Transformers Analysis of Bay's directing; Transformer's postmortem

[tviceman]

The Good
---------

1. He loves action and he's good at it. Even if it's somewhat senseless at times, it's still fun.
2. His camera shots are, at times, spectacular.
3. The girls in his movies are always top notch to look at.
4. He has a down-to-earth sense of humor and hey conveys it in films.
5. He uses the blue screen as little as possible, making the action look as real as possible.

The Bad
--------
1. Too much chop shot scene cutting.
2. Nonstop ultra close camera shots make it difficult for many, if not most, first time viewers to discern what is happening. Subsequent viewings do become easier.
3. All character development, except for Optimus and Sam, are virtually nonexistant.
4. He uses the blue screen as little as possible, making epic robot vs. robot battles virtually nonexistant.


Postmortem analysis of the movie itself
-------------------------------------
I just got home from my second viewing. The action was much, much easier for me to follow this time around. The humour didn't quite hold up, which is to be expected, but besides Bumblebee "lubricating" Agent Harris it didn't detract from the movie. The lack of character development was less noticeable the second time around, but mainly because I'm already familiar with characters from the first time I watched it.
Sector Seven is a complete joke and my second biggest complaint of the film. It was hokey, Simmons (Turtorro's role) was eye rolling, and at no point did a secret scary government agency feel threatening. Sector Seven either should not have existed or it should have been a sinister side of the Government, not one big half hour joke in the movie.
The first robot vs. robot fight, Bumblebee vs. Barricade, is extremely disappointing for the same reason Optimus Prime vs. Megatron was disappointing - we saw hardly either of both fights. There is no excuse for this. Learn to use the blue screen - we're going to a Transformer's movie. It's Autobots vs. Decepticons - and for the majority of the movie we're stuck watching the humans vs. the Decepticons. The Bumblebee/Barricade fight should have been the perfect scene to show just how hostile the two factions are against each other, but instead we're left watching Sam's jeans being ripped off by Frenzy. Prime vs. Megatron might as well have not existed. Prime shot Megatron once, and gets slapped around for about a total of 15 seconds of screen time mixed between the Decepticons wreaking havoc and getting blown up.



-I'm okay with some of the Decepticons being defeated by the U.S. military, but in the sequel they should be less susceptible to human attacks.
-Barricade was not dumped into the ocean, as some on here say he was. He should be in the sequel. Scorponok should also be in the sequel.
-Of course Megatron should return as well - and he should have more screen time and he should LIVE at the end as opposed to dying again.
-Starscream should get insanely more screen time, and have considerable dialogue.
-Bay did a pretty good job, but I fully believe that a different director would better serve a sequel.
-The sequel needs a better story, more robot vs. robot action, and the key robots need to be more distinguishable in the thick of action. (For instance Bumblee, Ratchet, and Prime are easy to pick out because of their colors).

Anyone feel free to add, disagree, or comment on what I have said.

 

[CFlash]

Pretty much agree with everything you said. The second time around I was struck with the reverence he showed for the characters. I dunno if this was because of constant fan whining or Spielberg or Murphy or whatnot. But it was there... and it was appreciated.

Bay has certainly matured. Although quick... certain scenes bring out the humanity in the movie (and don't seem contrived or hackneyed) and I'm surprised more critics didn't pick up on it (granted you really need to see the movie twice). The scene where Mikaela calls Spike out on "perfect little life" and the scene where Mikaela and a soldier are on the ground and he does a beautiful solar "wash" on the scene. Beautiful.

Other than the stupid Macguffin plot... which I dislike... I have no qualms with the movie. Even the humor seemed OK the second time around. I recognize he didn't have a humongo budget... and what he did it with was pretty good.

My #1 request for the sequel..... please get somebody OTHER than John Rogers to write the story. I don't care how many edits Orci and Kurtzman did. The original story was and is dumb and brainless... and the movie followed that story completely and was ultimately dumb and mindless too.

 

[Marvin]

All your story plot complaints can be traced to the script/writers...only optimus got development?
oh great job bay

the intense camera work made it engaging...the opposite extreme of that would be like setting up a camera on a building top and having us was the chess pieces movie around
...i think i could have been better..but considering that he does most of his work in live action...post daily GCI work must have been a very new thing for him to come to terms with
and yes, watching it a second time pretty much clears up everything...for me at least
then again, i am an F-zero champ

if ur gonna complain about not getting enough of a fight between Optimus/Megs
BB/Barricade..
that's fine..
just keep in mind this movie costs half as much as everything else and unlike telling Bale to punch more ninjas...the makers of this film have like 3 weeks of work culminating into a very expensive 2 seconds on screen
u want more action...go watch Superman Returns

I for one think hes the was the perfect director for this...the Berg was right..if it takes someone with a weaker artistic vision (in the sequel) to prove that to everyone, then so be it

if berg had his way
the best shooter in the industry working on the best fit script would be awesome...
unfortunately his talents are often wasted

 

[tviceman]

I agree that, given the budget, the film action is SUPERB and the special effects are the best I've ever seen.

Regarding the up close shots, I'm not necessarily in favor of a bird's eye view of the action... but somewhere in between that and ultra up-close. Regardless of my complaints I still enjoyed the movie thorougly and I saw it twice out of desire, not out of curiosity.

 

[UltimateMagneto]

I like that Bay puts you right in the action, it makes the battle royale quite intense. You could damn near feel the mass/power of these robots. I agree with Marvin that the camera work made it engaging, and provided a number of brilliant shots. Stop holding the man back and give him half a billion for the sequel.

 

[tviceman]

On second thought, I'm not completely against Bay directing the sequel. In fact, as long as the script is good (better than the first) I'm sure he'd do just fine again.

But, without a doubt, the sequel will *need* a better script.

 

[XXTBWCXX]

The Good
---------

1. He loves action and he's good at it. Even if it's somewhat senseless at times, it's still fun.
2. His camera shots are, at times, spectacular.
3. The girls in his movies are always top notch to look at.
4. He has a down-to-earth sense of humor and hey conveys it in films.
5. He uses the blue screen as little as possible, making the action look as real as possible.

The Bad
--------
1. Too much chop shot scene cutting.
2. Nonstop ultra close camera shots make it difficult for many, if not most, first time viewers to discern what is happening. Subsequent viewings do become easier.
3. All character development, except for Optimus and Sam, are virtually nonexistant.
4. He uses the blue screen as little as possible, making epic robot vs. robot battles virtually nonexistant.


Postmortem analysis of the movie itself
-------------------------------------
I just got home from my second viewing. The action was much, much easier for me to follow this time around. The humour didn't quite hold up, which is to be expected, but besides Bumblebee "lubricating" Agent Harris it didn't detract from the movie. The lack of character development was less noticeable the second time around, but mainly because I'm already familiar with characters from the first time I watched it.
Sector Seven is a complete joke and my second biggest complaint of the film. It was hokey, Harris (Turtorro's role) was eye rolling, and at no point did a secret scary government agency feel threatening. Sector Seven either should not have existed or it should have been a sinister side of the Government, not one big half hour joke in the movie.
The first robot vs. robot fight, Bumblebee vs. Barricade, is extremely disappointing for the same reason Optimus Prime vs. Megatron was disappointing - we saw hardly either of both fights. There is no excuse for this. Learn to use the blue screen - we're going to a Transformer's movie. It's Autobots vs. Decepticons - and for the majority of the movie we're stuck watching the humans vs. the Decepticons. The Bumblebee/Barricade fight should have been the perfect scene to show just how hostile the two factions are against each other, but instead we're left watching Sam's jeans being ripped off by Frenzy. Prime vs. Megatron might as well have not existed. Prime shot Megatron once, and gets slapped around for about a total of 15 seconds of screen time mixed between the Decepticons wreaking havoc and getting blown up.



-I'm okay with some of the Decepticons being defeated by the U.S. military, but in the sequel they should be less susceptible to human attacks.
-Barricade was not dumped into the ocean, as some on here say he was. He should be in the sequel. Scorponok should also be in the sequel.
-Of course Megatron should return as well - and he should have more screen time and he should LIVE at the end as opposed to dying again.
-Starscream should get insanely more screen time, and have considerable dialogue.
-Bay did a pretty good job, but I fully believe that a different director would better serve a sequel.
-The sequel needs a better story, more robot vs. robot action, and the key robots need to be more distinguishable in the thick of action. (For instance Bumblee, Ratchet, and Prime are easy to pick out because of their colors).

Anyone feel free to add, disagree, or comment on what I have said.

Your points on Bay's film making is pretty good, but some certain things about the movie that you said, I have to disagree.

Firstly, the name is Agent Simmons; I don't know how you got Harris.

And, yes, Optimus Prime and Sam Witwicky got a lot of development, but, to me, so did Bumblebee, Mikaela Banes and actually (this might bother some people), William Lennox too...sure, he basically got the same amount of screen time as Epps, Keller or even Sam's parents, but we got to know about his wife and his daughter, so that was enough development for me, since we got only little, but just enough, development for all the characters.

All the Autobots, we got to know each of them very well...even with Jazz dying, we found out that he's a great soldier, very loyal, picks up urban cultures quickly, and even with his size, he goes after bigger bots first, i.e. Devastator, Megatron. Ironhide, we find out he's pretty much a veteran soldier, with his voice and him just wanting to blow everything up, but he too is loyal, as he knows Sam is an ally and if needed to risk his life (when attacking Starscream, he and Ratchet could have died, but they risked it for Sam and the Allspark), then he would die for the cause, even though earlier in the movie, he shows his disliking for human beings (wanting to shoot Sam's parents and asking Optimus why should they risk their lives to save Earth). Ratchet could've been given more dialogue as he doesn't say much (but glad he said Autobots first and not Mikaela), but we know already that he's the medic and scientist of the bunch.

And Optimus Prime and Bumblebee got more character development than the other three Autobots, but that should've been the case anyways since this is the first of a hopeful trilogy. The sequels will expand more on the Autobots, and with new 'bots coming, it'll give them time for their own development also.

The Decepticons, I did have complaints with them, just because of Bonecrusher and Devastator and how they only came out as "targets" in the final battle and that fustrated me. But, really, I'm just glad I got to hear Megatron and Starscream speak and hope Starscream gets more time and more dialogue in the sequel. Barricade was freaking amazing too and glad he didn't die and glad he just "vanished" to show that either: a) he's actually a coward who left during battle, or b) he possibly took the damaged Bonecrusher and is trying to upgrade him. Blackout I enjoyed too and sad that he had to die, but I guess he's supposed to be killed by the soldiers since he did eff up that base in Qatar. The only two Decepticons that either shouldn't have gotten much time/or shouldn't have even been in the movie/or is just way too annoying were Scorponok and Frenzy. Scoponok was really cool, but they way he came, just was annoying (he's Blackout's ***** or something), and Frenzy, he wasn't even a Transformer (the writers created him from thin air) and he was just a joke to me, AND his eyes were blue, like Autobots, not red. At least they should've made his eyes black.

The battles were amazing (just from Optimus Prime vs. Bonecrusher to Optimus Prime vs. Megatron), but really, the whole movie was one fight scene because the movie starts with Blackout blowing crap up which surprised me the first time I saw it because I thought it would be like 10-15 mins. after the first minute before he would show up. Even though I have complaints that they didn't show much of the Bumblebee/Barricade fight, I suppose they didn't wanna show it because they wanted to keep the surprise of having giant robots fight until the end of the movie, which, the final battle was THE greatest thing I've ever seen...the effects was awesome and, even though they didn't show the Optimus Prime/Megatron fight in its entire, we got the better parts out of it and also got great parts with Bumblebee, Starscream, Ironhide and even Devastator.

I hope to see a lot more robots and a LOT more action in the sequel, and I might be the only one wishing this, but I hope Michael Bay stays as the director, because this is his movie now, he started it, don't let someone else finish it.

 

[GhostPoet]

I don't agree with the action being hard to see. My wife and I had NO trouble when we saw it the first time.

 

[tviceman]

Your points on Bay's film making is pretty good, but some certain things about the movie that you said, I have to disagree.

Firstly, the name is Agent Simmons; I don't know how you got Harris.

Oops! Simmons it is. I fixed it; thanks.

 

[matrix_ghost]

The Good
---------

1. He loves action and he's good at it. Even if it's somewhat senseless at times, it's still fun.
2. His camera shots are, at times, spectacular.
3
The Bad
--------
1. Too much chop shot scene cutting.
2. Nonstop ultra close camera shots make it difficult for many, if not most, first time viewers to discern what is happening. Subsequent viewings do become easier.
.

I definately agree with you on your neg. points .
I've seen TF 5 times now and it wasn't till the 5th time that i could actually see what was happening during the "MTV editing " scenes in the movie.
I actually had to sit way back in my cinema to see those scenes.
The scene where Sam begins to run with the all spark and then all of the sudden starscream lands and fights with Ratchet and Ironhide then flies off. Of the 4times that i watched it , i really couldn't make out anything there.

The problem with Bay is that he brings the camera too close which sometimes makes it really hard to see what is happening. I understand why directors use that form of editing because you can let the audience experience what it's like to be in such a situation.
But even then i think that Bay is sometimes taking it too far. A great example of using this form of editing is in Saving Private Ryan. Even though the camera is shaking like hell you still can make out what is happening.
Should Bay direct the sequel , i'd like him to actually pull the camera back a bit more and not move it too much.

Aside from that , i really no complaints with TF. He knows how to work with visual effects and utilises them to perfection.
As a die hard matrix fan , even i'll admit that the chase sequence in Bad Boys 2 was more fun then what we got in Matrix Reloaded .

And ithink the main reason why people love TF is because it delivers on it's promise : GIANT F....ING ROBOTS beating the living **** out of each other.
It's exactly what you would expect. Complete and utter carnage , fights in the city and on a highway with everyone seeing it.

 

[tviceman]

And ithink the main reason why people love TF is because it delivers on it's promise : GIANT F....ING ROBOTS beating the living **** out of each other.

But that was my #1 complaint though... it was the fact that we hardly got to see the robots beating the crap out of each other. The Bumblebee/Barricade fight wasn't really shown, and neither was Optimus and Megatron. We saw Starscream be a bad ass for about 20 seconds but we never saw him go toe-to-toe with any autobots either (unless you count him firing missles at Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee as going toe to toe). And Jazz, god bless that guy, got ripped in to in less than 5 seconds.

If limited funds was the main reason for a lack of robot vs. robot on screen action, then I *completely* understand and I can accept that. But for the next one, money should no longer be an excuse. They already have the models for Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and all the other Transformers that lived. And, without a shadow of a doubt, the budget will certainly be higher.

 

[echostation]

one thing I didn't get was what happened to Starscream? Theyshowed him attacking the jets and the jets chasing after him then he just disappeared... I'm getting a little confused on who actually survived the battle and who didn't among the decepticons.

GREAT film otherwise, absolutely enjoyed the hell out of it!

 

[tviceman]

one thing I didn't get was what happened to Starscream? Theyshowed him attacking the jets and the jets chasing after him then he just disappeared... I'm getting a little confused on who actually survived the battle and who didn't among the decepticons.

GREAT film otherwise, absolutely enjoyed the hell out of it!

Did you not stay during the end credits? It showed Starscream flying away into space.

 

[nogster]

i want starscream to get significant screen time in the sequel...and i am sure i am not alone in this.......next to prime, megs and bumblebee, he is the most popular TF ever....his rivalry with megs and his desire for leadership must be explored....
thats one of my dissapointments in this film....and it wouldve been so easy to show this.....
the scene where starscream is perched on a building watching megatron stand off with sam and ask for the cube......that was the perfect time for a smartarse starscream comment...and it wouldve made every fanboy giddy... one little line...thats all that was needed.
megatron: "give me the cube boy and u can be my pet"
sam" "i will never give u the cube"
starscream: "just take it off the insect, what are u waiting for"
megatron: " shut up starscream!"
then megatron smashes the building and sam falls.

that wouldve been enough to satisfy all fanboys till the sequel.

 

[XXTBWCXX]

i want starscream to get significant screen time in the sequel...and i am sure i am not alone in this.......next to prime, megs and bumblebee, he is the most popular TF ever....his rivalry with megs and his desire for leadership must be explored....
thats one of my dissapointments in this film....and it wouldve been so easy to show this.....
the scene where starscream is perched on a building watching megatron stand off with sam and ask for the cube......that was the perfect time for a smartarse starscream comment...and it wouldve made every fanboy giddy... one little line...thats all that was needed.
megatron: "give me the cube boy and u can be my pet"
sam" "i will never give u the cube"
starscream: "just take it off the insect, what are u waiting for"
megatron: " shut up starscream!"
then megatron smashes the building and sam falls.

that wouldve been enough to satisfy all fanboys till the sequel.

Ehh, it wouldn't fit the scene that was going on...Starscream just watching on was fine with me...to see what he(Megatron) was gonna do to Sam.

 

[nogster]

how would that not work in that scene??....one line, all starscream was doing was watching, i was expecting he say something...it wouldve fit perfectly to his character...he is always critical of megatron....it was the perfect time to show it....him just perched and observing just didnt seem right, if it was skywarp or thundercracker yeah fine, but starscream just sitting there and NOT saying something?? it looked cool and all, but it wouldve been better and more fitting if he made a comment.

 

[shigsy2003]

Well Bay's directing has certainly improved over his previous films. I never found the action hard to follow and I always could discern who was fighting who. I agree that the Prime VS Megatron fight should have been longer and we should have seen more....but I can wait for the sequel for that as he (should he return...which he will) will have a bigger budget.

The close ups did indeed make it more engaging and you felt like you were recording a real war between two factions of Transformers.

The hmour never bothered me, sure Sector Seven weren't actually that funny but he didn't get on my nerves.

My two biggest complaints would be:

1) All the robots needed loads more dialogue...but then would that still be enough?

2) We should have been looking at Prime when he said "on this day, one shall stand one shall fall".

None of these two things though dampened the experiance for at all.

Amazing film...

 

[shigsy2003]

i want starscream to get significant screen time in the sequel...and i am sure i am not alone in this.......next to prime, megs and bumblebee, he is the most popular TF ever....his rivalry with megs and his desire for leadership must be explored....
thats one of my dissapointments in this film....and it wouldve been so easy to show this.....
the scene where starscream is perched on a building watching megatron stand off with sam and ask for the cube......that was the perfect time for a smartarse starscream comment...and it wouldve made every fanboy giddy... one little line...thats all that was needed.
megatron: "give me the cube boy and u can be my pet"
sam" "i will never give u the cube"
starscream: "just take it off the insect, what are u waiting for"
megatron: " shut up starscream!"
then megatron smashes the building and sam falls.

that wouldve been enough to satisfy all fanboys till the sequel.

That would have been perfect. But just to slightly change the Starscream line:

Starscream: What are you waiting for almighty Megatron? Take it from the insect.

He has to say it with a really condescending and sarcastic tone.

 

[matrix_ghost]

But that was my #1 complaint though... it was the fact that we hardly got to see the robots beating the crap out of each other. The Bumblebee/Barricade fight wasn't really shown, and neither was Optimus and Megatron. We saw Starscream be a bad ass for about 20 seconds but we never saw him go toe-to-toe with any autobots either (unless you count him firing missles at Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee as going toe to toe). And Jazz, god bless that guy, got ripped in to in less than 5 seconds.

If limited funds was the main reason for a lack of robot vs. robot on screen action, then I *completely* understand and I can accept that. But for the next one, money should no longer be an excuse. They already have the models for Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and all the other Transformers that lived. And, without a shadow of a doubt, the budget will certainly be higher.

Well unless you want to see Megatron and Optimus Prime duke it out for 10 min . straight , then yes we didn't get enough Robot action. But c'mon . GRanted some parts werent nearly enough such as Bumblebee vs Barricade , but we still got a good movie.

I mean you actually see the robots fighting each other. It's not like Superman Returns where there isn't a physical threat and he just hurls a giant rock into space.
What kind of action is that.

Sure the budget also plays a role and that is why Bay is both a blessing and a curse for the TF sequel.
Bay is someone who knows how to work with VFX while still delivering a movie on budget. Not to mention that Bay knows his action.
At the same time this movie was exec.produced by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is known to make movies which don't tend to cost too much. To my knowlegde he's never directed a movie that cost over 150 million nor has he produced a movie that cost over 150 million.

And Bay really hates to work with blue/green screen . I have no idea what they're going to do with the sequel but i doubt we'll see seeing GIANT ROBOT action on Cybertron considering that most there will be alot of blue screen filming. Which makes me believe that the action will again be grounded to earth. And while i think the budget will obviously get more money considering that this movie is already making so much , i don't think Spielberg will allow the budget to reach heigts of 200 - 210 million.
Also the budget can be kept lower then 200 mil if Bay was willing to shoot more blue screen stuff. It's much easier to to say shoot a action sequence that takes place in a city , with a blue screen set which will be extended with CGI as opposed to shooting something in a city. The logistics make it very difficult. It can be done but there are limitations.

 

[Goonieboy]

some of you guys are so hard to please. i really dont think a first transformers movie could have been done any better. spielberg and especially bay have created an amazing film. what some of you have to realise is, putting that level of action combined with those special effects is so time consuming and costly, that if they were to do any more the film wouldnt make a profit coz it would cost so much. planning let alone filming it is mind boggling. for me bay was the perfect director and its definitely his best film, i hope he makes the next one. the only other director capable of that level of action/sfx is james cameron and he's busy with battle angel. this film delivered on every aspect i expected it to. bay deserves a pat on the back!!!

 

[XXTBWCXX]

how would that not work in that scene??....one line, all starscream was doing was watching, i was expecting he say something...it wouldve fit perfectly to his character...he is always critical of megatron....it was the perfect time to show it....him just perched and observing just didnt seem right, if it was skywarp or thundercracker yeah fine, but starscream just sitting there and NOT saying something?? it looked cool and all, but it wouldve been better and more fitting if he made a comment.

Why wouldn't it fit? Just because Starscream shouldn't need to speak every chance he gets shown in the movie....what people wanted is for Starscream to have a line everytime he was on screen...what we got from him and Megatron was fine because there will be sequels and more time to develop the hatred SS has over Megs.

And they made SS have a bird-like appearance when in robot form and just him perching on the building watching was fine by me, like he was watching over, not saying a word, but also making sure no one intervenes, like that blackhawk did and SS shot it down.

 

[matrix_ghost]

some od you guys are so hard to please. i really dont think i first transformers movie could have been done any better. spielberg and especially bay have created an amazing film. what some of you have to realise is, putting that level of action combined with those special effects is so time consuming and costly, that if they were to do any more the film wouldnt make a profit coz it would cost so much. planning let alone filming it is mind boggling.

1 Is it really that hard to hold the camera still during certain scenes and not move it around like crazy and/or actually zoom back instead of zooming in so close you can barely make out stuff

2 In the case of the BB vs Barricade fight you can possibly tell me that scene was made that way ?
Quick shot of BB slamming into Barricade , cut to Frenzy fighting Sam and Mikeala and once that's over we see a quick shot of Barricade defeated.
C'mon. There's has been stuff that was cut.

I understand that it's expensive to make a movie like that but in my opinion there are certain things that can definately be improved upon.
I always felt that Bay is one of the best directors who can blow up things wonderfully. I just dislike his love for the MTV style editing. He kept it under control in this movie for especially in the final fight there were moment were i really wanted that camera to just keep still.

 

[Dr Lee]

In the case of the edited out stuff i'm wondering if the DVD (Both the one and two disc versions that have been announced) will include some/all of the stuff cut?

The only complaint i have about the movie is that, even though it was over two hours long, it seemed far to rushed. My non-fan bro found it difficult to recognise which 'Con was which and only knew the 'Bots cuz of the different paint colours.

I don't know if it's all down to Bay or if it's partly the writers faults but this and the clearly edited out stuff kinda brought the movie down half a peg

 

[nogster]

Why wouldn't it fit? Just because Starscream shouldn't need to speak every chance he gets shown in the movie....what people wanted is for Starscream to have a line everytime he was on screen...what we got from him and Megatron was fine because there will be sequels and more time to develop the hatred SS has over Megs.

And they made SS have a bird-like appearance when in robot form and just him perching on the building watching was fine by me, like he was watching over, not saying a word, but also making sure no one intervenes, like that blackhawk did and SS shot it down.

u havent explained WHY it wouldnt fit??
all u have said is that it was still good without starscream saying something....., what i am saying is it wouldve been better, and a perfect moment for him to say something...it wouldve enhanced the scene...not detracted from it...

 

[Goonieboy]

1 Is it really that hard to hold the camera still during certain scenes and not move it around like crazy and/or actually zoom back instead of zooming in so close you can barely make out stuff

2 In the case of the BB vs Barricade fight you can possibly tell me that scene was made that way ?
Quick shot of BB slamming into Barricade , cut to Frenzy fighting Sam and Mikeala and once that's over we see a quick shot of Barricade defeated.
C'mon. There's has been stuff that was cut.

I understand that it's expensive to make a movie like that but in my opinion there are certain things that can definately be improved upon.
I always felt that Bay is one of the best directors who can blow up things wonderfully. I just dislike his love for the MTV style editing. He kept it under control in this movie for especially in the final fight there were moment were i really wanted that camera to just keep still.

i guarentee there wont be many deleated scenes on the dvd and if there are they will all be human based...probably some comedy stuff with sam and his dog.
if they spend all that time and money creating the robots you dont think theyre just gonna suddenly decide to cut them out?!
films of this size are planned to death, bay is actually well known for improvising stuff on the day but when it comes to the robot fx everything is planned and locked down before they even roll a camera, because of the sheer cost. they figure out what they need during the animatics stage so they dont waste any valuable production time, this is how bay always comes in on time and usually under budget.
every time you adjust an sfx scene on this type of movie it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars so the director had flippin well better know what he does and doesnt need otherwise money concious producers arent gonna be too happy!!
as for bays style i think it worked perfectly...admittedly he hasnt really evolved much as a director and even copied some of his own shots, especially from bad boys 2. but i love all the shakey hand held stuff because it really sells the transformers as being real. and i think he made the right choice in having as little green screen as possible, no matter how good it is you can always tell when an actors actually on set or in a studio. take spider-man 3, huge portions of it were filmed entirely on green screen and that film cost well over $200 million dollars, and didnt have anything near as impressive as in transformers. the first time optimus transformed and the camera went around him revealing all the autobots i actually got goose bumps, if a visual effect can do that i applaud the director and everyone involved!!