Transformers

[Tarheels.]

I loved the movie. I'll most likely see it multiple times. I agree with the sub-plot though because the hacker one didn't seem like it was too important. I could have lived without that one. It was still a great movie though, best I've seen this summer.

[Skummy]

The original Transformers Movie was campy? For a kid's movie, it was pretty fucking brutal in places.

[fourstarfizzle]

The original Transformers Movie was campy? For a kid's movie, it was pretty fucking brutal in places.

[TheRyno]

Transformers = Awesome. Simple as that.

I don't know why people are knocking Shia. He practically made the movie as he made you believe in the character when another actor dealing with the same script could have easily failed miserably. Plus he was entertaining enough to let you ignore the fact that most of the robots didn't show up until at least halfway through the movie. With the disco ball in my car, I'm totally gonna try that "I installed a light back there *flex bicep* so it shines off the disco ball...over here *flex bicep again*" line.

The product placement was pretty noticeable and actually, I pretty much ignored it when it came to the cars because...duh, they're robots disguised as cars so shouldn't they be able to morph into real life counterparts. What was really bad was the chick-with-the-hot-Australian-accent-that-bordered-on-annoying pulling out her Panasonic 2 Gig Memory Stick slowly enough for the camera to see. Or "Hey, the XBox 360 I just bought at a retailer near you has turned into a robut!" No, that's not a typo. I laughed when Jon Voight called them "ro-buts".

But if there ever was a Michael Bay moment in the movie, it was the Epic Dramatic Bernie Mac Slo-Mo Dolly Shot within the first 10 minutes of the film. "Hey, I'm not in the rest of the movie but OMG MY REACTION IS SO IMPORTANT THAT THE CAMERA NEEDS TO ROTATE OVER 360 DEGREES AROUND ME!"

Overall, everything worked. There was just enough camp and humor to make things entertaining, the gratuitous explosions fit because no one expects realism in a movie where cars turn into giant robots and fight each other (though I did think "damn, who's gonna clean this shit up" after the final fight) and, most importantly, it remained faithful enough to the original to keep the fans happy. And that's the big caveat. Quite a bit of the people I went to see it were already set up for a disappointment that Michael Bay was going to ruin their childhood memories but instead they walked out happy.

As an aside, did anyone else get that trailer where a bunch of people are at a going away party and it's filmed with (or at least gimmicked to look like) a handheld digicam and suddenly New York is exploding? At first, everyone around me was all like "OMG new Godzilla movie!" but it made Godzilla look like a terrorist threat. But at the end, it just had a cliche tagline, a release date, then nothing. No title! Anyone have any ideas?

[fourstarfizzle]

As an aside, did anyone else get that trailer where a bunch of people are at a going away party and it's filmed with (or at least gimmicked to look like) a handheld digicam and suddenly New York is exploding? At first, everyone around me was all like "OMG new Godzilla movie!" but it made Godzilla look like a terrorist threat. But at the end, it just had a cliche tagline, a release date, then nothing. No title! Anyone have any ideas?

[TheRyno]

Isn't Abrams also doing I Am Legend, the next Will Smith action movie that also had a trailer before Transformers?

Sooo...two post-apocalyptic movies set in NYC back-to-back, eh?

[fourstarfizzle]

Isn't Abrams also doing I Am Legend, the next Will Smith action movie that also had a trailer before Transformers?

Sooo...two post-apocalyptic movies set in NYC back-to-back, eh?

[TheRyno]

My bad, I could've sworn I saw his name in the I Am Legend trailer.

[EndOfAnEra]

But when Shia Lebeouff, Anthony Anderson or John Tuturro are on screen, brace yourself for lameness.

[Pepsi]

But when Shia Lebeouff, Anthony Anderson or John Tuturro are on screen, brace yourself for lameness.

You're the only person I've heard say that yet. The dialogue, while cheesy in places, was almost always funny. It's hard to remember a scene (other than the hacker one and the "no matter what happens, I'm glad I got in that car" one) that didn't make everyone laugh. Shia was hilarious, Tuturro was hilarious, the parents were hilarious, the black guy from The Departed was funny, it was all good.

[zero]

I can understand people defending Shia and Tuturro's stuff. My issue with those is it was just another example of Hollywood's desire to make everything appeal to teenagers, which aggravates the piss out of me, but that's just my personal opinion. But Anthony Anderson? Awful, awful, AWFUL subplot and I just can't budge on that. The product placement didn't really hurt the movie for me, it as just so blatantly obvious that I couldn't help but rag on it a bit.

I'll go more in-depth in spoiler tags, to avoid ruining it for people who haven't seen it:

Spoiler: Click here to view

My biggest problem with Shia is it's the same Hollywood cliche we've seen in just about every movie, ever. He's some dorky, irresponsible kid and suddenly he's tasked with saving the world. Along the way, not only does he save the world, but he becomes way cooler, gets the hottest chick imaginable, and learns that with great power comes great responsibility... oh wait. I'm just so over it, it's hackneyed, unimaginable and has been done to death. With Shia's scenes specifically, my biggest issue came with the scene where the Transformers were on the lawn. While the Transformer stuff was cute and humorous (especially them squeezing into strange spots in the house), the stuff with Shia and his parents dragged on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Yes, masturbation jokes are funny, but Jesus Christ, I could have masturbated 12 times before that fucking scene ended.

Plus, it just really bugs me that this kid knows that the world is being threatened by a superior alien race, yet he's worried about the lawn and hiding his robot friends? Shouldn't he be alerting his parents and saying, "look at my giant robot friends, come with us or we're all dead." Perhaps I'm putting a little too much thought into a movie about alien robots that turn into cars and boomboxes, but I guess that's just me getting older.

As for John Tuturro's character, it had potential to be something cool, instead they went with dorky comic relief. I'm sorry, but Bumblebee pissing on him was the kind of childish shit that is good for the kids, but this isn't a kid's movie. There are numerous sexual jokes that are far too deliberate to let this be a movie for kids, so Bumblebee pissing on the guy just strikes me as immature potty humor executed in embarrassing fashion. I'm not above a good bathroom joke, but this just didn't do it for me. Also with Tuturro, the Superman "S7" T-Shirt and S7 underoos... seriously? Lame.

And the Anthony Anderson subplot was just fucking terrible and definitely part of what dragged the movie for me. I'll go down the list of everything about it that bugged me: 1. The ragtag team of teenage computer hackers, a completely tired plot device that has been beaten to death ever since computers started hitting the mainstream. 2. The "only one hacker in the world could crack this code" line, it's just so horribly lame and cliched. 3. This "uber-hacker" is a guy that lives with his grandma and plays DDR? Ugh. 4. It's entirely pointless. Thirty minutes that this bullshit took up could have been better served developing the Autobots and the Decepticons and their final battle, which was incredibly rushed. Jazz's death was completely out of nowhere and lacked any sort of emotional impact because he was barely built up and the fight scene went by way too fast.

Speaking of the final battle, here's some more of me being possibly being nitpicky, but these issues really stuck out: Shia bumping the Allspark into the dumb chick's car before it turns into a Transformer. The chick is all "did he just bump into my car?" Uh... isn't there a fucking war going on ten feet in front of this chick and she doesn't notice this? Also people eating in diners and doing work in an office building while there are robots blowing up the entire city? These are really minor details, but it's just further evidence that this movie was mostly sizzle with very little steak.

Again, I hate sounding like I'm shitting all over the movie because it was really better than I thought it was going to be. I went in expecting the worst/hoping for the best, and what I got was something in between. I just really found little reason to care about any human characters besides Megan Fox (whose character was perfect). The Army guys were cool too, they didn't have much depth to them, but scenes involving them generally involved a badass fight scene. Is it worth watching? Definitely. Best movie of the year? Hardly. Of course I understand the concept of Summer Blockbuster: sit down, shut down your brain, enjoy... but there are plenty of movies that have taken that concept and really elevated it over the years and considering the source material, I think there was a huge opportunity to do that here. I will probably see it again though, hopefully it'll turn out to be one of those movies that I enjoy with more viewings.

Edited July 5, 2007 by Zero

[tristy]

I'm not a fan of the original Transformers (when I was a kid, I had WAY too hard of a time trying to transform the little fuckers). But, all in all, this movie was fucking fantastic. It's a perfect drive-in movie. Action, a little romance, and keeps all people in the car entertained.

I'll be buying it when it comes out on DVD.

Edited July 6, 2007 by Tristof

[Rashid]

Can't wait to see the movie. I'll probably be seeing it tomorrow or Saturday.

Though I don't know why I wanna see it so much. I was never into Transformers, though I loved Beast Wars.

[Captain Eo]

Just got back from seeing this flick on an Imax screen.

First off, don't see this on a huge screen, most of the fights were incredibly hard to follow.

Secondly, it was an amazing film and anyone who puts down the script should be sweet chinned musicked.

The acting was campy at some points but it's fucking Transformers!!

Deal with it!

[Riceman 4K]

Movie was fucking awesome.

Now I need to get me some Transformers action figures.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

They destroyed downtown Detroit

[CDuffy26]

Saw the movie on Thursday with my friends, and it was really, really surprisingly good. Usually when a cartoon is moved to a live action movie it sucks, but this one seemed to encompass what I loved about transformers, while adding in some modern day things.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Only bad part of the movie was when Jazz got ripped in two. Jazz was sweet back in the original transformers, and I think he shouldn't have died in the movie

[nufan]

68 million on the first weekend just screams shocking acting.. i loved the movie personally and i thought the one liners came off pretty well.

but then again i dont think my opinion counts bad boys 2 is one of my fav movies lol

[TheRyno]

They destroyed downtown Detroit

[TheRyno]

Saw the movie on Thursday with my friends, and it was really, really surprisingly good. Usually when a cartoon is moved to a live action movie it sucks, but this one seemed to encompass what I loved about transformers, while adding in some modern day things.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Only bad part of the movie was when Jazz got ripped in two. Jazz was sweet back in the original transformers, and I think he shouldn't have died in the movie