Well count me as one who enjoyed the movie, for the most part.
But let's not mistake that with me thinking it was a good movie. It was frustrating, contrived, and even annoying at times.
But for me, the enjoyable thing was the Transformers lore being much more a part of the story. Things that were buried in the back of my inner child's memory like space bridges were brought back to life. Seeing Shockwave and Soundwave, and Laserbeak as he was in the cartoon. The robot characters were more evident and more true to the ones I remember from when I was a kid.
But every time I was starting to enjoy the movie, we got dragged back to that awful Sam Witwicky storyline. They were trying to depict him as insignificant and tossed by the wayside. I wish they left him that way.
But it was darker and the Decepticons were certainly more ruthless. This was an improvement. Megatron actually seemed to have a plan that was typical of his plans from the old cartoon, even if it was a little more grandiose and possibly far-fetched. Perhaps they were so advanced that they were somehow able to eliminate Cybertron's gravitational field? I managed to ignore that in order to maintain my enjoyment of the "plot".
I think they're getting closer to having good Transformer movies. I would like to see someone else give it a try, taking some of the elements from these movies that work. The storyline, cast, idiotic characters, and overall tone of the movies are not some of these elements, however!
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hahaha, show me in this thread where I call the movie "good" because of the explosions?? And I have said many times in this thread, this is a guilty pleasure movie. If you don't take it seriously, you will have fun. Or at least I did.
If you like it, great. If you don't, why would I care?? But nice try trying to put words in my mouth(post) and taking a shot at me.
Last edited by VANFLAMESFAN; 07-04-2011 at 12:40 AM.
. What makes these movies unwatchable for me is Shia Labeouf and the terrible cast of characters that they use for comic relief. I actually found myself thinking I would go see this one, and then I remembered Sam's mom and the guy that played Jesus in The Big Lebowski and whatever other ridiculous, unfunny characters that they would add into it.
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Originally Posted by Resolute 14
IMO, Sam was the biggest problem. They tried to show him as being restless because he isn't making a difference anymore. Instead, he came off as a whiny, self-absorbed and completely unsympathetic character who, in the real world, would have been thrown out on the streets by his girlfriend long before the movie started. When a movie makes you hate the protagonist without meaning to, it's doomed from the beginning.
Hell, every single human character was weakly done. It was left to the robots to try and save the film and Bay never figured out how to make them the star of the movie.
Just my 2 cents.
I haven't watched the 3rd one yet, but I watched the first one in theatres and the second one on Air Canada flight
There has been a couple of posts already that share what I'm thinking.
Michael Bay's Transformers will never capture my attention or live up to my expectations compared to what I grew up with because they fail to make the Transformers the point of the movie.
In the cartoons, it's all about the transformers. In every episode, the autobots defend the Earth and the humans from a decepticon plot and save the day. The humans are don't factor much into the story except getting rescued.
The movies, it's all about Shia's character. I don't care about him getting a real job. I don't care about the military guys. If I am going watch a movie on the Transformers, I expect them to be the stars and it's them that saves the day.
I haven't watched the 3rd one yet, but I watched the first one in theatres and the second one on Air Canada flight
There has been a couple of posts already that share what I'm thinking.
Michael Bay's Transformers will never capture my attention or live up to my expectations compared to what I grew up with because they fail to make the Transformers the point of the movie.
In the cartoons, it's all about the transformers. In every episode, the autobots defend the Earth and the humans from a decepticon plot and save the day. The humans are don't factor much into the story except getting rescued.
The movies, it's all about Shia's character. I don't care about him getting a real job. I don't care about the military guys. If I am going watch a movie on the Transformers, I expect them to be the stars and it's them that saves the day.
I would suggest seeing the thrid one. There is much more emphasis on the Transformers and it goes into their history a bit more. The humans do factor in somewhat and take down a couple Decepticons in the process, but it is definitely more centered on the robots.
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People are funny. Do you really think that the Transformers cartoon we watched when we were kids didn't get thumbs down from adults at the time? You guys are turning into those adults that thought Transformers were lame and mind numbing, let your inner child have some fun. I don't care about what any of these bad reviews say, I'm going to see it and I'm going to like it. Why? Because Transformers are bad ass and I secretly wish my car was one of them. I grew up watching this stuff and as long as the Transformers save the day then there is nothing that Bay can do to wreck my childhood memories.
So what if there are plot holes, so what if the characters are lame. I am going to turn the logic in my brain off and watch the Transformers kick some ass. There are only so many ways to save the earth, I'm sure I've seen them all in my lifetime already but I'll still spend my $12.50 and be happy about how it all went down.
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-Not trying to offend anyone, but I'm noticing a trend that people who enjoyed this movie seem to have the ability to "turn their brains off." this is not an ability I possess.
-I think the same reason a campy 80s cartoon for kids doesn't translate well into a 2011 movie is the same reason the same reason the 80s Star Wars formula didn't work well 25 years later; the audience grew up. Kids like serious action movies, but adults like myself don't often go for silly #### like this.
-After seeing the first movie, I was convinced it was directed and edited by individuals with severe ADHD. I pride myself on being able to keep complex plots straight, but that movie made my head spin. I was sure by the end that several characters had mastered teleportation and time travel. On the other hand, the second movie was the first movie to put me to sleep since I saw Sabrina. I think I'll spare myself the pain of this one.
Last edited by Aegypticus; 07-05-2011 at 04:35 AM.
Summer movies for the most part are formula movies, and nothing is more formula then Michael Bay's vision of the transformer movies. All it is, is a demonstration reel of the power of special effects and CGI.
Its also a demonstration of terrible script writing, lousy acting, unsympathetic characters and a bland formulaic storyline thats been repeated over and over and over again.
I have admiration for what I call a smart action movie, where the action is there to progress a storyline and flesh out the characters.
In the case of Michael Bay, you can almost hear him making explosion sounds, and jet aircraft and helicopter sounds as he shoots scene after scene of gree screen.
But I'm old, and kind of sick of wire fighting, explosions galore CGI filled movies.
I came from a simpler day where a action movie like Every Which Way but lose had a plot, was well acted, didn't take itslef seriously and a punch in the mouth was a punch in the mouth.
Or the original Indian Jones movies that were so good because when Indy fought it was firmly laced on the ground and every punch looked like it actually hurt.
But in the changed world where every hero and villian has to be able to do zero G based astral wire framed slow motion karated it becomes totally lame.
There's a reason why I don't go to theatres to spend $12.50 on a movie, for the most part these movies just aren't worth it.
I liked the first Transformers but I think the novelty of it disguised a lot of its weaknesses, and Meagan Fox really disguised her lack of acting chops behind her tight a$$.
By the second one the novelty had worn off and Bay was really exposed as only really knowing one aspect out of the many aspects needed to make a third one.
The third one is a transformer movie all right, but this time Optimus Prime is rusted out, The rest of the autobots have flat tires and in the words of every old man everywhere
"This movie is so overdone that its stupid"
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.....Nothing, however, would have repaired the film's lack of narrative coherence. I have a quaint notion that one of the purposes of editing is to make it clear why one shot follows another, or why several shots occur in the order that they do. "Transformers 3" has long stretches involving careless and illogical assemblies of inelegant shots. One special effect happens, and the another special effect happens, and we are expected to be grateful that we have seen two special effects."
This was my biggest problem. There was a long fight scene at the end and for large parts of it I had no clue what anyone was trying to accomplish. It was a complete jumbled mess.
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Originally Posted by jammies
If only we could this much discussion about a good movie.
I enjoyed the movie. Are there plot holes? Of course. I could probably write a thesis paper on the plot holes and broken story structure. But in the end, things exploded and Optimus Prime kicked some serious ass. Thats all I wanted to see to be honest.
It's a summer action flick. People who expect it to be something different get upset.
Not a comment on the latest transformers because I haven't seen it but.....
A "summer" or "popcorn" movie doesn't mean a movie that is poorly conceived, scripted, acted or executed. It means a movie that doesn't have a terrific amount of depth, growth or emotion but is made for a couple hours of entertainment. I like popcorn movies. I don't like poorly made ones though. It needs to be able to stand on its own against movies in its genre.
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