Transformers (2007) - Gonna kick ass?

Arts & Sciences Arts & Entertainment
1

With all the trilogy sequels coming out this summer, the only blockbuster that I’m really excited about is Transformers. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps, and feelings of nostalgia from my childhood. Anyone else as excited about this movie as I am? If you haven’t seen the trailer yet check it out, it kicks some major ass:
movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/T … ers/31/371

movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/T … BkzUNfVXcA

Listen for the classic transforming sound when Optimus Prime transforms. Fck yeah!

2

I can’t wait for this movie! Transformers was THE best cartoon.

3

Then you never saw Thundercats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThunderCats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumm-Ra_the_Ever-Living

4

Thundercats was cool, and Cheetara was hot (for a cartoon feline humanoid). But no way was it better than Transformers.
Here’s my top ten:

  1. Transformers
  2. G.I. Joe
  3. Robotech/Macrosse
  4. He-Man
  5. Voltron
  6. Thundercats
  7. TMNT
  8. Scooby Doo
  9. Inspector Gadget
  10. Smurfs
5

[quote]it kicks some major ass[/quote]Er… it’s directed by Michael Bay.

6

Saw the movie yesterday morning. Here’s my review:

First off, I was really hyped to see this movie. The verdict, I wasn’t disappointed. But did it kick my ass? Only a little bit. Maybe I’ve been summer blockbuster busted. Maybe if this came out in May I would have been more wowed. Not to say the FX weren’t good, they probably set a new standard, the robot and human scenes, the transforming, and battle scenes were flawless. There wasn’t a moment where I thought that looks fake or out of place. ILM kick this one out of the ballpark. Even if you hate the story or the acting, just watching the FX would be worth the price of admission. The only problem I had with the action scenes were that too many things were happening at one time, and things flew around the screen too quickly. It became a blurry mess of explosions and twisted metal after awhile. That aside, the action was exciting and plenty. If you are looking for a movie with lots of action scenes then this is it. As for the storyline, what more do I have to say. Its about transforming, talking robots kicking each other’s butts, plus its a Micheal Bay movie. People going in shouldn’t expect any Oscar drama or acting here, or any logical plot points.
This wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was better than most of the sequel and threequels of this summer. If you are looking for 80’s nostalgia and cheesy storyline and dialog, topped-off with plenty of explosions, fighting robots, awesome FX look no further. It was a forgettable but entertaining excuse to indulge in male geeky fun for 2.5 hours. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
BTW, I saw it at the new Showtime Theater in Hsimending. Very nice place, actually reminded me of the theaters back home. Plus weekday morning shows are only 200NT. The seats are big with cupholders, and they use digital projectors and have THX sound system.

7

Fuggin A.
What is all the fuss about?
Call me and old geezer (and you wouldn’t be far wrong), but it’s a pretty lame state of affairs when the plebes get exicted about an obviously bloated, tech-ridden, ill-scripted wank passes itself as a feature film, especially when one views all that has happened in Japanese Animation.

Why is it that the decrepid and diseased North AMerican kultur cannot produce much else these daze besides pale, hackneyed, limp-wristed imitations of past (usually foreign) productions.

8

Fuggin A.
What is all the fuss about?
Call me and old geezer (and you wouldn’t be far wrong), but it’s a pretty lame state of affairs when the plebes get exicted about an obviously bloated, tech-ridden, ill-scripted wank passes itself as a feature film, especially when one views all that has happened in Japanese Animation.

Why is it that the decrepid and diseased North American kultur cannot produce much else these daze besides pale, hackneyed, limp-wristed imitations of past (usually foreign) productions.[/quote]

There’s more intelligence behind it than you think. The kids who watched the transformers are all adults now. It’s instant nostalgia and will make money… a lot of money.

9

Fuggin A.
What is all the fuss about?
Call me and old geezer (and you wouldn’t be far wrong), but it’s a pretty lame state of affairs when the plebes get exicted about an obviously bloated, tech-ridden, ill-scripted wank passes itself as a feature film, especially when one views all that has happened in Japanese Animation.

Why is it that the decrepid and diseased North American kultur cannot produce much else these daze besides pale, hackneyed, limp-wristed imitations of past (usually foreign) productions.[/quote]

Thats a little harsh. Some of the stuff from Pixar et all these days is brilliant stuff…Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Flushed Away…all great anmations that in my opinion match the artistic brilliance of the Japanese anime.

10

Where in Ximending is it? Do you have its Chinese name? The Ambassador used to be the best place to go in Ximending until they subdivided the big auditorium into 3 small ones. :unamused:

11

Where in Ximending is it? Do you have its Chinese name? The Ambassador used to be the best place to go in Ximending until they subdivided the big auditorium into 3 small ones. :unamused:[/quote]

The big auditorium in the Ambassador theater was not made smaller by the addition of the two small theaters. The two small theaters are under the big auditorium.
I believe the renovated theaters are on WuChang St. betwen Kunming St and HuanHe Rd

12

I forget the street name. I just know its next to the Eslite building (the one with the bookstore on the top floor) across the street from the big parking lot. If you know where the “Wan Nian” building is, it’s behind it. Another nice touch of that theater is that the first floor ticket counters are manned by a slew of little teenage hotties dressed in high school outfits. Nice!

13

I’m wondering will they have SoundWave. It was the ninja transformer that transformed into a Walkman tape player. I wonder will they update it to an MP3 player or something. How does one expect not to notice a freakin’ Walkman these days? Robots in disguise indeed.

Then I heard the worst news of all. Megatron, the leader of the Decepticon Liberation Army, doesn’t transform into a gun. WTF? How can Megatron not be a gun? That’s like Boy George not being gay.

They better have energon cubes in the movie. It seems advance civilizations store energy in a translucent yellow cube. That’s why transformers really transform into bipeds with arms, to pick up the cubes in order to transport them.

Spoiler Alert: The Autobots win.
Don’t we all love a surprise ending.

14

There’s no soundwave, but there is a gremlin type decepticon that transforms into a portable CD player. He’s actually kinda annoying, like Jar-Jar Binks. And no energon cubes, but the all-spark is the focus of the movie. BTW, megatron doesn’t change into a gun, but his arm transforms into a giant laser cannon, so that’s still kinda cool.

15

As long as the CD player transformer, eject 2 CDs that can transform into a panther and a vulture, respectively, I think it will be okay.

But the whole point of the gun thing was so that whiney StarScream could pick up Megatron and shoot at the Autobots. Without whiney StarScream and Megatron merging into a nuerotic shooting combo, how can this be a Transformer movie.

No energon cubes? All-sparks? WTF?

Next you’ll tell me that there is no transforming VW Beatle and a trusty blue collar construction worker sidekick.

They might as well call this Gundam the Movie.

16

[quote=“ac_dropout”]As long as the CD player transformer, eject 2 CDs that can transform into a panther and a vulture, respectively, I think it will be okay.

But the whole point of the gun thing was so that whiney StarScream could pick up Megatron and shoot at the Autobots. Without whiney StarScream and Megatron merging into a nuerotic shooting combo, how can this be a Transformer movie.

No energon cubes? All-sparks? WTF?

Next you’ll tell me that there is no transforming VW Beatle and a trusty blue collar construction worker sidekick.

They might as well call this Gundam the Movie.[/quote]
:laughing:

17

The Real Transformers
Great fun!

18

I like Transformers, but that was a little too geeky even for me.

19

Saw it yesterday and I must say, for a Micheal Bay film, it was freakin’ awesome!

Everything I could have wanted in a Transformer’s movie was in this. I was one of the many fans who cried out in agony when I first saw the designs for the Transformers (especially Prime’s…) but I have to say, the designs were perfect for a live action movie. The old G1 boxy looks just wouldn’t have worked. Still wasn’t too keen on the flames on Prime, but it was probably the best way they could get a G1 colour scheme for his robot mode and honestly, the flames don’t show up too much in robot mode anyway.

The story was a bit thin…but hey, it’s an action movie about gigantic robots based on a toy line…how much of a story could they really get? And G1’s stories weren’t always solid gold either. I honestly think Bay was having a grand time getting a rise out fans when he was saying how he really wanted to make this human story piece and keep the Transformers to a minimum. The human elements of the story made up roughly 50-60% of the first half of the film and then dropped big time once all the Autobots and Decepticons showed up. Speaking of Decepticons, Frenzy (the CD player) was by the far the best of them! I loved every second he was onscreen.

The battles were mind blowing. Things got a little confusing during the last big fight with so many robots all over the place but it was still awesome.

And the homages…oh the homages…Prime had the best line in any Transformer movie/series ever and it was delivered almost word for word from the original animated movie. Speaking of Prime…well…speaking, it was so good to hear Peter “Prime” Cullen doing the voice again. During the intro at the start of the movie, I almost blew my load (well, not really…but yeah, almost) hearing Cullen’s Prime. Yeah, I’m a huge geeky fanboy…so what.

Anyway, to avoid any spoilers I might let slip, I’ll just say if you ever once watched a Transformers episode and liked it, go see this movie. Cudos to Bay for pulling it off with flying colours!

Oh yeah, there are two confirmed sequels and if they do well, there could be a total of 5 movies produced…and Bay has said he wants Devestator and the freakin’ Dinobots in the next one! Dinobots for the win!! And Soundwave will show up in the next one. Blackout (the helicopter) was originally supposed to be Soundwave but even Bay knew that would too much of a divergence from the original design and said they should hold off til the sequel so they can get Soundwave perfect.

So yeah, go see the movie.

Autobots, roll out!

20

I saw the movie over the weekend and really enjoyed it. When I first saw that Bay was directing I didn’t get my hopes up and just expected a good action/FX movie and it really does deliver in that aspect. What went beyond my expectations were how well they adapted the story to a film format. I’m sure most of you will agree that most TV shows do not translate well into film as it usually either turns out to be a 2 hour long episode of something that was originally intended to have a 20 minute run time or they diverge to much from the original story and it’s just not what it was originally. The changes they made to the Transformers actually worked well and still held the same spirit as the G1 storyline. I do miss Megatron/Gun mode though. =( And Starscream really didn’t do much in this movie.

For those who saw a few minutes into the credits you do see Starscream fly away from Earth so I am expecting a bigger role for Starscream in the sequel. With this ending and so much talks of sequels from the studio I am sure there will atleast be 1 if not 2 or 3 depending on how well the second one does since this release is going to do very well I expect.

Anyways, if you haven’t seen it or did not have to big an interest in the movie I would suggest you watch it. Even my cousin who only went with me because I really wanted to watch it really enjoyed it.