Other than the totally cool acting, super-sweet explosions and shoot-em-up scenes this movie was totally bunk. It was nothing but advertising and propaganda all the way down to the core. These are the ads that you get to sit thru for $8:
US Air Force
Microsoft
Tacobell
Nokia
Chevrolet
Porsche
GMC
Hummer
Ford
There are many others that I cannot remember from the top of my head.
The perfect summer advertising festival for all the mindless 14 year olds and grown-up childmen (sic). They are going to make a killing on this one.[/quote]
So why did you fall victim to all that you’ve stated and still sit through it all? You should of demanded a refund if that was the case. After all it is just a movie…something you should never take too serious in the first place…excuse us “grown-up childmen” for being human and having an imagination.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
holifila wrote:
Why don’t you complain that Kevin Smith makes a lot of geek jokes, or Robert Altman never spent enough time developing plot.
Because I think its hilarious that “grown” men can get all tingly from animated cartoon figures. In general though, Hollywood sucks donkey-dick and I think DoD and Hollywood working together to advertise and sell nationalistic propaganda is a BAD thing.
The other shitty films that are made by those people you mention don’t mean anything to me either.[/quote]
I’m not so sure that I got tingly, but I did have fun watching it. It was a hell of a display of visual effects, and I think that it would still be a fun movie if the cartoon had never been made.
I hope you don’t take this attitude into every movie, if that was the case I would assume that you have never had a good or fun experience in a movie theater. What kind of movies do it for you?
As to the propaganda angle, let me ask did you like Fahrenheit 911 (it kind of seems like you might have)? What about that wasn’t propaganda. And do you despise nearly all the movies centered around war where the Americans were portrayed as the good guys?
And if you don’t like Kevin Smith fine, but Altman and shitty movies don’t belong in the same sentence.
…Devastator being a vehicle and no Soundwave…
[/quote]
NO SOUNDWAVE?!?!?!?
Say it ain’t so…
Seriously though, I loved the Transformers, but I thought that a live action movie would totally suck donkey balls, and I promised to boycott it and not see it. But after reading so many good reviews and thumbs up, I really am looking forward to it.
I did hear on the radio that GM paid several million to have their cars in the movie, and that it was basically long ass car commercial, but still it sounds like an awesome flick. Definitely going to be seeing it.
[quote]MODOK wrote:
I just got back from watching it, and honestly I just couldn’t get into it at all. I was the biggest Transformers fan growing up that there was…nd I honestly can’t say what I didn’t like, it just wasn’t Transformers to me. I really liked what they did with the plot and the car aspects…I think what turned me off was the very stylized robot forms of the Transformers.
It just didn’t look right, and I think it took away from the human side of the robots.I found myself having a hard time feeling any kind of connection with them, even Prime and Bumblebee. Maybe if they had made the robot forms more humanoid it would have made a difference…or maybe not! Good special effects, a couple of really really hot girls, but all in all I’ll take the cartoon anyday.[/quote]
I can see that, I think that the people that will dislike this movie the most (other political windbags) might be die-hard fans. I was into them but not too much so I was able to leave the stories that I knew behind. A die-hard might not be able to give up the ‘baggage’ that they bring into the movie.
One thing that I didn’t care for was the speed of the action, it was SUPER fast. The transformers when fighting one on one didn’t stay on the screen for more than flashes. Sometimes it was like who the hell is fighting who. Also I don’t know if I just lost track but some of the decepticons didn’t die if I remember correctly.
Eh, The Post gave it a terrible review. They basically called it a feature-length Chevy commercial. I hope that’s not true and I wish I hadn’t read the damn thing.
[quote]beebuddy wrote:
Eh, The Post gave it a terrible review. They basically called it a feature-length Chevy commercial. I hope that’s not true and I wish I hadn’t read the damn thing.[/quote]
Well most of the autobots are GM vehicles (no idea about Optimus), and its obvious. Personally it didn’t really bother me, the only time that they really mention the type of car is for Bumblebee. If you’ve watched 24 and never been bothered by the same thing, I don’t think this will bother you.
[quote]Outrage247 wrote:
One thing that I didn’t care for was the speed of the action, it was SUPER fast. The transformers when fighting one on one didn’t stay on the screen for more than flashes. Sometimes it was like who the hell is fighting who. [/quote]
I said the same thing about the speed of the action scenes, it was dizzying and somewhat disorientating at times.
I thought they should have slowed down the fight scenes just a tad allowing us to focus more on the details rather than the manic crash and smash. Perhaps this would have just proven too tedious in an already tremendous effort.
Either way, that was my only gripe about the film.
I enjoyed it for what it was, an action flick. I love the concept and the imagination of Transformers, always have. In the cartoon version that came out years ago, I nearly busted a tear when Optimus Prime died. What, like you didn’t.
Furthermore, whoever is chiding John Turturro for taking the part, shaaaaaaaaadup. He’s a fine actor, and Millers Crossing is one of my favorite movies…but come on, they can’t all be art house or award winning roles, sometimes actors might want a paycheck and some fun.
[quote]Outrage247 wrote:
One thing that I didn’t care for was the speed of the action, it was SUPER fast. The transformers when fighting one on one didn’t stay on the screen for more than flashes. Sometimes it was like who the hell is fighting who. Also I don’t know if I just lost track but some of the decepticons didn’t die if I remember correctly. [/quote]
While the speed was fast, I think it was intentional. I have the same problem with a lot of movies these days, I think that it comes from directors not getting realistic fight scenes that the can show, so they use the quick cuts and camera movements to hide it. Here I think it was just to demonstrate the awesome speed and abilities of the Transformers themselves.
[quote]Outrage247 wrote:
Also I don’t know if I just lost track but some of the decepticons didn’t die if I remember correctly. [/quote]
Spoilers
You are correct. If you stayed for the extra scenes that rolled through the credits, you saw Starscream flying off into space. They also did not account for the Decepticons that were formed by the cube from the X-Box, the vending machine, and the Cadillac (Escalade maybe?) that the two hotties were driving.
And who really believes 'Tron and the others will be consumed by the pressure at the deepest known depths of the ocean, as Voight was speaking of? Yeah right…
[quote]holifila wrote:
As to the propaganda angle, let me ask did you like Fahrenheit 911 (it kind of seems like you might have)? What about that wasn’t propaganda. [/quote]
No. I didn’t dig that movie either. I generally don’t like movies that try to sell morality. You can bet if there is hype surrounding a particular movie’s agenda there are a bunch of sheep in the mix ready to defend it to the death–that isn’t me.
No. I just don’t dig the good-guy, bad-guy movies in general because I find them too simplistic and unimaginative. My nephew loved it though.
I haven’t read the rest of this thread, but this movie was one of the better ones I’ve seen as far as action is concerned. They did a GREAT job of bringing that whole story line to life. Hopefully every idiot who was so hung up on how they looked can shut the hell up now.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
magnusjs wrote:
I’m also not all that crazy about all the military propaganda that Michael Bay includes a rather hefty dose of in many of his movies. To me, as a norwegian, it really jumped out at me when I watched the movie. Is it equally obvious to americans?
From the get…Aim High. It is the new recruiting tactic for the US government. They get to parade all their super-sweet kill machines around and show their super bad-ass USAF Combat Control rockin’ rounds down range to get all the 14 year olds pumped for military service and in exchange the film producers get a free set. DoD and Hollywood working together in the land of the free and home of the…
John Turturro…how could you? [/quote]
I live in a military town. Most of the audience to night was military. What exactly was wrong about presenting the military the way they did? Propaganda? Because they were competent?
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
I just don’t dig the good-guy, bad-guy movies in general because I find them too simplistic and unimaginative. [/quote]
What did you expect? Had you EVER seen the cartoon? How could someone possibly miss that the entire concept is “Good guy vs Bad guy”? To then complain about something that obvious…is just stupid.
[quote]CC wrote:
Outrage247 wrote:
Also I don’t know if I just lost track but some of the decepticons didn’t die if I remember correctly.
Spoilers
You are correct. If you stayed for the extra scenes that rolled through the credits, you saw Starscream flying off into space. They also did not account for the Decepticons that were formed by the cube from the X-Box, the vending machine, and the Cadillac (Escalade maybe?) that the two hotties were driving.
And who really believes 'Tron and the others will be consumed by the pressure at the deepest known depths of the ocean, as Voight was speaking of? Yeah right…
There’s going to be more, you can be sure of that
End Spoilers
Oh yeah…this movie rocked, beginning to end.[/quote]
I bought the Generation 1 episodes on dvd. They started the cartoon series with the Decepticons being defeated and drowned. They resurrected themselves which set the stage for the rest of the series. I honestly don’t think they expected the show to catch on when they first made it which is why they allowed them to be “drowned/defeated” so easily at first.
For the guy complaining about “Good guys vs. Bad guys”… c’mon what the fuck did you expect? Have you ever seen the comic?
I mean, it’s cool that you think you’re all superior and intellectual and all, but I think maybe if you’d just relax a bit you might find that you might enjoy these simplistic stories for what they are.
Or maybe you want every movie to somehow delve deep into the human consciousness and offer insight into your life. Sorry but if that were the case I’d have watched about 2 movies in my whole life. Sometimes it’s fun just to be entertained.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
For the guy complaining about “Good guys vs. Bad guys”… c’mon what the fuck did you expect? Have you ever seen the comic?
I mean, it’s cool that you think you’re all superior and intellectual and all, but I think maybe if you’d just relax a bit you might find that you might enjoy these simplistic stories for what they are.
Or maybe you want every movie to somehow delve deep into the human consciousness and offer insight into your life. Sorry but if that were the case I’d have watched about 2 movies in my whole life. Sometimes it’s fun just to be entertained.[/quote]
Anyone who remembers basic English class in high school knows that stories are based on simple premises; man vs man, man vs machine, man vs nature…etc. I am not sure what movies, books or any other form of media out there don’t deal with one of these concepts.
Hell, very rarely is it “machine vs machine”. The Holy Bible is “good vs evil”. I suppose that isn’t deep enough either.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Other than the totally cool acting, super-sweet explosions and shoot-em-up scenes this movie was totally bunk.[/quote]
What a terribly pointless critique. The movie was only supposed to be “super-sweet explosions and shoot-em-up scenes.” Anything else was just icing on the cake. Since when is having the heroes save the day a bad thing? When you say heroes, are you referring to all of the protagonists, or just the military, because the military really doesn’t end up doing all that much.
Are you faulting the movie for not having some deep, philosophical message or intense drama? Fine. In that case, Citizen Kane was bunk because it didn’t have kick ass explosions and top-notch CGI.
Seems absurd doesn’t it? You can’t fault a movie for not being something that it’s not even trying to be in the first place.
Did the product placements really offend you that much? Would it have been less offensive if they were made-up brands? You know it is possible for people to sit through a movie filled with placements where they don’t feel the need to buy the products afterwards. I don’t see what the problem is.
