Transformers The User Review Thread [SPOILERS IN ABUNDANCE!]

[Cyrusbales]

I thought the emotion was there. Sure, there practically wasn't any when Jazz died, but there was quite a lot of it there between Bumblebee and Sam. For instance when BB got captured or lost his legs and Sam started to tear up.

But when one gets ripped apart! jesuz. And which one got killed, the 'token black' type character. Not cool.

 

[Nathan]

Well, it's hard to mourn a loss when you barely got to know the guy who died. Just speaking from Sam's viewpoint. And as for the Autobots, they've been at war for millions of years, they've probably watched hundreds or thousands of comrades die left and right. They can't always break down on their knees every time someone dies. Although Prime could've said more than "Ah, poor Jazz."

 

[Cyrusbales]

Well, it's hard to mourn a loss when you barely got to know the guy who died. Just speaking from Sam's viewpoint. And as for the Autobots, they've been at war for millions of years, they've probably watched hundreds or thousands of comrades die left and right. They can't always break down on their knees every time someone dies. Although Prime could've said more than "Ah, poor Jazz."

But when BB is captured, the tranformers kick u a big fuss, when Jazz is torn apart, they say one line

 

[Nathan]

'k, good point. But look at it from this point. When they captured BB he was still alive, the Autobots still would've been able to do something. And Jazz, well, he got ripped apart in a couple of seconds. No use making a fuzz when you can't do anything about it anymore.

 

[megatron01]

The cartoons have 50 something episodes for you to care about the character. The movie has only 2hrs. I think the movie did good enough.

According to those who did the CGI's (ILM) of the transformations in the current movie, first they use the practical (real transformations) and then if some parts didn't look cool (something got to do with the weights of each parts), they use the ones that did look cool. All robots can transform to its alternate mode, even Frency's head transforms EXACTLY to a cellular phone, I said "WOW".
I think a lot of work was put into this transformations and I have come to like it, actually. Some people are complaining about the Close up transformation scenes, but if you think about it, transformations that are shot far away can be easily be cheated, you might as well watch a video game or a cartoon. But the close up shots was actually to show were the parts are moving and going and there is no "cheating". A girl friend of mine was impressed by this transfomation and She's just a Gen Movie goer. The more I look at it, the more impressed I am.

 

[Sugarculted]

Here's the review I recently wrote in my blog...
...it's more of a whine than a review though.

I'll start off by saying this; Michael Bay sucks majorly. He's a ******icon.
So, a few days back...I went to watch the Transformers movie finally, with my woman. It had been a few days since release and the theatre was slightly full. So I sat back, and eagerly anticipated some kick ass Transformers action.
Did I receive that? F*** no.
After a dismal 144 minutes, I left the cinema confused. I didn't know what to think. I felt like my eyes had been raped. This review which shall be done, might have a biased view...hell, because I am a TF fan. Ever since I received my first Transformer when I was like, four. It was a helicopter, green and pink. It fricking ruled. But, let's concentrate on the movie. If you haven't seen it, spoilers are ahead. You're not really missing much.
Shia Lebeouf and transforming things was an awful movie. Oh, wait...I meant the Transformers movie. Where did it all go wrong for the movie? Well, we began with two dimensional sitcom people being everywhere. This was a proper concern after watching it, realising that this movie focused more on Shia wanting to get laid, than the actual Transformers themselves. Sure, some parts were mildly funny...but I don't wanna watch that, I'm here to see Autobots.
Basically, Shia is the key to finding the Allspark. His grandfather's (Whitwick-whatever) glasses have the ever important locations to finding the Allspark. It's imprinted onto his glasses. How did that happen? Well, he came across Megatron...and some stuff happened. But more to the point, the Autobots need to discover the whereabouts of the Allspark before it falls into the wrong hands.
(The Allspark has the ability to manipulate anything, giving it the ability to transform. So the Decepticons could build an army, which ain't very pleasing).
They discover that Shia has the glasses via eBay. So what do they have to do? Track down Sam (Shia) and retrieve the glasses from him. If they can get the glasses and find out where this precious item is, before the Decepticons, then they're sorted.
So what do we get? A whole hour of frackin time wasting. Bumblebee assists in attempting to get Sam laid, instead of retrieving the glasses straight away. This could've sold a lot of problems beforehand, but we don't just have that one solution. Yeah, Autobots…take a close look at the eBay picture. Hang on one damn minute, they can view the coordinates of the glasses from the eBay picture. Sure, the image might be low-res…but they could easily sort that problem out.
So far, we've received one Decepticon attack, one reveal of the Autobots and we've gone through at least an hour. Oh, I forgot to mention that there was this tiny Decepticon who was messing around, but who really cares? It sucks. You see the problem with what I've watched so far, and the misleading title of the movie? It is Transformers, isn't it?
We finally get to see the Autobots in all their glory. Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Ratchet. They look pretty cool, and I will admit, seeing Prime like that was most definitely amazing. After the Autobots describe themselves, chaos ensues. We have the FBI and everything involved, and we finally come across some more Decepticons.
Thing is, we have all these problems about getting those spectacles, that we then find out where the Allspark is hidden. Oh, in a top secret government building. We find out that, by some other means. The threat of the Decepticons is too much to bear, so they finally give in and reveal they're holding the Allspark and Megatron in some top secret base. Wait a god damn minute here, you mean we're negating the fact the Autobots even needed those glasses?
Dumb.
Just in case you don't know, it's never wise to freeze something that large and terrifying and just expect it to be alright. That's just daft. So obviously, Megatron is finally free. That's ridiculous, Megatron – the LEADER of the Decepticons, only shows until the last quarter. What the f*** is that all about?
Oh wait, I also see Starscream there! Awesome, I love Starscream.
Wait, this isn't Starscream…is it? I see no confrontation between him and Megatron. Did Michael Bay ever witness that in the G1 series…oh, and every other TF series? Do I even manage to see the Decepticons all coming together? Nope.
The huge battle of good versus evil then begins. Well, the fight for the Allspark does. They begin to fight each other in such a populated city; deaths are obviously going to rise. Sorry Prime, you like humans you say now? Well, whoever has written you; has forgotten than whilst you were out fighting Megatron you probably killed a gazillion humans. You see, you're supposed to get hyped up for the final major fight. You've got humans and Autobots versus the evil Decepticons. Pretty awesome, right?
Not really, no. Due to the fact you can't examine what the hell is going on properly. Everyone congratulates the CGI in this film. Don't get me wrong, it looked spiffy…but what good is it looking spiffy, if you can't tell what the hell is going on? The fights aren't choreographed properly, these fights are random, and confusing. Thing is, why don't they say a few cheeky taunts while they fight? Well, that's because Michael Bay decides that each of these Transformers are completely devoid of ANY personality whatsoever. Hell, I see more personality in freakin' ants.
Megatron is indeed an evil, evil Decepticon. So evil, he rips Jazz in two. Yeah, he's killed the black funky Transformer. Now, this part of the movie probably bothered me the most. Well, apart from the ending…but I'll get to that later. Optimus Prime shrugs off the fact Jazz is dead. Who the hell is writing this script? He shrugs off the fact a friend of 10,000 years has just been ripped in half by his arch-nemesis. Is the writer f****** ******ed, or something? You don't just shrug off a mate's death like that especially when you come up with a cheesy line a lot later for his death.
So, we've almost finished the brawl with Sam holding the Allspark. He's crapping himself, Megatron is coming for him. Prime is there to help though, as he does so. A huge fight begins with them two, and I seriously don't understand what is going on. Perhaps slowing down the frames a little?
Megatron is about to access the cube, when Sam pushes the Allspark into Megatron's body. Wahey, you've destroyed Megatron! Go Sam! You awesome Transfor…erm, human.
Okay dokay.
You've fought against the Autobots for thousands of years, only to be destroyed by a teenager that really wants gets laid by Megan Fox. Megatron, maybe you're not so cool after all.
:[
The Autobots gather around Sam, as Prime holds Jazz and he really spews out a lame line.
'We may have lost one comrade, but we've gained another.'
You've only known Sam the human being for about a day. Jazz? Your entire freakin' life. Prime, you suck robot balls.
Finally, humans apparently feel comfortable with the presence of Autobots…so everything is alright. The Decepticons have been destroyed, and parts of Megatron have been chucked into the sea. We end off the movie with Sam getting it on with Megan Fox (off-screen) and Starscream flying off into the skies.
What the hell have I just watched? Michael Bay has easily ruined something so simple. The concept of Transformers is great. You've got lifelong enemies pitted against each other. You've got great characters and storytelling all in the Transformers cartoons…so how do you make an abysmal movie like this? We have an hour of wasted time, perhaps another hour of just humans and twenty minutes of Transformers. I didn't know someone could really screw up an idea like that, but Michael Bay does so easily. As for the incompetent writers? Ugh. Don't get me started on them.
So, I definitely won't be buying this DVD and I'd probably demand my money back from Michael Bay. Don't waste your time with this movie.

Thanks for reading by the way, I'll probably end this bit with an old scene from the classic Transformers Movie from 86. It was 86, wasn't it? I can't remember, but this a awesome fight scene.

 

[thejettman]

I took my 3 boys to see this, we all loved it!

 

[Dangerous]

FAR superior???

Yes far superior, it understood that a Transformers movie should be all about Transformers and not humans.

Ok,you're not biased at all so you win the debate....

I have an opinion, obviously the opposite to yours- but does this mean I feel the need to call you biased? No, you are just a little (or maybe a lot) out of touch is all.

a 90 minute toy commercial is better then a movie that made the same toy commercial look as real and plauseble as is probably possible considering the source? If you say so.

Think about what you just said. How in anyway did the new film make Transformers seem viable as toys? One thing that made the generation one Transformers so great (as well as the recent Armada series) is that you could buy toys of them all and see for yourself how they transformed into their vehicle forms and back again as seen on the TV show. That was the whole point of Transformers! Sure they exaggerated the autonomy of the poses and positions the characters in the show could perform verses their real life toy counterparts but they essentially transformed in the same way. Point is- with the toys you could see for yourself how it was done. In the new film the transformations are not anatomically possible, it just looks like dumb OTT CGI.

With this new film the transformations are so outlandish and unrealistic that there is no way any movie toys can replicate such transitions. It basically negates one if not THE core point of the intellectual property.

The thing is the 2007 movie is a LOT better cause it made people care about TF ...the 1986 movie made them laugh when the idea of motion picture came.

The original film was made as a toy commercial to sell the new toys true, but the fact remains it was highly entertaining to fans of the original series. They are the only people that matter when talking about the validity of the two separate Transformers films. Box Office or the general publics perception of the original film back in ’86 means jack when evaluating the films credibility. Fans of the Transformers TV show, (those who knew about the 1986 film it considering it's limited release) were pumped for the original film when it was released in 1986 and think it is great. That is all that matters.

You can say whatever you want

This is true, I can explain in a number of different ways why the new film sucked and how it missed the point.

...but the general audiences and the non-biased fans love the movie and are anticipating the sequels and it made a lot of money not because of the Sfx...Superman Returns has good Sfx,so did X-Men 3 but they didnt made even half the money that TF makes because it presented the idea of a serious movie about TF with humor,action and some drama...the Sfx are of course neceserry but even SP3 had more Sfx then TF.

Let me point this out- If you don't love the original TV series you can't really call yourself a fan or claim to know what you are talking about here. You might just prefer crappy modern CGI snoozefests and think making loads of money equates into cinematic/artistic worth. Congratulations.

Bay completely missed the point the point w/ his film. It was a film about Earth and humans w/ some sections that featured 'Transformers'. Who the hell gives a s-hit about some kid who buys a car and the chick he digs>? Not me. A Transformers movie should be from the point of view of the Transformers not humans. This is probably the biggest area of misunderstanding on Bay's part. The film’s first and final scenes should have dealt w/ the transformers not humans.

I’m guessing by ‘serious’ you mean presenting a film that is commercially viable to general movie going audiences in an attempt to generate as much revenue as possible. Well, yeah Bay did do that. Don’t mean he made a good Transformers movie. You might not like some or even many aspects of what the original Transformers TV show and movie represented, and prefer the new Hollywood re envisioning, but the fact remains the 1980’s TV show and film defined what Transformers are.
A TV show and toy line convergence.

Claiming the new film does it better than the original is like saying Will Smith did a better Muhammad Ali than Ali himself. It is an utterly ******ed notion. Furthermore just in case you are blind to this fact- many real Transformers fans share my opinion.

 

[Dangerous]

delete.

 

[megatron01]

I liked G1 a lot, (I got into TF because of G1 art) but we're in the year "2007" now, and changes are necesssary to adapt to this changing times. You will always have you're G1 dvd if you want to see G1. These is a new generations now and the truth is: Mr. Bay made the TF "property" so popular more than ever before. This is the best time to be a Transformers fan. Everywhere I go the toy shelves are almost empty, while before, I was the only one looking at Transfomers. I know Mr. Bay didn't have a good reputation before, but I have to admit he made some good decision with regard to the movie, or else we would all be "cheering" it to reach 150mil...just to make its own budget...then we definitely have a reason to complain.
Why can't some people understand that you can't have a movie with mostly robots in it-just think about the budget for instance? General movie goers need to be introduced to this robots to the eyes of humans first anyways-the first movie should appeal to all different types of people INCLUDING the girls: in general, girls would NOT be interested on all robots movie PERIOD and then you can forget about the movie becoming a Box Office hit. But with this movie, a lot of girls was promoting this movie and even the Mothers. Now that the movie made a lot of money, they can showcase more robots so every one is happy. The G1 purist should get over their hatred of this movie-most fans including me, are more than very pleased with this movie

 

[Starscreamali]

Changes were necessary and the film did not fail as a spectacle. I understand the need to focus on the humans in order to bring context to the giant robot action. However the film is called TRANSFORMERS, not Hackers or grunts or Shia. I had no idea what these robots personalities were, I understand that in G1 the characters were paper thin but at least you had a general understanding.
The decepticons were the highlight of the cartoon (especially megatron's and starscream's relationship), but in this movie they are only cannon fodder!
I wasn't expecting more than an action fest but after the relatively positive reviews, I expected more than what was delivered.
I don't know whether I am blinded by nostalgia but the 1986 movie is far superior.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The cartoons have 50 something episodes for you to care about the character. The movie has only 2hrs. I think the movie did good enough.

According to those who did the CGI's (ILM) of the transformations in the current movie, first they use the practical (real transformations) and then if some parts didn't look cool (something got to do with the weights of each parts), they use the ones that did look cool. All robots can transform to its alternate mode, even Frency's head transforms EXACTLY to a cellular phone, I said "WOW".
I think a lot of work was put into this transformations and I have come to like it, actually. Some people are complaining about the Close up transformation scenes, but if you think about it, transformations that are shot far away can be easily be cheated, you might as well watch a video game or a cartoon. But the close up shots was actually to show were the parts are moving and going and there is no "cheating". A girl friend of mine was impressed by this transfomation and She's just a Gen Movie goer. The more I look at it, the more impressed I am.

I completely agree with all of this, in a first 2 hour Transformers movie, you have to see it through the eyes of humans, otherwise all realting to the characters is lost, as how can we realte to 20 foot robots?

In the sequel, i can almost guarantee the robots will get more focus. For a 1st movie, i think they did pretty well, i was actually sorry when Jazz died, and i cared for Optimus and Bumblebee A LOT. BB's relationship with Sam was the heart of the movie and provided the most emotional moments IMO.

 

[millennium movies]

All i have to say is i love this movie! I have seen it 6 times now and yes it kinda is overkill but i still like the movie. It tends to get slow in parts that are boring, at least to me anyway, such as the whole S7/Damn part prior to the Decepticons attacking. The last scene with Frenzy there is very irritating too as it take away from the big battle in the city. That's actually the only other issue i had. The whole cutting away every time you just got into a fight, specially Megatron vs Prime. Other than that i don't know what to say, but it's a great experience and very entertaining movie. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

 

[LostSon88]

One gripe I have about the movie (which I consider the best of the summer)...is that IMO, they made Frenzy to much of a joke with his gibberish and constant what I like to call..."spazzing out" i.e. making his body movements too hyper.

The only time I rolled my eyes throughout the movie was when Frenzy was killed and he said, "Oh s***"

 

[millennium movies]

Well they started off with him being quite creepy and cool and turned him into an annoying joke that you would love to see suffer. I guess that's why they gave him that s h i t end treatment.

 

[Sardaukar]

Just saw it:

May as well have called this flick Humans rather than Transformers. Next to zero character development for the robots and an overabundance of time spent on stupid, boring fleshlings, spewing piss poor dialogue.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Furthermore just in case you are blind to this fact- many real Transformers fans share my opinion.

So....

... the 80% of the 477 people who rated the movie with least an 8/10 in the poll above aren't real Transformers fan?

 

[Dangerous]

I liked G1 a lot, (I got into TF because of G1 art) but we're in the year "2007" now, and changes are necesssary to adapt to this changing times. You will always have you're G1 dvd if you want to see G1. These is a new generations now and the truth is: Mr. Bay made the TF "property" so popular more than ever before. This is the best time to be a Transformers fan. Everywhere I go the toy shelves are almost empty, while before, I was the only one looking at Transfomers. I know Mr. Bay didn't have a good reputation before, but I have to admit he made some good decision with regard to the movie, or else we would all be "cheering" it to reach 150mil...just to make its own budget...then we definitely have a reason to complain.
Why can't some people understand that you can't have a movie with mostly robots in it-just think about the budget for instance? General movie goers need to be introduced to this robots to the eyes of humans first anyways-the first movie should appeal to all different types of people INCLUDING the girls: in general, girls would NOT be interested on all robots movie PERIOD and then you can forget about the movie becoming a Box Office hit. But with this movie, a lot of girls was promoting this movie and even the Mothers. Now that the movie made a lot of money, they can showcase more robots so every one is happy. The G1 purist should get over their hatred of this movie-most fans including me, are more than very pleased with this movie

I am not G1 purist and I don't hate anyone who likes the new film.
I just think the Transformers should have transformed like Transformers.
As I already said the recent Armada TV series would have provided a great basis for the Transformers designs and transformations.
Similarly, I would have liked it if Bay had not missed the point and instead made a decent film.

 

[Dangerous]

So....

... the 80% of the 477 people who rated the movie with least an 8/10 in the poll above aren't real Transformers fan?

Well yeah.

It stands to reason that not everyone who came here to rate it is a hardcore transformer fan.

 

[megatron01]

I am not G1 purist and I don't hate anyone who likes the new film.
I just think the Transformers should have transformed like Transformers.
As I already said the recent Armada TV series would have provided a great basis for the Transformers designs and transformations.
Similarly, I would have liked it if Bay had not missed the point and instead made a decent film.

TF, being a descent film or not, is subjective. TF, to me, was an awesome film-never seen anything like it before.

Armada, the basis on Transformation? Where they fold their feet and lay down and they're already "transformed?!!" C'mon.....our boys in hollywood has a lot more imagination than that. This is s'pose to be a realistic looking robot show, not a realistic toy show. The movie makers are working with real cars, not toys. The Robots transforms exactly to their vehicle mode without cheating (read what ILM says-they even made a life size bumblebee)-and there are toys that represent each robot in the movie, just not as complicated, or else you would actually need to transform a real car....the litte pieces would be "micrscopic" parts if you include all of them in a toy.

I think Bay and spielberg didn't miss the point in making a Movie. They knew the movie had to cater to EVERYBODY not just the fans to make a Blockbuster movie.... and, safe to say, with over 300mill in the BO, they succeeded.....and MOST of the fans(can't win them all), like me, still liked the movie.

 

[Kargo Warrior]

''I think Bay and spielberg didn't miss the point in making a Movie. They knew the movie had to cater to EVERYBODY not just the fans to make a Blockbuster movie.... and, safe to say, with over 300mill in the BO, they succeeded.....and MOST of the fans(can't win them all), like me, still liked the movie.''I completelly agree with you buddy

 

[Hunter Rider]

Finally saw it today, Shia was a sensation in it as Sam and really held the movie IMO, Megan Fox was very likable and spirited without being cheesy as Mikela, the story was a decent origin one but the script needed tightening, less characters and more time for those like Lennox to be expanded would have made for a better film.

There's a few moments where logic goes out the window and while the movie is genuinely funny at times the humour crosses into virtual farce and shows Bay's lack of subtlety in balancing the humour/seriousness of this type of film.

Prime was grand with some great dialogue and charisma and Bumblebee was brilliantly realised with such emotive facial movement, i also thought Ratchet was excellent, Ironhide was solid but needed more time, Jazz never got one close up shot and his death was badly edited and meant nothing, especially the way Prime kinda brushed it off.

Megs i thought was awesome but the rest of the Deceps never got much to do except action, Barricade and Starscream in particular needed more dialogue.

The action in the movie is simply spectacular and superbly captured between frenetic cuts and slow mo money shots with the finest CGI ive ever seen, the whole movie is beautifully shot, the vehicles are filmed like models and the film has an earnest heart with a lot of good humour, a real summer event movie.

8/10

 

[DOG LIPS]

It's about time you saw the damn movie, hunter. They already made a part 2, dammit.

 

[Hunter Rider]

It's about time you saw the damn movie, hunter. They already made a part 2, dammit.

does part 2 have more Lennox bike sliding action ?t:

 

[DOG LIPS]

does part 2 have more Lennox bike sliding action ?t:

No, but he goes home to his mansion and Fergie dances for him on a stripper pole.



Oh wait... that's real life.