Eagerly anticipating ROTFlol.

I can't say how I feel about these movies, because we've only seen 1. Hoping Transformers doesn't suffer the same problems that POTC or Matrix did: excellent part 1's, dissapointing parts 2 & 3.

 

I was skeptical of the first news of TF1, but then pictures kept coming and I got hyped. Took my son and wife to see it, wife actually liked it and plans on seeing this one with us too.

Bey with the first one did a good job(every movie has some bad scenes(bb pissing, awkward hackers) but the rest of it shined brightly in my opinion

 

When I first heard they were making a live-action film of TFs, I laughed to myself. then I thought how awesome it was. After seeing the designs, I really liked most of them and eventually came to love them all. I have my few, meger problems with the first movie, but non that others share (shaky-cam was kinda botehring in a dark theatre illuminated by only the screen, but on the TV at home it really works and sets the mood) The effects are stunning, the CGI designs are amazing and every vehicle chosen is a winner.


Also, I think Mike Bay is a cool guy. I said it.


Hells yes- NO, FUCK YES I'm gonna see Revenge of the Fallen!

 

Had room for improvement, but was easily my favorite from 2007.

Had they removed the hacker subplot, shortened the garden/glasses scene to about 3 minutes (that part really ate up the SFX budget that could have gone for a longer Optimus v. Bonecrusher scene, or maybe allowed Wheeljack or some other cut character to remain in the movie, not sure how the budget was divied), cast somebody else in Megan Fox's role, put more work into Jazz's death, among a few smaller other things, the movie would have been pretty slaggin' near perfect.

Truth be told, if Bay had used a pseudonym, the movie would have gotten a lot less flak, as it seemed like 25% of negative reviews was just rehashed Bay-b*tching from other films (Pearl Harbor, BB2) that actually deserved the complaints. Seriously.

 

To elaborate:

When the live action film was announced I cheered. when the 1st image of Bumblebee was leaked, I was excited by what I saw... but if you remember, only his backside was leaked. All my hopes were dashed when I saw his front side.

I hated the movie designs. I concluded early on that their transformations would have to be unrealistically faked to get from vehicle to robot.

The leaked story elements left a lot of room for improvement.

However, %99 of my dislike for everything I saw and heard dissipated upon my first viewing in the theater.

I still am not a fan of the bot designs... and I wish the transformations were more realistic. However, I discovered that I don't need to love every robot design in order to like the scenes they were in.

the story was lazily written IMO. But it was a great action piece with phenominal music. most every negative aspect I saw was forgiven.

While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it was good enough to make me eager to see the next installment.

 

I love them!!! TF1 was so great to see all my heroes on screen...I would have gone a differnt direction with certain things( Prime and megs better fight, not prime geting his ass kicked less hackers, no pissing scene, and a few more things here and there.)


As for TF2 never anticipated a film more but from what I no I would have gone a different direction with a few things especially including more of the original bots other than skids, mudflap, and jolt!

 

I didn't get into Transformers until the movie came out. So I have a real soft spot for the movie-verse.

 

my first thought was that it was about time for a live action movie. I was very happy with it; of course not everything I would want would be able to fit into the movie. Hell, I think the 86 movie was just as flawed as they could have added so much more and done away with Daniel in my opinion. Wouldve liked Spielberg as director instead, but meh

 

Loved it. Plain and simple.

 

Transformers was excellent. It was the first time a full audience, myself included, threw out audible cheers, laughs, applause, and general community merriment, since my experience with Empire Strikes Back ( original run).

Shia as Sam was a great Hero character, with a very impressive character arc for an Event Movie actor. The repeated themes of Sacrifice rang well and true throughout, starting from Sam's indifference to Archie Witwicky's achievement and motto, through dealing with Mikaela's history, to the end, where he takes the Allspark, runs the gauntlets, and steps in when Prime is ready for the Ultimate sacrifice. Truly well done.

Michael Bay makes a great bullseye for armchair Film Critics, and he can be an incomparable douchebag, especially when talking about Fans, but even with a Non-Fans distain, and the skepticism of a cynical Hollywaood A-lister, he managed to instill the film with a big heap of heart and nostalgia, even with the mojor changes to design and backstory.

Cullen as Prime was and always will be an inspired move. I would totally understand why an expensive Hollywood Summer Film Producer would try to cast a Major name. This was NOT an esablish Hollywood property. No one knew the right way to do it in a way that would capture the General Audience. Transformers is a very well know Property, but it was a tightrope when it comes to tone, mass appeal in the adult world, and presentation. But there is something to be said about those things which carved Transformers out as the wonder it was for fans from Day one. Getting Cullen was a coup for Fans, and a validation for us as well.

Bumblebee was great. I like the malfunctioning voice. Had he spoken at all, he'd have been used as the exposition machine, with is the most loathsome of characters. It would have been the "easy way out" to just have this character show up, tell Sam everything, and just have the audience subscribe to what was happening without question. Instead, we have the endearing radio-speak, coaxing Sam subliminally to get the girl and take the ride. The physical, gestural performance is a tribute to ILM. The final voice at the end is anticlimactic as a result, and nearly unneccessary.

Ironhide could have used more Character time, but his redesign was so appropriate, and I think very much needed (this goes for Ratchet as well), becuase no one is intimidated by a Soccer-Mom van.

Jazz never got the chance to truly shine. I thought the characterization was great at first, in the Arrival scene, but feel short under the bridge, and his death should have been handled with more respect and emotion(close-ups? Dramatic pauses? I get that they worries about the kiddies, though.) but it is refreshing to see sacrifice, which lays the groundwork for Sam, who was not a soldier, to stick his neck out.

The Decepticons had great and awesome moments, but they were too brief and two dimensional. Here is a list of the great things:

Starscream Jet-FU

Blackout. It's really saying something when a character with no real dialogue gets an audible "oh shit", "holy shit", etc. every times he is onescreen.

Megs and SS at the Dam (though too short)

Bonecrusher (also too short)

Barricade (excellent, but unfortunately became an unanswered question)

Brawl. He was awesome, and he'd get more credit for his badassery had be been named properly in the subtitles. That was just tragic, because he was so good.

Megs was a huge departure on all levels, but coming off like a bear out of interupted hibernation was almost appropriate.

Frenzy was the only design I really hated, but he had personality. Give due credit there.

All the big CONS deserved more dialogue, but I hear Orci has plans for that in ROTF.

*crossed fingers*

I can't wait to see what a Transformers Film will be like, now that they have figured out how to do it.

 

Damn, nicely put oddacidtea. There's still somethings that bug me about the first film, but for some reason they haven't stopped me from watching it at least a couple of times a month with my wife. I think plot points like Megatron's reason for wanting the Allspark (at least according to the Autobots), the decision to take the cube from a sparse desert into a densely populated area, only to have it helicoptered out of the city, and Prime believing that sacrificing himself and the cube would somehow cause the Decepticons to stop attacking are just poorly conceived.

Those kinds of things shouldn't have gotten past the first couple of drafts, especially with the battalion of producers attached to the film (even if many of them were attached in name mostly). Somebody should've stepped in and said "woah, woah, did everybody read this all the way through?!"

I'm very excited for Revenge of the Fallen, but I worry that like the 1st film, it may try to do too much, with too many cooks in the kitchen. Another thing is that I've basically resigned myself to the possibility that we won't see many actual Transformers characters as we know them. We as fans have our wishlists of 'bots and 'cons we want to see in the movieverse, but ultimately, what we may get are robots that happen to be named Sideswipe, or Soundwave, or Arcee or whatever just because Hasbro said "here's a list of names you can use" and Bay and Co. said "oh cool, Jolt rhymes with Volt". We really have no idea what they'll be like at this point, so I hope I'm wrong on that count. I'm sure I'll enjoy the movie tremendously, but these are things that concern me because I care for the film franchise and I want it to be as good as it can be.

 

To me the first transformers movie was one of the most memorable movies i have ever seen. I get this warm feeling when i think about transformers now. I have a passion for Transformers as deep as my love for Star Trek and Star Wars. I dont know what it is about the movie it just draws me in and makes my imagination go crazy. I have never really felt this much excitment like this about a movie this decade, I have been very critical about movies nowadays. Not like MB is a genius or any thing but the last movie just totally hooked me in.

 

The 1986 movie was released in the year I was born. My dad pretty much made sure I got to see Transformers when it was on Dutch television. I grew into the series, saw everything multiple times and even said that I LOVED to see a movie one day. When Beast Wars was released I felt the same "warm" feeling. Awesome stuff, G1 references and all that.

I cried when Dinobot died, never had such an intense moment when watching something Transformers related. When Armada arrived, I turned my Tele off. Why? Simple! Armada had the Manga/Anime touch to it. Crappy drawn characters, annoying hyper-active-seizure cutscenes showing how Prime merged with Jetfire. It was NOTHING.

Now, about 11 years later ( 2007 ) we finally got one. I went with my girlfriend who absolutely loved it. She wasnt a Transformer fan at all, but she loved it anyways. I liked the movie for what it was. A BOLD attempt to create a new universe, a REAL universe. Something we could all relate too. ILM deliverd a fine, kick ass movie. Like MBSHOOT said, MB isn't a genius, but he REALLY IS the right man for the job.

Can't wait for ROTF!

 

I pretty much reacted the same way I wnet "Wait a second, what is that? Optimus Prime is Red. That's not Megatron....is it?" But it grew on me.

 

Which was the whole point of TF1. Not to please the fans, but to expand the audience base. And I agree with your assessment, wonderful job done by Bay et al.

 

But it did please the fans too.

 

But I guess the question is do you really have to only do one or the other. Seems like other franchises out there have found a better balance of we can bring new people in while still giving the old fans so much they feel like the movie was made for them instead.

Sort of like the Dark Knight's Joker was something even a new person could catch up on and enjoy, but if you were already a Joker fan you were just floored by the different take being so much more than even a fan could hope for.

I guess I just wanted feel a part of all of it instead of feeling like I'd been cast off and somehow punished for liking Transformers long before there was ever a live action Transformers movie. I mean they are talking much nicer toward the older fans this time, but it's rather hard to feel positive after feeling rather hurt for being shoved aside the first time.

 

I personally think the first movie was good, not perfect, but definitely good enough to be watched and bought on DVD. From what I've seen of RotF, it looks like it'll be a good movie too. Probably not going to be a perfect movie, but most good enough to watch and then buy on DVD.

 

I love the first movie, and so far, the second one looks to be awesome.

 

They are what they are, and so far I have really liked the one I have seen.