Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review Thread (Spoilers) [Archive] - Cybertron.CA - Canadian Transformers News and Discussion

Super_Megatron

06-28-2011, 11:59 AM

I had the opportunity to attend an advance screening of Transformers Dark of the Moon last night in Toronto thanks to the fine folks at Paramount. I do want everyone to know it is so much better than Revenge of the Fallen and worth seeing in 3D. I came out of ROTF disappointed with so many aspects of that film, to the degree that it gave me a long lasting disinterest in Transformers collecting after 10 years. DOTM made me care about the Movieverse again. It was a solid movie. Not because it was about Transformers, but because it was well done.

The first Transformers movie left a feeling of awe for many of us in seeing our childhood brought to life in the live action movie environment. The sequel disappointed alot of people including myself. This third film in the trilogy does a great job of finishing the story in a way that left me satisfied.

One of the things that jumped out at me while I was watching Dark of the Moon was the contrasts in some of the aspects of this film and Revenge of the Fallen. Take Sam's new love interest Carly for example. Her personality is so much more positive than Mikaela was, and I thought it helped reflect a change in the direction of this movie. (It doesn't hurt that she is better looking, sorry Brad) The new human characters had excellent character development, and the inclusion of Buzz Aldrin, JFK and Nixon into the film was a nice touch. Patrick Dempsey's character was a good plot twist; come on, you know no one is that nice unless they want something from you. Sam's parents once again had some well delivered one liners that will make you laugh out loud. John Malkovich's character steals the scene in his introduction. Former Agent Seymour Simmons's charcter wasn't as annoying this time around, and Frances McDormand was believable as the Secretary of Defence. Alan Tudyk was great, he delivered some great scenes. Shia LaBeouf once again did a good job keeping us involved in the story.

Leonard Nimoy was a great casting voice for Sentinel Prime. His distinctive voice returning to the Transformers franchise after 25 years was great timing and felt right.

If you want to remain spoiler free stop reading now.

There is no Silverbolt. If there is he is a background character that has no impact in the film.

Barricade is back! He is clearly fighting along with the Decepticon invasion.

There are no twins. Thank god. Skids and Mudflap are no where to be found.

Q went out like a bitch.

The Wreckers were decent.

Ironhide had a flash back to 2005.

Optimus Prime's final battle with Megatron was even better than last time. And seeing his trailer on screen made me feel like a kid again for a second.

The Decepticons were brutal in their assault of the humans, executing them as they run for their lives.

Shockwave should have had more character development or lines. Only Boba Fett can get away with just standing there and being the fan favorite villian. Although his snakes were cool.

The CGI was amazing; at no point did I think, wow, that looks fake.

Plot wise we are looking at the combination of elements from 2 G1 episodes: Megatron's Master Plan where the Autobots are exiled from Earth and primarily The Ultimate Doom where the Decepticons use space bridge technology to try and bring Cybertron to Earth. I'm not going to tell you how the entire movie plays out but I have a feeling Ehren Kruger took inspiration from G1.

If you don't take anything else from this article let me tell you this. I'm a G1 collector, and lost interest in anything movie related following ROTF. You owe it to yourself to see this movie, in 3D. I still have a grin on my face today. 9/10.

Ultra Maverick

06-28-2011, 12:01 PM

Spoiler alert!!!

Loved the movie, I would agree it's the best of the trilogy, I have to say that I wasn't a big fan of the robots with hair (Q and Brains) but I can get over that.

This time around I noticed a lot of the battles were easier to follow, maybe the 3D added to this, but I was never confused with what was going on during the epic fight scenes.... and these ones were epic, Mexican Standoff anyone?!!!!

Favourite part though was Megatron sitting in the Lincoln memorial throne!

What really shocked me in the end was Prime killing Megatron, it was kind of really cold blooded, Megatron basically just saved Optimus and for his reward he gets an axe to the face, and I think he was trying for a truce.... or was that between Megatron and Sentinal, not sure.

Regardless, loved the movie, and I'll be back again before weekends end.

Cheers Ian

06-28-2011, 02:12 PM

Well here’s my thoughts on DOTM as a whole.

It was a damn good film. It wasn’t perfect but it was damn good.

It has a good story, which takes some elements and references from G1. It was also really cool to see that they tied in legitimate American/World history into the story. Buzz Alden’s cameo was pretty cool.

The GOOD:

I thought many of the Human characters were much better this time around. Patrick Dempsey’s character was awesome and it was great to see a human villain for once. Rosie Huntington-Whitely surprised me with her acting ability and the Carly character was much more enjoyable than Mikeala ever was. She seemed like she genuinely cared about Sam. Sam was good as usual. His character was a bit too goofy at parts, but He was very bad-ass towards the end of the film. It was great to see his “girly scream” again.

Optimus Prime is a maniac. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Lennox and Epps were great as usual.

Frances McDormand was good as the secretary of defense.

Loved the fact that the Wreckers all had various Scottish/British accents. Glad they weren’t stupid stereotypes of Southern folk.

Loved Wheelie and Brains. I really want a toy of Brains now.

Loved the way Megatron looked and acted in this film. You could tell he was slightly defeated and broken and was happy to let Sentinel Prime do all the work. His current Voyager toy really doesn’t do him justice.

Great plot twist with Sentinel Prime becoming a Villain.

Great that we got more Soundwave in this movie.

Lazerbeak talks. It actually worked.

The 3D was amazing and unobtrusive.

Steeljaw (the robo puppy) is not in the film!

The BAD:

Some of the characters had VERY goofy traits that just went too over the top at points. John Malkovich’s character just went too over the top, especially in his scene with Bumblebee – it was almost like he was getting aroused by him.

Ken Jeong’s “Wang” was just BIZZARE as well. Again, a little too over the top for my liking – and I usually love Ken Jeong.

Simmons was hit and miss, sometimes he was great, other time he just seemed a little too bizarre/eccentric, especially with how he dressed and the senile/half dressed butler he had. His sidekick “Dutch” was a weird character as well. Frances McDormand’s character I found had a few too many “odd” traits as well.

I personally found these characters along with Sam’s parents and his personality at points, it just got a little ridiculous. I think you only really need one weird/eccentric character per film – just made things too silly at points.

Autobot Dino – Dumb name, stupid Italian stereotype. Cool looking character though. Not used enough.

Autobot Q – Ugly then died. Kinda pointless – gave Sam some super weapons.

Megatron’s Head minion – Weird.

Not enough Shockwave. Like Super_Megatron said, only Boba Fett can get away with doing so little yet being so bad-ass.

Not enough Soundwave. Better than Shockwave, but we needed more classic Welker!

Much like Bonecrusher and Demolishor, it seemed like the villain that does the most damaged, in this case Shockwave’s Worm/Snake dies the quickest.

The UGLY (Or just stuff I find meh or what doesn’t make sense)

So I guess Prime got the Matrix back? Guess it didn’t get destroyed….

How did Sam end up with Mikeala’s dog?

So what happened to Brains and Wheelie? They thought they were going to die, yet the ship really didn’t crash that hard.

What the fuck was with Frances McDormand’s character changing into Nikes at one point?

Optimus can destroy damn near everything he goes near, yet gets tied up in a few cables?

Where the hell is my Garbage Truck Transformer toy?!

In conclusion, go see this movie! Much like Super_Megatron said, ROTF kinda killed my interest in movie stuff, but I’m hooked again now. I really want to start picking up movie toys again! Can’t wait to get the Human Alliance Wreckers and Soundwave.

I’m REALLY hoping we get a Leader Class Megatron and Shockwave!

chans formers

06-28-2011, 10:06 PM

a thought just occurred to me, silverbolt was in the movie,but like supermegs said,background role.(like stratosphere in rotf)
he was the white luxury plane that the mean new head lady was riding around in. call sign 4500x,it even had autobot logos on it along with a gold stripe down the length of it.

also.....how did prime get his trailer/flight-tech back from shockwave???

Nightscrabbler

06-28-2011, 11:13 PM

Transformers 3: Darker and Moonier.

I thought to myself before seeing this film that perhaps this time there was a possibility that to some small degree, I would actually like it. Well, I didn't. But I didn't hate it either. And now I will tell you why my opinion of this film elicited a different reaction (i.e. not one of extreme disdain) from me than its two predecessors.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is in one way, a work a lot closer to what I might have wanted a Transformers film to aspire to be than Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It is not that the portrayal of any character (be it human or robot) is good, nor is the plot good, nor is the action good. Make no mistake: these things aren't good. Making a case for why they are better or worse seems pointless; when the asymptote is close to zero, from which side we approach hardly matters. The only thing that is better about this film than the first two is its tone. From the start of the movie, a tone is established that I don't remember seeing in this franchise since Blackout's initial base attack that fooled me and countless others into once thinking that perhaps they had not screwed this film franchise up the way they marvellously did.

As usual, they would break away for some silly human comedy moments, but fortunately, this time these jokes are not in such bad taste that it forces you to cover your kids' eyes. Was it funny? Not really. But that's okay, we never needed to laugh it up during an end times invasion. The quantity of these jokey commercial breaks is less overall, so there is more in the movie building on its actual plot. And yes, the film has a plot. It is a plot with a G1 flavour, for sure, however still quite poorly put together. Of course, plot coherence and basic logic need not apply in this film franchise, where another sequel can always just retroactively explain a new historical coverup, which would address one plot problem and open 7 others in the process.

Unlike Blackout's Qatar base attack, or the Bonecrusher highway scene, or perhaps even Dirt Devastator, this film doesn't have any particularly interesting action moments. It really doesn't. Some connoisseurs might tell you it does, but with everything exploding everywhere throughout this movie, haven't we seen it all?

A lot of stuff happens. In fact, stuff is constantly happening. Very little of it is exciting or interesting. There are a few, and I can count them on one hand, cool things that will appeal to Transformers fans and no one else. But if you want your inner fanboy (and disgraceful outer fanboy for some of you) to rejoice, it is difficult, given that not one Transformer is handled well. The Transformers get characterization, they are sentient, but none of them will become your favourite character. Unless, of course, you like Decepticons who do nothing and Autobots that are deplorable role models.

One has to wonder about the power structure in the Decepticon ranks. You have Shockwave, whose personality is nonexistent, yet is obviously far more powerful than Megatron, Starscream and The Fallen ever were. He creates 'shockwaves', which is the kind of linear thinking one has come to expect from this director. But you might also draw a line to the conclusion that Shockwave is the big threat of the movie. Wrong. There is no one central enemy in this film. Megatron, in spite of his sinister cloak, never regains the menace he even had while frozen in ice. Starscream is a weasel, which is just one of the aspects of his personality that we saw among his Animated clones. Soundwave is, well, useless, and was probably better off staying in satellite mode. So, who is our nemesis on the Nemesis? The writers have placed the enemy within, on the side of good, which might have been a poignant remark if there had been at least one redeeming character the audience could side with. But who can cheer for this Optimus Prime? The savage protagonist so blinded by rage that he is more a vigilante than Batman has ever been. Who is in Sam's corner? Since he just wants to be a hero, though he does nothing heroic this time. Where are the good guys? Is it Carly? Sam's girlfriend who at first comes across as someone who might be on the side of evil. There is no good guy, no hero, no right or wrong.

If taken in the best light, this was something like The Ultimate Doom. It could have been, had they picked up on a few essential details. But even that mark, one set by a cartoon with no reference material, was missed. But hey, it seemed like they tried, and if you're the kind of person that hands out points for effort, which I most certainly am not, then you might have given this a passing grade. If you think the plot made a lick of sense, I challenge you to write a timeline outlining what Megatron's plan was from start to finish. Just note, if you suffer a brain hemorrhage, I'm not liable.

I could easily list a host of specific problems with this movie. I think this review is rather generous because it is only tracing the surface. If it is a better movie than the previous two, it's only by virtue of omission. If the first two movies had been like this one, it would've been no worse than any other bad comic book franchise.

If I had to summarize Dark of the Moon in one word, it would be: pointless. Amazingly, that's still an improvement over Revenge of the Fallen.

So, that ends this era. I am glad it's over. I just hope it stays over.

Black Cat

06-28-2011, 11:27 PM

I'm gonna move my comment here too. I don't think we were watching the same movie.

On a better note, anyone notice that when Optimus and Sentinel were driving into the desert, after transforming, Optimus' trailer vanishes? :p

Nightscrabbler

06-28-2011, 11:46 PM

I'm gonna move my comment here too. I don't think we were watching the same movie.

Hmm. Well, I was sitting on one side of Gord and you were on the other, so he must be some kind of cosmic film appreciation realm firewall. Even if you were pleased with the action scenes (most subjective point of contention perhaps), to me, that doesn't change a whole lot. Action is like spice; it can only make good food better, it can't make bad food good. Though it can sometimes disguise a bad taste. As for the other stuff, I don't know how any of the characters could be considered great.

Black Cat

06-29-2011, 12:00 AM

I would appreciate it if you did not assume what I did and did not like. I did not post a full review, it was just my overall feelings of the movie.

Nightscrabbler

06-29-2011, 12:02 AM

I would appreciate it if you did not assume what I did and did not like. I did not post a full review, it was just my overall feelings of the movie.

I said if. As said in parentheses, "the most subjective point of contention", you weren't very specific about what we didn't see that was the same, so I inferred.

stef2130

06-29-2011, 12:20 AM

they shoud have put more autobot like prowl and sunstreker
and not kill somme

and for the 4 if paramont whant it {they shoud} put unicron

Black Cat

06-29-2011, 12:21 AM

I highlighted the good points, you really didn't have anything good to say about anything. Which has been your opinion on all three movies.

Nightscrabbler

06-29-2011, 12:27 AM

I highlighted the good points, you really didn't have anything good to say about anything. Which has been your opinion on all three movies.

Not exactly true--my reviews on Transformers 1 said a number of good things. And in this review I talked about it being an improvement in its tone. But not exactly untrue either, as I was disappointed 3 times. It's not a grade 5 book report, where I necessarily have to find positive elements just to be credible. It's a review, if it's interesting to anyone, that's fine, if not, that's fine.

Commandoclone87

06-29-2011, 12:28 AM

Uhhh...no

Ferrari - Dino
Blue Mercedes - Q

Seriously.

Credits state that Que is Wheeljack. I figure it is a code name homage to "Q" from the Bond films (being Mr. Gadgets & Gizmos)

Robimus

06-29-2011, 12:36 AM

I find its very hard to guage at incredibly negative or incredibly positive review when one doesn't know what kind of films an individual may, or may not, like.

I won't be seeing this movie until Saturday but I'd imagine it delivers on some levels for Transformers fans.

One thing I don't get at all is the desire to continue watching movie franchises one doesn't enjoy, be it free or not.

One instance that comes to mind for me is Iron Man. I hated the first film, which meant when the second one rolled around I didn't, even to this day, bother watching it.

Same with the Spiderman series. I got to film 2 in that franchise because I didn't hate film one, but then gave up completely when I saw what came along.

Film franchises are film franchises. If you hated film one then, minus a new director and cast, you'll likely hate film 2, and 3, so on.

CobraCommander

06-29-2011, 12:39 AM

Just saw it, anyone notice all the Star Trek references and even a little bit of foreshadowing near the beginning?

- Sam mentions the office that the bad human guy works/owns looks like the "Starship Enterprise".
- Nimoy (aka Spock from Star Trek) as Sentinel
- Sentinel spouts "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"
- Brains while watching an episode of Star Trek says something to the effect "hey it's the one where Spock turns evil" ironically Sentinel (aka Spock) turns evil! :)

Some things I really liked;
- Shockwave had a centurion feel, riding around his worm chariot, very cool and yes I too wish he were used more!
- Waste Management Truck!
- Soundwave looked awesome

Some things I hate;
- Sam killing Starscream?
- Megs, Shockwave, Soundwave dead :(
- Carly calling Megs a bitch and that was enough to set him off?
- Just about all the human characters
- Soundwaves voice, I would have gone ape if they used the vocoder

Other things of note;
- Anyone notice the Optimus Prime looking head when the astronauts first searched the Ark?

CETERUS PRIME

06-29-2011, 12:52 AM

I thought it was AMAZING ! I really enjoyed how this movie incorporated several G1 attributes. Did anyone even catch the original G1 Transformers song being played by Lazerbeak during the office scene ??? Totally awesome !!! And from the moment the Autobots are supposedly exiled from Earth, the action never stops !!! Just Go see it, you'll be happy you did :)

chaingunsofdoom

06-29-2011, 02:28 AM

Commandoclone87

06-29-2011, 04:11 AM

Giving this movie any kind of negative review is impossible after the 2 years of criticism that ROTF got. I thought DOTM was a fantastic, epic, war movie. It was especially brutal at times, as was mentioned earlier.

Some points:
- Skids and Mudflap do appear. They are at the very back of the line when they roll into base and meet (Fargo lady) for the first time. Who else is bright green and brown? They do not appear again AFAIK, but would've been totalled offscreen by SP, right?. We do not see the Wreckers until an hour later, so it's not them rolling into base.
- The names "Dino" and "Q" should be forever banished. We *know* they are supposed to be Mirage and Wheeljack. Go with it.
- if you go by the "9 Autobots" heading to the Shuttle scene, can we deduce who all of them are?

At that time, Sentinel already betrayed the Autobots, I would assume that from the images and supposedly whom is alive at the time. we have:

Optimus Prime
Bumblebee
Que/Wheeljack
Dino/Mirage
Sideswipe
Topspin
Leadfoot
Roadbuster
Brains and Wheelie (both locked in a cage)

That makes 10 bots going on the shuttle, someone's math is either wrong or they excluded Wheelie and Brains and the scene was shot before they decided Ironhide should bite it.

down_shift

06-29-2011, 05:33 AM

Sweet Christ I watched it last night and I thought it was amazing! I saw the 9:00 advanced with my girl, my housemate and a few others. I wore that uncomfortable cini-mask the whole way through and it made it that much sweeter! I'll honestly say that it was the best of the three and I had almost zero complaints about it. I even thought blondie did a better job then Fox TBH.

I'll be seeing it again that's for sure!

Oreobuilder

06-29-2011, 07:14 AM

I'm surprised that no one mentioned that Cybertron gets destroyed. That was my OMG moment.

OB

joshimus

06-29-2011, 07:28 AM

The part I think that bothered me the most was the very end. Both films had sort of a final feel to it. First movie you have Sam and Mikeayla making out on BB with the Autobots there and Prime giving a speech. Second is on the battleship carrier again giving you a sense of "hey movie is about to end" and the third. for a supposed final film, just had Optimus minus his arm and kinda felt like an abrupt finish.
Score wise, I need to see the movie again cause nothing really stood out like say movie 1's score or the epic score for the Forest Battle in ROTF.

Big Filipino

06-29-2011, 07:34 AM

The part I think that bothered me the most was the very end. Both films had sort of a final feel to it. First movie you have Sam and Mikeayla making out on BB with the Autobots there and Prime giving a speech. Second is on the battleship carrier again giving you a sense of "hey movie is about to end" and the third. for a supposed final film, just had Optimus minus his arm and kinda felt like an abrupt finish.

Agreed. When it was over, I was thinking to myself "That was it?". I left feeling like that it could have ended it better. Seemed too rush. An extra minute or two probably would have been enough. Still, I rather enjoyed it. Maybe not as much as the first but certainly more than the second.

TwinTwistR

06-29-2011, 07:43 AM

Easily the best of the three. Loved it! All of the nods to the Star Trek franchise were a funny/neat little surprise. I laughed at a couple of them and I think I was the oldest one in the theatre because I don't think anyone else got them. I also make it a point to avoid all trailers and ads leading up to a TF movie, so when Sentinel suddenly turns on the Autobots, it was a classic shocked, "what the heck" moment for me.

I know some will pick it apart piece by piece. Say what you will about plot holes, human screen time vs. bot screen time, acting ablility, believeability, or whatever - and much of it can also be said about the G1 cartoon.

Regardless, I sat in a packed theatre and watched my childhood obsession come to life in a live action movie. I saw big rigs, airplanes, cars, r/c vehicles change into robots all on their own. That is just freakishly awesome. To borrow a phrase: that was winning.

Pascal

06-29-2011, 08:56 AM

Best of the 3 movies. Kickass action and tons of it. Lots of robots. Better characterization for both humans and robots. Carly. 3D was nice, but somehow it might have been done so well done than I stopped paying attention after a while. Optimus was badass. Is it me or this movie might be too violent for kids? How many robots got their head cut off, their face ripped off, their chest pierced and their guts removed from their body?

On a side note, the guys who did the voice over in french for the Wreckers (Alain Zouvi was amongst them) did a terrible job. And calling Carly "la blonde de Sam" was just odd, too québécois!

JLvatron

06-29-2011, 08:59 AM

I'm gonna move my comment here too.
HAHAHAHH!
Very appropriately moved, though.

Hmm. Well, I was sitting on one side of Gord and you were on the other, so he must be some kind of cosmic film appreciation realm firewall.
The show stopper! :)
Nice name for this phenomenon! :)

I won't be seeing this movie until Saturday but I'd imagine it delivers on some levels for Transformers fans.
Dude, you're reading spoilers but haven't seen it?? :eek:
Wow, I could never do that. I hope you can still enjoy the movie.

Ultra Maverick

06-29-2011, 09:01 AM

Just watched the review of the DOTM Ultimate Prime figure, and honestly, I don't think I want it now seeing how dramatically different Prime is in the film.
The Takara version is looking sweeter and sweeter, if only there were a trailer to hide that pack in, and also the trailer was full of weapons

Pascal

06-29-2011, 09:02 AM

Film franchises are film franchises. If you hated film one then, minus a new director and cast, you'll likely hate film 2, and 3, so on.

It doesn't work that way. One movie can be bad, the other awesome, then back to bad, then good. You never know what you're going to get before you see it yourself (critics don't mean anything, they really don't). To scrap an entire franchise based on ONE movie is kinda silly.

Pascal

06-29-2011, 09:03 AM

JLvatron

06-29-2011, 09:12 AM

I'm surprised that no one mentioned that Cybertron gets destroyed. That was my OMG moment.

OB

I matrixed too at that scene. Judging by the lack of theatre reaction, I'm guessing most of the audience didn't take that as destruction but "moving back effect".
Also, the Transformers would all cry if Cybertron was destroyed, yet they didn't even flinch.

Besides, if we compare to the original G1 "Ultimate Doom", Megs told Prime if he didn't activate the 3rd pylon, Cybertron would be catapulted to oblivion, or something to the effect of its doom.
In part 3 when they blast it out of orbit, it's absolutely fine.

So based on that I'd like to believe that we don't know definitely what would happen or not.

But ya, I noticed it too! :)

Some things I hate;
- Sam killing Starscream?
- Megs, Shockwave, Soundwave dead :(
- Carly calling Megs a bitch and that was enough to set him off?
- Just about all the human characters
- Soundwaves voice, I would have gone ape if they used the vocoder

Other things of note;
- Anyone notice the Optimus Prime looking head when the astronauts first searched the Ark?

Sam killing Starrio is pathetic, but not a precedent. 1 human killed Brawl (?) in movie 1.

Prime killing Megatron was way quick. Sure Megs was on his last breath since the beginning of the movie, but it woulda bin nice to at least hear Megs say something like "Now you do what must be done. Farewell, ...my brother."

[everyone, feel free to take a tear break]

Agree about the human characters. While storily justified, it still felt like a step backwards.
And Carly could have set off Megs, but he would have normally squashed her 1st, then gone after Sentinel.

Yah, I noticed the prime face on the moon too.
And loved Nimoy as Sentinel. Guber, Protoman, and I were mentioning "Galvatron versus Prime!" during the movie. :scalper:

Pascal

06-29-2011, 10:13 AM

Btw, I thought the many modes of Laserbeak was a pretty cool concept. And that he was actually talking too! I thought he was going to be just some random drone.

Robimus

06-29-2011, 10:22 AM

It doesn't work that way. One movie can be bad, the other awesome, then back to bad, then good. You never know what you're going to get before you see it yourself (critics don't mean anything, they really don't). To scrap an entire franchise based on ONE movie is kinda silly.

Do you have one example of a franchise in which you thought the first film was utter crap but found the second to be completely incredible?

I'm not talking about ESB being better than Star Wars or Aliens being better than Alien. One example, from the same creative team, that went from bad to good?

Pascal

06-29-2011, 10:33 AM

Friday the 13th? A Nightmare on Elm Street? Halloween? Quality varied from movie to movie.

Robimus

06-29-2011, 10:46 AM

Friday the 13th? A Nightmare on Elm Street? Halloween? Quality varied from movie to movie.

Mileage will vary I guess. I found them all to be not very good.

I think your likely stretching a little bit here.

I'm honestly trying to think of one myself, thinking that there must be something out there that would fit the criteria for me.

We've been hearing it from certain folks for years. Michael Bay sucks, I hate all his films, he shouldn't be allowed to to direct, he ruined Transformers.

Yet some of the same folks making these comments are the first ones in line for the new Michael Bay Transformers film. What did they think was going to be different about this one?

Pascal

06-29-2011, 10:49 AM

I liked that Bay used Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith) again like he did in Armageddon. And how they showed Spock on tv at the beginning of the movie.

(I would have liked Aerosmith to record the Transformers Theme in similar fashion to what they did for the Theme from Spider-Man. I thought the industrial-like rock sound was pretty cool and fitting.)

Autobotz24

06-29-2011, 12:27 PM

Best of the series by far. A brutal war showing just how evil the Decepticons really are, an evil human, Nimoy and his line from Wrath of Khan, Optimus gets his trailer and kicks ass again, the G1 story lines that even my GF got (she grew up watching Beast Wars and never watched G1 until I sat her down to watch a couple months ago).
I'll definately go for a double dip on this movie

JLvatron

06-29-2011, 02:06 PM

Best of the series by far.

I don't think Optimash Prime from your sig pic agrees!

MaxArel

06-29-2011, 04:46 PM

Back from watching it.

SPOILERS but you knew that already.

I absolutely loved the movie. The action was intense, the 3D was beautiful, the story was brilliant, the emotions strong... I loved it!

Only downer: Shockwave. He was more of a Devastator-esque monster from the last film than a calculating mastermind.

Carly was also kind of a... y'know, in the beginning. It's not until Soundwave alomst kills her that I feel worried for her when she's in danger.

Loved the robot's relatively high screen time. I also liked Brans and Wheelie: they took over what the Twins sadly began and made it funny and awseome.

Saddest: Ironhide's death by cosmic rust :(
Awsomest: Final battle. No mercy for the villains is fine by me.
Shickingest: SENTINEL PRIME WHY NOOO YOU EVIL EVIL ROBOT WHY!!!
Funnyest: Simmons, as always.
Wierdest: Talking Lazerbeak terrified children in my local theatre with the whole killing spree he did. D'oh.
Wierd translation moment: In french, the Wreckers have a very, VERY strong quebecer accent. I think they were Irish in the english version, but the french translation cracked me up.

Overall: 9/10, because of lack of Shockwave and Carly being kinda dumb in the beggining (still better than Fox, though)

Cpl. Chrissandwich

06-29-2011, 05:48 PM

SO, how does Optimus kill Megatron? and no you cant spoil the movie, I get my more exicted to see the movie the more I hear about it.

Anyway, back to my question. Does Megs start asking for a truce and Optimus is like no kills him? Or, do they converse some more and to Optimus it seems apparent that Megs may go back on his word. Becuase its the first one, I'd lose all respect for Optimus Prime. A Decepticon would do that
(IMHO). Thats me though take it as you will. Seeing it Thurday probably and Sunday definity!

Dagger

06-29-2011, 05:55 PM

JLvatron

06-29-2011, 05:56 PM

Anyway, back to my question. Does Megs start asking for a truce and Optimus is like no kills him? Or, do they converse some more and to Optimus it seems apparent that Megs may go back on his word. Becuase its the first one, I'd lose all respect for Optimus Prime. A Decepticon would do that

The details of it may reveal too much.

While Prime condones the killing of humans and Decepticons, his end decision is rather justified.
In other words, I don't think you'll lose respect for Prime over Megatron. But maybe for his attitude well before that.

In fact what I found funny/terrible was that the Autobots' mechtech weapons gimmick was not used against Decepticons; it was used against human beings!! :D

Cpl. Chrissandwich

06-29-2011, 07:02 PM

I can't say my thoughts on this without spoiling it.

I know the story, Ive known about it for at least two weeks. Sentinel in bad, Ironhide dies and such. I just want to know why Optimus killed Megs, and how he did it.

CobraCommander

06-29-2011, 07:16 PM

I know the story, Ive known about it for at least two weeks. Sentinel in bad, Ironhide dies and such. I just want to know why Optimus killed Megs, and how he did it.

I don't recall the exact dialog but it involved Megs exchanging insults about Prime's Mom and so Prime stuck an Energon Axe in his head and ripped his spine out just like Sub Zero's Fatality in MK. Honest ;)

chans formers

06-29-2011, 07:34 PM

In fact what I found funny/terrible was that the Autobots' mechtech weapons gimmick was not used against Decepticons; it was used against human beings!! :D
^sorry mang,it actually was,against the dreads,even then mostly just sideswipe and bb.

another thing i just remembered....did anyone else notice dino/mirage using the double whip hook things during that same fight?it was almost like a robotic version of god of war krato's weapons:D
then later on it's giant scythes coming from his elbows!!!
i wonder if the toy will have "both" sets of weapons,but not rotf jolt whips cheasy.

Scrapper6

06-29-2011, 08:05 PM

My thoughts on Transformers Megatron's Master Plan...

No, My Thoughts on Transformers The Ultimate Doom...

Megatron's Ultimate Plan?

The Master Doom?

Ok fine, Paramount, Bay, Writers, I'll use your title.

My Thoughts on Transformers Dark of the Moon:

WTF did I just watch? Soundwave didn't? HE DID! Holy Shit! Wait, what? Ok, no, all of them? How is this going to continue, how is Movie 4 going to exist? F$%& You Micheal Bay and your middle finger to the franchise! :rofl:

Ok, let's try this to be coherent.

For me I think I'm going to have to see it again to try and make heads or tails out of this movie, the basic plot is just simple enough to hold my interest. I mean it worked on the G1 cartoon, but why is it so hard to grasp everything in one viewing of this film? Oh right, because it's got more stuff going on in it than the simplistic plots of TFTM '07 and RotF '09.

A lot of the stuff going on in this movie is something I have admittedly seen before, but not on this level, there are however a few points that I find dissapointing.

Point #1: Carly, I didn't care for her character or her portrayal, some of you may be of the opinion that she is better than Megan Fox however I (and my mother) felt that she wasn't. I can't quite put my finger on just what my problem with her acting is, but her character was a bland and uninteresting female character. She wasn't antagonistic enough with Sam when she was feeling upset with him. She didn't have the same panash as Megan's character. She felt tacked on for the sake of having a female lead. These are all the things I can say about what I failed to appreciate about her character, and yet for the life of me I'm having trouble putting the exact reasonings behind my lukewarm to ice cold feelings about this character.

You don't FEEL for her. She's a prop, that's all she is. Megan's character was similarily a prop in certain respects, however she was much more active in the previous two films plots, a lot more central to the events of the film and ultimately you got two whole movies to spend with her. Carly is much like her G1 cartoon version, just there to give Sam/Spike motivation. (She doesn't even share her G1 toon's relationship with Ironhide from her introductory episode.)

Point #2: Who the hell are half these robots running around? Oh cool it's a Garbage Truck guy, will Hasbro make a toy of him? Barricade made a cameo, AWESOME! Wait, what? Shockwave speaks in Russian? Or is it Cybertronian? Where's Corey Burton? UGH! What a wasted potential.

So which one's Crankcase? Oh I see it's the guy with the dreadlocks. Great. Who's that green Decepticon in the background, his design is kind of cool looking. I wouldn't mind knowing more about him. It's like I need a playbook to know who the heck all these neat looking 'Cons are, why didn't Hasbro give out such a thing so the audience knew the names of the characters? I could get behind that sort of thing. Oh right, regular audience members wouldn't care about it too much. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for someone else to point out the characters for me on Wiki.

Point #3: Throughout the Transformers it has always been Optimus Prime vs. Megatron. Megatron and Prime are equal, they can go at it for hours if need be and still come out standing in the end. The Movieverse unfortunately treats Megatron more like a minor inconvenience than an actual leader.

It seems that the writers have taken everything that made Megatron great and just focused on one fan concieved notion. Megatron ultimately must be a coward because he's always retreating at the first sign of things going wrong. And he can't actually accomplish anything, except maybe kill four Autobots in the '86 movie. His characterisation in these three films has been so inconsistent it makes me wonder just why the hell they bothered to bring him back? Just let the Fallen lead in movie two and Sentinel Prime takes over in this one.

Point #4: Starscream's Death, now I actually didn't mind this one too much. It is in keeping with the characterisations in past incarnations of the Transformers mythos. And if I want to believe that this version will ultimately return due to a mutant abhorent spark, well that's my perogative and you're not going to convince me otherwise.

Point #5: Ironhide's Death... Ok, if Sentinel has Cosmic Rust in his gun (He did shoot Ironhide didn't he?) then why didn't he use it again during the final battle? Just item #151 on the numerous Transformers abilities that appeared for one scene and was never seen again, much like Jazz's wrist winch and Cliffjumper's monster sized blaster.

Point #6: The Score. What happened to all those epic cues from the first two films? I get that this is meant to be darker in tone, but they woefully underused the past elements of the score from the previous two films. And didn't use much from this film's score at all, I was expecting to hear that beat from the trailer/commercial spots a lot more often than I did in the actual film. You know the one, with the whole d'uh, d'uh, d'uh, d'uh thing. It's hard to convey in words.

Point #7: The Theme Song. I love the little nod to it when Laserbeak is disguised as the fax machine? (It was a fax machine wasn't it?) But why is it we don't get any form of it even if only during the very end of the end credits? A good portion of what has always been part of my personal reasons for liking the Transformers is due to the catchy theme song that has been around in some iteration or other since G1's days.

Point #8: The Ending. I was feeling seriously depressed at the end of this movie, Soundwave dead, Shockwave dead, Megatron dead, Starscream dead (though admittedly there is justification within the franchise for his potential return in future films, it'd kind of be neat to see him haunting Sam as a Spark Ghost.) I don't want a Reboot Hasbro, Paramount, Whoever. I liked the first three films in this franchise and would very much like to see it continue for as long as it is viable, that isn't possible when all the big iconic characters on the villains side are just there to serve some minor plot points and then you off them at the end of your 'trilogy'.

What's next for this franchise? Will we see Galvatron treated as a seperate entity much like IDW's G1 comics. Oh and what the hell happened with Cybertron? I mean, Cybertron is Primus, it has been established as such, if it got destroyed does that mean we're going to have the reverse of the Grand Black Hole? A Grand White Hole maybe? (Yes, I know in the movieverse we haven't been definitevely told about Primus and that, but come on, it's part of the lore and stuff.)

I guess I'm just a little bummed out, there are all these cool looking toys and yet they just get killed off. Is this what it felt like for the '86 moviegoing children? (Being too young to really have much invested in the characters back then it didn't strike me that hard, besides I was only born in 82 so by 86 I was barely old enough to even play with the ages 5 and up Transformers. Yeah I was 4 at the time, so... Not even old enough to have Transformers. Though I probably watched the cartoon.)

I think I can really enjoy Dark of the Moon, but it definitely requires another sit through to try and grasp everything that happened in it. UGH. Which means I'll have to sit through John Malkovitch's character's antics and that wierdo Asian dude who at first I thought was another Pretender, the way he was acting.

I will say one thing about my first viewing of Dark of the Moon, it didn't make me want to run out and buy the toys. I mean seriously, when I first saw TFTM '07 I think I bought Barricade and Ratchet that same day. Revenge of the Fallen, likewise I went out and bought a toy the day after seeing it, I think, though I can't really recall who it was if it did happen.

With Dark of the Moon, nothing made me really care much for any of the new characters, Dino, while not being as bad as I initially thought is still a horrible name for MIRAGE and Que is just a horribly bad attempt at giving nods to another movie franchise.

Hopefully a second viewing in Imax 3D will help me to get better aquainted with the film's characters... Or at least the movie adaptations in comic and novel form will give me a better interest in them.

jackwacko

06-29-2011, 08:21 PM

Watched it, came out, was pretty satisfied.
Was there issues? Less than ROTF, but yes.
Was it a kick-ass transformers movie? Yes.
Is it trying to be a 2 hour toy commercial? Kids would get nightmares watching this thing... It was like Mortal Kombat between Transformers.
Are the twins in it? IN CAR MODE, ONLY IF YOU REALLY FOCUS.
Blue Benz, Red Ferrari? Que and Dino respectively.
-Now here is the really iffy thing for me. Que looked like a totally lovable guy, and he gets blown to bits. His death really didn't have a point, while he actually had some contributions towards the team.
-Dino/Mirage: He exists solely to look cool, on mute. Now i wanna see a toy for him.
Sentinel Prime? His eyes glow purple, good guys never have purple glowing eyes. Him killing Ironhide got me O_O even though I knew it was coming.

Overall, good action movie, great Transformers movie, even better if you're a hardcore geek that can spot all the sci-fi references.

Gosh, watching the movie makes me wanna buy Laserbeak, and not get Sentinel... And god damn it Prime, why are you such a homicidal maniac?

alexsaurus_rex

06-29-2011, 08:23 PM

Loved it! I have stayed away from spoilers so the death of ol' Hoss was a real shock! I loved it when Lazerbeak turned into the cutesy orange BB. I want one!!

Just a question though, in any of the companion fiction (comics, novels, etc.) is the fate of the twins and other characters, like Jolt, ever explained?

Commandoclone87

06-29-2011, 08:45 PM

The companion comics will definitely clear up any confusion over Jolt and the Twins are missing.

RodimusMatrix

06-29-2011, 08:56 PM

I loved it i thought it was great however i am very dispointed in sentinel prime i feel like smashing my leader class figure after what he did..

Vain

06-29-2011, 08:57 PM

All I have to say is wtf Ironhide and wheeljack!

damani_d

06-29-2011, 09:58 PM

I have not been on these forums in ages..I regret it lol..

I live in Kitchener and we had an early screening last night (only one show) and the movie was insane..

I did not read any spoilers and I was shocked at the things Bay did with the story line..for sure the best one out of the bunch..one can only hope whomever decides to make the next one can do a good job..

RodimusMatrix

06-29-2011, 10:28 PM

Has anyone noticed that sentiel prime quoting spock from wrath of kahn when he said the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I thought that was classic!

Commandoclone87

06-29-2011, 10:46 PM

All I have to say is wtf Ironhide and wheeljack!

Don't be surprised, at least this time Wheeljack died on screen. G1 movie we only got a closeup of his burned out corpse. Sadly, we didn't get to know him in this continuity.

Three movies and the only ones given an onscreen test are Jazz, Jetfire, Ironhide and Jazz. The others are shown dying only in the comics.

jackwacko

06-30-2011, 01:10 AM

Don't be surprised, at least this time Wheeljack died on screen. G1 movie we only got a closeup of his burned out corpse. Sadly, we didn't get to know him in this continuity.

Three movies and the only ones given an onscreen test are Jazz, Jetfire, Ironhide and Jazz. The others are shown dying only in the comics.

Would have loved if they showed Skids and Mudflap dying in the movie as opposed to Wheeljack... Poor man was hoping they could talk this out over some lovely Tea T_T

Cpl. Chrissandwich

06-30-2011, 01:19 AM

Finally saw the movie, will be seeing it again on Sunday, now I understand Megs's death, but way too freaking fast! Like another member said, they are supposed to be equals! Dammit, would a five/ten minute fight have kill you Bay!? No, it wouldnt, instead you showed the humans more than the Bots again!

And WTF? Shockwave? For the screen time you gave him he didnt need to be in the movie. He could have been movie 4 villian.

Loved it though haha, one thing Im really disappointed with is the screen for Megatron. Loved his truck mode, the toy doesnt come close to the awesomeness and how scary it actually looked. Did like how Sideswipe got more screentime and lines.

pulsedragon20

06-30-2011, 04:05 AM

The best movie of the three and TFTM & ROTF combined! I expected Shockwave to do more and Ironhide to die later like Jazz did in TFTM.

The movie reminded me of Megatron's Master Plan and The Ultimate Doom combined, which is probably why the movie actually had a plot for once!

SleeplessKnight

06-30-2011, 04:37 AM

II just want to know why Optimus killed Megs, and how he did it.

Optimus is down and Sentinel has torn off one of his arms. Sentinel is about to finish off Optimus. Megatron Saves Optimus by shooting Sentinel in the back mortally wounding him. Optimus thanks Megatron by tearing off his head Mortal Kombat style. Optimus picks up a gun and executes a defenseless and mortally wounded Sentinel with a point blank shot to the head.

Totally brutal.

No joke.

alternatorfan

06-30-2011, 05:31 AM

all this blah, blah, blahing all three movies were good. although 1 and 3 were they best and dont really make sense for 2 but saying that I watched all the trailers, spoilers if you will for 1 and 2 that when I saw the toys. did not spend so much time on finding out what was going on with 3 and in my opinion made it better. and was truly shocked when sentinel offed iron hide. and on that note when megatron says to prime "where would you be without me" hencs I thought a truce was surely plause able here and could continue as a G1 esque plot. awesome movie glad it is done. now the autobots can live free on earth.

oh yeah on a side note how many times does megatron have to die before we see the new villan GALVATRON?

Absurdity_Prime

06-30-2011, 08:14 AM

Let me start by saying this, haters going to hate!

Saying that, I really enjoyed this movie and I felt it was a good fit when compared to the first movie. The action was non-stop and the surprises were great! The g1 throwbacks were nice (the ultimate doom and Megatron's Master Plan). If this is the last TF movie I feel it ended on a good note.

I wish a little more was done with shockwave and that megatrons defeat didnt look so easy, but all in all a great and entertaining movie!

Perceptor

06-30-2011, 09:27 AM

Is this movie selling out in GTA? Should I pre-buy tickets if I want to see it?

Alexander Quinn

06-30-2011, 02:08 PM

While I've enjoyed all three movies for what they were, all of them, DOTM included, have had something that just makes them "wrong" on so many levels. In this film, for me, it was the Decepticons taking the Autobots as prisoners, and the humans telling them to just go ahead and exucute the holy fuck out of them. Seriously?? Soundwave needed Dr. McDouchebag to enlighten him to the fact that leaving the Autobots alive might be a bad idea? Why are the Decepticons so retardedly ineffectual in these films? They have machines that blow up the sun, giant mecha tapeworms that can eat entire buildings but they fail at common sense. Even with Chicago burning in the background and the body parts flying around in some of the "slaughter" scenes, it really is hard to take them serisouly as a threat. Over 200 Decepticons and they can't manage to bag themselves all 10 Autobots.

I don't know. I don't want to come across as a hater. I did enjoy the film. CG was flawless, 3D was great everywhere except the beginning, where the old news footage that was in regular 2D kept clashing with the actual film in 3D. It was well worth the ticket price to have my mind blown away for 2 1/2 hours, but it just irks me that we still have the same story telling problems and weirdness as ROTF. DOTM was a visual orgasm of super masterfulness, but still an assholerific mockery of a well written story.

Cpl. Chrissandwich

06-30-2011, 03:15 PM

Optimus is down and Sentinel has torn off one of his arms. Sentinel is about to finish off Optimus. Megatron Saves Optimus by shooting Sentinel in the back mortally wounding him. Optimus thanks Megatron by tearing off his head Mortal Kombat style. Optimus picks up a gun and executes a defenseless and mortally wounded Sentinel with a point blank shot to the head.

Totally brutal.

No joke.

I know, I already posted that I saw the movie. Lol, anyway, I understand why now.

Vain

06-30-2011, 04:26 PM

So now that I have a bit of time to post something else. Any one notice the same decapitation death for most of the characters? Everyone loses their head, or almost.

Ironhide,Wheeljack,Soundwave,Starscream,Megatron,C rankcase,laserbeak,etc.

It also really bothers me when a really important characters dies and there's no mention of it afterwords. I was really looking forward to a scene where Prime looks over the remains of Ironhide and saying that he'll avenge his old friend or something.

Also the fact that bay actually opted for Dyno and Q really actually annoyed me, it's almost like he went through with it out of spite. Seeing as other forms of media have them stated with our classic names.

Another annoyance is seing the twins in the hangar scene andnot seeing anything else of them.

Other then that, I really enjoyed the movie.

Anyone else really loved Brains? I totally want a figure of his.

P.S Why exactly weren't the twins in the movie other then that one scene, someone mentioned something about the comics explaining it.

Sun Swipe Prime

06-30-2011, 06:00 PM

Just watched the movie and it's pretty much exactly what I expected. It was neither great or bad. Rating it in terms of purely an action movie, tt was just MEH. The plot barely held everything together, but it did the job. The hurmor was handled well, nothing to rage over. Sideswipe got some more screen time and actually more than one line, but it still felt like the secondary Transformer characters were getting shafted on screen time in favor of the human military. For a 2hr++ movie, not fair for the robots.

Shockwave was pretty much MEH. He rode around the movie on this giant Bay-Robo-Penis while it pretty much fraked everything in sight like a dog in heat. Seriously. And they only thing I remember him saying was Grrrrrrrr. The wreckers weren't given much to do. They had a few lines and were in the fight but didn't do anything that mattered. Every so often they'll cut to a clip of a wreaker shooting in car mode but that's pretty much it. Did they save the life of a main character or achieve some important objective, No.

Lastly, three things that made me go, what the hell? First, the bloodthirsty autobots literally ripping a decepticon to pieces limb by limb. Good guys don't do that stuff and enjoy it. I shake my head. Second, why are the decepticons killing harmless, human civilians when it's explicitly stated they want the humans as slaves? Third, why did they make Megatron kill Sentinel before the battle was won? That was stupid. Sentnel is about to turn Optimus to junk, but idiot Megatron kills him before he can finish Optimus off, which then allows Optimus to get up and kill Megatron. Stupid death considering he could have just waited for Sentinel to kill prime before blasting him in the back.

Anyway... Overall an ok film. Probably an 11 on the geek-gasm scale for most TF fans

Batman

06-30-2011, 06:14 PM

Well Prime certainly did kill them all.

Cheers Ian

06-30-2011, 06:16 PM

GMfan

06-30-2011, 06:26 PM

^ I think he was Wheeljack in the IDW comics...

As for all the "WTF Bay?!? It's Mirage, NOT DINO!!!", the reason he was called Dino in the movie was to please Ferrari who otherwise wouldn't have let Bay even use the Ferrari in his film. The homage is to Dino Ferrari, son to Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari. Also hence the Italian accent...this is all to please the company as they're very VERY PICKY about how thier product is portrayed.

He's another fun fact for ya. His voice actor is the "Chicken Thursday..." Olde El Paso guy...maybe that'll bother you more then the Dino thing...

Vain

06-30-2011, 07:50 PM

Okay....

Can anyone point out to me somewhere in printed Media where "Q" is called Wheeljack?

He was called "Q" in the kids storybook that leaked a few months back, so that's not something they recently changed.

Dino was Mirage. There's been proof of that. That's only a recent change.

He's wheeljack in the kid thing too as well as in the game and comics.

http://www.transformerscustomtoys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wheeljack.jpg

Commandoclone87

06-30-2011, 08:35 PM

Okay....

Can anyone point out to me somewhere in printed Media where "Q" is called Wheeljack?

He was called "Q" in the kids storybook that leaked a few months back, so that's not something they recently changed.

Dino was Mirage. There's been proof of that. That's only a recent change.

Did you stay for the end credits? The credits also list him as Wheeljack

razin

06-30-2011, 08:38 PM

Did you stay for the end credits? The credits also list him as Wheeljack

Yup, IIRC it said "Q/Wheeljack" in the credit roll, kinda of how Leadfoot was listed as "target/Leadfoot"

I'm hoping the toy will be listed as Wheeljack and Dino as Mirage. Toy can easily named Mirage by removing the Ferrari logo and make the toy similar to a Ferrari but enough to disconnect its association/obligation to Ferrari.

razin

06-30-2011, 10:30 PM

My review, from my 5yr old sons perspective.

Son: Cool, there's his trailer!! Can I get that?
Me: Maybe, shhh.
Son: Is that Sentinel the same as your Sentinel? (refering to Cyberverse SP)
Me: Yes. shhh.
Son: Hey, thats Crankcase, you have him daddy!
Me: yup, shhh.
Son: Is Ironhide dead?
Me: I think so, but stop fidgeting cuz I just missed it.
Son: He turned to rust like Hot rod (refering to TFA Rodimus)
Me: Yup, shhh.
Son: Can we go home?
Me: No, and put your glasses back on.
Son: I'm tired.
Me: go to sleep then
Son: Shockwave!!!
Me: shhh.
Son: Theres the police car guy
Me: Barricade
Son: Yea, are you getting him?
Me: Yes, shhh.
Son: Can we go home?
Me: no, its almost over.
Son: Who just died?
Me: Wheeljack
Son: Why?
Me: Were you not watching? Put your glasses back on.
Son: Who did Bumblebee just shoot?
Me: Soundwave
Son: Is he dead?
Me: Looks like it, shhh.
Son: I want to change seats
Me: no, stop fidgeting.
Son: Is it almost over?
Me: yes, shhh
Son: Why did Optimus shoot Sentinel?
Me: Cuz he turned on the autobots, remember Ironhide?
Son: Oh.

Credits rolling
Son: Hey, its that song we listened to in the car
Me: yup.
Son: I really liked that movie!
Me: Then why did you want to go home?
Son: I dunno, long day.
Me: Okay then.
Son: Can we listen to the Transformers song in the car again
Me: Sure.
Son: Can we get the Bumblebee set? (referring to the Legion playset)
Me: Ask mommy when you get home.

End of review.

At some point I will need to watch it again soon. I missed a lot of little things due to the usual behaviour of a 5yr old! He loves TF's to death, watches TFTM/ROTF all the time at home, but is too ansy at a theatre.

Myself, I really enjoyed the movie. I managed to avoid most spoilers except Ironhides death, although I didnt know how it occured prior to seeing it. Sentinel the traitor was def a shock.
Surprised by the small role Megs played, but liked the fact he was still in critical condition from his previous battle. Seems a lot of people are annoyed with how quickly Prime disposes of Megs. Makes sense to me, he was already on deaths door, a 5-10min battle would not have made sense. The execution of Wheeljack was a bit harsh, wish he could have put up a fight.
During Bumblebees almost execution I almost thought they were going to do it, but realized no way it could happen, BB's death would have been as traumatizing to kids as OP's death was to us in '86.

I had no qualms with the human elements, never really have in any of the movies. I don't want to see non stop bot on bot action, I like to see the side stories and how the war effects others. Don't get me wrong, epic bot battles were/are awesome, but a break here and there doesn't hurt.

Very surprised ALL the 'cons were eliminated (by ALL I mean all 'cons with a name....who knows what happened to Garbage truck con and other assorted unknowns). I'm sure we will get more live flicks down the road, so unless its a prequel we will get all new crop of 'cons. Galvy, Scourge, Cyclonus??? Yes please. Although previous continuity shows Screamer returns as a ghost, I do not expect to see that explored in a live action film.

Plot wise, as mentioned, cool to see G1 episodes used loosely as the main plot. Homages like Megs sitting in Lincolns chair, One armed Optimus were cool. I know there was more, but I've forgotten so much already. Bluray now please!

TheLogicalProwl

07-01-2011, 04:10 AM

So being not so-die hard, I only saw the movie last night. My thoughts.

1. Very good. I enjoyed it a lot. I would say that this version is the finest of the trilogy. The plot twists were really good, and the WTF moment when Sentinel turned heel (wrestling term) for me was worth the price of admission. I truly did not see that coming.

2. I know they were really Australian, but didn't it feel that the Wreckers were the Transformers' version of the Dreadnoks from G.I. Joe? Could have used a Zartan-like character. And that red one with what looked like a bloated codpiece looked just wrong.

3. Less human characters talking, more of the robots, I enjoyed that.

4. Prime for the first time in the movieverse felt like Prime from G1, honorable and noble. But he kicked some serious ass in this movie.

5. Loved the hat-tips to G1, such as Megatron sitting on the throne of the Lincoln Memorial and Prime swinging what looked to be an energon axe.

6. I hope Hasbro doesn't try to replicate that version of Shockwave into a toy because that would gargle balls. And, that Shockwave was a pale comparison to G1. Unless he wiped out a slew of people/bots and said "All Are Dead". Missed opportunity that would have had me cheer.

7. After seeing Starscream's death, know this. No TF death will top Starscream's death in the original movie.

Cheers Ian

07-01-2011, 09:04 AM

He's wheeljack in the kid thing too as well as in the game and comics.

http://www.transformerscustomtoys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wheeljack.jpg

Well that's answers that...I could have sworn he was "Q" in that book.

I for one, am pretty glad he wasn't Wheeljack in the end, his character was pretty lame and ugly to boot.

People are bitching that he wasn't called Wheeljack, but if he had to have been Wheeljack people would be bitching that he's Ugly/British/Blue/Not enough screentime/died to quick/etc.

Can't win 'em all folks...

alexsaurus_rex

07-01-2011, 10:53 AM

Yeah, I'm fine with him being a new character too. Wheeljack has gotten more badass in my mind lately thanks to Prime, I wouldn't have like to seen him begging for mercy at his end.

Nullray

07-01-2011, 11:41 AM

I sat in on the late show last night and was happy to do so. The theatre was full but not rammed so we got some good seating. I really want to see this movie now in IMAX 3D. Seeing it regular was cool but can totally see how the 3D enhancements will rock.
I really loved the G1 references but felt kinda stranged out when Cybertron didn't create mass chaos when entering our orbit. I also thought it was strange that Primus (Cybertron) was destroyed for the most part. It looked like a black hole fallen in upon itselt. I really wished BB got the nod for termination. I find he was always a supporting character. He was a scout not a power house. All in all I really enjoyed my evening last night and look forward to seeing it again.

Vain

07-01-2011, 12:04 PM

By the way, anyone know what the lil' green thing was that followed Megatron around? I was wondering if that was a nod to anything or they just felt like giving megatron a pet.

alexsaurus_rex

07-01-2011, 12:22 PM

I was wondering that too. At first I thought it was all that was left of the Fallen. That and the hatchling things in the desert seemed like an idea that wasn't fully fleshed out.

On an unrelated note, did anyone miss Fox? I thought Carly was pretty good, a definite step up from Mikeala. It just seemed that she and 'the beef' had better chemistry.

malteselegacy

07-01-2011, 12:23 PM

I believe his name is Igor.

Nullray

07-01-2011, 12:45 PM

I kinda got a feeling that Patrick Dempsey character was loosely based on the Dr Arkevile character from G1. That was kinda cool I thought. Megatron in Africa was a different concept. Elephants "All Hail Megatron!" telepathy. Wasn't expecting that. A lot of cool twists.

chaingunsofdoom

07-01-2011, 12:53 PM

Read a 'review' yesterday where someone moaned on and on that the Autobots 'let Chicago get destroyed to show the humans'. Seeing as they had to drive from FL to IL, that's a long drive even for TFs. Even Sam and "Left Cheek" took a while to drive up there and pick-up their war buddies. Speaking of, was Fig on the team with Lennox? Thought he had a line of two...

TheLogicalProwl

07-01-2011, 12:57 PM

Did anyone think that for the last movie, DOTM sure didn't feel like things were wrapped up? I mean, what happened to Sam? Do they re-attach Prime's arm?

And something that my gf and I noticed. How come going through all that hell, Carly's hair never got messed up and she didn't have one bead of sweat?

Nullray

07-01-2011, 01:17 PM

Carly all hot and sweaty... hmmm

Sun Swipe Prime

07-01-2011, 01:53 PM

Did anyone think that for the last movie, DOTM sure didn't feel like things were wrapped up? I mean, what happened to Sam? Do they re-attach Prime's arm?

Actually, I think they ran out of film. 2hrs 34 min run time just put too much stress on film stock resources. I think at the 2hr 35min mark that's when the real s#!t hit the fan, unicron shows up along with hotrod, kup, and some random sharkticon. :p but that had to be cut.

And something that my gf and I noticed. How come going through all that hell, Carly's hair never got messed up and she didn't have one bead of sweat?Girls don't sweat. That's icky and gross. ;)

Alexander Quinn

07-01-2011, 03:39 PM

On an unrelated note, did anyone miss Fox? I thought Carly was pretty good, a definite step up from Mikeala. It just seemed that she and 'the beef' had better chemistry.

Honestly, yeah. Both are attractive, and neither can act worth a damn, so it just really vexed me that a girl who went through hell with Sam, twice, would just say fuck it and break up with him. High school girlfriend or not, that was just lazy ass story telling. Carly did nothing for me, story-wise. Her background was just jumbled as all hell, and seeing as how the first two movies feautred love as a prominent point, it seemed pointless to even have it featured at all in this film. I would have rathered there be no female lead than just a cardboard replacement. Her only purpose was blackmail bait and apparently to call Megatron a bitch. Honestly, if Bay and Speilberg hated Fox so much but really needed someone's ass to focus the camera on every now and then, I would have been happier I think if they had just replaced the actress and recast Mikaela.

transforminator

07-01-2011, 04:21 PM

i really hated how after ironhide's death nobody gave a damn about it. I expected Optimus to arrive and bring up ironhide and mourn his death for even just a few seconds before going out to beat the shit out of (or talk to) sentinel prime. I mean in TFTM, even though his way of mourning a comrades death was still underwhelming, we did see him take a few seconds to mourn the death of Jazz.

Oh and did anyone notice that Carly's clothes kept changing during the final battle (blue dress at dylan's party, white dress while being kept hostage, then white jacket and pants near the end of it all)

joshimus

07-01-2011, 04:24 PM

was Fig on the team with Lennox?
Fig died in the first movie from the Scorponok battle. It's actually in deleted scenes but technically happened. So gonna say no.

I too felt the end didn't have the same, in a sense, hero shot ending TF1 and ROTF had, that calm after the storm to end credits. So yeah it felt rushed there as did the final battle between the 3, Prime, Sentinal and Megatron.
Overall I really enjoyed the movie and plan on seeing it again though in 2D as I really am officially giving up on this 3D nonsense. It does nothing for me but add an extra layer of glasses.

alexsaurus_rex

07-01-2011, 08:50 PM

Honestly, yeah. Both are attractive, and neither can act worth a damn, so it just really vexed me that a girl who went through hell with Sam, twice, would just say fuck it and break up with him. High school girlfriend or not, that was just lazy ass story telling. Carly did nothing for me, story-wise. Her background was just jumbled as all hell, and seeing as how the first two movies feautred love as a prominent point, it seemed pointless to even have it featured at all in this film. I would have rathered there be no female lead than just a cardboard replacement. Her only purpose was blackmail bait and apparently to call Megatron a bitch. Honestly, if Bay and Speilberg hated Fox so much but really needed someone's ass to focus the camera on every now and then, I would have been happier I think if they had just replaced the actress and recast Mikaela.

See, I totally never got 'love' from Fox. Ok rereading that last sentence made me chuckle! ;)

ROTF was on TMN today, and after seeing her replacment, Mikeala bugged me even more. You're right though, no female lead would have been fine but a change up is good. I really felt there was more of a connection between Sam and Carly.

Perceptor

07-01-2011, 09:13 PM

Nightscrabbler

07-01-2011, 09:39 PM

It's gonna make no sense I guess but did anyone try to piece together the three TF movies in some sort of rational order? Since the plan was to bring Cybertron to earth from the get-go, that meant Megatron was always looking for the Matrix of Leadership to revive Sentinel on the moon (right?). Sentinel and Megatron wanted to harness slave labour on earth, but the Fallen was about to harness the sun's energy in ROTF. That would have destroyed earth right? Did anyone remember whether the Fallen or Megatron ever got their hands on the Matrix last movie? My train of thought isn't leading anywhere on this ... Help?

here you go

The HUGOTRON Memoirs

A) Megatron chases Allspark even though he is supposedly winning the battle on Cybertron without it
B) En route to Earth where Allspark is, Megatron makes deal with Sentinel Prime to rendezvous there to open Spacebridge to bring Decepticons and obtain Earth resources
C) Decepticons shoot at their ally Sentinel Prime damaging his ship and leading to him crash land on Moon
D) Megatron crash lands in the Arctic due to being an alien spacecraft that does not understand gravity
E) Megatron wakes up in ice wondering what ever happened to Sentinel
F) Megatron is freed by Decepticons who attack Hoover Dam and as he is thawing, downloads English language pack so that humans understand his cool "I AM MEGATRON" comeback line
G) Megatron fights Optimus Prime, but gets killed by Sam with Allspark and his body is dumped in the ocean
H) Megatron is revived with an Allspark fragment by loyal Decepticons
I) Megatron retrieves Sam for revenge and to probe his brain for AllSpark knowledge such as location of the Matrix
J) Megatron kills Optimus Prime as instructed by his master The Fallen, who probably did not want to go up against a Prime himself
K) Megatron orders Decepticons to fight Autobots while they bring the sun harvester online
L) Megatron watches as Optimus Prime is revived with the Matrix, then obtains Jetfire's parts in order to defeat the Fallen
M) Megatron flees and lives with animals in Africa
N) Megatron either gets the Autobots to realize that Sentinel is on the moon or they figure that out on their own, not really clear
O) Optimus Prime revives Sentinel Prime, so Megatron can get back to plan B to bring Cybertron beside Earth
P) Prime keeps The Matrix at Sentinel's insistence, which is apparently also an item that signifies Autobot leadership even though it had been buried on Earth since time of original Primes
Q) Decepticons have been hiding in the Moon for some reason and finally decide to get up
R) Control pillar is knocked down, first resulting in transport of Cybertron halting, then resulting in apparent destruction of Cybertron
S) Megatron is so weak, he is convinced by Carly to betray Sentinel Prime
T) Sentinel is killed by Optimus Prime thanks to Megatron's help, but Optimus doesn't appreciate that and kills Megatron too

So, all in all, a sad end to the greatest Decepticon. But he really didn't plan anything well. It's possible, one could argue, that he only wanted the Allspark to determine the location of the Matrix in the first place, to operate the sun harvester. Although if they wanted to harvest our sun (whatever that means), why would they want to transport Cybertron here?

He got owned by Sam, The Fallen, Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime. Tragic.

Darth Cylon

07-01-2011, 11:57 PM

DOTM is so bad that I am not even bothering to write my review about it.

On the other hand, seeing Shockwave not transforming, did practically nothing, and got killed off so easily by a not-so-peace-loving Optimus Prime makes me think the chance of Shockwave getting Leader toy is now close to nil.

chans formers

07-02-2011, 12:17 AM

I believe his name is Igor.yup,and he was basically rotf longhauls head with some extras added;)

i really hated how after ironhide's death nobody gave a damn about it. I expected Optimus to arrive and bring up ironhide and mourn his death for even just a few seconds before going out to beat the shit out of (or talk to) sentinel prime. I mean in TFTM, even though his way of mourning a comrades death was still underwhelming, we did see him take a few seconds to mourn the death of Jazz.

Oh and did anyone notice that Carly's clothes kept changing during the final battle (blue dress at dylan's party, white dress while being kept hostage, then white jacket and pants near the end of it all)ops couldn't pick him up and mourn him because the cosmic rust gun turned him to dust.

and yeah,i noticed the changing carly did,
first the sexy blue dress when s/w first kidnapped her,then the white pants and white blazer when she was being held in trump tower,then when she jumps to sams arms on the drop ship,she's wearing blue jeans and the white blazer.

so how did bb get captured?we see him rescue lennox and sam after sam takes out screamer,bb using his hood as a cushion of sorts,then not minutes later bb's on his knees watching que plead like a bee-otch:D

also,to kill some rumors,it was actually a generic decepticon troop builder that fired the first shot at que,then the second finishing shot was barracade.

Robimus

07-02-2011, 01:32 AM

I thought this was a fun film. I loved the bits of Cybertron and how the cockpit of the Arc looks like Omega Supreme's head.

Laserbeak was a standout, Shockwave a dud. I liked how Prime really had a significant role in this one, seemed to me like he had way more dialog than in ROTF.

The "Spock gone crazy" episode being watched by Wheelie and Brains and their comment was really cute.

Cutting out Mikaela was just an epic fail for me, but I'll not dwell on it. Sam was funny, as was Simmons whom I always like.

Barricade! Nice to see him. I'm not even 100% positive he died. Probably but maybe not.

Could have sworn I saw Jolt in there near the start. I didn't really attach myself to Dino or Wheeljack, I kinda found both to be lackluster.

Overall I think it was a fun movie, little heavy on the last battle, but meh.

TFTM is still my favorite of the three by far, but I shall enjoy watching this one over and over a little more than I did ROTF.

JLvatron

07-02-2011, 12:24 PM

Honestly, if Bay and Speilberg hated Fox so much but really needed someone's ass to focus the camera on every now and then, I would have been happier I think if they had just replaced the actress and recast Mikaela.

Well, I say who cares about Mikaela or Carly.
The best woman in the series was Alice the Pretender. Definitely the coolest. :)

Bruticus82

07-02-2011, 12:45 PM

Well, saw this movie yesterday...

Cons
1. I thought the storyline over all was very weak and rushed. They basically lifted the story from several episodes of Transformers G1 cartoon series. It would have been nicer if they planned 2 and 3 out into a proper trilogy earlier.

2. The trend from past movies of the autobots being more violent than the decepticons continues.
a) "We will kill them all." ~ Optimus Prime
b) Decepticons apparently take prisoners, an don't execute them until a HUMAN suggests they do same. Autobots don't take prisoners, period.
c) Optimus apparently decided the only way to get the humans to trust them was to let the Decepitcons trash Chicago and kill tens of thousands of people while they were at it. They're dead now Optimus, all so you could gain the trust of the humans? What the hell Optimus...seems like a high price to pay for trust.
d) The wreckers rip a Decepticon limb from limb. Only time we've seen something similar was Megatron v. Jazz in the first movie. Stay classy autobots, you're the good guys, right?

3. The bridges
Megatron: "I know how to stop the autobots, we'll raise the bridges! Mwa ha ha!"
Starscream: "Wait...can they maybe jump, or walk into the water and scale the sides..."
Megatron: "Uhm...no no...they'll have to lower the bridges to get to us."
Starscream: "Why don't we just blow up the bridges?"
Megatron: "Why don't you just shut up Starscream"
Starscream: "Why am I the only Decepticon who can fly without a ship? We seem to have tonnes of identical drones, none of which are copies of me, or of blackout..."
Megatron: "...who?"

4. Cartoon logic.
a) Dr. McDecepticon: "I'm going to tell you all about our plan, including which cupola the control pillar is in, because there's no way anything you will ever do can ever stop us."

b) Carly: "Hey, you, Megatron, yeah...uhm...aren't you jealous of the new guy?"
Megatron: "You're right!"
Sentinel Prime: "Curses, I would have gotten away with it were it not for you meddling earth children!"

5. Decepticons explode whenever they appear on-screen. Autobots only explode from point-blank shots to the head when they're NOT in battle!

6. New characters barely introduced. After all, this movie isn't about giant robots with personalities, it's about explosions!

7. Questionable Humour.
a) Deep Wang? WTF...is this a comedy or an action film? I don't remember seeing these sorts of "funny bits" in Terminator 2, or the original star wars trilogy. It makes it hard to take the movie seriously.

b) Brains, Wheelie, and Slobbery (as I call Megs' "assistant".). Why are these characters there? For the kids to laugh at? It's The Phantom Menace all over again...Pick one target audience, and stick with it! Trying to target the kids and the adults at the same time just means the kids are bored half the time, and the adults are face-palming half the time.

8. "Missing" scenes?
Did anyone else think when they first started showing the Decepitcon ships hitting Chicago that we had "missed" some scene that showed how the ships go there, or the initial "attack"? Felt very disjointed.

9. Why were the decepticons on the moon at all? Why didn't they just fly straight to earth and "hide". Why hide on the moon first and then fly to earth and then hide until they could distribute the remaining pillars?

That said, why bother porting to earth at all. Why not distribute the pillars from orbit straight from the moon?

10. For being the warriors who were winning the war, they seemed to be "winning" like Charlie Sheen. Less than a dozen autobots verusus how many decepticons?

11. Whoops, optimus got tangled in some super-strong earth cables! Too bad he doesn't have laser-hot blades he could use to cut through them, or some guns to shoot them...good thing the wreckers were there to help him, and no decepticon ships which were sitting on nearby buildings and patrolling the sky decided to head over there and shoot at him...

12. The actors portraying Kennedy and Obama.

13. The robots were too "wet"...since when does starscream spit all over everything when he talks?

Pros

1. Human collaborators - Very well done, I didn't see Carly's boss being a human collaborator until the moment it happened.

2. Evil Sentinel Prime - I did not see that one coming either. Very unexpected, and a good twist.

chaingunsofdoom

07-02-2011, 01:03 PM

Bruticus82

07-02-2011, 01:20 PM

For 2c - I mentioned in post #95 above. The time it takes to travel to Chicago is significant. They were in the booster rocket. They had to get to shore. They had to drive to Chicago.

9 - the NEST/Autobot alliance had detectors all over Earth. The only place to hide is either underwater or on the moon.

2c - I'm not blaming him for failing to get there "in time" I'm blaming him for faking their whole death so the decepticons would have a chance to "show their true colours". Optimus must have known that whatever the decepticons had planned would have been catastrophic. What if the decepticons had based the control pillar in Australia? Or Seattle - the autobots would never have gotten there in time to stop them.

9 - First, if that's true, then where were soundwave and laserbeak hiding? That and Shockwave seemed to have no problem moving about. What about Megatron's African camp? Obviously no energon detectors there...I think the coverage of these energon detectors was overstated.

Second, the decepticons seem to have gone to the moon during the time the soviet program was taking images in preparation of a moon landing (because they captured movements in the pillars) based on that, it seems like the decepticons have been there for at least 30 years, if not more like 40 or 50. Had they landed directly on earth instead and hid (underwater even if you'd like), there would have been substantially more decepticons during the first movie.

Darth Cylon

07-02-2011, 02:03 PM

b) Decepticons apparently take prisoners, an don't execute them until a HUMAN suggests they do same. Autobots don't take prisoners, period.

1. Human collaborators - Very well done, I didn't see Carly's boss being a human collaborator until the moment it happened...

I am sending my idea to Paramount and Hasbro. Patrick Dempsey didn't die, but his body was horrifically burned. The surviving Decepticons use Cybertronian technologies to help rebuild him with a life supporting system. Patrick's hatred for Autobots and their ally human makes him use his enomous wealth to form.....

http://www.posters.ws/images/429596/gi_joe_transformers.jpg:raisetheroof:

Robimus

07-02-2011, 03:55 PM

I'll be interested to see how many $$$$$$ this film pulls in.

TFTM 2 for all its flaws was the top money maker of 2009.

And before the masses run in to tell me that $$$$ don't make it a good film I'll just say that I agree.

$$$$ do represent something pretty important though and are probably more important to Paramount than if its recieved by everyone as a good film.

Bruticus82

07-02-2011, 04:22 PM

razin

07-02-2011, 05:10 PM

Doesnt big dollars also translate into more toys? Hasbro gets its cut does it not?

Sun Swipe Prime

07-02-2011, 06:11 PM

And before the masses run in to tell me that $$$$ don't make it a good film I'll just say that I agree.

$$$$ do represent something pretty important though and are probably more important to Paramount than if its recieved by everyone as a good film.

Agreed and agreed.

I agree, lots of $$$ doesn't mean a great film, but it does mean that the film appealed to a large number of people, which is worth something.

Well, to me the big dollars brings up a lot of things that can be taken as good and bad. It may be a sign that transformer fans in particular and movie fans in general don't care about short comings in story as much as big explosions from this franchise. Maybe that's all they is expect. To me it can be a bit disappointing if that's the case because TF has such a rich history to draw from and depth of story to draw on. But then again, maybe TF are loved by so many they'll take what ever they can get and love it regardless of flaws. Another reason for the big money could be many just don't know any better. They may not know what a well told story is and they just flock like sheep because of the advertising juggernaut-- I hope I'm wrong in this because it says a lot about our society if it's that easy, be flashy and loud and people will come regardless of substance.

Darth Cylon

07-02-2011, 06:45 PM

transforminator

07-02-2011, 07:25 PM

Shouldn't Sentinel be in his Cybertronian body form much like Megatron and Shockwave? But when Optimus takes his body out from the Ark, he already has all the body parts from the Rosenbauer Panther fire truck. WTF?

ironically thats the first things i noticed with DOTM. In the teaser trailer and trailers afterwards, we see a golden sentinel prime in the ark which made me think we would see him scan into the rosenbauer panther, but in the movie hes red and already equipped with his rosenbauer parts:confused: . Im guessing bay decided to cut that out...another poor decision :argh:

racerguy76

07-02-2011, 09:20 PM

Just seen it.

Well, it was better than ROTF, but watching my dog take a crap is better than ROTF.

I did like some of the ideas that were used, Laserbeak was cool, the wreckers were great ideas, but poorly executed. I would have to say this was Sams best movie, limited use of his parents was great too. As for Carly, I can't get by those awful botoxed lips. Blech. The robots got lot's of screen time, but none were developed to where I cared about any of them. Dempsey as a bad guy was super predictable along with almost the whole rest of the movie.

The movies have never really done Megatron justice either. In DOTM it really seems like he has a confidence problem, and the whole cover to hide his broken face. What was that, if I had to descibe Megatron, vain and timid are not words I would use. It looks cool, but serves no purpose.

Oh and someone really need to get Micheal a steady cam.

I'll give it a 6/10

I guess after seeing DOTM the first movie is still my favorite. It's hard to f*ck up an origin story, right? I know he tried.

ohnaji

07-03-2011, 03:07 AM

Just watched it and loved it so much, I'm probably going to watch it again on a bigger screen. Not to say I didn't think it has its share of problems, but I found it to be a great cinematic spectacle. It fulfilled every expectation I had for a grand summer film.
We'll probably won't see another film for a long time so I'm glad we have this until the next installment or reboot or crossover.

Nullray

07-03-2011, 10:20 AM

"In the teaser trailer and trailers afterwards, we see a golden sentinel prime in the ark which made me think we would see him scan into the rosenbauer panther, but in the movie hes red and already equipped with his rosenbauer parts:confused: . Im guessing bay decided to cut that out...another poor decision"

I'll bet there will be a directors cut Blu-ray on the horizon. I have no complaints about that. Alot of this footage are shot and don't make it pass the editing floor due to flow and time constraints. It was 154min in length. I could see them adding 20min or so of editing to enhance back story but take from action sequences.

Darth Cylon

07-03-2011, 12:17 PM

ironically thats the first things i noticed with DOTM. In the teaser trailer and trailers afterwards, we see a golden sentinel prime in the ark which made me think we would see him scan into the rosenbauer panther, but in the movie hes red and already equipped with his rosenbauer parts:confused: . Im guessing bay decided to cut that out...another poor decision :argh:

Also all the Transformers have forgotten their Cybertronian language we heard in movie 1, which was a really cool idea then. I think it works better if dialogues between Transformers (or at the least for the Cons) were spoken in Cybertronian.

Bruticus82

07-03-2011, 12:29 PM

Also all the Transformers have forgotten their Cybertronian language we heard in movie 1, which was a really cool idea then. I think it works better if dialogues between Transformers (or at the least for the Cons) were spoken in Cybertronian.

I agree 100%.

Also, Sentinel should have spoken Cybertronian at first, and should probably not know what earth physics thinks is or is not impossible immediately upon awakening. :banghead:

racerguy76

07-03-2011, 01:46 PM

Also, Sentinel should have spoken Cybertronian at first,

Agreed.

and should probably not know what earth physics thinks is or is not impossible immediately upon awakening. :banghead:

He was planning on meeting Megatron on earth to bring Cybertron to Earth. I think he would know about Earth physics.

Bruticus82

07-03-2011, 03:34 PM

He was planning on meeting Megatron on earth to bring Cybertron to Earth. I think he would know about Earth physics.

I was referring to the line soon after he reactivates where he makes the bold statement that the pillars don't follow our laws of phyics (or break our laws of physics, not quite sure what he says). But I thought to myself, he really has no way of knowing about our study of physics or how advanced it is...

Autovolt 127

07-03-2011, 03:46 PM

It was a fun movie but it also crappy. I think it's the best crappy movie i've seen.

I was dissapointed with the ending, i just expected a lot more to happen, also I wanna know if Wheelie and Brains are alive or dead. I quite liked those two.

I'd give it a 9/10. As a transformer fan, as a movie goer...7/10. It was better than ROTF but inferior to teh 1986 and 2007 Transformers movies.

racerguy76

07-03-2011, 05:41 PM

I was referring to the line soon after he reactivates where he makes the bold statement that the pillars don't follow our laws of phyics (or break our laws of physics, not quite sure what he says). But I thought to myself, he really has no way of knowing about our study of physics or how advanced it is...

True, he would have no way of knowing our level of physics, but to Sentinel Prime, it could not be as advanced as his work.

I think it's the best crappy movie i've seen.

That pretty much sums it up.

Team Jetfire

07-03-2011, 05:51 PM

I saw it last night and I'm not really sure what to say about it. It had a lot of the same crap that I hated about the other movies, but really came correct with the action.

High points
- Highway scene with Bee, Gino and Sidswipe battling Crankcase.
- Felt like a G1 story line.
- The robot fighting scenes were really well done. Prime was insane.

Low Points
- Wheelie and Brains. Stupid Jarjar Characters that have zero place in this movie.
- Lazerbeak. I feel like they had a wasted opportunity to give a little fanwank to the Fans.
- Same stupid sweaping camera shots with actors looking out to the distance with heartfelt music in the background.
- Q/Wheeljack... WTF. What a waste of a great character.:argh:

Honestly, I'm happy that the trilogy is over.

Goaliebot

07-04-2011, 02:40 PM

Saw it last Thursday but have been largely avoiding the boards since.

I'll just say that I loved it and to me it was as good as #1, and better than ROTF.

9/10

Now back to avoiding talking about it like the plague as I should be doing. Too much hate, it really brings me down.

herooftheday316

07-04-2011, 06:09 PM

I saw they movie last night and I do like it. It has everything I could want... I was upset about Ironhide, but I guess they need to do stuff like that for effect. Personally, Q is Q not Wheeljack. I pretending there is nothing anywhere to support they may be the same person.

I finally realized, for me, what is missing from this trilogy and this movie had some of it, especially on the Con side. Interactions between ROBOTS of the same faction. You know, establishing some kind of link between 2 characters besides the fact that they are on the same faction. It is those little lines in the fiction that show how long 2 characters have been fighting together and why it matters if one died.

Ironhide was a prime example. Gets shot, dies and no mention of him again. No rage, no anger, not even a quest for "revenge". In some ways the lack of interaction between the autobots themsevles made it seem like the team was simply hanging out just because they are all autobots. The way Lennox and Epps give each other a high five when they meet, just that shows so much about the 2 having been through shit together. It would have been nice to see the Transformers have that kind of comradery would have gone a long way in my opinion.

-Mike

Sureshot22

07-04-2011, 07:10 PM

saw it last night in IMAX 3D.

LOVED IT!!

sure it had its problems but what movie doesn't.

man some of you people just seem to want to pick movies apart....

its a movie. its there to entertain you.
did this movie entertain you? then stop picking it apart and enjoy it. lol

not everyone is a uber transformers nerd and has nerd rage it something isnt exactly how they think it should be according to the "proper" transformers universe etc blah blah blah.

but hey maybe thats just how i see it.

people will enjoy things how they enjoy things, or people will just hate everything like that guy does on page one. lol. cant think of his name atm but i found his post of hating absolutely everything about the movie amusing to say the least.

the movie had its issues sure. but i LOVED it. i got to enjoy a movie about the best toys ever that ive loved since i was a kid.

it was easily better then ROTF. but i still enjoyed that movie and it was FULL of faults. but again i tend to not dwell on those and enjoy a movie for being a movie and getting me out of my regular life for the few hours it lasts.

i knew it was coming but man i was sad when ironhide got killed. love his character in the movies and wish he had more screen time. that "mexican stand off" with him and swipe was awesome. i wish it was longer. LOVED IT!!

dino "mirage" !!!!!! oh boy was he wicked looking. i didnt even know who he was until the credits cause i didn't read spoilers or tried not to. so if i did know i had forgotten but DAMN! he was a cool character. he NEEDED more screen time. that scene with him with the 2 grappling hooks being dragged on the highway was awesome and the 2 swords on his arms!! oooo baby i want a toy of him. and i havent bought any of the dotm figs yet other then skyhammer yesterday.

was it me or did dinos head look like the red sideswipe chars head we got in the other movie? cant think of his name atm.

all in all i loved the movie. it had stupid parts but i loved it for what it was. pure entertainment. theres no need to nerd rage over what it wasnt or was.

you make millions of dollars then you can make a better movie to your liking how you think it should be done. ;)

im for sure going to see it at least 1 more time in theatre an will buy it the day it comes out on blu-ray.

just my 2 cents.

UltraMarknus

07-05-2011, 02:29 AM

Watched it tonight and came on to read this thread to see what other's opinions were. I avoided spoilers, commercials etc. like the plague so most of it was a surprise to me. Unfortunately I saw the Sentinel Prime turn coming because someone on here had started a thread or made a comment in a thread stating something to the effect of now that we know that Sentinel Prime is a douche...yadda yadda...people really need to watch that shit...but anyways...

I really liked the movie. Better than #1? Oh heavens no. Lots of battling but it seemed like 70% was human action. That kind of sucked. I found most of the funny parts, funny, which was a nice change.

Now, maybe I did not pay attention earlier in the movie...but didn't Bumblebee's robot mode change at the end of the movie?? Had a Sentinel Prime vibe to it? Did I miss something?

I liked the Carly character/actress a lot more than Mikaela. She did a good job.

The end speech just didn't do it for me.

I really hope this movieverse is not done...but, come on, any 'con with any significance was slagged. Unless there is some OTHER super powered evil robot hiding somewhere and it has a few non-generic bots with them...where will this franchise go?

The execution scene is friggin brutal...unsettling. My daughter is bugging me to see this but I don't know.

Prime made it a point to say he needs to get to his trailer...well...I guess he does...would've liked to see how!

I don't see the issue of Sam killing Starscream. It was a lucky shot to start it off and he used Wheeljack's weaponry to do it.

"The Doctor" was crawling through Megatron's head...yet can't fix his head? Remember what he did in ROTF? Then Megatron squeezes him...guess he got sick of waiting for the head hole repair??

Seems like most of my lasting impressions are negative but I did enjoy it. If the movie was even longer, I would've been cool with it!

My only real "I wish" feeling is that, for once, the Autobots may have had a hidden weapon (besides kamakazee, fearless, savage, axe you in the fucking face, Optimus Prime) to atleast wipe out a good number of generic 'cons before being overwhekmed. Omega Supreme.

pud333

07-05-2011, 02:40 AM

I thought it was excellent. Some thoughts:

1) Much better than TF2
2) Megan Fox was better. New girl is like 90% lips. Every time I saw her, I thought of fish.
3) Speaking of fish... Apparently the way to beat Optimus Prime is to use steel cable against him. Kept him MIA for a good 15 minutes it seemed.
4) The movie was too long. There's a whole hour of movie there that could have been cut out. You know, the hour where they try to develop this inane plot. Yeah, I could have done without the talking.
5) So they wanted to blow up the sun in the second film, only to say, "Psyche! We were just playin'. We really meant to keep the Earth." Cause the Earth doesn't need the sun or anything to sustain life...
6) Robot carnage = cool. Shockwave, Soundwave - they were all pretty neat. It was also cool when they died.
7) I like how the Decepticons were piloting the ships from Battle Los Angeles.
8) Presumably four years went by since TF2, considering Shia graduated. Megatron must have had a really bad case of some STD or something, cause he was on his deathbed the whole film. I liked how the chick found him hanging out in some alley, chillaxin', enjoyin' some Megatron time.
9) Michael Bay deserves an oscar for the scene where the bad guy from that hospital show was describing the curves of the car, but Bay shot the new chick, cause, you know, he was really talking about the girl... That's just talented directing right there. It's like, okay Bay, we know what kind of girls you like (skinny, overly tanned with big-ish foreheads), but you don't actually have to camera masturbate on the screen.
10) John Malkovich must have lost a ton of money to Madoff, since he's doing roles like this.
11) Best part of the film: the power in the theater cut out for ten minutes and we all got free passes after the movie. That was the shit.

I know it sounds like I didn't like the movie, but I did. I thought it was great.

Sun Swipe Prime

07-05-2011, 03:03 AM

all in all i loved the movie. it had stupid parts but i loved it for what it was. pure entertainment. theres no need to nerd rage over what it wasnt or was.

I think it's perfectly valid and terrific that you can see the flaws, look past them, and really enjoy the movie. I agree there's some hating going on for the sake of hating, but I also think there are some very well thought out critques.

If the fans don't voice their displeasure, hopefully in a well thought out manner, studios may think this is exactly what every transformers fan wants and we'll get exactly the same thing next time when there's a desire for something better.

IMHO the general flaw in this trilogy was weak story telling. Personally, I don't care what characters they use or what G1 call backs they put in a Transformers movie, as long as they tell a good story, which I think they failed to do. Where the TF movies entertaining, sure. But are they really memorable and will they stand the test of time like say the original three starwars movies. I'm not too sure of that. Part of it is expectation. Some fans want something that will stand the test of time, span generations of fans, and be considered good by everyone twenty years from now. Others just want to see some big explosions and step out of their lives for a couple of hours, everything else doesn't matter. A movie with a well told story can do both, but a movie with only the glitz and glamour of explosions will only please the latter.

jon3pnt0

07-05-2011, 11:32 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMjM59k_KJk

:primelaugh:

Pascal

07-06-2011, 01:25 PM

"I was awesome."

LOL!

Darth Cylon

07-06-2011, 01:55 PM

man some of you people just seem to want to pick movies apart....

its a movie. its there to entertain you.
did this movie entertain you? then stop picking it apart and enjoy it. lol

There are also many exciting and smartly written movies where you don’t have to be a super nerd who watched every episode and read every book and knows EVERYTHING to enjoy the movie adaptation. Recent examples would be the likes of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Thor...even the first Transformers.
There are many reasons why many of us are dissatisfied with DOTM. But if there’s a major one, it’s bad movie making in general.

Team Jetfire

07-06-2011, 02:17 PM

There are also many exciting and smartly written movies where you don’t have to be a super nerd who watched every episode and read every book and knows EVERYTHING to enjoy the movie adaptation. Recent examples would be the likes of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Thor...even the first Transformers.
There are many reasons why many of us are dissatisfied with DOTM. But if there’s a major one, it’s bad movie making in general.

But why the surprise? Everyone who put their money down to buy their ticket knew what they were getting. Micheal Bay is not known for Oscar worth movies, but more so action packed summer blockbusters, to which he delivered.

I said this over on TFW, and I'm going to say again.
Picking apart a Michael Bay movie is a lot like an adult winning TEEN JEPORADY; It is not particularly hard to do, and it is nothing really to brag about.

So, while I'm not a Bay apologist, I will say this. Get over it. It’s done, let the balloon of "Bay hate" go and try to reap the rewards of a popular transformers franchise.

Robimus

07-06-2011, 02:20 PM

Dark Knight is overrated, Ironman and Star Trek?.......I'll take DOTM over all three anytime :primelaugh:

razin

07-06-2011, 02:42 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMjM59k_KJk

:primelaugh:

Awesome.

"Good scene, good scene, human crap, good scene, good scene, human crap"

nervousviper

07-06-2011, 04:33 PM

Did I enjoy the movie? Yes coz it's a transformers movie and that's all that matters to me. The movie has it own flaws just like any other movies. Bay is good at action/explosion department but not in story telling so what can you expect?

bedtime

07-06-2011, 09:16 PM

I think if they cast Adrian Brody as Sam we'd be seeing oscars in the transformers movies future, but sadly the franchise just can't do that kind of film so I guess the summer blockbuster explosion fests are what we'll all have to learn to live with, yknow?

The 12th Prime

07-07-2011, 12:38 AM

I came, I saw, I was satisfied! Enough so I saw it a second time in 3D which I'd say is a good way to do it. Focus on story in 2D, watch eye candy 2nd time in 3D!

For my first 3D movie I was impressed with all the extras you don't really pick up in 2D like the Cybertron scenes for example. I think it was really well done for a 3D film and all the things Mr. Bay had to balance including said 3D to get into the film. I thought all the Star Trek references were hilarious too, does anyone know how many there were? Hint even Bumblebee gets in on it "my friend". I felt like watching the Wrath of Khan after.

As others have mentioned (like in other podcasts on other boards) ;) the irony of the movies becoming what they never set out to be in the beginning, like goofy human looking robots and based on G1 cartoons.

I'd say after this first trilogy, the movie franchise is very much like the G1 franchise now. G1 had a handful of good or better episodes with tons of flaws throughout the series and the movies has it's share of good or better scenes with tons of flaws throughout it's series. Either way I don't think it will diminish the love because evens haters love to hate.

Metroplex79

07-09-2011, 11:38 AM

I have a few questions about certain scenes (in red)...perhaps it was answered in the comics, or a cut scene, or just something I missed...

In the scene Carly visited Sam at his work place, when she was asked to leave, she gave him a cup of red Twizzlers, and said it was his favorite color.

-was this Carly's joke because of the yellow decor?
-was this a Michael Bay's gag?
-was this the writers' gag?
-was it because Carly didn't like the boss, and decided to stick it to him?

I found it weird because I don't ever recall Sam saying red is his favorite color. He made his "new" yellow lemon of a car to resemble his guardian (a yellow alien robot), he even kept the Bee-yotch mirror ornament in his new car.

Near the end, Bumblebee and some Bots were infiltrating the city, fully armed, and ready to battle. After some scenes later, they were "captured" and surrounded.

-was this part of the plan?
-was there a cut scene?
-was it because Shockwave was so powerful they didn't want to risk a confrontation with him?
-some kind of trap?
-just some movie convenience?

Big Filipino

07-09-2011, 05:26 PM

Pascal

07-10-2011, 08:06 PM

jackwacko

07-10-2011, 08:49 PM

Saw it for a 2nd time last year, this time 2D english. The crazy Asian guy, OMG, too bad he died so quick, his character was awesome. I think the only thing that bugs me is that Sentinel already has all his firetruck parts before even scanning one (something we don't even see). Lame.

Deep Wang, Hall of Fame 2012.

Also I think you meant last night? O_o

Personally, I think the breakthrough character of this movie is Laserbeak. After watching the movie, I REALLY wanted a laserbeak.

Cpl. Chrissandwich

07-10-2011, 10:34 PM

I agree 100%.

Also, Sentinel should have spoken Cybertronian at first, and should probably not know what earth physics thinks is or is not impossible immediately upon awakening. :banghead:

Hmm, I thought the reason why is spoke english was because he downloaded earth langunges as Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz did in the first movie, Optimus does mention it. So, I figured he just did that. They can download rather fast so, thats what I think anyway. But it would have been cool to hear more cybertronian. And the samething with the physics, by downloading all of earth history we would know earth physics...right?

Pascal

07-10-2011, 11:46 PM

Deep Wang, Hall of Fame 2012.

Also I think you meant last night? O_o

Personally, I think the breakthrough character of this movie is Laserbeak. After watching the movie, I REALLY wanted a laserbeak.

Yeah, last NIGHT. :)

And yes, Laserbeak is really cool. Then I played with his toy tonight... and shit, that toy sucks SO much. LOL!

Big Filipino

07-11-2011, 05:20 PM

I got a free ticket from TRU and watched DOTM for the second time yesterday and enjoyed it even more. I think that's cause I was able to focus on understanding the story versus the special effects. One thing that did struck me early on though was that Sam acts like a real jerk. I realize he feels some sort of entitlement from saving the world twice but he's pretty obnoxious about it, especially when he gets to the NEST hq. I'm kind of glad he's done with the movies.

UltraMarknus

07-11-2011, 05:43 PM

I saw it again last week and enjoyed it even more. The parts that were suppose to give me goosebumps, did. It actually seemed more action packed and moved along better. Not sure why? In any case, I'm glad I saw it again and will consider a 3rd time if someone will be willing to come with heh.

gagagalvatron

07-11-2011, 07:42 PM

This is going to be long. Sorry.

If you read nothing else, go see it in 3D. Not only is the 3D well implemented, but it gives you something to look at during the dull parts.

I tolerated the original movie and despised ROTF. I would call DOTM the best of the TF movies, though that's still not saying much. It has more focus on robots, a coherent plot, and it's just better made than either of the other two movies.

I am not going to talk about plot at all. There's no point. It's neither terrible nor terrific, and you don't go to see a Bay movie for plot. Analyzing it is pointless.

I am going to talk about character, though. You could say that you don't go to a Bay movie for that either, but if you don't have a strong plot, you need something to back up the action or it's all sound and fury. This is, I think, where DOTM disappoints the most.

In his review, Roger Ebert says he "will never care for Optimus Prime any more than for an engine block." I don't take Ebert's word as gospel, but was surprised by the venom in the comment. Then I watched the movie.

If I take off my nostalgia blinders and look past years of conditioning to like Prime, I have to admit that this Prime isn't very likable. His face is ugly and the only sense of character comes from Peter Cullen's voice acting. Prime has some canned motivational speeches and spends the rest of the time as emotionless or as a bloodthirsty murderer.

I wouldn't mind having Prime be a badass, but this is not the way to do it. Decepticons take prisoners while Autobots tear Decepticons apart in gruesome ways. I could accept a war-weary, gritty Prime who is a killer if I knew how he got there, why he was so desperate or damaged, or the experiences/reasons that brought him to that point. I don't see any of that, and so this Prime comes across as a complete reversal of every other version of Prime, ever.

I don't relate to Prime, I really don't relate to Sam (who is abrasive, annoying, and obnoxious). I don't relate to any of the humans -- all the males (except Lennox & Epps but including butch Francis McDormand) are obnoxious, Carly is window dressing, and Lennox & Epps are plastic GI-Joe figures with no characters. It says something is really wrong when I wish all of the human characters would just get squished. That said, at least they are more tolerable than in ROTF.

That leaves the rest of the bots. Bumblebee doesn't speak. Laserbeak does, but only for plot exposition. Same with Soundwave. Shockwave has fewer lines than Laserbeak (! -- That's so wrong...). Megatron and Starscream fare better with lines until you realize they get very little screen time and nothing exciting.

I was initially thrilled to see the Wreckers, but then noticed: you don't ever get a good look at Roadbuster or Topspin, and their lines are all interchangeable. No depth. No real characterization. They also don't live up to their name. I kept waiting to see them in battle. Still waiting.

Then we've got Dino and Q. Why, in a movie with Trek references, do we get a Bond reference? The only reason is to supply Sam with his magic tech. The character is otherwise disposable. In order to spend the least amount of time possible on this "character", he's called Q so we don't have to explain anything about him. And while they're "supposed" to be Mirage and Wheeljack, the links there are so tenuous as to be meaningless.

Crumbs. We have lots of crumbs. I guess I'm thankful for the crumbs. I liked seeing Sideswipe (though he was mostly in the background). I kind of wondered what happened to some of the others, like Arcee. There was at least double the robot dialogue as in ROTF.

But it's still crumbs. Even the most insignificant human got three or four times as much dialogue as the average robot. This is where we get back to Bay. Yeah, it's better than last time. But we still have wingsuits, tentacle robots, John Malkovitch, and a host of other unnecessary, irrelevant things that take time away from what the movie should be about.

On a more positive (and genuinely surprising) note, Sam is the only character that really strikes me as heroic and with a genuine motivation. He goes into Chicago to rescue Carly, which is about as hopeless a task as they come. Despite detesting Sam for most of this movie, I kind of liked him once he got to Chicago. That's an accomplishment. Optimus and the Autobots go after the Decepticons almost by rote or going through a to-do list. They muster the same enthusiasm (or lack thereof) saving Chicago as when they were going after generic terrorists.

SPOILERS COMING you've been warned

The Prime/Sentinel conflict fails because their motivations are opaque. Sentinel's double-cross is baffling from a plot perspective (which I'm ignoring) but also from a character perspective. Why is he doing this? Who are the many? Decepticons? That makes no sense.

Because I don't know why he went bad or what he expects to get out of it, I can't make any sense of their conflict. It boils down to: just 'cause. Just 'cause we need some bots to beat on each other. To the death, even though they're both Primes and shouldn't be so quick to murder others or each other.

It's not enough to have two characters and say that they have a History. We get told by Prime how great Sentinel is, but we have no sense of what's so great about him and we are never shown anything even remotely interesting. Sentinel's betrayal should be shocking. But since we have no clue how far he's fallen or why, it's a little hard to take any of it emotionally. Sentinel's brutality towards Ironhide and the other Autobots comes out of left field. No regrets? Fine. Show us why. He's now an end-justifies-the-means guy? Fine. Show us why. We almost get there with his dying words, but we needed to see that (and more) way before.

(And there would be totally time for this without the wingsuits, job interviews, car museum, restroom sex and other complete irrelevancies.)

But, as with ROTF, nobody except for Sam seems to take anything emotionally. Cybertron implodes -- *I* felt bad about that, but none of the bots even shrug. Oh well. Home planet. Who needs it, even though we fought a war over it...

Ironhide's death follows in the same vein. I felt sorta sad, kind of. It looked like an awful way to go. But it's not like we ever really bonded with Ironhide. He had, what -- two lines? One? He had one brief fight scene in the movie. It's hard to feel anything about a character to which we have no connection because he barely even qualifies as a character. Alan Tudyk's gay personal assistant had more lines in this movie than I think Ironhide had in the entire franchise. What does that say about priorities?

What does that say about what this movie is about? There's more depth in throwaway humans than there is in any of the robot characters. That's why I think this movie still ultimately fails as a Transformers movie.

Enough with the bad stuff.

Overall, I thought pacing was much better than previous movies. While it is indeed "good stuff, human crap, good stuff, human crap" and so on, I found the human crap to be much shorter and the good stuff more of a payoff. The movie didn't drag for me. And, like I said, if you watch it in 3D, you can focus on the 3D effects during all the human crap.

The robots, in addition to being more plentiful, were better filmed. I think it's true that filming in 3D forced Bay to back off from the extreme closeups and metal chaos in order to provide focal points. The upshot is that I was able to see and distinguish the robots better and everything made more visual sense.

The decision to replace the awful twins with Wheelie and Brains worked really well. Rosie Huntington-Smith did a fine job. Also of note -- the fight scenes this time were much more robot-on-robot as opposed to generic explosions, fighter jets, desert mayhem, and military stock footage that plagued both the previous movies.

I had three moments that I really enjoyed. They were: seeing Prime with his trailer, seeing Prime with his mouth guard, and (initially, anyway) seeing the Wreckers. These were obvious nods to fans and appreciated. The shots of Cybertron were great.

So...I'm glad I saw it. I enjoyed it in the way that I enjoy something like Star Tours -- it was a good ride with neat effects, even though it's nothing to write home about in terms of plot. I'm not angry or bitter like after ROTF, and I don't feel cheated out of my $12.

I wish I could like it better, but I don't feel any connection to these annoying humans and soulless, character-less robots. I want to applaud the movie for trying to get at more of the scope and mythos, but it's meaningless when there are no personalities to care about. That's what's missing.

Darth Cylon

07-12-2011, 02:09 AM

The Prime/Sentinel conflict fails because their motivations are opaque. Sentinel's double-cross is baffling from a plot perspective (which I'm ignoring) but also from a character perspective. Why is he doing this? Who are the many? Decepticons? That makes no sense.

Because I don't know why he went bad or what he expects to get out of it, I can't make any sense of their conflict. It boils down to: just 'cause. Just 'cause we need some bots to beat on each other. To the death, even though they're both Primes and shouldn't be so quick to murder others or each other.

It's not enough to have two characters and say that they have a History. We get told by Prime how great Sentinel is, but we have no sense of what's so great about him and we are never shown anything even remotely interesting. Sentinel's betrayal should be shocking. But since we have no clue how far he's fallen or why, it's a little hard to take any of it emotionally. Sentinel's brutality towards Ironhide and the other Autobots comes out of left field. No regrets? Fine. Show us why. He's now an end-justifies-the-means guy? Fine. Show us why. We almost get there with his dying words, but we needed to see that (and more) way before...

Sentinel was the leader of all TF on Cybertron, before the civil war between the Cons and the Bots, so naturally his primary concern is the benefit of the Cybertronian race, regardless of fraction. The Cybertronians are the "many" in Sentinel's perspective. In a way he was neither a Bot or Con, so he technically did not betray the Bots or turned evil. I think Sentinel was disappointed and pissed at Optimus that in stead of finding a way to return to Cybertron and rebuild their home with either the AllSpark or the Matrix, Optimus just decided to take refuge on Earth and serve the human, that the lives of humans, not Cybertronians, are Optimus' priority. Sentinel has a greater vision for Cybertron's future, contrary to Optimus' narrow vision.

ConvoyGTR

07-13-2011, 07:36 PM

Finally watched it last night and loved the plot twist even though I had it spoiled for me, but its okay because I didn't have any context of how Ironhide died or when Sentinel Prime switches sides. I was shocked on how fast it happened and how suddenly the pace of the movie changed after that. The scene with Crankcase and his fellow SUV Cons was amazing and really set the tone for the rest of the hour.

I went into the film with no expectations or a mindset on hating the film and that first hour was tough to sit through: Scene 1: awesome, Scene 2: this is kinda iffy, Scene 3: kickass, Scene 4: i wanted to walk out, etc. And seeing Megatron as a rusty truck and as a bum essentially, I was worried this movie is going to be one sided.

I can't get over that plot twist heading into the second hour. What a spectacular job they did in misdirecting everyone on everything and M. Night Shyamalan should really take note on how a plot twist is done.

Could of done better:
- I didn't like how easily every Transformer got injured or killed, like they were made of glass.
- I didn't like that almost everyone died "red shirt" style and instantly forgotten i.e. Ironhide.
- I didn't like how gruesome and over the top most of the deaths were. And the rolling head of almost every death thing made it comical in such a stupid way.

Hate:
- Q got more attention in his death scene for a first time char. than established chars like Ironhide, Starscream, etc. And when he was begging for his life and then suddenly shot and killed, that was really uncomfortable to watch. Same goes for Sentinel Prime.
- Q looks like a human skull.
- Carly convinces Megatron to mess up everything he has planned for by pretty much saying "hey! those are your cookies he's taking! are you going to let him have it all?" Carly's purpose for being in the movie besides being the love interest and the T&A, is for that moment and it was dumb.
- Wheelie and Brains's purpose for being in the movie and actually turning the tide of war was to damage the mothership and knock down the control pillar was completely stupid. It is the equivalent to a random janitor sweeping the floor and tripping the cord of the doomsday machine that the mad scientist is using to immobile the heroes and using that moment to fight back and win.
- Movie ends really abruptly with what feels like for me, 5ish more minutes for everything to get wrapped out.

Overall the first hour was a on off grind to sit through, but made for a excellent plot twist and awesome 2nd hour with some things that could of done better.

And the deaths were really gruesome and over the top and if the same scenes were done with people and not CGI robots, this would of been easily rated R, if not worst.

razin

07-13-2011, 09:13 PM

- Wheelie and Brains's purpose for being in the movie and actually turning the tide of war was to damage the mothership and knock down the control pillar was completely stupid. It is the equivalent to a random janitor sweeping the floor and tripping the cord of the doomsday machine that the mad scientist is using to immobile the heroes and using that moment to fight back and win.

Maybe I'm not recalling correctly but I thought Optimus shot down the control pillar, with Bee completely finishing it at the end.

transforminator

07-13-2011, 09:22 PM

Maybe I'm not recalling correctly but I thought Optimus shot down the control pillar, with Bee completely finishing it at the end.

also adding on to the wheelie/brains part i believe if it wasnt for them we wouldnt see bumblebee alive either because their actions gave bb the opportunity to blast the decepticons apart (soundwave :raisetheroof: epic death!!)

darthrage

07-13-2011, 09:23 PM

Ok here is my review. Its a 4 part review. I posted it as a spoiler free review (even though everyone has seen it by now) and I reviewed it as a general movie goer and not as a transformers fan. Michael Bay made these movies for the general movie going public so I'll review it just like that:

Part 1 - Story, Characters, Acting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IfyFpo3yUk

Part 2 - Script, Pacing, Humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7-l4eq7RAs

Part 3 - Editting and Direction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPDWsXYCWTs

Part 4 - Action, CG, 3D (visuals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN9py7LB4CA

Enjoy!!

ConvoyGTR

07-14-2011, 01:08 AM

Maybe I'm not recalling correctly but I thought Optimus shot down the control pillar, with Bee completely finishing it at the end.
I think Optimus was still tangled in the cables during that time. And yes, Bumblebee is the one who destroyed the pillar in the end, but it was Wheelie and Brains who started the chain of events that led to the pillar falling down to ground level from the building and at the same time saving Bumblebee's life so he could kill Soundwave and tackle the pillar to destroy Cybertron. Good job Bee. :p

Darth Cylon

07-14-2011, 01:18 AM

Carly convinces Megatron to mess up everything he has planned for by pretty much saying "hey! those are your cookies he's taking! are you going to let him have it all?" Carly's purpose for being in the movie besides being the love interest and the T&A, is for that moment and it was dumb.

The real Megatron as we all know him would likely let Sentinel kill Optimus first, and then kill Sentinel himself.

gagagalvatron

07-14-2011, 08:55 AM

The real Megatron as we all know him would likely let Sentinel kill Optimus first, and then kill Sentinel himself.

Also, after calling him a bitch, there's no way he wouldn't have squashed the puny flesh creature.

razin

07-14-2011, 10:06 AM

I think Optimus was still tangled in the cables during that time. And yes, Bumblebee is the one who destroyed the pillar in the end, but it was Wheelie and Brains who started the chain of events that led to the pillar falling down to ground level from the building and at the same time saving Bumblebee's life so he could kill Soundwave and tackle the pillar to destroy Cybertron. Good job Bee. :p

Just watched it again. It is indeed OP that shoots it down. Right after he rips Shockwaves eye out he turns and blasts it. Wheelie and Brains did make impact with a building that was either the same or similar but did not take out any of the cupolas.

On side note; We are to assume Wheelie and Brains didn't make it, but the speed at which the ship crashed was so slow anyone could have survived.

Big Filipino

07-15-2011, 03:55 PM

I got another free pass and may watch it for a third time this weekend. One question that dawned on me, did they explain why or when the Decepticons began hiding out of the moon?

Sun Swipe Prime

07-15-2011, 05:21 PM

I got another free pass and may watch it for a third time this weekend. One question that dawned on me, did they explain why or when the Decepticons began hiding out of the moon?

Anytime you find yourself asking a question that starts out like this, "Did they explain...?" the answer has a 99% chance of being no. The best thing to do in general is not to ask questions if you intend to keep liking the movie.

Big Filipino

07-16-2011, 09:14 AM

Anytime you find yourself asking a question that starts out like this, "Did they explain...?" the answer has a 99% chance of being no. The best thing to do in general is not to ask questions if you intend to keep liking the movie.

Ignorance is bliss.

jjwankenobi

07-16-2011, 01:14 PM

Ignorance is bliss.

And "Happiness is a warm gun"...

I wrestled over questions like these after I viewed DotM 3 weeks ago, then I hap and epiphany: IT'S ONLY ENTERTAINMENT.

It's not supposed to make sense.

I liken DotM to Monty Python's film "The Meaning of Life": Some people expect some deep meaning to it all. Those of us in the know (who have seen the first two or "Pearl Harbor", the "Bad Boys" films or "The Island") who are aware of Michael Bay's strengths and weaknesses will likely enjoy the movie knowing it'll be a whole buch of lovely looking noinsense. And those of us expecting Simon Furman-esque depth and mythology that is true to all things geewun will not get all they are looking for.

Sun Swipe Prime

07-16-2011, 01:41 PM

I wrestled over questions like these after I viewed DotM 3 weeks ago, then I hap and epiphany: IT'S ONLY ENTERTAINMENT.

It's not supposed to make sense.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. Storytelling in all it's forms should make sense within the rules set out within the story by the writer and common sense.

If it's not supposed to make sense then what's the point of having a story at all? If there's no story, the action is all meaningless noise that to me at least is boring. No writer in their right mind would deliberatley write something that doesn't make sense. How it ends up well... that's a completely different point.

gagagalvatron

07-17-2011, 02:09 PM

I wrestled over questions like these after I viewed DotM 3 weeks ago, then I hap and epiphany: IT'S ONLY ENTERTAINMENT.

It's not supposed to make sense.

I have to strongly disagree with this too. I think it lets filmmakers off the hook too easily. It also lets filmmakers know that we will settle for crap as long as it is flashy enough and throws enough crumbs on the floor for fanboys.

Look at the huge difference between the Star Wars original films and the prequels. While story and character are not the only issues there, they are big ones. People care about Star Wars because of the characters and the story. People don't care about the prequels because those things took a backseat to CGI, the plot was incomprehensible, and the characters ranged from thin and underdeveloped to flat-out annoying.

Transformers is "about" action, yes. But the reason it has survived for 25+ years is because of the mythos, the characters, and the richness of it all. The G1 cartoon is hardly perfect, but it did attempt to tell stories, develop characters, and show off what it would be like if there were a bunch of giant transforming robots around.

Please don't mistake this as saying "I only want G1". I'll say it again: I don't care if it's G1 authentic. I don't care if Optimus Prime is a neon green submarine or a Mini Cooper.

What matters is what you do with it all. Do you tell a story worth telling? Are the characters interesting? Do they grow and develop?

DOTM is all surface. For a movie "about" transforming robots, few of them have anything resembling actual characters or personalities and their primary function is as plot devices. None of them grow or change. Optimus Prime looks right and is visually amazing but is unrecognizable personality wise.

I think about "Aliens" a lot these days. I can name all the characters, talk about their personalities, their relationships with one another, how they influenced the plot. It was a fairly large cast, and because of that, the characters tended towards "types" and were not Shakespeare deep. But still -- you felt for them as they struggled and especially if one of them bit it. Every piece of dialogue mattered. Even the most minor character in "Aliens" had more of a character than any of the robots in DOTM outside of Prime and Sentinel.

This, to me, is the potential for Transformers. You can have a large cast (within reason) and still give everyone a personality and something to do so that you care about them. So that they matter. Not because it's a name we know from the franchise (like Ironhide or Jazz) but because we genuinely feel for the character and his or her place within the story.

You can have this and have action and have entertainment. It doesn't have to be just one. But the more people say "it's just a summer blockbuster" or "turn off your brain to enjoy it" or "it's Michael Bay -- it's supposed to be stupid", the more directors like Bay feel they can just shovel any old shit in our direction and we'll lap it up, ask for more, and tell the critics they're being unrealistic.

I don't think it's being unrealistic to ask for more. They've got the look down. Now it's time to find the heart and soul.

Sun Swipe Prime

07-17-2011, 04:50 PM

I don't think it's being unrealistic to ask for more. They've got the look down. Now it's time to find the heart and soul.

Ditto... on all of it.

rego00123

07-17-2011, 05:45 PM

Optimus Prime looks right and is visually amazing but is unrecognizable personality wise.

optimus prime had a personality in g1?

it is funny how many people complain the new movies are stereotypes and that turns them off when almost the entire cast of characters in g1 was stereotypical in some way. the reason many got upset that movie bumble bee didnt talk was because (in g1) he was one of the very few that had any personality at all (or at least the only one that got to show it)

i think the issue is "what is" transfomers? for many people its a memory associated with the franchise and nothing to do with what the actual content it brought forth was.

Mighty_Galvatron

07-17-2011, 07:15 PM

Akroyer

07-17-2011, 07:56 PM

Q is a reference to James Bond no doubt. Though it is also a reference to Star Trek as a character named Q existed in the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager universe. With all the other Star Trek references in DOTM, could Q be another?

I don't think so, it's a thin reference either way. But Q in Trek was an Omnipotent being. And in Bond he was basically in charge of gadgets, which his TF namesake handed out at one point.

So I would say certainly a Bond reference.

Sun Swipe Prime

07-17-2011, 11:57 PM

optimus prime had a personality in g1?

it is funny how many people complain the new movies are stereotypes and that turns them off when almost the entire cast of characters in g1 was stereotypical in some way.

It's true that most of the G1 cast didn't get much in terms of character development, but the main cast of characters like Optimus, Rodimus, etc, did get a fair amount. Episodes like War Dawn show how a young Optimus began his journey to becoming a great leader. The whole post '86 movie series delt with Rodimus's issues with living up to the legend of Optimus and his struggles with the burdens of leadership. Rodimus faces these issues in the episode Dark Awakenings and IMHO takes a big step in making peace with them. Now that's character development. Now stuff like this didn't happen every episode but it did happen and those episodes were probably the best ones. I could be forgetting, but from what I can remember, in 6+ hrs of live movie time, the main TF charaters didn't get any character moments. I don't know any of what drives them other than them being labeled a bad guy or a good guy.

I'm not a G1 fanatic by any stretch. I have fond memories from childhood but I've also gone back and seen many of the G1 episodes as an adult. I see their flaws and their strengths. Personally, I don't care if characters or even the live movies are faithful to the G1 mythos. I just want a well told story that makes sense, with characters that have more dimentions to them than two, and just because G1 had lots of shallow, stereotyped characters doesn't excuse the movie for having them. It's a big budget movie meant to be seen by a wider audience not just kids unlike G1.

the reason many got upset that movie bumble bee didnt talk was because (in g1) he was one of the very few that had any personality at all (or at least the only one that got to show it)
I won't presume to speak for everyone, but for me the reason I didn't like BB not speaking was because it made no sense. It was just a gimick so they could make him talk-radio. They have a allspark fragment that can bring transformers back to life but they can't use it to give a bot his voice back? I shrug.

i think the issue is "what is" transfomers? for many people its a memory associated with the franchise and nothing to do with what the actual content it brought forth was.I think you hit the nail on the nose with this point, and I think this explains part of the success of the live action movie franchise dispite its flaws. People have great childhood memories of TF and the memories are so over powering they forgive many if not all the flaws in the live action movies.

brr-icy

07-18-2011, 12:23 AM

I won't presume to speak for everyone, but for me the reason I didn't like BB not speaking was because it made no sense. It was just a gimick so they could make him talk-radio. They have a allspark fragment that can bring transformers back to life but they can't use it to give a bot his voice back? I shrug.

also the fact that frenzy's head just walks close to it, and it rebuilds his whole body, bumblebee touches it and shrinks it, and nothing....except he was able to say one sentence at the end of movie 1, then back to radio talk

Mighty_Galvatron

07-24-2011, 10:59 PM

Overall...decent flick. :innocent:

Metroplex79

07-26-2011, 09:22 PM

Stupid thought, think Transformers 4 will be called "Hunt for the Decepticons"?

This movie sure ended abruptly, and there's what? 20+ Decepticons scattered around the world?

So the Autobots didn't really win, all they did was take out a large number and eliminated the "leadership" (though it's arguable that Megatron wasn't much of a leader in any of the 3 movies, only a figurehead, and now he's headless :p)

If they do make #4 involving brutally killing the remaining Decepticons, think it's be like the first 10-15 min of RotF?

Nightscrabbler

07-26-2011, 10:43 PM

I really doubt that would be the plot of a fourth movie.

Dynamo.Dave

07-26-2011, 11:26 PM

Saw it twice in 3D. I'll echo most sentiments here in saying that it's the best of the 3 Bayverse movies and that the 3D was well implemented without being grotesque.

3 likes:
Star Trek references with Leonard Nimoy in the voice casting

Finally a decent car chase (I was emotionally destroyed by the first movie when Bee/Barricade looked like a chase, but then it ended after 1 minute. SO FRUSTRATING. ROTF had nothing resembling a car chase).

Soundwave finally being a spy infiltrator.

3 hates

Murderous Prime - seriously, in this movie he was pathologically dedicated to killing every living thing. Sentinel is even begging on his shattered knees and he blows his head off, and this is the good guy? I half expected Prime to say "Such heroic nonsense."

Dino - really? There's a billion names of autobot sportscars and you chose Dino? Not even some throwback like Hubcap or Beachcomber?

Forgotten deaths - this actually started with Jazz in the first one. Guy gets ripped in half - "Aw Jazz. Hey, Bumblebee can talk!". Ironhide gets disintegrated - oh well. Starscream is killed and Megatron doesn't care as he baked - you'd figure he might be happy about it.

Favourite scene - Ironhide and Sideswipe kicking ass after the chase scene.

Mighty_Galvatron

07-27-2011, 12:12 AM

Not a fan of the talking Lazerbeak.

Ravage didn't talk.

Prowl_2009

07-27-2011, 10:06 AM

Saw it last Thursday and I throughly enjoyed it! Easily the best of the trilogy! The plot elements with the Decepticons and humans working together as well as the Moon Landing cover-up made for as believable a story as can be had with giant, fighting robots and just made it seem more realistic to me than say, Revenge of the Fallen.

Rosie was a HUGE improvment over Megan! I say that because Megan Fox just oozes bitchiness on screen, at least to me, she seems like the type of chick who would make your life miserable if you screwed with her. Rosie was just a nice, sweet person and surprisingly, she could act better than I thought a Victoria Secret model could. Nice to see Sam, Epps and Lennox back as well and the other soldiers thrown in made for some nice action and even comic releif. As usual, Judy White and Kevin Dunn were great, but they didn't have a whole lot of screen time, which, in a movie about battling robots, isn't such a bad thing.

Loved the bots! Optimus is kick ass, and Sentinel was a dick, but you can't help but like the guy. The Wreckers were beyond cool, I mean, NASCAR's with guns is always a win/win in my book! Although, I would've liked to have seen more of them. Dino was perhaps my fav. new addition to the Autobot side and I eagerly await a figure of him! What can I say? I am a sucker for the 458 Italia!

'Cons were cool too! Megs looked great with his shrouded cloak and Soundwave as a Mercedes SLS AMG actually worked for me. Loved Shockwave, but as with the Wreckers, guy needed some more screen time. Laserbeak was also cool, but could've done without him talking, just seemed unnessasry to me.

Patrick Dempsy's character was well played. I hated the guy by the end of the film. And John Malcovich was so off the wall I couldn't help but like the guy. Even the comedy between Brains and Wheelie was good and I loved the few Star Trek referances the crew threw into the film to pay homage to the great Leonard Nimoy!

So, without giving too much away, the characters, be they robot or human, were well portrayed. There is lots of emotion and better acting this time around and I think this one makes up for all the areas were ROTF failed. Easily the best of the trilogy. I do hope there are plans for more TF flicks (please, Mr. Spielberg!) even though Bay has left the series. He did so on a high note! This film is a winner and I eagerly await its release on DVD!

5/5