Transformers (2007) (2 Viewers)

[Chuck Mayer]

In the immortal words of Anton Ego:
I don't "like" food...I *LOVE* food. If I don't love it, I don't swallow.

I enjoy plenty of movies. But unless you are capable of loving absolutely everything, your tastes will have a defined range, with a certain set of criteria that best suit you. Different things entertain different people.

Over the years, my tastes have changed. If that means I fall in love with a Pan's Labyrinth instead of a Transformers, I consider that my taste evolving. When I see a film, I want to be amazed and impressed. I'm not satisfied with merely eye candy, when only a bit of effort at the story level is needed to make something good out of something OK, and something great out of something good. Movies that require me to leave my brain at the door appeal less and less to me every year.

Hearing that "defense" of popcorn films never gets old, because it always makes me thank my friends and their advice for leading me to better films and better filmmaking.

If I was 13, Transformers would be my favorite movie ever. I have no doubt of that. There is still plenty to like about it. But it's hardly the litmus test of "enjoying movies".

 

[Kirk Tsai]

As far as the action goes, I think the action in this film is one for the ages. The visual effects have pretty much destroyed the damn bar and the only film(s) I see on the horizon that could surpass these are Cameron's Avatar and the Transformers sequel

I agree that the visual effects were top notch, but I found the action underwhelming. The two are not the same (not trying to say Cory said that, just trying to make a distinction).

 

[JoeyR]

The name of the movie is Transformers, the point I am trying to make is I went to see it based on there would be Transformers and there would be Transformers action which this movie delivered.

Maybe I have drank one too many this evening but the talk about well the characters werent built and Micheal Bay did Micheal Bay stuff and Hans Zimmer clones or whatever has no bearing whatsoever on people that are going to see the movie because they want to see Transformers in live action, it will be a hit and I hope people who want to see it for Transformers sake is not detracted by some of the topics why this movie isnt what was expected because the general movie goer could really care less.

P.S. I did like the new Chevy Camaro

 

[Brent M]

There are a lot of words you can use to describe Transformers, but "boring" certainly wouldn't be one that comes to mind.

 

[todd stone]

humor about a transformer urinating on someone. BOO.

This movie was a DUD

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I absolutely agree the mainstream (general) viewers could care less, Joey. But HTF is full of non-mainstream filmgoers. Taking your logic (about the title matching the film) to an extreme, I could state that I saw Ghost Rider and, indeed, it had a Ghost Rider - therefore it delivered. But I would argue Ghost Rider did not deliver Anything.

That said, I *do* think Transformers delivered what the trailers promised. I disagree it's boring, but I understand that comment. The great thing about giant robots fighting is giant robots fighting...and the bad thing about giant robots fighting is giant robots fighting. Unless the robots are developed as characters, it's like watching werewolf Van Helsing fight Bat Dracula. And I'd argue only Bumblebee was truly developed; OP relied on Peter Cullen and nostalgia (which worked for me, as an old fan, but...), and the rest of the team was fairly a blank. As for the villains, only Barricade (the cop car) and Frenzy registered any personality. So I understand the comment.

There were moments of pure joy in the film. I completely agree with that. There were moments of severe embarassment as well...Jazz, anyone?!?!?! The good outweighs the bad, but it still adds up to passably decent. I understand some of the love and some of the criticism.

My concern is that this film with go the way of several other eye-candy films...revered then discarded, as there is no way this will hold up at home. And beyond the eye candy, there isn't much. I was one of the people who was hoping there would be more than meets the eye (preetty awesome, huh ). The film even hinted at some underlying excellence, with the Sam/Bumblebee material. But that was ignored in the end for some robot pummeling.

This is a lot of explanation for some pretty simple points. My apologies for being long-winded.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I had a better time with this film didn't any of the last three Star Wars films which at times, I found quite boring. So to each his own is what film appreciation is all about.

Chuck,
I didn't know anything about Transformers before seeing the film, but I got a good idea about the Optimus Prime's character from this film.




Crawdaddy

 

[JoeyR]

LMAO I liked Ghost Rider alot too(big fan from the Marvel comics)

dont worry about the long windedness, like I said with me it just might be the beer talking LOL

 

[Cory S.]

The main problem with this film is the military aspect of the film. I like Michael Bay's idea of the military being involved in something like this but, there are too many characters in this aspect of the story.

Had the film cut between Sam, Mikaela, and Bumblebee and two or three Decepticons for the first hour and then introduced the government around the same time the film does now, it would've been a much better film.

I mean, it's pretty easy to see where the great film/great story lies within in this film and it's just a shame that Bay didn't scale back a bit.

Still, as it stands, this film works. It could've been one of the ages ( the action and visuals were) but right now, it's my third favorite film this summer behind Knocked Up and Ratatouille.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Joey, I think you will see that some of us who were underwhelmed did praise the action and effects. But some of us look for more in our films, and like Chuck I find my tastes evolving as I get older.

I will say, though, that what little character development we got from the robots was very good, and I found myself desperate for more time with the robots and less with the bumbling idiots from sector 7, or whatever it was called. In fact, for me the movie came to a screeching halt when the sector 7agents were introduced.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I liked the military aspect of the film. Too many of these types (see: HULK) have the military as this monolithic amorphous mass represented by one character. Starting with the opening battle on, Bay never let you forget that the military is made up of induvidual human beings, with the same risks and interests as the rest of us. Regardless of your opinions on the world's current armed conflicts, I think that's an important message to share, even captured within a goofy live-action cartoon.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I thought Bay did a good job with the military. I would have cut the SECDEF/analysts garbage before the military stuff. The desert battle was awesome. They even got the jobs right...Tyrese was playing a Combat Controller (a AF spec ops member whose specialty is coordinating airstrikes), so it makes sense he was always on the comms (even when the Captain [Duhamel] made the initial call). They at least had personality, and they were played as moral, decent people. I appreciated that.

Besides, no film should ever cut an A-10 sequence (I agree with john on that completely). They should even add some A-10's into other movies digitally.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think the key to enjoying this film is to manage your expectations. You know it's Michael Bay at the helm, and you basically know his strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker. You know it's going to be a roller coaster ride, so it's best to just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Not every film has to feature rich characterizations, especially given the property that the Transformers were based upon. To expect high-minded characterizations at the expense of the action and special effects elements for a summer blockbuster is to view the film with too many rigid expectations.

From an entertainment perspective, Bay gets more things right than he gets wrong in this film, and for that, the film has a grateful audience that lined up in sold-out showings because he is giving the bulk of them what they want out of the film. This film could have easily gone off the rails and ended up being a stinker (a la Spider-Man 3 and other early summer disappointments) in the eyes of the public, but word of mouth has been extremely positive, and from a common man standpoint, the film works very well as popcorn entertainment.

 

[William Ward]

I think as is, the movie would have worked better for those who didnt like it if only for a couple of things. 1st would have John Turturro toned down a little bit. He was way over the top, when he probably should have been just slightly over the top.

Second, a meeting of the decepticons to let us know they were here(perhaps after the initial sequence in teh desert, even as a flashback) similar to the autobots. From the prequel comic there is a shot of Starscream landing as a meteor and the air force sends some Raptors to check it out and he shoots one after scanning it. I understand not showing barricade or frenzy since they have their introductions properly. But we needed Bonecrusher, Brawl, SS, and Blackout/Scorponok to have a minute together to let us know they had a plan of action. Also, there is talk that Starscream stayed in Jet mode leading the US Air force and taking some shots at Megatron. IF this is the case, and was intentional by the storytellers, there should have been a closeup of a jet with a decepticon symbol. Maybe even a line of dialogue with Starscream talking to himself about it. "Its my time now Megatron...."

3rd, was a bit better treatment of Jazz as he is ripped in two. Perhaps a perspective shot of the autobots on the ground seeing his fate. Although I do know that the writers wanted more for Jazz at the end.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My only complaint is that end battle was removed from the rest of the movie. I didn't feel involved with it like I had up to that point. All the way through the unfreezing of Megatron, the film kept a tight focus on the ground-level perspective of distinct groups of people with, as Chuck said, real personality.

There just wasn't enough character work with any of the Transformers early on in the film for me to care about any of them except Bumblebee. Optimus Prime was excellent, but not quite enough for me to latch onto.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Because I was bored? Bay staged the action in a clumsy way, and his absolute inability to tell a coherent narrative undercut any potential excitement. The movie was a mess, and I never felt any interest in the action because of that - none of it made any sense so I didn't care.

The only reason I didn't look at my watch through this thing was because I didn't want my Dad to see me!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Okay - how about "dull"? "Uninteresting"? "Flaccid"? "Forgettable"? "Insipid"? "Lifeless"? "Interminable"? "Tedious"? Those all work for me...

 

[Cory S.]

Chuck,

I should clarify. It's the SECDEF stuff that's the real problem of this film. I just lumped them together with the military aspect. All of that stuff, I would've lumped in with the sector seven stuff once they came in at around the hour mark.

The only part that deals with the military that I don't like is the Scorpnok attack sequence. If I read the sequence right, Scorpnok was essentially attacking them to make sure they didn't get in contact with their commanders at the Pentagon. Excellent idea but I felt it went a tad too long.

Also, the opening sequence with Blackout was a great opener but I would've had the attack at a much more prominent place to get the kind of information that Blackout was trying to recover. Not saying it couldn't have happen the way it did but it would've felt more real, to me, if he was trying to download the information from another location of real prominence (that's not the Pentagon).

 

[Najib_H]

Does anyone know where I can get the soundtrack for this movie...the musical score... I loved Steve Jablonsky's score, reminded me of the Island.

Loved the movie also....seen it three times now!

 

[MikeRS]

Like all Michael Bay films, this is a visual/aural assault on the senses. Unlike say, "Armageddon", I was mostly grooving to his muscular flow here.

Or to be more precise, I was glad that for at least the first hour and half of narrative (The obvious "Spielberg half" with it's preoccupations with everyman nerds, suburbia, anticipation/mystery overiding overt events) actually turned out to be a much more attractive melding of sensibilities than I would have thought. It definitely proves Bay can be soulful when he slows it down. I mean, I actually felt a human pulse to several domestic scenes in Shia's life - without feeling in any way that Bay was sacrificing his patented swanky and intoxicating visual sense. And it's obvious Bay was very disciplined when it came to the editing of this part of the picture. The Middle East scenes especially play much more exciting than the climactic battle because of this. The blaster robot also seeming like a nice Spielberg touch/dynamic added to the mix (the micro robot being a nifty contrast to the rest of the film's larger than life spectacle. That's Spielberg crafting - not Bay).

The second hour is one part a slow down/wallowing in some incredibly clunky/silly plotting (really, who gives a shit about that cube MacGuffin ) and a half hour climax edited to feel right at home as a reel of Armageddon. Yes, the disorienting video style/weak sense of geography rears it's head during the end battle. But at least it was secluded to the last reels of the picture as opposed to being the entire editing scheme of a whole complete narrative! (Man, Armageddon still boggles the mind ).

I can live with that. This is Bay's concept of upping the ante. Diminishing returns, Mr. Bay...diminishing returns - Perhaps one day, he will learn.

I was wrong about this film's boxoffice pre-release. It will make 300 million domestic and should top Spidey 3 for top (domestic) dog of the summer.