Transformers -- Rockin'!

[DevilAlumna]

Okay, so Transformers opened tonight in "select cities," and apparently, Redmond, WA - geek mecca - was so honored. My husband found out around 11AM, and had tickets 15 min. later. :D

On to the movie -- as an action-adventure, comic-based movie, I give it a 4.5 out of 5! For the whole first hour, it's just non-stop good story-telling action, no sign or mention that it's based around a superhero concept. Once that aspect comes in to play, it gets a little corny at times, but it's within bounds. I mean, it's a cartoon remake, for pete's sake, and to ignore/avoid that would seem inappropriate.

The good:

* Shia LeBeouf!! He carries the show; if you don't like him, you may not like the flick. That said, if anything would, this would make you like him.

* Great action -- Car chases, check. Military attacks, check. Big explosions, check. Yup, it's a summer blockbuster!

* Lots of laugh-out-loud moments - Shia's parents make for some great comedic action; we'll be quoting some lines for the foreseeable future.

The bad:

* It's a superhero/comic action movie. As such, the story's very simplistic, and the ending is rather predictable.

* John Turturro's role was, well, disappointing. Too out there. I wonder if it was his take on the character, or if the directors & writers wanted it as such.

* The transitions from machine to robot and back was very cool, but random and overly elaborate. I wanted to see more clearly what pieces transformed where. (maybe it's the engineer in me.)

Other than that, I'd recommend as a great summer watch; get into the cool, dark AC theater and enjoy the fun, 2-hour thrill ride. It won't be as good on the small screen. (Unless that screen is 50" or bigger, with good surround sound. :))

[Channing]

I just saw it . . . and WHOA.

I am not much of a film critic - but that was AWESOME!!! Easily the most entertaining movie I have seen in a long long time. It was a great mix of laugh out loud comedy, blowing things up, mechanical things, and sentimentality.

Like stated - this is a must see in theatres

[Chard]

I just got back from seeing it myself. I am pleasantly surprised. Great flick. It is a summer cinema experience for sure.

[Highlander]

Transformers was great! The action scenes were really well done and the dialogue was creatively funny. It reminded me of an "Independence Day" type flic - not too deep, loaded with action and snappy one liners, and a predictable ending. However, it was much more satisfying than Pirates 3. They paid homage to the cartoon a few times (Shia telling the girl she was 'more than meets the eye' was classic), but it wasn't too much for someone not familiar with the storyline. Shia's character was really funny.

The entire audience I saw it with cheered and applauded at the end. I can't recall a reaction like that. As for me, I'll definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out.

Go see this movie. It's awesome...

Oh, and for those of you with kids, there was a lot of action/violence, but the language wasn't bad and there weren't any sexual scenes. I'd say 9-11 year old boys would be fine to go see it.

[Channing]

our theatre also broke out in applause at the end, and there was an additional cheer when Optimus Prime first came on the screen

[Dukerati]

Saw it yesterday and LOVED it. There was definetely some applause at the end in my theatre also. I don't think that the movie was as funny as some are making it out to be (with the notable exception of the Ratchet line about pheremones and Shia Lebouf) but it was entertaining as all get-out. I was shocked that the movie was 2.5 hours long because it really played like a 90 minute movie.

It's not going to win any Oscars but as summer blockbusters go, Transformers defintely fit the bill. One minor quibble I had with the action scenes was that I thought a lot of the robot action sequences were cut a little too fast and it became hard to tell the deceptecons apart in robot form.

[DukeUsul]

I'll agree with all the sentiments. When I heard they were doing this I was afraid they'd screw up something iconic from my childhood. Not so. It was fantastic. Very entertaining, great effects - and just the right level of cheese.

[Exiled_Devil]

Just saw it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was bought in the whole time, with only one question bugging me.

The really neat thing was this was an action movie with the army rangers, a Herbie the love-camaro movie, and a robowar movie all at the same time. The music shift between the buddy movie and the army action scenes shifted the mode very well, and then when all the robots came out to play it was amazing.

Vaguely spoiler-ific nit to pick:
My lingering question was the allspark turning things into transformers - but only into Decepticons. Or at least transformers that wanted to kill humans. How do Autobots get created then? A minor quibble that really doesn't need much work because all that we got was the 3 product placement Decepticons in the fight, which I assume were handily wiped out.

Great sumer movie! I have picked four movies to see this summer, and so far I am 2 for 2! On to next weekend!

Exiled

[Dukerati]

I forgot to mention this in my initial post but did anyone else think the product placement was a little too heavy? I felt like Chevrolet co-produced this film.

[Channing]

I thought it might seem to heavy going in - but I dont think they were all that bad. I mean, the transformers had to be something right? Its not like vehicles were forced into the movie. I guess Hummer, Chevy, and Mazda (I think thats what the little grey sports car was - an rx7) are all made by GM, but again - they had to be something right? Each vehicle seemed to fit the personality of the autobot so I wasnt too upset.

[DevilAlumna]

I forgot to mention this in my initial post but did anyone else think the product placement was a little too heavy? I felt like Chevrolet co-produced this film.

According to the HBO "Making of" show, the producers of Transformers went around to a lot of car companies, trying to get someone to work with them and let them use some of the more futuristic versions of their cars, and GM was the only one to bite. Smart move; my husband now wants one of the new Camaros.


Mazda (I think thats what the little grey sports car was - an rx7) are all made by GM

It's a suped (sp?) up version of the Pontiac Solstice, iirc.


I enjoyed the bit where the XBOX 360 box got blasted by Megatron, and turned into a rabid robot attacking its holder. :D

[Chard]

The new Camaro was a surprise. I really liked it. I want one too. Although, if I had my choice I'd have that Saleen Mustang as well.

[Exiled_Devil]

I thought it might seem to heavy going in - but I dont think they were all that bad. I mean, the transformers had to be something right? Its not like vehicles were forced into the movie. I guess Hummer, Chevy, and Mazda (I think thats what the little grey sports car was - an rx7) are all made by GM, but again - they had to be something right? Each vehicle seemed to fit the personality of the autobot so I wasnt too upset.

I was annoyed at first that Bumblebee was not a VW bug, as he was originally. However, I found out that VW decided in the nineties that they did not want their product 'associated with violence' or some-such. I guess that, for some reason, companies don't want product placement without absolute control.

Optimus Prime changed vehicles, too - he became a long-nosed Peterbilt rig instead of a cab-over, but this is because the director wanted more mass in order to make him be taller - apparently Bay wanted some sense of reality in the mass-size ratio for the robots.

Of all te product placement, the xbox/Mt. Dew insta-robots were the one I thought were a bit much. But the soda machine shooting cans of soda was too funny to be in poor taste.

Exiled

[Dukerati]

I guess I was expecting the Transformers to be brandless. As a fan of the cartoon series, it was hard for me to envision my favorite Autobots as specific cars. I was thinking something more like Ratchet, an ambulance without any conspicuous logos. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would see it again in a moment's notice.

[Deslok]

The GM product placements weren't too over the top I thought. Or maybe I'm just inured of the whole thing. But hey, it was a fine summer popcorn flick, that left the world behind for 150 minutes and didn't feel that long(which is great when you have 8 hours to kill between a ferry and a train trip). The minor gripe I'd have was I felt the transformation was a bit overmuch. Echoing what Devilalumna said, it would have been nice to get some sense of continuity that this part went here, that went there, etc. Instead it all went haywire and a robot emerged. The effect was done nicely so it wasn't just a crazy cartoon spin and superhero emerges, but after the first one, it could and should have been simplified. But for 2+ hours of mindless entertainment(and I don't mean that in a negative way, just its not going to pretend to aim for an oscar), it was good.

[bluebutton]

In terms of product placements, I noticed the memory card brand more than the car brand, but my family is geeky like that. So yea, there were a lot of product placements.

I went to see this last night with my husband's company, a video game studio. Maybe every audience is quite knowing about the cartoon, but it was really nice to be with an interactive audience that cheered "at the right time" for all the things I noticed and wouldn't have done anything about if I hadn't been with that kind of a group. Lots of enjoyable laughs, but I wouldn't have seen it if it weren't related to my childhood TV watching. I wonder if I didn't already know about TF whether I would have connected with the robots as they were presented in the film.

I had watched Die Hard the day before and that might have influence me, but I didn't really like Shia LaBeouf. The bumbling, nervous geek thing got annoying after a while.

CGI was great and fairly seamless to my untrained eye until close to the end where one of the Camaro transformations really looked ugly and cartoony.

And one more vote for the transformations being over done. I also felt that robots were so detailed it was hard to tell what was what. When parts of the robots came off or were torn apart, it was hard to tell what was what.

One other thing I liked is that the military wasn't portrayed as total dofuses. As i remember the cartoon, the military was generally bad/incompetent/got in the way.

Anyways, totally enjoyed myself. Liked DH better.

[Chard]

I just read this article about Transformers (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/transformers-on-target-for-150m-first-week/). It is on track to set a 7-day record or come very close. Looks like moms and kids really like the movie. Latinos are flocking to see it as well.

I kinda agree about the transformations. However, I don't know how many times I've had to watch a movie again to catch everything. The battle scenes in the Star Wars movies are a good example.

[accfanfrom1970]

Found the movie very entertaining, and the military scenes - particularly in the desert - action packed. Word of advice, see the movie late when their won't be so many children. I mean young children. There were a half dozen parents with 3-6 year olds that wouldn't be quiet....like the theatre was their living room. That, and the guy behind us going "awesome," and "neat" during every action shot....truely annoying. I'll go back after the buzz has died down, and to a show where their hopefully won't be as many young kids.....and I think I'll like it even more.

[Dukerati]

The GM product placements weren't too over the top I thought. Or maybe I'm just inured of the whole thing. But hey, it was a fine summer popcorn flick, that left the world behind for 150 minutes and didn't feel that long(which is great when you have 8 hours to kill between a ferry and a train trip). The minor gripe I'd have was I felt the transformation was a bit overmuch. Echoing what Devilalumna said, it would have been nice to get some sense of continuity that this part went here, that went there, etc. Instead it all went haywire and a robot emerged. The effect was done nicely so it wasn't just a crazy cartoon spin and superhero emerges, but after the first one, it could and should have been simplified. But for 2+ hours of mindless entertainment(and I don't mean that in a negative way, just its not going to pretend to aim for an oscar), it was good.

I thought the transformations were a little crazy as well but I think Micheal Bay kinda painted himself into a corner with them because although the cars themselves were not big, the robots were huge! In terms of scale alone, there is no way Micheal Bay could have portrayed the transformations to fit all together without raising serious questions on how much bigger the robot forms were...

[Duvall]

Wow. This movie was as bad as a movie about giant robots beating the hell out of each other could be. It is possible for a movie to be worse than Transformers, but only if it features a premise less inherently awesome than clans of warrior robots from outer space.

[Chard]

Found the movie very entertaining, and the military scenes - particularly in the desert - action packed. Word of advice, see the movie late when their won't be so many children. I mean young children. There were a half dozen parents with 3-6 year olds that wouldn't be quiet....like the theatre was their living room. That, and the guy behind us going "awesome," and "neat" during every action shot....truely annoying. I'll go back after the buzz has died down, and to a show where their hopefully won't be as many young kids.....and I think I'll like it even more.

I was fortunate enough to see this in a brew and view. I went to the 10:00 pm showing on a Tuesday. They don't allow children under 12 on Tuesdays and anyone under 18 must be with an adult. Add to that all the room I could ask for, every other row of seats replaced by a small bar to set your food on and it was a very enjoyable experience. I don't think I could have enjoyed it as much with a bunch of little ones all around.

I feel you one the over enthusiastic viewer. I went to see the last Superman and there was a Superman geek a few rows up that had probably seen this flick a few times before. He wouldn't shut up at first. Very annoying.

[JBDuke]

Add me to the list of fans of this movie. I guess I was a little old when the TV show came around. I didn't watch it much, and so I went into the film with few preconceptions or expectations. What I got was a top-notch summer action movie. Yes, the premise is kind of silly, and the plot is simple, but it's so COOL! :-)

One of the techniques I use to gauge the quality of a film is how long it takes until I look at my watch. This afternoon, I didn't look at the watch until the end credits were rolling - a sign of a superior film.

For what it is, this is a good one.

[bluebear]

I saw Transformers this weekend and agreed with most in this post that it was a good fun summer action movie despite some heavy product placement and some confusing plot issues (eg All Spark and Decepticons)..I also missed the last few minutes of the movie (left right after the conclusion of the final fight scene) because of child issues.. anyone want to PM me with a summary of the end?
My real reason for writing in to this thread though was to see if anyone had any info on the JJ Abrams trailer that was one of the previews at my theater..seemed like some sort of monster destroying New York...anyone have any info on the name and premise of the movie?

[Duvall]

My real reason for writing in to this thread though was to see if anyone had any info on the JJ Abrams trailer that was one of the previews at my theater..seemed like some sort of monster destroying New York...anyone have any info on the name and premise of the movie?

No, we don't.

(The only information that has been officially released is the release date - 1/18/08. Some speculation here (http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-07-06T061719Z_01_N06388312_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-CLOVERFIELD-COL.XML&archived=False))

[JasonEvans]

No, we don't.

(The only information that has been officially released is the release date - 1/18/08. Some speculation here (http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-07-06T061719Z_01_N06388312_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-CLOVERFIELD-COL.XML&archived=False))

For further discussion of Cloverfield, please see the other thread on the Off-topic board which can be found here. (http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2564)

-Jason