Opening this Saturday at Universal Studios Singapore is Transformers the Ride! This ride, featuring the voice talent of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and with Michael Bay in the role of creative consultant takes audiences into the world of the Transformers live action movie series – a world transformed, where things are not as they seem!
All joking and quotes from the 80’s Marvel comic aside, the ride is shaping up to be the definitive Transformers theme park experience. The ride will feature more than 10 Transformers including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Wheelie, Megatron, Ravage, Sideways, Grindor, Bonecrusher, Starscream and the awesome Devastator. Audiences will also be introduced to the new Transformer Evac.
A new video has been posted to Youtube which talks about the creative process behind the ride and shows some of the highlights, including a couple of clips of Devastator on the attack and a scene where the audience are “pulled” through a building – which must be a real experience in 3D! Check it out below.
TylerMirage
Nice job, son. No matter who directed it, things would've been good and things would've been done poorly. You simply. cannot. win.
But also…
…fixed.
(And quite honestly, I'd say that Helena Bonham Carter would make a stellar Starscream, or even Slipstream.)
MachSabre
Michael Bay did direct the movies, and a director is more than just the guy who sits around yelling “action!” and “cut!” and “Zoom in on her crotch!” He's basically in charge of everything in the movie. Any major decisions that get made, it's made by the director. That's everything. Character designs, outfits, visuals, lighting, scripts… Other people may design them, but he approves them all. He's the one that brings it together. We know that outside influences like Hasbro or producers can step in and want to make choices for him, but he's the director. No matter what, the credit… And the blame… Lies squarely on his head. (It goes both ways.)
If the movie is weak, it's the director's fault. Not the script writers… But the director because he's the one that approved that script or made changes. (If he was really unhappy with RotF's script, he could have sent those guys back to their hotel room and tell them to come up with something better.) If the movie is great, well guess what? It's his credit too because he approved that script. ILM made have been the guys who designed the Transformers for the films, but as we've seen, they've made multiple versions of what the robots will look like. It was Bay's choice to make them look all alien and “partsy”, as opposed to the more “blocky” look that we've had for more than two decades. The reason why Optimus looks the way he does in TF: Prime, and that Bumblebee is a muscle car now (and usually silent), and the reason many of the toys that aren't even movie related tend to have that movie-aesthetic to them, is due to the sheer popularity of the movies, which has garnered Hasbro and Paramount over two and a half billion dollars. Whether you like the movies or not, this is the most successful Transformers has ever been.
And that happened under Michael Bay's watch.
That means, he gets the credit. Some people don't personally like him. I do understand. You are totally in your rights to dislike the man's work if you wish. And you're in your rights to praise it too. (And you can even do what most people do and fall somewhere in the middle.) But it doesn't matter that anyone else could or would have done it… If it was Guillermo del Toro, people would be bitching because everyone looked magical, trollishly ugly, and that every ending was a depressing downer. It if was Peter Jackson, we'd be pissed off that we spent a hour and a half on Broadside, waiting for something interesting to happen. If it was Tim Burton, everyone would be all black and silver, and Megatron would have been voiced by Johnny Depp and Starscream by Helen Bonham Carter.
It all doesn't matter. Because Bay's the one who stepped up to bat. And until another director does and proves that Transformers can be AS successful a movie outside of his watch… Or until Bay does a Transformers movie that utterly bombs… For better or for worse, he gets the credit for the fame.
TylerMirage
Awesome shots in there. This is the perfect opportunity to see things that the movies never got a chance to do. More Sideways, Devastator in the city, 'Bee taking hits, etc.. Cool, cool.
Uh, not really. It's because nobody else really wanted to play ball. Seriously. Entire threads have been made saying that, quite frankly, Transformers was a property that almost no one wanted to touch. Spielberg and Bay were some of the few who stepped up to the plate. And true, at first he didn't, but in the end, HE DID. And other directors didn't. Believe it or not, people are allowed to change their minds.
Same can be said with GMC's involvement. Why are the movies a massive GMC commercial? Because practically no other companies wanted their cars in this type of movie.
Except for the fact that, as stated above, a live-action Transformers movie was hard to get off the ground.
I will concede that a Transformers movie would be big regardless of the director, if only because of the awesome concept of robots punching each other in the faces. But how big or small would these movies have been without Bay? We'll never know.
But seriously, this Bay propaganda (be it deserved or not) is to be expected. He is, after all, the director of the hugely successful trilogy that these rides are based on. Do you think they wouldn't be addressing Bay? Do you think they'd go on interviews and say "The stories sucked, yeah, so we made these rides."? Or "Bay's an idiot? Now we're going to make these rides based on his movies and make millions of dollars."? Of course they'll be singing Bay's praises.
I don't really think that anyone in that clip is saying "Transformers is only big because of Michael Bay". They're saying that Bay helped make it was big as it is today.
KnightHawkke
Ride looks great! Hope to get on it someday.
Bay propaganda made me sick to my stomach.
Chaos Muffin
Almost looks like they're using a game engine to make the bots. The models still look great and the setting is a good choice. ROTF 1.5
Waiting for someone to film the whole ride.
EnerJohn
And for the last time. Transformers will always be huge around the world because, wait for it…THEY'RE TRANSFORMERS!!! Dosen't matter who makes em, they will always be massive. I really wish people would stop making it sound like the Transformers were hard to get off the ground and hard for people to like untill Bay showed up. Really, anyone, ANYONE could have made these movies and the reaction would still be the same…wtf…>_<
EnerJohn
Bay made the Transformers into what ther are today???? Because no one else was given the chance! Really, he didn't even want to make these movies!!!! Not Bay bashing here! Just saying all around, these movies could have been 10 times better and I would love to see someone else make the forth.
matrixprime
The character models look off somehow. Like they aren't as polished.
AshleyCuadra
here's a awesome pic of prime
StarYoshi14
"Michael Bay made Transformers what it is today"
I lol'd.
Moy
To some extent the real credit goes to ILM/DD. But, Michael Bay provided ILM/DD with his new vision of how the robots were to look, and with out a creative vision the reinvention wouldn't have taken place.
On a side note, someone needs to contact Bay and tell him Sideswipes has been confused for Sideways in TF the ride. Fail.
fleshling
This is the best shot of Sideways I think we've ever gotten.
Ceasar121
@ :43 seconds makes me wanna puke, and smack Mark Woodbury. Michael Bay reinvented Transformers and made them what they are today?
ILM reinvented Transformers. Much as I enjoy the movies, Michael Bay didn't write the script or design the bots… he assembled a mediocre story and some awesome action sequences.
I appreciate Bay's influence, but the Takara engineers and ILM artists made TFs what they are now. I pray Bay isn't continuously praised for being the first director to do TFs on the big screen in live action… when someone makes it beyond a spectacle, THEN they deserve praise.
With that said the ride looks awesome… Devastator in the CITY! Bumblebee actually taking damage!? Looks like the ride has got some things right that not even the movies did.
Deceptigtar
said it before, looks like the ride gets better scenes than the movie.
devastator in a city? ummm hell yeah thats how it should have been, not tearing up a desert.
maewlaay
Blockbuster
Blockbuster – YouTube