Transformers the Movie

[Seven]

Not that it really matters... but all it takes to disable a Transformer is a fire extinguisher and/or a lot of ice? Didn't all the Transformers including Megatron fly through outer space to get to Earth? This is just a guess, but isn't deep space a hell of a lot colder than ice?

[eugimon]

Not that it really matters... but all it takes to disable a Transformer is a fire extinguisher and/or a lot of ice? Didn't all the Transformers including Megatron fly through outer space to get to Earth? This is just a guess, but isn't deep space a hell of a lot colder than ice?

they're fine once they defrost, which I'm sure happened when plumetting at mach 23 through atmo.

[jenius]

Alright guys, don't hte me too much for not reading all 60+ pages of previous posts (although honestly, I did scan a few of them), but I just saw the thread on "Who do you want in the sequel" and Soundwave is winning? Was Soundwave not the Decepticon on Airforce 1 that transforms into a boombox?

[Zeta Otaku]

5) Why didn't Starscream shoot down the other F-22? He clearly was superior to them in the air.

This is a good question... thankfully, I have the answer. If you remember throughout the film, all air strikes needed laser guidance (Skopinok, Brawl/Devistator/Tankbot whatever you want to call him) from the soldiers on the ground. Yet, we see Megatron get shot in the back by missiles from the F-22s while the soldiers were still a couple blocks away from the fight. Here's what happened.

We see Starscream messing with the F-22s, blows up a few of them, then flies off only to circle back, join the survivors, then fly past them and lead the charge. What I'm NOT 100% sure on is if Starscream made the missile run on Megs alone or if he took control of the other F-22s (hacked them) and then added their missiles to his own... which I think he would do to make sure he got the job done (which, he still didn't). What is for sure is that Starscream is as much a backstabber in the movie as he ever was.

Alright guys, don't hte me too much for not reading all 60+ pages of previous posts (although honestly, I did scan a few of them), but I just saw the thread on "Who do you want in the sequel" and Soundwave is winning? Was Soundwave not the Decepticon on Airforce 1 that transforms into a boombox?

Nope, that was Frenzy. Though he was originally called Soundwave, I think it was Bay or one of the writers who said that the fans would be pissed if Soundwave was only 4 feet tall.

Also, anyone else notice that ALL of the holograms the Decepticons used (Blackout's pilot, Barricade's driver, Starscream's pilot) looked like the head guy from Sector 7?

Edited July 22, 2007 by Zeta Otaku

[eugimon]

Yeah, I noticed that too, was that explained in the book or the comics? Or is it something to look forward to in T2.

[Phyrox]

Also, anyone else notice that ALL of the holograms the Decepticons used (Blackout's pilot, Barricade's driver, Starscream's pilot) looked like the head guy from Sector 7?

I thought they were, although I couldn't quite figure out why they would have done that.

That movie needed a lot more blackout.

[David Hingtgen]

The Decepticon hologram was played by one of the MH-53 pilots---so when he's in Blackout--that's actually a MH-53 pilot! Bay just happened to spot him while filming the SOCCENT base scenes, and liked his "evil stare"--so he hired him for a few non-speaking scenes playing the hologram.

The S7 guy is just coincidentally similar-looking. Must be the 'stache.

There's a lot of pics here of filming here: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....tage=2&pn=1

"The hologram guy"-- http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....&imgid=6992

Trivia for the MH-53's used in the film: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/pages/History/...mer_trivia.html

[eugimon]

The Decepticon hologram was played by one of the MH-53 pilots---so when he's in Blackout--that's actually a MH-53 pilot! Bay just happened to spot him while filming the SOCCENT base scenes, and liked his "evil stare"--so he hired him for a few non-speaking scenes playing the hologram.

The S7 guy is just coincidentally similar-looking. Must be the 'stache.

There's a lot of pics here of filming here: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....tage=2&pn=1

"The hologram guy"-- http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....&imgid=6992

Trivia for the MH-53's used in the film: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/pages/History/...mer_trivia.html

ah! thanks for the answer

[Zeta Otaku]

ah! thanks for the answer

ah, gotcha. wow. I would've SWORN it was the same guy.

[wolfx]

Not that it really matters... but all it takes to disable a Transformer is a fire extinguisher and/or a lot of ice? Didn't all the Transformers including Megatron fly through outer space to get to Earth? This is just a guess, but isn't deep space a hell of a lot colder than ice?

The comic explains he had energon deficiency and coupled with cold weather made him deactivate. Shrug.

And the transformers came to earth in protoforms....which i suppose are the equivalent of stasis pods.

[jenius]

If anyone is keeping tally, I would be way okay with the decepticon who obviously should be Soundwave being named Soundwave. He basically did everything important for the Decepticons... which I would say is what Soundwave should do. Sure, it's kinda lame to have the third (or arguably second) most important decepticon be 4' tall but giving him that important of a role seems to make up for it. Besides, him and Starscream are the big survivers... that seems important also.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Soundwave has to have some kind of sonic weapon and be the guy who jams the signals and spies on everyone by recording things. His recording mode would allow him to watch other decepticons who would threaten to plot against megatron or whoever is in charge. So I think he needs to be someone that is always by the leader's side, not necessarily the guy who does all the sneaking himself. When he plays back the recording it is usually of some plot the good guys have come up with or something starscream is planning.

Soundwave can't be a tiny guy, he has to be able to fight off anyone who tries to take on the leader. He should definitely be bigger than that little guy in the first movie. That's just my thoughts. I think what they could do with soundwave is have him be a robot that can project the holographic images of things that his followers have seen and use them along with the sounds to hypnotise the robot victims. (ie macross plus sharon apple style)

It would be taking the power from hound though. But unlike soundwave of the 80s the soundwave of today would have collected data of all kind not just sounds, but all the recorded images, programs, files etc that the leader would rely on to spy on everyone. The sneaking doesn't have to be him, as that is what ravage and the smaller guys are for. Instead he could be more like a trusted advisor, who has all the backed up info about details nobody else would know from the top of their head and be too valuable to lose in a fight doing all the work others could easily do. (of course he is a good fighter too, just that I think his presence would be needed by the leader on more important things than doing the spying himself)

If they do include soundwave in a future movie, he can't be a cassette tape player/recorder due to the problem with mass shifting. I think a giant computer used for giant robots would be more fitting. This way he can have his size and carry bigger weapons in robot mode. Not be a general grievous on crack robot.

[Ishimaru]

Didn't these 2 get killed earlier in the movie? I think that's what happened ...

Jenius - you also forgot the cheesy "more than meets the eye" TF cartoon quote that was said in like 3 or 4 different contexts ....

That's just hilarious.

Where did you get that comic by the way.

[JB0]

That's just hilarious.

Where did you get that comic by the way.

http://www.lilformers.com/home.php

I have it bookmarked.

[Excillon]

Didn't these 2 get killed earlier in the movie? I think that's what happened ...

Jenius - you also forgot the cheesy "more than meets the eye" TF cartoon quote that was said in like 3 or 4 different contexts ....

From what I've heard, here's the explanation:

Barricade had a freeway death scene (you see him driving next to bonecrusher before the fight with optimus), but they yanked his death because he's obviously a favorite, and they have to leave at least a couple alive for the sequel, which given the success of the film I'm sure is already in planning. Smart on their part, but it did leave quite the hole in the movie. If you think about it, the only decepticons that lived were Barricade, Starscream, Scorponok (though captured), and Frenzy. Brawl, Blackout, Bonecrusher and Megatron all bought it. As for the sequel, here's my guess: Starscream finds away to get some more guys to Earth like Bumblebee did, they try to salvage Megs and the others from the deep, and then it carries into transformers three with Megatron somehow due to the fusion with the allspark becoming Galvatron. God, Michael Bay is predictable...

[Fit For Natalie]

sh002: It was a joke, dude!

For the record most of the Car Robot designs were by Shinji Aramaki, but the Battle Convoy was Kawamori.

Not according to Hideaki Yoke, Takara's lead TF designer.

From the Transformers wiki (not the Wikipedia):

"At BotCon 2005, Hideaki Yoke revealed that Optimus Prime (or more accurately, Diaclone Battle Convoy) was not designed by a single person, but rather a team of Takara designers as the one who was originally assigned the job had fallen behind. It is said that a young Shoji Kawamori was also a member of this team at some point, who would design THS-02 Convoy over 20 years later. The patent for the toy, however, lists Hiroyuki Obara as the designer."

he looks better, but scrawny..... but starscream was a lil scrawny B#$% wasnt he?

Not always. The other major Starscream (from the Unicron Trilogy) is usually portrayed as a powerhouse fighter, and some of the characters in the movie continuity are composites of other characters of the same name from various continuities.

4) The movie seems to have some pretty big logic issues. The Allspark only creates Decepticons? How did the autobots ever stand a chance? When Sam goes to put the Allspark in the Blackhawk, won't that Blackhawk just become a decepticon like the Escalade he bumped into en route? Also, how did Optimus know about the glasses? Sam didn't know yet, so Bumblebee wouldn't know yet, the Decepticons did know though, but how did Optimus know?

The Allspark's usage throughout the movie was either unwitting manipulation by an inferior species of something they didn't understand (Sector Seven and the Nokia cell phone bot) or accidental (when Sam drops the All Spark after he is hit by the 'socialite's' H3. The All Spark was meant to be used properly as the power source or core of Cybertron, and presumably created life similarly to Vector Sigma in the G1 cartoon, or throguh a process similar to Beast Wars.

5) When you introduce a character as Optimus' "Weapons Expert" it is an absolute requirement later in the movie he lives up to the title. Sure, we got to see him fighting (his name escapes me at the moment) but he has been established as a bad *** so he should have had a scene where he just totally punked a Decepticon.... I'm talkin' blown to bits punked.

Perhaps, but at the same time, the Autobots are generally not quite as powerful as the Decepticons they are usually up against. In the backstory, Lord Protector Megatron commanded the armed forces, and when he betrayed the state, he took his army with him. The Autobots, as is tradition, are made up of mostly civilians like a militia - Prime himself was a politician before the war.

Jenius, Logic and Summer blockbuster films are mutually exclusive. I learned this a long time ago. But I agree with nearly all of your points. Did you truely believe that the focus was gonna be on the transformers and not the humans reacting to the Robots? That is one of my main gripes with these types of films. Not enough focus/exposition on the Transformers. The character on Air force 1 was Frenzy.

Other loose ends that have already been commented on:

1) Barricade and Scorponoks lack of involvment in the final battle

2) What happended to the newly created Robots--Vending Machine, escaldade, etc.

3) Bumblee can get new legs, but you can't rebuild Jazz

4) Devastator being made out of tissue paper

5) Why didn't Starscream shoot down the other F-22? He clearly was superior to them in the air.

Okay, you're already a mecha fan. A scifi genre fan. Perhaps even a Transformers fan - you can deal with a concept as patently ridiculous as Transformers easily. The rest of the world? Not so easily. The humans are there to ease everybody into the world of TFs, and humans are always there to ease people into the world of TFs. This isn't Japan where its part of established nerd culture for giant robots to be wandering around and the punters just accept it as something normal in the fictional world.

1. One of the writers, Roberto Orci, said Barricade's dissapearance is a thread for TF2. Scorponok is still somewhere in the middle east.

2. They probably shut down after the All Spark was destroyed. Going by the story, those primal 'beasts' were improper life, while the rest of the Transformers were born properly.

3. I don't know if you realized, but Transformers aren't merely mecha or non-sentient robots They're life forms with what could be considered a living soul (spark), and, like us, grevious injuries can cause shock and put them into a coma (stasis lock) or extinguish their spark, which is what happened to Jazz. Just because they can replace or rebuild their limbs doesn't mean they can handle being violently torn apart

4. Huh? He certainly put up a fight - in fact, next to Megatron he was the toughest of the Decepticons in the movie.

The Decepticon hologram was played by one of the MH-53 pilots---so when he's in Blackout--that's actually a MH-53 pilot! Bay just happened to spot him while filming the SOCCENT base scenes, and liked his "evil stare"--so he hired him for a few non-speaking scenes playing the hologram.

The S7 guy is just coincidentally similar-looking. Must be the 'stache.

There's a lot of pics here of filming here: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....tage=2&pn=1

"The hologram guy"-- http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/linpha/viewer....&imgid=6992

Trivia for the MH-53's used in the film: http://www.mh-53pavelow.com/pages/History/...mer_trivia.html

Dude, I wrote an article on his character: The Mustache Man.

Yeah, that's his character's name accordign to the script.

As for the sequel, here's my guess: Starscream finds away to get some more guys to Earth like Bumblebee did, they try to salvage Megs and the others from the deep, and then it carries into transformers three with Megatron somehow due to the fusion with the allspark becoming Galvatron. God, Michael Bay is predictable...

... how is Bay predictable for something a theory you made up? Edited July 24, 2007 by Fit For Natalie

[big F]

Im finally getting to see it on Thursday, a whole day before general release. WU HOOO!!!

[Ginrai]

The artist who draws the robot that the toy designer builds as a toy are not necessarily the same thing, but at the very least Aramaki DEFINITELY designed Car Robots.

"Aramaki: I was working on "Micro Change" which became "Transformers" later on. I was also working on "Diacron" and making all sorts of real looking transformers like car-robots."

Source: Genesis Climber MOSPEADA Staff Interview 8, From Genesis Climber Mospeada Staff Interviews/Staff Articles

Edited July 24, 2007 by Ginrai

[JB0]

Okay, you're already a mecha fan. A scifi genre fan. Perhaps even a Transformers fan - you can deal with a concept as patently ridiculous as Transformers easily. The rest of the world? Not so easily. The humans are there to ease everybody into the world of TFs, and humans are always there to ease people into the world of TFs. This isn't Japan where its part of established nerd culture for giant robots to be wandering around and the punters just accept it as something normal in the fictional world.

Nope, this is America, where Transformers are a VERY well-known franchise.

Optimus Prime and Megatron were about as recognizable as fictional characters get.

People don't need "easing into" the Transformers. That happened years ago.

You may make a good Hollywood executive with that sort of attitude, though. They tend to assume that audiences can't process anything that isn't a perfect copy of last year's blockbuster hit. Then totally miss the elements that made last summer's megahit, and conclude the audience is tired of that movie when their copy of it fails.

Great example is the animation industry.

After stuff like Toy Story and Shrek, they concluded that the key to being a success was making a flashy CG movie. And when all the crappy CG movies bombed, they concluded the audience was tired of CG and they needed to move on.

And that's why there's lots of squishies, and almost no Transformers. The last movie that had giant robots in it was Wild Wild West.

[eugimon]

well, considering TF is the highest grossing movie to feature robots of all time, I think maybe the producers weren't as off base as people like to think.

[crasis]

Nope, this is America, where Transformers are a VERY well-known franchise.

Optimus Prime and Megatron were about as recognizable as fictional characters get.

People don't need "easing into" the Transformers. That happened years ago.

Nope and nope. In our community of anime/80's cartoon nerds, sure, they are very recognizable. But the overall majority of the US couldn't tell an Optimus from a Mickey Mouse (at least up until this month). I can't tell you how many people have come up to me in the years leading up to this movie wondering what my Transformers t-shirts were all about. Even waiting in line for the showing on opening night, I overheard many people asking what a "Transformer" was and why we were standing in line.

The advertising agency I used to work for was responsible for the "Transform Your Summer" promotion, and I can't tell you how many people, artists and account folks alike, had no idea about this franchise. I found myself being pulled into meetings daily to brief them on the most basic of concepts. A lot of these guys and gals were from our age group, which makes you think they would've at least known some of the easy stuff. Nope. Trust me, while we're a large community here in the know, the sad fact is that we're nowhere near as massive as the, well, masses.

Edited July 24, 2007 by crasis

[Fit For Natalie]

Nope, this is America, where Transformers are a VERY well-known franchise.

Optimus Prime and Megatron were about as recognizable as fictional characters get.

People don't need "easing into" the Transformers. That happened years ago.

You may make a good Hollywood executive with that sort of attitude, though. They tend to assume that audiences can't process anything that isn't a perfect copy of last year's blockbuster hit. Then totally miss the elements that made last summer's megahit, and conclude the audience is tired of that movie when their copy of it fails.

Great example is the animation industry.

After stuff like Toy Story and Shrek, they concluded that the key to being a success was making a flashy CG movie. And when all the crappy CG movies bombed, they concluded the audience was tired of CG and they needed to move on.

And that's why there's lots of squishies, and almost no Transformers. The last movie that had giant robots in it was Wild Wild West.

Transformers aren't that well known among the general public man - right now Transformers is as widely known in North America as it has ever been, and before then, by kid fad standards, Transformers never reached the heights of TMNT or Power Rangers. Its a fan perception that one's own fictional interest is far greater than it actually is. In reality, if people know about Transformers at all, about half of them don't realize its still going on ("I didn't know Transformers was still around!"), or they considered Transformers to be kiddy crap. For character recognition, you'll have people confusing Prime with Soundwave and calling Megatron 'that guy who turned into the purple gun' (because there were two gun guys in US G1).

As such, even though this movie is predominantly humourous in nature (like a cheesy 80s action movie), its also the first attempt to present Transformers seriously to a wide audience of people who mostly either only have a peripheral knowledge of Transformers (either through their kids, relations or hazy memories) or don't know anything about Transformers at all.

As for human to robot ratio, lessen the human impact to Transformers, and you might as well make a CGI animated cartoon. Humans have always been enormously important to the Transformers story, not only for providing the audience with a frame of reference and somebody they can relate to, but in the way the humans influence and change the Transformers, and of course, give somebody the Heroic Autobots to protect from the Evil Decepticons.

Frankly, as far as US robot franchises go, until the movie, Power Rangers was probably much more well known, and yet again, until recently, Power Rangers generally beat Transformers in toy sales.

[Vermillion21]

http://www.lilformers.com/home.php

I have it bookmarked.

Yeah, I love reading the 'lil formers comics too!

[wolfx]

This one's funny too.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=241

[Knight26]

Ok, finally saw the movie last night with my wife and the best I can say about it is thank god we got in with a coupon on half off night at the theatre. I'm sorry I'm not a Transfan but that movie blew chunks. The only, and I do mean only, good part was when the A-10s came in and tore Scorponok a new one. I could do a scene by scene break down of why it was so bad but let me just do the short version.

Bad dialogue, seriously they could have made the movie somewhat serious but instead hampered the whole thing with cheesy dialogue, puns and gags.

Unneccessary characters: The hacker chick and her buddy could have been cut and all her "revelations" revealed by an unnamed character or the head sector 7 guy.

Sector 7: Don't even get me started, but let me at least say this, horrible casting on the lead field agent, that character was a complete joke.

Freezing mechs: Ok, here I am a giant alien robot that has somehow traversed the vast reaches of space without a space ship to reach earth, and I'm shut down by freaking arctic ice. Damn I guess someone turned up the thermostat in space.

Product placement: Hey who wants a chevy, a mountain dew, a Nokia, Burger King, eBay, etc... ad nasuem

Reciprocating Saws strong then bullets: Hmm, here I am a 4' tall robot that shurgs off bullets but I can't stand up to a battery powered reciprocating saw or flying cerated CDs.

Stupid Humans: How does no one notice a freaking 4' tall shiny metal robot running around a freaking airplane, or a radio that grows eyes that look at you, WTF?

Slow transformation: I'm a 40'+ tall battle robot that takes 5 minutes to transform, hope my enemy doesn't catch me mid change and kill me.

Where were the other two autobots when Prime and Megs were fighting, heck at least 1 decepticon tried to help out megs.

Since when are Predators jet powered? Since when does Air Force 1 transform from a 747 into a KC-135 Speckled Trout? Why is Optimus Prime Suicidal, why didn't any of other autobots step up and say, no let me sacrifice myself instead of you our most powerful leader and warrior? What parent is that cool about having a girl your room after curfew? What teacher would give a flying butt nuget about whether or not a kid got his first car?

Seriously it was a terrible movie, the only good points were the kid who played Sam, who while a complete and utter dork played the part well and made trannies all over wish they could be him. The action sequences were also pretty cool, but really couldn't save the movie IMHO. The movie could have been executed much better without so much cheese, heck throw in some 80s hair band music and it would have been right at home with the '87 animated movie.

Edit: Forgot a couple:

Dumping the mechs: BULL$H!T that would never happen. Those things would have been torn apart, disected, and every single little thing about them analyzed six ways to sunday to find out how to build our own.

More stupid humans: All human tech is derived from Megatron huh, even cars and airplanes, yet they said that they didn't start to analyze him until the mid 30s. Didn't cars and airplanes come before then? Also if he has been so analyzed all these years why is he not partially dissassembled?

All Spark Radiation: How can it be channeled through multiple device into its little chamber and not effect any of those devices? Also what happened to the mechs that were accidentally made in the fight and why were they automatically evil?

City escape: Hmm, we have a device that all the bad guys want so lets take it to a heavily populated city to evac it instead of, oh I don't know making a rendezvous in the desert away from innocent civilians. Or if you go to the city, why not go straight o the freaking airport and commendeer a freaking airplane?

Peeing dogs and robots: 'nuff said.

Mass shifting: I thought there wasn't suppossed to be any mass shifting in this movie, hmm, alspark goes from something the volume of a super tanker down to something the size of a cubed soccerball, nope, no mass shifting there. Optimus is shown behind a freaking peterbuilt dump truck and is much more massive then it. Scorponok changes size at freaking will.

Rant complete for now

Edited July 25, 2007 by Knight26

[jenius]

I liked the 87 film .

I think we all have to accept that this movie is aimed at children... children who will demand toys from parents OUR age. Sad... but true. I think the 87 film actually caught flack as being way too mature for children, I think this one can get the opposite criticism.

[VF5SS]

Hey Knight26, you should totally check out the podcast Ginrai and I did on the subject. We share your frustrations with this crappy movie. We're on the front page at collectiondx.com

[big F]

I liked the 87 film .

I think we all have to accept that this movie is aimed at children... children who will demand toys from parents OUR age. Sad... but true. I think the 87 film actually caught flack as being way too mature for children, I think this one can get the opposite criticism.

Yes it did

In the U.K parents complained about the deaths of many of the characters and the fact that some children were scared. That and the fact that some wanted it banned because of the "S" word that Spike says just before Unicron eats him and BumbleBee.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

I'm with knight on this one. The whole script makes no sense. I'm sure the Transformers zealots have an answer for every inconsistency, but I don't want to hear them, because they should be IN the movie. I'm not a Transformers fan, I'm a moviegoer.

Besides the pace is chaotic, there are stablished characters that dissappear in the middle of the movie not to be seen again, like the hacker chick and her gang. At the beginning it's all characters and jokes and then the human characters just fade away in the middle of the conflict. The US government doing the right thing is starting to get in the middle of logic. Nowadays even a ten year old would find that more ulikely than transforming living robots. By the way, I was wondering, if Bumblebee can change from a rusty 80s Camaro to a brand new concept one that means transformers can change the shape of metal itself, what's the point of having so many moving parts then?

The direction is also bad. Michael Bay rely almost exclusively on frenetic camera moves to astonish the audience. I hate movies that make me feel as if I was on acid. The camera wouldn't stay still for two seconds. I mean, fantastic pans are always cool, but not for two hours in a row! What about a open shot here and there just so we know what the hell is going on? At some point all I could see were gigantic amorphic machines bouncing on the screen from one side to the other. Besides it's not like transformers are so disctintive from one another in robot mode. IMO those design don't work well on an action movie.

The visual effects are amazing, but that's ILM, that's what they do.

I had no expectations with this movie, but I feel I had to add my two cents to help stop all this Hollywood commercial nonsense. Summer blockbusters are getting worse every year.

Edit: sorry if all this has been discussed already, but no way I'm reading 68 pages of transformers analysis.

Edited July 25, 2007 by Lonely Soldier Boy

[Vermillion21]

This one's funny too.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=241

Yeah, this one is good ...

[Fit For Natalie]

Rant complete for now

Dr Jones laughs at your anger. Edited July 26, 2007 by Fit For Natalie

[Black Valkyrie]

Finally saw it, overall C+.

IMO the movie was just a long introduction for the characters and all the hype was in the last 30min. The best thing about the movie was Frenzy and Bumble Bee.

[areaseven]

I got this article from a bulletin on my MySpace:

HASBRO sells 3 million Transformers toys

Apparently, Transformers has sold really well since June. In just about 2 months worth of time since the toys were released, they have sold around 3 million units!

This has put HASBRO in a very favorable frame of mind for the second movie possibilities...

"Transformers has been a unique box office success. Our U.S. retail sales of [the new] Transformers toys have exceeded our expectations with 3 million units sold since the launch," Hasbro CEO Alfred Verrecchia said during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's results.

Hasbro's Transfomers movie-related toys boosted the toymaker's profits and sales in the second quarter.

"It's too soon to say if there's a Transformers 2. No date has been set as yet, but a second movie is possible," Verrecchia said.

Exceeeding expectations...Great job folks! We collectors are over-achievers now! I knew we had it in us.

Transformers Box Office $453 Worldwide

"So, according to the estimates for this weekend, Transformers only had a 48% dropoff in its second weekend. Harry Potter has dropped 52% from its opening.

"Also, Potter is up to 207 million after 13 days (once Sunday is over) while Transformers was at 224 million after its 13th day.

"Transformers is up to almost 400 million internationally. They've made their money back twice over!"

__________________________________________

And some numbers from AbsumZero:

"According to Box Office Mojo-

Transformers

In Release: 20 days / 2.9 weeks

TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES

Domestic: $262,978,000 58.0%

+ Foreign: $190,634,650 42.0%

-------------------------------------------------------------

= Worldwide: $453,612,650

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

In Release: 12 days / 1.7 weeks

Domestic: $207,866,865 37.2%

+ Foreign: $351,300,000 62.8%

-------------------------------------------------------------

= Worldwide: $559,166,865

[Gui]

I watched it the same day it was released in my country - that was the day before yesterday - and I really liked it, despite the rather heavy humor and a script which gave me the feeling to not know where it was headed at the beginning because of too much characters brought together at the same time, to finally rush the ending battle. Also, the various combat scenes were too much messy and the hackers strictly useless

But the movie ownz and ownz good, as well on the visuals as on the overall atmosphere: thanks to Bay to have given me back my childhood during 2 hours and a half

The collector DVD is on my 'to buy' list for the day it is released

Concerning, the various points of this topic (or at least its 25 or so last pages...), I think some are very valid - see the 1st paragraph of this post, and I tend to agree on a couple more (although I really like these new designs which look very innovative to me, they are indeed too much busy at times; also, the decepticons deserved more screen time; things like that, but rather secondary IMO...) - and some others more discussable: this movie being the summer blockbuster, I don't think we should read too much into it, all the more as the authors of the script themselves say they voluntarily kept some things blurry in order to let the viewer makes his own interpretation, which can be considered as an 'easy' way to write a story but still leaves room for exploration in the (I so hope so!) sequel(s)

Anyway, I strongly recommend to everyone around to go watch it ASAP: it is very worth the money!

[MangledMess]

Hmm.

I admit, I'm as much as a Transformers fan as I'm a Macross fan(Optimus Prime is still the One in my books as with the YF-19.), but I did not expect that much from an adaption directed by Micheal Bay*shudders* where plot is concerned. But a good action movie I was expecting, even if it was from that hack director himself.

Ok... This could be a rant, so be careful with me...

---CAREFUL FOLKS, THERE COULD BE SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!---

Pros:

Bumblebee: Skeptical at first with him being a Camaro, but found myself liking this movie version more than the G1 version. Made me want to get the Camaro Concept toy of him(if I can find it). Love that judo throw that he did on Barricade.

Sam Witwicky: The ONLY human character that I routed for in the movie. I mean, Shia Lebouf practically carried the WHOLE damn movie by himself. The rest of the human characters didn't add much to the film(I wanted to like Lennox, but he didn't do enough to make me like him). Good job, Shia.

Frenzy: Two words: Complete spaz. Lol.

The part where the Autobots show themselves to Sam and Mikaela(Or, AUTOBOTS ASSEMBLE!!!): It almost made me feel some sort of... mystical joy when Optimus Prime and gang showed up and the camera pans around the kids while all 5 of them transformed. It was like seeing old friends. Although they look too different(Ironhide and Ratchet too).

Starscream doing Jet Judo on the F-22 squadron: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, eat your Sparks out.

Optimus Prime: Voiced by Peter Cullen. 'nuff said.

The battles: They were good. The part where the A-10s(I think) were "bringing in the rain" on Scorponok was great. The latter battle sequence was good too, but also bad. See the Cons down below.

CGI: It's quite good. ILM doing their usual magic. But then...

CONS:

Almost the first hour of the movie before robots come a tumbling(well, it felt like it): An utter complete waste of time. Did not feel important at ALL. Geez, do something about this if you want the public to respect you, Bay!!!

The human characters: Ergh. Only Sam was worth watching. Even the eye candy *cough*Mikaela*cough* could not do much for this sorry excuse of characters. Yeah, the first hour were about them too.

The Cybertronian cast: This guys aren't spared either. Ironhide, despite being the badass weapons expert, was somehow treated somewhat like a shmuck somewhere later in the movie. Sheesh. Starscream does not SAY much here. Jazz gets the "Hollywood black dude" treatment, even more so later on(whoops...). Brawl is called Devastator in the subtitles(stupid screw up), while the credits labeled him Brawl. Other than that, they needed more of this guys and less of the human cast.

The CGI: ... the sentiments I had with the bots' designs from the first time they were revealed is still here. They look scrawny, fragile, and WAY TOO busy. I seriously wanted to like them. I REALLY do, but this movie did not change my sentiments at all. I sorta like Bumblebee here. Hell, I think I sorta like the way Prime(though he f****** looks like Nicholas Cage to me, with that long face) and Ironhide looks. But it does not save them from the fact that they were OVERDONE with all those gears and parts popping out here and there every time they transform. It was just too much. How could I believe they were tough, battle-ready mechs when they look like advance Legos popping around? If ILM and Bay had cool down a bit, and designed them in a way that they look like sturdy, battle-capable bots instead of looking like brittle Bionicle wannabes, then I'd like them more. But now, it's only Bumblebee that I like(because of his Camaro concept mode). Sure, they are aliens from another planet, but can't they be aliens with STURDY, hard-ass armor that protects them and their transforming sequence better?

The Plot: Well, aside from that silly Frenzy escape sequence, I think I said enough. Oh, wait, I thought Sector 7 were some serious shadowy organization with scary-looking MIBs, but all I found were a bunch of clumsy-ass clowns. ... the f***!?!? The AllSpark thing was ok, though.

Those stupid wobbly hands on the Camera: Gah, if they stop this new-age trend of headache-inducing shaky motions, I'd enjoy the later battles even more. It only worked in some movies movies. "Bourne Supremacy" had a few annoying scenes, but it was bearable. Here I could not see if Prime punched Megatron square on the kisser or not, or where Ironhide and Ratchet. Did not help either when they transform.

The battles: see "Those stupid wobbly hands on the Camera".

EDIT - The advertisement: Geez, I see GMC vehicles EVERYWHERE!!! Personally, I wouldn't mind advertisement here and there, but here it was too BLATANT. Doesn't help either when... *MASSIVE SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED IT*

Ironhide, Ratchet and Bumblebee were forced to advertise their alt modes near a tree while Sam and the Eye-Candy were making out... on Bumblebee. Who knows what he was thinking during that session?

*END SPOILER*

*sigh*

Ok, I think I over-ranted, sorry about that. I liked the film, but that's not saying much. In the nutshell: It could've been better if Bay changed the way he does things. "The Rock" was the ONLY film from him that I like. After that, I sighed stayed away.

I'll probably edit this if something changes.

Well, that's my opinion on the film.

-MangledMess-

Edited July 27, 2007 by MangledMess