Transformers Review

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[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
In my opinion, everything that I’ve ever seen that he did before Transformers sucked, and everyone that I know who has worked for him (production assistants, the low guys on the totem pole) say he is worthless, despicable human being. I wouldn’t use the term hate, because I don’t feel anything for him as a person either way, but I decided a long time ago, I think after Pearl Harbor, that I would never spend money on one of his movies again.

Also, he really doesn’t know how to do action. Most of the time he substitutes confusion for choreography. Which was the only thing that bothered me in the Transformers. But he’s not the only one these days.[/quote]

It really just sounds like you are transferring your dislike of him as a person into a dislike of his movies. Either way, it couldn’t have been much of a deep-rooted dislike as you caved on your decision to not spend money on his movies ever again.

Except for a few close-up action shots in Transformers, I’ve never been confused watching the action in his movies.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
I think Bay just shoved one huge middle finger up the ass of most of his haters.[/quote]

Most of the Michael Bay haters hate him because it’s the cool, credible thing to do, or they do it because they simply don’t like awesome, fun, action movies that you can just turn the noggin off and enjoy. In any case, they shouldn’t bother voicing their opinions as their minds are already made up.

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[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
Professor X wrote:
I think Bay just shoved one huge middle finger up the ass of most of his haters.

Most of the Michael Bay haters hate him because it’s the cool, credible thing to do, or they do it because they simply don’t like awesome, fun, action movies that you can just turn the noggin off and enjoy. In any case, they shouldn’t bother voicing their opinions as their minds are already made up.[/quote]

I hate Michael Bay because he ruined Aquaman. That fuck.

64

[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
In my opinion, everything that I’ve ever seen that he did before Transformers sucked, and everyone that I know who has worked for him (production assistants, the low guys on the totem pole) say he is worthless, despicable human being. I wouldn’t use the term hate, because I don’t feel anything for him as a person either way, but I decided a long time ago, I think after Pearl Harbor, that I would never spend money on one of his movies again.

Also, he really doesn’t know how to do action. Most of the time he substitutes confusion for choreography. Which was the only thing that bothered me in the Transformers. But he’s not the only one these days.

It really just sounds like you are transferring your dislike of him as a person into a dislike of his movies. Either way, it couldn’t have been much of a deep-rooted dislike as you caved on your decision to not spend money on his movies ever again.

Except for a few close-up action shots in Transformers, I’ve never been confused watching the action in his movies. [/quote]

No, actually it’s the other way around. I disliked every film of his that I have seen (I don’t claim to have seen all of them), and within the last few years, heard bad things about him as a person.

But I have heard similar stories about a lot of directors and I don’t hold that against thier work. In fact, I should not have mentioned what I’ve heard about him as a person, as it is irrelevant, and second hand knowledge anyway.

As far as I am concerned art should be judged entirely on it’s own merits, the artist has nothing to do with it. But when I spend almost $10 dollars on a movie, and feel like I’ve wasted my money, or should have just waited till it came out on video, I make note of who made the film, and am less likely to spend money to see his next work.

In the case of the Transformers, I saw the preview last year, laughed my ass off and said “shit, I can’t wait to see that.” When I heard Michael Bay directed it, I was concerned, and decided I would wait to hear some reviews. Not the critics, I ignore them. Actually this thread is what made me decide to see it, and I wasn’t disappointed.

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[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
I hate Michael Bay because he ruined Aquaman. That fuck.[/quote]

I don’t get it.

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[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
Professor X wrote:
I think Bay just shoved one huge middle finger up the ass of most of his haters.

Most of the Michael Bay haters hate him because it’s the cool, credible thing to do, or they do it because they simply don’t like awesome, fun, action movies that you can just turn the noggin off and enjoy. In any case, they shouldn’t bother voicing their opinions as their minds are already made up.[/quote]

I hope you’re not ascribing that attitude to me. I grew up on action flicks, and I think guys like James Cameron, John Carpenter, John Woo, John McTiernan, Sam Peckinpaw, and Richard Donner did it better. From what I have seen of Michael Bay’s work, he is a pale imitation. But it looks like he’s getting better.

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[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
I saw it this afternoon and enjoyed it quite a bit. To be honest I expected absolute shit, since it was a Michel Bay film, but he did a surprisingly good job.

What’s with all the Michael Bay hate?
I wasn’t a fan of Armageddon or Pearl Harbor, but I definitely liked Bad Boys 2, The Island, The Rock, and Transformers.
I mean, it’s not like the guy doesn’t how to make an action movie.[/quote]

Armageddon: Fun but slightly annoying movie.

Pearl Harbor: Took a pivotal moment in American and tried to turn it into a bad (and way long) popcorn movie.

Bad Boys 2: One of the most amoral movies ever made.

The Island: I kind of liked, good concept, but the follow through wasn’t quite there.

The Rock: Annoying movie in that they spend tons of time setting up how setting up Cage as useless and untrained in physical issues. He then gets into a car chase and somehow is able to deal with highly trained soldiers in gun battles. I don’t know if anyone else gets bothered by this.

All that, and I wasn’t too worried about Bay doing this. If there is one thing he has shown an aptitude for its the big car chase action sequence. I thought that might extend nicely to Transformers.

As to his personality, I don’t really care if he’s a dick, but it does seem like a lot of actors refuse to be in a second movie with him.

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[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
I hope you’re not ascribing that attitude to me. I grew up on action flicks, and I think guys like James Cameron, John Carpenter, John Woo, John McTiernan, Sam Peckinpaw, and Richard Donner did it better. From what I have seen of Michael Bay’s work, he is a pale imitation. But it looks like he’s getting better.
[/quote]

I honestly don’t find their brand of action necessarily better. The movies themselves might be, and the action is usually more slowly paced, but to say he can’t do action? Come on…

I find John Woo is grossly overrated. I watched Hard Boiled, Once a Thief, and A Better Tomorrow, and they were terrible movies. The action was hectic but to the point of being ridiculous.

69

[quote]holifila wrote:
Bad Boys 2: One of the most amoral movies ever made.
[/quote]

Why? What was so morally wrong about Bad Boys 2? I just thought it was funny(except for that “woo-sah” garbage) and had good action. That’s all I wanted from it, and that’s what I got.

70

[quote]holifila wrote:

All that, and I wasn’t too worried about Bay doing this. If there is one thing he has shown an aptitude for its the big car chase action sequence. I thought that might extend nicely to Transformers.
[/quote]

It did. Also, I don’t remember one time in this movie where it seemed as if the actors were reacting to a green screen or thin air. They really do need to start giving awards specifically for special effects.

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[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
holifila wrote:
Bad Boys 2: One of the most amoral movies ever made.

Why? What was so morally wrong about Bad Boys 2? I just thought it was funny(except for that “woo-sah” garbage) and had good action. That’s all I wanted from it, and that’s what I got.
[/quote]

The “woo-sah” bullshit knocked it down two notches. Also, had they approached it from the aspect of them still being friends instead of nearly hating each other, it would have flowed better. That is what made the first one work.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
holifila wrote:

All that, and I wasn’t too worried about Bay doing this. If there is one thing he has shown an aptitude for its the big car chase action sequence. I thought that might extend nicely to Transformers.

It did. Also, I don’t remember one time in this movie where it seemed as if the actors were reacting to a green screen or thin air. They really do need to start giving awards specifically for special effects. [/quote]

There is a visual effects Oscar! I actually thought that this movie would have a shot, but who knows.

73

If this movie doesn’t win the visual effects award, they should just fold the event outright. I thought King Kong was unbelievable in terms of the effects, and didn’t think anything would be able to fuck with it for awhile.

A year and a half later Transformer’s set the bar so rediculously high the only thing that could possibly raise/match it would be a sequal. I will see this movie at least 2 more times before it leaves the theatre. Amazing.

74

I felt the same way. The voice overs were perfect (No one could do Optimus like Peter Cullen). The agility of the robots couldn’t have been better. There were many scenes where there was so much action that it was hard to keep up with who was where, but I think that will only help dvd sales.

Oh man. Watching the car chases turn into battles mid race was INSANE. I was thinking as I was watching how much they’re gonna pull on DVD sales, just from the special features section alone. People keep clowning on Bay. Some of his movies are cheesy, but name an action director’s who aren’t.

I don’t give a fuck if he remakes sesame street with a gun toting big bird and a grenade launching snuffalupakis, based solely on this, I’ll pay to see it. And according to the numbers, so will most of the shit talkers.

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[quote]kkeane wrote:
Professor X wrote:
holifila wrote:

There is a visual effects Oscar! I actually thought that this movie would have a shot, but who knows.[/quote]

Yeah. The year is still young, but I think it should be nominated. The problem I’ve had with CG since the mid nineties is that they never could get the contrast right on the lighting and often didn’t even seem to try.

But the lighting seemed perfect on the Transformers, and I thought the shootout in the city was actually shot in a downtown urban setting. Probably some was, some wasn’t. I will have to see it several more times to pick out a bad shot, if there is one.

76

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
Professor X wrote:
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?

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?

Everyone knows they are all illiterate and can’t tie their own shoes. [/sarcasm]

It just amazes me that a movie gets made where the characters that represent the military are actually acting realistically (they were possibly the most realistic characters in the whole movie), and someone claims that makes the whole movie an ad for the Air Force.

I’m in the Air Force. There were a couple of guys walking out of the movie claiming that the movie was “anti-government” because of the plot involving the government keeping secrets from the general public. It shows that people see what the want to see…because how can it be BOTH?

The movie is now “anti-government” and “military propaganda”? How the hell do you pull that off? Doesn’t the fact that people can read into it both scenarios make it neither?[/quote]

Well, then I must be really screwed up because I didn’t see the movie as either pro-military/gov or anti-military/gov.

I simply saw the movie for what I thought it was supposed to be, which was an extremely entertaining movie where giant f’ing robots that I’ve loved since I was a kid got to fight and looked realistic doing it.

I got everything out of the movie that I was hoping I’d get. Then again, maybe I’m just not very sophisticated. Should I have seen some kind of hidden plot?

77

1 word:

Awesome!

While waiting in line Tuesday night to get into the theater my friends and I were discussing just how awesome the Transformers were. I still have a copy of The Transformers: The Movie on VHS at home. Fucking classic!

Things I thought they did a great job on:

  1. The transformations were awesome AND they kept the old sounds! I loved the way Barricade transformed mid-leap after Bumblebee! The scene with Bonecrusher and Optimus was great too! They brought out Optimus’ sword!!

  2. I thought the actors did a GREAT job given the fact that for 50% of the movie it was acting to a CG robot that wasn’t there.

  3. They actually did a good job displaying the military and government in a positive light, rather than some of the hatchet jobs I’ve seen where it’s a mish mash of crap that isn’t even 1/10 accurate. It did take me a second to realize why Tyrese’s character was even on the plane with the Rangers, “oh yeah combat controller…aduh!” About the Pentagon/DC thing only a few words about that…if only it looked like it did in the movies, 1 huge reason I can’t watch 24 at all.

4.The trailers at the beginning were awesome, I hadn’t seen any real trailers for any of these movies yet.
Rush Hour 3:
-Jackie Chan: I think he’s speaking French.
-Chris Tucker:slaps bad guy “Your asian, stop humiliating yourself!”

The Simpsons Movie:
Marge: How did all these muddy pig tracks get on the ceiling?
Homer is holding a pig up to the ceiling
Homer: “Spider pig spider pig…”

Minor complaints on my end:

  1. I did not like John Tuturro in the picture, it’s not that I dislike him as an actor, I just felt there was something weird about his character.

  2. The product placement by the end was just irritating as hell! Ok I get it almost all vehicles in the movie are GMC’s…OK!

78

[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]

Bingo

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
I just don’t dig the good-guy, bad-guy movies in general because I find them too simplistic and unimaginative.

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]
I completely expected it!! Sometimes we do things for others out of love. I would not have willingly gone to that film on my own. We all have different tastes and I am just expressing my dislike for overblown pieces of shite such as this.

Thoroughly enjoyed the eye candy though. Top notch.

Thnx.

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[quote]Backlash79 wrote:
The Simpsons Movie:
Marge: How did all these muddy pig tracks get on the ceiling?
Homer is holding a pig up to the ceiling
Homer: “Spider pig spider pig…”

[/quote]

Funniest preview for a movie I’ve seen.