Redwoods Wolf
Sidekick
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,849
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 31
I suppose I should preface this by saying I was born a little too late to catch the G1 TF cartoon, and was turned off by Beast Wars. Coming into this movie, all I knew was that the good guys were Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons were led by Megatron. So:
-Peter Cullen's voice is the auditory equivalent of royalty as you hear it booming through the theater's 5.1 surround sound.
-I won't deny Megan Fox is attractive, but I also don't want a movie about an intergalactic battle between good and evil to waste time with Shia LeBouf trying to make a move on her. Especially not with Bee-Yotch's "help."
-The design of the transformers is visually horrendous and too reminiscent of RoboCain. I could tell Optimus Prime apart from Bumblebee, and Bumblebee apart from Megatron's mouth, and Scorponok was self-explanatory--but the rest of the transformers became sort of an indistinguishable haze. In the various G1 images I've seen, I might not know all their names, but I could tell one from the other.
-It doesn't help to have vertigo-inducing transformation sequences. Different parts spin and rotate over themselves so many times it's impossible to follow. I almost didn't want them to transform so I could take it easy on my eyes--which kind of defeats the purpose of a movie called Transformers.
-The movie's structure builds to a climax, but it's entirely meaningless. The hacker subplot is ultimately irrelevant and chews up precious time that could flesh out different members of the Autobots or Decepticons. Sector 7 and a government conspiracy surrounding a frozen Megatron seemed a little stale to me--I'm not a big fan of super secret government agencies as bad guys, especially these ones who exist only to be hindrances.
-The robot fighting, what I think the average public paid to see, was a tremendous letdown. I hate shaky cam and I hate continual closeups during action sequences. If thirty-foot tall robots are slugging it out, shaky cams and obnoxious close-ups detract from the excitement. Being thirteen inches away as Optimus Prime and....that one bad guy tumble end over end is terrible. Prime at least shanks him in the neck, but that's the only distinguishable part of the battle. Of ANY of the battles.
-The obvious sequel-inviting ending made me sigh. Why can't there be closure in today's films? Why is everything a saga, a trilogy, or an adventure of "epic proportions?" Let the film stand on its own two legs. I might be misremembering, but were the filmmakers trying to imply that the whole transformers "incident" was now successfully covered up by Sector 7? After that building-crushing battle in the city?
So, I decided to rent "Transformers: The Movie," to see if that would fare better.
-See first point, except with "home stereo" replacing "theater surround sound."
-Well, this film doesn't waste any time. Within the first half-hour, the majority of the recognizable characters are dead or upgraded due to a devastating confrontation in Autobot City. I was taken a little aback by the sheer level of violence and dismemberment as Megatron and his forces wade through Autobot resistance. I didn't quite see the point of him transforming into a gun if he's got that arm-mounted cannon, especially if he's going let Starscream use him. But the Optimus/Megatron battle seemed much more dramatic and meaningful than that snippet in the live action film (despite the song, which I'll get to momentarily), and watching both Prime and Megs tear into each other was a visual treat.
-Optimus Prime dies? That almost made me want to stop watching the movie, but I figured they'd bring him back in the last ten minutes. Nope.
-Unicron, eh? Neat. I never saw FF2, but I'm sure whatever Galactus was, he wasn't nearly as cool as this planet-eater. The dialogue between he and Megatron is nice, but the excitement fades as you realize with the replacement of Prime being Ultra Magnus and Megatron upgraded as Galvatron, that this is just a big commercial of a new toy line. I suppose if you're going to replace Peter Cullen and Frank Welker with anyone, it should be Orson Wells and Leonard Nimoy, but...it made me sad.
-The songs, with exception of the title theme, are terrible. I'm not critiquing them out of hatred for thestyle, it's just that they have nothing to do with the scene. (Well, Instruments of Destruction does, and you could make a case for You've Got the Touch, but the rest are horribly out of place.)
-Despite what the opening narration might lead you to believe, this film is not about the re-taking of Cybertron. Unicron has an ultimate goal of destroying the Matrix of Leadership, but why on earth would you be so specific that it was the only thing that could hurt you? Of course, Magnus and Hot Rod come to this deduction themselves thanks to some incredibly lazy writing on the level of the SW prequels. The Autobots get chased around the galaxy by the Decepticons, and then get separated on the planet of junk and the planet of sharkticons and quintessons. Alas, the two worlds have nothing to do with whatever plot this movie might have, and are subject to two ridiculously transparent deus ex machinas to get them back on track.
-They can rebuild Ultra Magnus, but not Prime?
-Watching Hot Rod stay in car mode and ram into Galvatron made sense to me, as well as Starscream strafing Arcee and Springer in Autobot City. A nice little touch, as was Galvatron's frustration that Autobots were "so easy to kill."
-And just like that, it's over. Rather presumptuous to have Hot Rod declare an end to the Cybertronian wars (Did all the Decepticons get killed, or did they surrender?), what with Galvatron sitll being out there and a new season following the movie, but he's young. Or was.
On the whole, ye olde Transformers has more re-watch value and has actually kindled an interest in G1 cartoons and comics. The live-action movie, far from drawing me in as a new viewer, actually repulsed me. If there's a sequel to "this" TF, I'm not interested.
Old Transformers wins!
-Peter Cullen's voice is the auditory equivalent of royalty as you hear it booming through the theater's 5.1 surround sound.
-I won't deny Megan Fox is attractive, but I also don't want a movie about an intergalactic battle between good and evil to waste time with Shia LeBouf trying to make a move on her. Especially not with Bee-Yotch's "help."
-The design of the transformers is visually horrendous and too reminiscent of RoboCain. I could tell Optimus Prime apart from Bumblebee, and Bumblebee apart from Megatron's mouth, and Scorponok was self-explanatory--but the rest of the transformers became sort of an indistinguishable haze. In the various G1 images I've seen, I might not know all their names, but I could tell one from the other.
-It doesn't help to have vertigo-inducing transformation sequences. Different parts spin and rotate over themselves so many times it's impossible to follow. I almost didn't want them to transform so I could take it easy on my eyes--which kind of defeats the purpose of a movie called Transformers.
-The movie's structure builds to a climax, but it's entirely meaningless. The hacker subplot is ultimately irrelevant and chews up precious time that could flesh out different members of the Autobots or Decepticons. Sector 7 and a government conspiracy surrounding a frozen Megatron seemed a little stale to me--I'm not a big fan of super secret government agencies as bad guys, especially these ones who exist only to be hindrances.
-The robot fighting, what I think the average public paid to see, was a tremendous letdown. I hate shaky cam and I hate continual closeups during action sequences. If thirty-foot tall robots are slugging it out, shaky cams and obnoxious close-ups detract from the excitement. Being thirteen inches away as Optimus Prime and....that one bad guy tumble end over end is terrible. Prime at least shanks him in the neck, but that's the only distinguishable part of the battle. Of ANY of the battles.
-The obvious sequel-inviting ending made me sigh. Why can't there be closure in today's films? Why is everything a saga, a trilogy, or an adventure of "epic proportions?" Let the film stand on its own two legs. I might be misremembering, but were the filmmakers trying to imply that the whole transformers "incident" was now successfully covered up by Sector 7? After that building-crushing battle in the city?
So, I decided to rent "Transformers: The Movie," to see if that would fare better.
-See first point, except with "home stereo" replacing "theater surround sound."
-Well, this film doesn't waste any time. Within the first half-hour, the majority of the recognizable characters are dead or upgraded due to a devastating confrontation in Autobot City. I was taken a little aback by the sheer level of violence and dismemberment as Megatron and his forces wade through Autobot resistance. I didn't quite see the point of him transforming into a gun if he's got that arm-mounted cannon, especially if he's going let Starscream use him. But the Optimus/Megatron battle seemed much more dramatic and meaningful than that snippet in the live action film (despite the song, which I'll get to momentarily), and watching both Prime and Megs tear into each other was a visual treat.
-Optimus Prime dies? That almost made me want to stop watching the movie, but I figured they'd bring him back in the last ten minutes. Nope.
-Unicron, eh? Neat. I never saw FF2, but I'm sure whatever Galactus was, he wasn't nearly as cool as this planet-eater. The dialogue between he and Megatron is nice, but the excitement fades as you realize with the replacement of Prime being Ultra Magnus and Megatron upgraded as Galvatron, that this is just a big commercial of a new toy line. I suppose if you're going to replace Peter Cullen and Frank Welker with anyone, it should be Orson Wells and Leonard Nimoy, but...it made me sad.
-The songs, with exception of the title theme, are terrible. I'm not critiquing them out of hatred for thestyle, it's just that they have nothing to do with the scene. (Well, Instruments of Destruction does, and you could make a case for You've Got the Touch, but the rest are horribly out of place.)
-Despite what the opening narration might lead you to believe, this film is not about the re-taking of Cybertron. Unicron has an ultimate goal of destroying the Matrix of Leadership, but why on earth would you be so specific that it was the only thing that could hurt you? Of course, Magnus and Hot Rod come to this deduction themselves thanks to some incredibly lazy writing on the level of the SW prequels. The Autobots get chased around the galaxy by the Decepticons, and then get separated on the planet of junk and the planet of sharkticons and quintessons. Alas, the two worlds have nothing to do with whatever plot this movie might have, and are subject to two ridiculously transparent deus ex machinas to get them back on track.
-They can rebuild Ultra Magnus, but not Prime?
-Watching Hot Rod stay in car mode and ram into Galvatron made sense to me, as well as Starscream strafing Arcee and Springer in Autobot City. A nice little touch, as was Galvatron's frustration that Autobots were "so easy to kill."
-And just like that, it's over. Rather presumptuous to have Hot Rod declare an end to the Cybertronian wars (Did all the Decepticons get killed, or did they surrender?), what with Galvatron sitll being out there and a new season following the movie, but he's young. Or was.
On the whole, ye olde Transformers has more re-watch value and has actually kindled an interest in G1 cartoons and comics. The live-action movie, far from drawing me in as a new viewer, actually repulsed me. If there's a sequel to "this" TF, I'm not interested.
Old Transformers wins!
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