did it just need more time AND/OR Spielberg?

Okay, so after watching it three times, talking to many friends from 15-55, I have come to something.

ROTF HAD ALL THE RIGHHT COMPONENTS.

Hunor
action
plot(several, and some that didn't connect)
acting was good

So what was it?

Was the fact that the writers strike and others things that happened and the movie got rushed?

Or was Bay just to in control?

Mostly this, IMO. It's no coincidence that the problems with RoTF and the problems with G1 are very similar (as has been discussed to death in almost every thread in the Movie forum). Bay had pretty firm control over TF'07, and there are a lot of people here who liked that movie fine but found RoTF to be too much of a mess. Hell, look at Roger Ebert, he's in that boat too. Luckily I'm not one of those people. I appreciate a well-crafted story and rich character development, but I'll settle for awesome robots kicking ass. In the ass-kicking department and in just plain fun, I found RoTF to be superior to its predecessor despite its flaws. Barring another strike, I think TF3 will come closer to meeting the standards of those other folks.

I think it was all the hunor. Far too much of it. Overkill of hunor can destroy a film.



As to what "it" really was, well, what do you mean by it? There's folks that love the film and no matter the error can find no flaw to make the movie detrimental. There's others that could not stand the jumbled robots, jumbled plot, jumbled everything and hate the film with the red hot intensity of a million grand stars. And there's shades of grey of every degree all between.

Me? I think it had its ups, downs, but no matter the issue accomplished what it set out to be by the makers of the film; A high earning summertime action flick. The plot was too, to stumble on the word again, jumbled. Simmons too over the top comedy relief. The jokes too numerous. The Autobots too lacking in presence. The many, many human bits too constant (is it that hard to focus on Sam and build a story around that, only leaving it to focus on the beings the films are named after?). Too much leg humping (and by too much I mean any). Plot devices like Jetfire's "spacebridge" handy, nod to canon, but not rightly explained, just suddenly there. The Fallen's presense too lacking, Megatron's presence not needed (The Fallen should have filled his role in every Megs scene, saving Megs for a third installment). And so on & so forth. But it wasn't all bad. There was Cullen. There was an empowered Prime. There was Shia's ever-entertaining self. There were Cycle Fembots. There was Sideswipe's kickassedness. There was the forest battle. Blame the good on whoever you like, they'll take credit I'm sure. The blame for the bad has many sources you can apply to be it the writers in general, Bay in general, the strike, you name it.

But that's me. The only one that can truly answer your question posed is you. You are the only one that knows what "it" was for you. For others, "it" could be different or nonexistant, as said prior.





And now it's 740.

"...Til all are Lost."

I think it's a combo of movie-rush due to strike and Bay's control. I don't know if you can call it "too much control," as he's the director. But it's definitely a highly influential element to the overall product. And Michael Bay loves to influence...er...everything he can. At all times. Especially when he thinks he's awesome.

Particularly his sense of humor. Yeah...

Now me, personally--I found this movie to be as messy storywise as the '07 one. I mean, maybe there was more mess because there was more story, but I feel like if there was some story-to-mess ratio of some kind it felt about the same. I also think this is because I was pretty critical of the first movie. (Didn't hate it, but was severely disappointed--I'm the opposite of the crowd: I really liked this one over the first)

I think Bay was just a little too incontrol. There were things in it that didn't need to be in it and things that should have been in it.

Originally Posted by Optimus Sledge The bonus of a stairlift is that, once granny sadly passes on, you can cheer yourself up by playing with it. You don't get the same fun with a retirement home. Well, you CAN, but you really shouldn't.

Dont know if more speilberg would have helped, look at War of the Worlds.

It was probably a lot of Bay hijacking things to do what he wanted, one example being the over involvement of the twins.

A little less humor, and certainly the Writer's Strike did not help.

The box office numbers are suggesting that whatever formula was used, worked.

No on both accounts.

reasons:

1.) Time they had Bay swore he would keep the july release date then not only did he not take the studios suggestion of extending the release date he even got it bumped up a week or two to release even earlier. So time wasnt the issue if Bay is green lighting an earlier release.
I think the honest reason is Bay knows he doesnt have to do shit with this movie and it will sell regardless as Transformers done by ILM is the draw. He was just concerned with getting the most bang for his buck. Honestly I still cant believe it made as much money as it did considering you would literally have to watch it only for the pure cgi element. With the movie verse im getting sick and tired of waiting to see my favorite character on the big screen get few screen shots then gets horribly murdered before i can get to enjoy it.

2.) Spielberg is just not the same director any more it stopped somewhere after Jurrasic Park. He is very pun erific in his movie style now and just look at the last indiana jones it looks like he has lost his touch with the common folk to make movies that follow their source. Maybe he was just rusty from being out of it for a while which I could give him as the cuts in Indy seemed very poorly done which is not normal for him.

i think that they shouldn't have even bothered starting until after the writer's strike. Bay had a little too much control over this one, i think, and the writers were too rushed. watching the movie, i can see that the story is there, and it's cool and it makes sense, but just the manner in which they go about telling it is very messy.

i loved ROTF, but it definitely had potential to be fantastic that was unfortunately not met because the studio wanted them to crank out another one for summer '09

Xbox Live: Mr Poho