No qualms there...he said they would be faithful to the mythology. BUT, we have YET to see if this is true because we don't know enough about the true plot yet.
Actually, we do. You assuming they haven't been faithful at all to the mythology because you haven't read the script or discovered the story is pretty much your fault.
I am not going to read the script because I do not want to be that spoiled, but I'm not bashing the story yet...just a couple of the designs...and I've stated that over and over again. I just FEAR for the story.
You won't read the script, but you will make assumptions about what is/isn't in it without doing so? The story is this: Transformers, giant robot beings from a war-torn world who can transform, come to Earth, meet human beings, ally with humans to stop evil Decepticons and prevent them from taking control of Energon. Does that sound like the basic concept of Transformers to you? Because it sure as hell does to me.
I don't see dinosaur but I should...seeing as how in G1 they crashed on earth millions of years ago.
Yes, in the cartoon. This is a movie. It is less faithful to the LETTER of the mythos, but not to the story mechanics of it. Transformers still come to Earth from Cybertron and space.
And tell me, where is the Energon Cube in G1? Ohhh...you mean matrix of leadership?
No, I mean Energon, cube or otherwise. Energon is in the story, and energon is fairly important part of the Transformers mythology. According to every source I can find (and the show), Energon was involved in G1 and several other generations to boot.
Hey, I'm not the one that said things I couldn't deliver...yeah yeah yeah, he didn't say, "I PROMISE you Bumblebee will be a VW" but he pretty much is in line with Bush saying there would be WMDs in Iraq.
It's not remotely similar. Many people other than Bush said there would be WMD's. Don Murphy was stating personal opinions and wants, not a government backed lie.
You put so much emphasis on the fact that he didn't say the actual word "promise" that you're ignoring that that is pretty much what he did.
Promise: an express assurance on which expectation is to be based:
He didn't assure anyone of it, though. He said "We're working on it". Which assures you that they're working on it, and that it's a concern, not that it will happen. "I want him to be a bug" is not "He WILL be a bug".
Gee, I sure did expect a VW based on his assurance that "Bumblebee HAS to be a bug". That seems pretty black and white to me.
A cautiously optimistic statement about working on a car company to get the licensing neccessary for Bumblebee to be a bug seems black and white to you?
The point is, he assured a lot of things that he couldn't deliver...no problem if only he'd own up to not delivering.
Except that he didn't assure it. He essentially said "If we have our way, this is what will happen".
Just because these characters have the same names as G1 does not make them so.
Wow, what profound insight. Just like calling the character in BATMAN BEGINS "Ra's Al Ghul" doesn't make him exactly like his comic counterpart, calling Optimus Prime "Optimus Prime" doesn't make him EXACTLY like his comic and show counterparts. But that's not the point.
The point is, the characters have elements from their comic and show counterparts that make them pretty damn recognizable as those characters. Optimus Prime is the instantly recognizable leader. Ratchet is the medical officer. Bumblebee is the loyal, somewhat human robot making alliances with humans, and even making friends. Ironhide is the military/right hand man type. Megatron is the evil Decepticon ruler who sneers at all that is decent. Starscream is his somewhat two-faced right hand man.
Based on G1 and being G1 are two different things. It seems to me that YOU are reading between the lines and perhaps trying to grasp at straws a little too hard. The man said it in black and white, "The characters will be G1 Marvel and Cartoon". I'm posting what he actually said...you are posting what you think he meant...I'm not the one speculating here.
Go ask Don Murphy what he meant. That will pretty much end the speculation.
Translation: I have mindlinked with Don Murphy and these are his exact thoughts on the subject.
All it takes is a little common sense to figure out what he meant. Had I been around here back then, I'd have cautioned you all not to assume he meant to expect a literal translation of the show and the comics, as I did with Chris Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS when Nolan and Goyer starting talking about faithfulness, which, surprise surprise, turned out to be not a literal translation of the comics and the mythos. Or really even that close beyond the basics, which TRANSFORMERS seems to have nailed.
Your translation of what another human being is actually thinking when his statements are pretty black and white shows me that you believe in his, Bays and the production's spin tactics.
A spin tactic, as you put it, is often nothing more than the simple truth that some disgruntled fanboy chooses to whine about because he's not getting what he wants. You're mad because he won't admit to lying, when it's entirely possible he didn't begin to mislead you.
Sure, he would say that now but I guaran-frikkin-tee you that if you asked him back in October of 04, "Are you damn sure that everything will be G1?" he would've said, "I said they would be didn't I?". See...I can speculate too.
That's nice. Too bad he never said that.
edit: do you post on DM boards?
Nope.
Where's the "mythology" in any example you gave? Aside from Autobots vs Decepticons basis (Good Guys vs Bad Guys... that's any comic book movie). But where's The Ark? Teletran 1? Siphoning Earth natural resources for energy.
This isn't STAR WARS. The Ark is not in the film because it's not relevant to the overall plot, which is Transformers arriving in the present day. What would be the point of having a giant space battle between the Ark and the Nemesis? So the movie Transformers could be compared to Star Wars? Thundercats? As for Teletran 1, that's about the lamest plot device ever. Oh, the computer will conveniently make the robots look like cars to blend in. Since the things are Transformers, it makes a lot more sense that they can just...transform. Siphoning Earth's natural resources for energy is a plot point that has been done to death in "invasion" movies. Using energon to create technology to conquer Earth (Since Megatron is about conquering things) is not.
It's like making X-Men and leaving out Cerebro and the whole "Human prejudice against Mutants" subplot.
No it's not. Making a mov ie about Transformers without them being able to transform or a movie where Autobots and Decepticons didn't hate each other would be like that.
The Ark in the mountain? To this day I look at places and I wonder "wow! what if a spaceship is buried under there." That's mythology! No, it's not in the movie (AFAIK).
Who cares?
Also, you mention Cybertron... well, Cybertron is suppossed to have been destroyed long ago in the movie. As to whether this is a misinterpretation or exaggeration I don't know (the word I heard is Destroyed not Decimated).
If it's been destroyed, how are they going to rebuild it? Supposedly we actually SEE Cybertron in the beginning of the actual film.
Also, how is "The Energon Cube" consistent with the mythology. If you knew what you were talking about you wouldn't have mentioned it.... as there's no such thing as "The Energon Cube" in Transformers mythology.
Yes, but there is such thing as "energon". And it takes many forms. And has many uses. And that's part of the mythology.
Energon Cubes didn't do what they do in this movie. They didn't make FURBIES and any ol' thing come alive like they do in this movie. Not even The Creation Matrix did it.
Energon did a LOT of different things in the show and the comics. It may not have created life, but they did, I believe, use it to make more Autobots and Decepticons. And this, friend, is a movie, not the cartoon or the comics.
No. A lot of us understand the VW thing. That's OK. But BB didn't have to be a muscle car either. He may look cool... and many people may forgive it... but it is not faithful in the slightest. Not in the slightest!
Except for his actual characterization. You know, the loyal soldier with a human side who allies with humans...
And now that we know Jazz is shorter than Bumblebee, it makes it even more incomprehensible.
What exactly is hard to comprehend about that?
This isn't "superficial" thing... this was something VERY CENTRAL to the original mythology.
I'm sorry...it was very central to the mythology that Jazz is taller than Bumblebee?
Bumblebee has been depicted very inconsistently in terms of his size, sometimes being as tall as other small Autobots, other times barely taller than a human. In his only official measurement, given in one of the early issues of the Marvel Comics, Bumblebee is said to stand 15 feet tall in robot mode. The toy of Bumblebee is about 5 cm long, whereas a real Volkswagen Beetle is 406 cm (13.32 feet) long, implying a scale of 1:81. With a robot mode height of 8 centimeters, Bumblebee should stand about 648 cm (or 21.3 feet) tall.
Of course, that's when he's a beetle. Which he's not in the movie.
That's fine. No one wants slavishly faithful. No one wants them to be cartoony and fake looking. That doesn't mean they need to look like Bionicle.
They don't look like Bionicle.
Dude, this guys has been screwing with the community for quite some time.
Uh huh. But he hasn't, apparently, been lying or intentionally misleading you.
"Some changes" If you were to sit down and quantify that, you'd see that this movie- from what we know- has very LITTLE in common with Transformers.
Actually it has a lot in common with Transformers. Such as the fact that the movie is based on a group of giant robots who wage war on Earth and disguise themselves as vehicles. I could make a fairly decent list, but some of you'd just keep whining about what's not slavishly faithful to the first three or four episodes of the show.
Sure they took some names and one plot element (the boy and his car) and they've created a totally different reimagination of it.
Duh. It's a movie, not a live-action adaption of three episodes of a TV show or a few issues of a comic book. I don't know that I've ever seen a comic book movie that wasn't a re-imagining of it's source material. Ever. And frankly, pretty much EVERYONE on the project has SAID to be prepared to see something you've never seen before, and that it would not be a literal translation of G1.
In and of itself, that's OK. It could very well be a good movie based on its own merits. But, it's not Transformers. It's not even an updated take on it (as Spider-man or X-Men are). It's a complete reimagination of it.
Not complete, or half the things the film has in common with the comics and the show wouldn't be in the movie. But yes, it's a reimagining. After years of comic book adaptions being re-imaginings, you still haven't figured out how Hollywood works?
Two years ago? Try months ago. Heck, the "Optimus Prime has to be 50 feet tall that's why we need to make him a long nose" thing happened just a couple of weeks ago.
I thought that was Michael Bay.
never bashed DM by calling him names. Maybe calling him a liar is too strong of a word but he said things that were not true (changed) and has never owned up to them...instead he spins.
Where has he spun anything? Seriously, where? Where has he gone "Bumblee has to be a Camaro because...and it was my decision"?
If he were to post, "I know I said this was going to be G1 but I was for the most part outvoted. You will get a good movie but not the characters will only be loosely based on G1, sorry" then it would give him more cred as a stand up guy.
That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Ever. You can't interpret the man's statements and the situation, so you want him to essentially go "I have no power at all in producing my own movie"?
I understand loyalty to the production as not to undermine it, but that doesn't change the fact that they are not entirely truthful with the fans.
How so?
Bay's height reasoning for Prime being a longnose proves that.
Ah, so it was Bay. You realize he could just have meant "We needed some more height for Prime" and gotten his feet measurements a bit mixed up, right?
To clarify, I hope this movie's story is damn good. I hope if the story is damn good that this movie makes oodles of cash to secure a sequel. But if the story is WotW with Transformers then I hope this movie bombs, bombs, bombs.
It's not WOTW with Transformers. It's "Transformers". And I seriously doubt it will bomb.
They might not be out there intentionally trying to screw up a movie, but they are out there changing characters designs to make money off of new toys.
They're changing character designs for multiple reasons. Not just to make money off toys. As has been pointed out, Hasbro would put out new toys regardless of what the designs were.