witty" dialogue after seeing a few too many such films -- they are, for the most part, fun. We go to the cinema to be entertained and I believe that the movies have succeeded in that ambition. Of course, there are those of differing tastes, such as yourself it seems, that'showIRoll, who would disagree and say that the films are poor examples of the art that fail to live up the expectations that they generate.

The acting is less than stellar, that I cannot even try to deny. However, I can't see that it matters. It is the robots that are meant to be the stars of the piece. And, as Triceredon points out, there is really very little other option for creating the robots other than the use of CGI. Movie reviewers -- and I picture Mark Kermode here -- seem to have this irrational distaste for CGI that I simply fail to understand. The creation of CGI characters is completely essential in a movie like Transformers. A large portion of the characters that are explored in the film are giant alien robots than cannot be shown in any other way. Unless, of course, you happen to be keeping one frozen in the basement?

Seconded.

Flawed but fun describes the movies perfectly. They are never going to be entirely what we in the fan community want them to be. Pleasing us and the non-Transformers-loving average folk is nigh on impossible, unfortunately. Ultimately, as you say, Digilaut, they are making absolute shed-loads of cash and that is the primary measure of a film's success.

The movies have bought Transformers to a wider audience and have bought new fans into our fold and they have come to see the multitudinous wonders of the multiverse thanks to the movies. This can only be a good thing. I have seen friends who I would never imagine watching Transformers yet alone buying them enter the fandom. And it is glorious!

Excellent point. We are all different.

 

I'm sorry to hear that.

Then your friends need to get out more and watch more movies because if ROTF is the worst thing they've seen this year, let alone ever, then they've been DAMN lucky.

Considered by whom? Proof please. And personally I'd consider the glut of "[insert flimsy premise here] Movie" type crap and below average romcoms to be far more harmful to Hollywood's credibility (such as it is anyway).

Not brilliant but passable.

Not brilliant but passable.

Rubbish.

Wrong? Possibly.
Overreacting? Definitely.

 

Joker loves your post. This dude basically said exactly what I was thinking.

 

That sums up my opinion.
ROTF IMO was a better movie than the first not for the acting, writing or what have you, but the better cinematography, action and nods to G1, which were abundant.
I followed the TF arcs, but ignored the surplus to requirement human drivel. I swear Prime, Megatron and the other bots must roll their eyes and criticise humanity behind our backs. LOL! Still, at least the main bots seem to stay serious and interesting.
At the moment I think its the wrong direction in terms of the sensibilities and style of writing. Too wacky and slapstick and I hate the speed dialogue where they try to fit pages of dialogue into 3 seconds on film and scenes/events that have nothing to do with TFs.
The writing needs to be streamlined and, well, ungoofed (not a real word, but you get my meaning).  

 

I'm going to say the wrong direction.

I know summer films aren't very smart or well written, but darn even by the super low standards of summer movies the writing, the dialog, and delivery have been just horrible. It just seems like other franchises have been doing a better job of walking the line between old fans and new folks. Or at the very least it seems like the other franchises have better live actors who can almost make the lines work.

While having access to some really cool military gear is nice I can't help but feel like Bay sells out too hard to the Pentagon so instead of the Autobots feeling like the only heroes that can save the day it some times feels like the Transformers have to take the backseat in their own film. And no I'm by no means calling for an all robot film and I understand CGI costs money but I want to feel like the film is about the robots even if they aren't on the screen all the time.

CGI is a mixed bag. Sometimes it just works really fantastic and your brain can turn off from thinking of it as CGI to thinking of it as a character. Other times it just feels kind of forced like the CGI is only there to show off what ILM can do. Still I think Golem shows that CGI can just as good of character as any live action actor so it's not the CGI but how it's used. Given how overly complex the robots are sometimes it seems like the framing is off so you don't get a nice visual flow.

And money big hairy deal. The Twilight mess makes a ton of money but that doesn't mean I have to like gay vampires glittering in the sun just because a movie about the world's dullest vampire makes insane amounts of money. Sorry but no matter how much money any of the Transformers films can bring it's just not going to shake my feeling that we could have gotten something far far better.

 

I actually like the TF movies, so RIGHT DIRECTION!

 

From a financial term (and let´s face it here, Hasbro wants to make money first and please long time fans later), they are taking Transformers in the right direction acording to them. Storywise, eh, not so much, but it´s passable, so I say they are taking it in the right direction with few bumps on the road.

 

1.) Why you hate live action films? Just cuz megan fox in them and she no take her top off
2.) i defenitely believe they were the right choice for direvtors.
3.) i wilkl continue to think this untill they do something stupid like kill mikaela