Transformers (2007) (1 Viewer)

[William Ward]

Shia killed Megatron the same way that Prime was about to have Shia kill him. Megatron had taken a pounding from the missles and was weak, same as Prime. Prime told shia to put the allspark into his chest to destroy the allspark(and likely himself). So Shia took it upon himself to destroy the allspark in megatron's chest. Killing 2 birds with one stone. If shia didnt have the allspark, Megatron would have never gotten close enough to him for that to happen. Also, if Megatron thought the earth people were insignificant lifeforms, he probably didnt think they would have the guts to stand up to him.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

I thought Optimus had some piece or gizmo of/having to do with the allspark embedded inside him, which is why He would have to be the one to "join them". This was alluded too when Optimus first mentioned destroying the box early on and he showed us whatever "it" was inside him.

 

[Chris Will]

WOW, so many negative comments in this thread. Looks like people still don't understand what to expect from a Michale Bay film. You shouldn't go into a Bay film with such lofty expectations, he's not out to make a Citizen Kane you know. I thought the movie was great and hit on all cylinders, great summer popcorn flick with amazing SFX. This made me fill up with that kid in me joy that just had me jumping out of my seat, kinda what I had hope to get from the SW prequels.

I also don't understand the "action is hard to follow" comments. I don't remember any of the action being hard to follow but, then again, I had no trouble following the action in Batman Begins. This was everything I could have hoped for from a Transformers movie and I can't wait to see it a 2nd, 3rd and who knows how many more times. I also can't wait to blast the neighbors with this when it makes its way to HD DVD/BD!

 

[BrettGallman]

It's not that all of the action was hard to follow for me, but it was specifically when the Transformers were fighting each other. I didn't have any problem with Batman Begins at all because the way Nolan shot his action scenes fit the character. The way Bay shot these specific scenes just didn't work for me, but the rest of the action was fine.

Another criticism I had is that the climax seemed a bit rushed and weak. I would rather have seen Optimus Prime take down Megatron rather than Shia just stabbing him with the All Spark.

After that happened I thought, "That's it?".

 

[Holadem]

After that happened I thought, "That's it?".

Yeah me too, kinda. And I had to explain what happened to my friend. There was no buildup, it just... happened. The one scene where Bay should have used a slow motion (instead those countless useless shots of people running), he doesn't.

I had the same problem with the close up as most did, but the camera did step back often enough to balance it out. I also with there were a better sense of geography in the urban warfare scenes.

The film is not perfect, and may not hold up very well. But nothing will change the fact that for the first time this year, I had that electric, tentpole experience with a terrific audience.

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H

 

[Chris]

I just have to comment on this:

Looks like people still don't understand what to expect from a Michale Bay film. You shouldn't go into a Bay film with such lofty expectations, he's not out to make a Citizen Kane you know

This is a great cop-out. Who directs a film doesn't mean that we should lower our standards for what anyone expects for a quality film. I mean, did people walk into Lord of the Rings saying "yeah, this is the same guy who did Brain-Dead and "Meet the Feebles" so it's good if it's "OK" ?

In the end, you can't really "grade on a curve" because of the director. You have expectations to be entertained, that's it. I thought this was a good popcorn flick, and was fairly positive, but I understand a lot of the issues that others have with it.

 

[Jerome Grate]

It worked for me, kind of fitting I thought since Megatron was somewhat tormenting him on the roof.

 

[Chad R]

You know that's a very good point. I don't know what I was expecting. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I don't know why, even though I loved Transformers as a kid, I thought I might have a good time at a movie directed by Michael Bay. This movie is such a festering pile, like every Michaelf Bay movie, I really have no one to blame but myself for going.

But what I can't understand is the people who admit it's bad, admit it's got badly drawn characters and such silly over the top humor but forgive it because of the action. The action was so poorly conceived. For me, it's not enough of an achievement to put these huge CGI effects up on the screen anymore. We've lived through 14 years of big CGI monsters whether they be flesh or transforming robots. It's important now to come up with clever gags for them to do. Just tackling each other into buildings isn't exciting enough. After the third time Ironhide did a tuck roll down the street I expected Sigourney Weaver to come out and ask, "does the rolling help?"

It needed more thought put into it to have truly great sequences. Take "Jurassic Park" for instance. Spielberg didn't just rest on the fact that he had created the first photo-real dinosaurs on film that took our breath away. He also designed exciting sequences that didn't just rely on big dinosaurs chasing or munching people; they were complex and exciting. That's what I was expecting from this and just didn't get.

Why I expected that from a Michael Bay movie will have to be something my psychiatrist at the mental hospital will have to figure out, becuase I swear if I get duped into one more movie by Michael Bay I will need to commit myself.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Chad:

You are being a bit hard on yourself. Successful directors can vary their approach to suit the underlying material. Spielberg's involvement with Transformers led me to believe that Bay would alter his approach, either through choice or through Spielberg forcing him to. That didn't happen, obviously, but it wasn't unreasonable to expect it.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Just curious. Is it explained why all the robots created by the All Spark were evil?

This is an excellent question and one I wondered about during and even after seeing the movie.

I also agree that the climax to the Optimus Prime/Megatron battle was a bit too quick.

This movie was a strange amalgamation of Michael Bay and Steven Speilberg. I imagine I would have completely hated it if it were pure Bay, as he likely wouldn't have added the 'heart' to the story (i.e. the Shia storyline), but I wished Speilberg could've persuaded him to remove more of the military aspect of the storyline, particularly the 'classic' Bay characters like the Barbie doll that is also a brilliant computer hacker and a Maxim girl that can fix cars. Puhleeze.

Overall, I tried to enjoy it for what it was. Something that I have found is much easier now that I have kids of my own, and I can start seeing things through their eyes a bit better than I used to.

 

[Holadem]

What exactly is the extent of Spielberg's involvement? 'cause as far as I am concerned, executive producers do little more than make the initial phones calls and get the project going. Enablers if you will. But some of the posts above imply a certain degree of creative input?

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H

 

[Chris]

I believe Spielberg called some people with money and said "this looks like it could be profitable". And then he maybe showed up at the pre-screening and got the t-shirt.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I've always heard that he is pretty hands on during pre-production with script and story input and crew approvals but generally trusts the director to run the show once production actually starts.

In the case of Transformers it seems like he was pretty involved in getting the project setup with the current script and then selecting Bay as a good fit for the material.

 

[Chris Will]

I know Spielberg is a powerful figure in Hollywood but, I don't think he goes around flaunting that and trying to control every project he is involved in. He was an executive producer which is basically just a money man, I doubt he was involved creatively at all (or very little). Bay is not a small man in Hollywood either and I doubt he would have directed it if Spielberg was going to be looking over his shoulder every second.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

I know when the project started Spielberg was heavily involved, and I was under the impression that he was going to be the producer on the film. Something he hasn't done much of lately. Alas, it looks as if things changed fairly quickly.

 

[IanDP]

For more details on the allspark check out the wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allspark
I sincerely hope that in the sequel (or prequel even), they tell us more about the allspark and cybertron. I've been a TF fan for 20 years, but I think most other folks were left pretty clueless about Cybertron, the Allspark, and the war in general.
I would love to see an animated, direct-to-dvd prequel that covers the events of the war starting on Cybertron.

 

[Jerome Grate]

he didn't give it a command to create autobots. At least that's the inference I draw from the movie.

 

[Joe Kamsan]

So funny to see people picking nits over the plot and hoping for some more backstory or exposition. The allspark is a maguffin, and exists solely for the purpose of having the big robots bash the hell out of each other. There was no real story line here. A lot of the movie was superfluous too. Anthony Anderson's character was totally redundant and the humor just went too far. 'Are you the tooth fairy?' might have looked good on paper, but on the screen...

 

[todd s]

Yes! Damn you Michael Bay for making me have to look at this girl for 1/2 the movie!!



I just read she is engaged to Brian Austin Green. How did "David Silver"
get Megan Fox, Vanessa Marcil and Tiffany Thiessen??

 

[Holadem]

No mentions of the music? Within the first few notes you could hear Hans Zimmer all over this one. A quick search reveals the composer Steve Jablonsky as yet another product of the Zimmer clone factory, Media Ventures...

Anyway, I liked it. I wish the heroic themes were used a bit more sparsely, and that the whole thing was a bit less melodramatic at times but it mostly fits the material.

I really liked this movie

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H