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Author Topic: Transformers (2007) Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 07-10-2007 02:01 PM                     I saw the DLP presentation at Regal Atlantic Station , Atlanta. Let me say this. The picture looked damn good on a midsize screen and I was sitting 20 rows or so from the front. I was close enough where I had to move my head back as much as I could to digest some of the action scenes. I walked into a film version for a few minutes later and the pic wasn't as good. I think it reflects more on the quality of film prints than the superiority of one format over the other. I assume the DLP projector in this theater is one of the recent ones. I saw part of Revenge of the Sith in digital and it seemed kind of pixelated from the front rows. The credits lettering was crisp and steady. Something lacking in most presentations in Atlanta. Overall, I liked the movie more than I expected to. I had low expectations because it was Michael Bay. But it was very watchable even if it veers into lameass comedy territory one too many times(like the dragged out tooth fairy joke). Bay also sticks in his favorite Americana visuals at weird moments. But compared to the travesties that were Bad BOys 2 or Armageddon, this was a big improvement. Even the effects looked pretty decent.  |  IP: Logged Jason Winn Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Mesquite, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 07-11-2007 11:40 PM                     I never ecen watched the cartoon when I was a kid. I don't know anything about Transformers, but I fuckin' loved it! This was a badass movie from beginning to end. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of Michael Bay. I still haven't forgave him for The Island. That movie was horrible! But, this movie was awesome! Great summer popcorn movie. Oh, and as for Megan Fox. . .  |  IP: Logged Tristan Lane Master Film Handler Posts: 444 From: Nampa, Idaho Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-12-2007 12:51 AM                     Watched it for the second time tonight... And although the cinematography detracts from the action, watching the transformers in action made it worthwhile. The weak acting and piss poor drama scenes were made bearable by the action sequences. As other's have stated, the Autobots seemed more convincing in their roles than most of the human characters. In that area, Bay proves his inability to direct non-action scenes. Micheal Bay can't be blamed fully for the seizure-cam style that seems to be present in most of his films. The credit should be blamed mostly on Mitchell Amundsen. The two directors seem to go hand in hand, and Amundsen's crappy hand-held style is so distracting that it is sometimes hard to focus on the action. This was evident in "The Bourne Supremacy" where I found myself asking "What just happened in that scene?" Amundsen's style of photography makes me incredibly angry. His "work" was present in the films "The Island", "Mission Impossible III", "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon" and all of these films suffered because of him. How Amundsen was able to produce great movies like "Seabiscuit" and "P.O.T.C 1" are beyond me. Oh wait..... He was Secondary Director of Photography. I guess he wasn't able to put his full "artistic" touch into those films and fuck them up too. Overall, a good action flick. Just view it with the intellectual portion of your brain turned off, and you will enjoy it(that is if you don't barf from the shaking camera).  |  IP: Logged Richard Montano Film Handler Posts: 1 From: Santa Rosa, CA Registered: Jul 2007 posted 07-13-2007 05:57 AM                     As a long-time Transformer fan, I have a few complaints about the "artistic license" Bay used in his designs for the Autobots and Decepticons that made an appearance in the movie. He could have stuck a little closer to the original designs. But with that aside, I feel that the movie flowed fairly well, bad jokes and poorly placed catch phrases aside (having Shia LeBeouf say that "there's more to you than meets the eye" twice in as many minutes was rather irritating), the CGI looked quite wonderful and the addition of the original audio of a Transformer changing forms made for a wonderful taste of nostalgia. If I were a critic, I'd have to give it at the very least, 3 of five stars.  |  IP: Logged Shane Cooper Expert Film Handler Posts: 232 From: Little Rock, Arkansas Registered: Jun 2004 posted 07-13-2007 11:04 AM                     For some reason, whenever Michael Bay's name is mentioned in conversation I go ballistic. The best way I can describe my feelings for Michael Bay is to compare them with my feelings for cotton candy: You go to the county fair each summer and you see the cotton candy stand. You say to yourself, "man I could really use some cotton candy!" With all of the excitement and anticipation reaching a boiling point, you pay for the confectionery treat and dive right in. about half way through you realize that the cotton candy isn't as good as you imagined it would be. Towards the end of it, you actually feel sick to your stomach and declare, "I will never eat cotton candy ever again." However, the next summer rolls around, you go to the county fair and cotton candy sounds pretty good... Bottom line: Michael Bay is like cotton candy. Each summer he teases you into buying something that isn't nearly as good as you would have hoped. Ultimately it will leave you feeling sick. Somehow, he is able to get you excited again the next summer. That being said, as far as the features of Michael "boom boom " Bay go, Transformers is probably towards the top. I thought it moved along pretty well and action was enjoyable. As always, the dialogue was torture. I actually let out an involuntary but very audible groan at the line, "whatever happens, I am really glad I got in%  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 07-14-2007 04:51 PM                        CINEMA: Megaplex 12 at the Gateway, Salt Lake City, UT AUDITORIUM: 2 PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema in a THX certified auditorium PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Wall sconce light leakage on the left side of the screen during previews (a combination of poor sconce design and poor auditorium design), picture slightly out of focus RATING: Three stars (out of four) Well whoda thunk. Michael Bay finally found his element. This was a blast. The soundtrack was off the chart good. Heavy use of surrounds and subwoofer, but well placed. A campy teenage love story with killer action and cool cars. I understand some Transformers fans are annoyed with Bay changing the car brands from the original series/books/whatever this used to be (the cars are all American muscle...there's even a tease scene at a Porsche dealership, as well as a direct attack of a yellow Beetle, that I'm assuming Bay used to pfffft the faithful). I wonder how much GM ponied up to showcase the Camero and Solstice. And why they didn't care about them trashing so many GMC's. Poor GMC.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-15-2007 06:21 PM                     Location: Carmike 8 Auditorium: #6, 8:30pm show 7/14/7 Format: Christie 2K DLP/LPCM 5.1 Rating: 3 stars out of 4 After hearing some of my co-workers go on about how good Transformers was, I decided to check it out for myself. Being that it was a Michael Bay movie I didn't go in with high expectations. But I was surprised that I actually liked it enough to give it a positive review. I think this is Bay's best work since The Rock. Basically this movie works as amusement park ride spectacle with lots of action scenes and showing off really cool hardware. I thought the early sequences in the Qatar desert gave the film enough momentum to keep from being derailed by some of the dumber moments where everyday human drama is attempted. Pretty good audio mix on this one. Thump de la bang. The movie isn't without its flaws. The dialog is pretty stupid. But then the dialog in the original 1980s cartoons was badly stilted and stupid as well. I really groaned at the narration in the last scene by Optimus Prime, but remembered that's how the character from the cartoon was. I surprised when the audience applauded when the credits rolled. It's not often I see that take place in a Lawton theater. The DVD and HD discs should sell well. Random thoughts: I liked that most of the movie was shot in 'scope. But Michael Bay just loves those gradient filters and other artificial stuff to pretty-ize everything so it looks like a Japanese car commercial. The robots could have been designed better. There was so much complicated crap on those characters and they moved so fast that it was difficult to tell just what the hell was going on in some fight scenes. It seems like the designers were trying to copy some of the design cues of other types of very complicated Japanese "Gundam" warrior robots. Starscream (the robot who morphed into a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter) made me think of those huge spiny bad guys from the Halo games. The Camaro concept car was very cool. But then I might be biased being a former Camaro owner. I think GM just needs to sell the new Camaro in that design. They will screw it up if they smooth out the angles and water it down to please boring people that would never buy a Camaro anyway. The Saleen Cobra police car was also pretty cool. Loved the counterpoint play off, "to protect and serve." Instead, the script on the car said, "to punish and enslave." Megan Fox did look very nice. Some have mentioned Bay's tight relationship with GM. The director must have a really tight friendship with the Department of Defense. Normally, the DOD will show off some decent hardware when it agrees to participate in a film production. They displayed almost everything in the arsenal with this feature. The last name of Shia LaBeouf's character is "Witwicky." That has to be the most stupid sounding last name in film history. It deserves to be on a most stupid sounding names list at the very least. There's a shot of "Sam Witwicky" running on a L.A. rooftop getting ready to light a flare to signal some good guys. He runs through some clothes lines with laundry hanging from them. Why would someone hang out their laundry on a skyscraper rooftop? Who even hangs their laundry on clothes lines anymore? I'd like one of those Mountain Dew vending machines that transforms into a robot and fires cans of soda at people. It would be great if you could run it via remote control, "DO THE DEW, BITCH!!!" Sabot ammunition is mentioned in the movie, without offering any kind of explanation of how it works. Sabot (pronounced say-bo) rounds are made for tank cannons all the way down to rifles and shotguns. Sabot ammo for handguns is a new development. The Sabot travels down the barrel when the round is fired, but unlike standard ammo, the Sabot expands and traps gases behind the projectile more effectively. When it leaves the barrel it spreads apart and falls away from a secondary projectile contained inside. That smaller secondary projectile travels at much higher speeds, flatter trajectories and hits the target with a lot more kinetic energy. Armor piercing saboted tank rounds contain fin stabilized darts made of depleted uranium. Experimental sabot handgun ammo (.45 cartridges containing .40 slugs) have penetrated more than 20 layers of Kevlar. Nasty. But the funny thing is A-10 Warthogs don't use Sabot ammo in their 30mm Vulcan cannons. The standard depleted uranium bullets fired from those things have huge shell casings and are very devastating in their own right. Same goes for the ammo fired from "Puff the Magic Dragon" (the KC-130 Hercules gunship featured in the same scene).  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-15-2007 08:52 PM                     "Starscream (the robot who morphed into a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter) made me think of those huge spiny bad guys from the Halo games." Starscream was the F-22 Raptor, the Helicopter was Blackout.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-16-2007 01:14 AM                     Okay, this is kind of a pre-requisite of a movie being ready for commercial release: I should not have to had to watched all the stupid Transformer cartoons before as a pre-requisite to watching the freaking movie. THE MOVIE SHOULD BE ABLE TO WORK ON ITS OWN. PERIOD. No excuse. No remorse. No quarter. That is absolutely it. There is no way any viewer including myself will be held wrong at all for not getting it. Get the movie right for all the "unwashed" or jump off a cliff! [ 07-16-2007, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Bobby Henderson ]  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-16-2007 08:34 AM                        Saw this yesterday at the Cambridge Premiere cinema in Cambridge, Maryland. It wasn't that bad, or not as bad as I thought it would be. Yeah - the special effects were great. I found myself laughing at some of the lines and my 8 year old looking at me funny when I did. There was just a slight nostalgic aspect to it as "Transformers" were all the rage when I was growing up. But I will forget this movie by next week. I cannot even remember the lines that had me laughing. That's all that Hollywood is making now - forgettable movies.  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-16-2007 01:34 PM                     Wow Bobby no need to go all ape shit, I was just saying. Its not a big deal, the world isn't going to cave in on itself. The movie only says who the decepticons like once for each, except for Megatron. Its ok, was just pointing it out before someone else did.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-16-2007 06:08 PM                     I'm sorry Kurt, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you. I was venting in general about all the Transformers trivia it seems like people need to know in order to make sense out of the movie. There's a number of movies that seem to do that and I find it irritating. When someone doesn't like the movie because it makes no sense to them they'll sometimes get regarded as being stupid or something by all the hardcore fans. I think any movie should be able to stand on its own without requiring people to have watched other TV shows, read certain books, play certain games or whatever to make sense out of the show. Tron even seems to have had that problem to a certain degree. I really liked the movie a lot, but then I was already familiar with computer terminology while many others in the early 1980s were not. That movie is certainly one that people either seem to love or hate with very little middle ground. If someone doesn't like that movie that's just how they feel about it.  |  IP: Logged Matt Barth Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Albuquerque, NM 87109 Registered: Oct 2005 posted 07-17-2007 12:45 PM                     I don't understand most of the critics here. The movie is released July 4th week, it's Michael Bay and the lead character is a semi cab that's really a robot. If you're expecting anything more than one big explosion I think you may be the one with the problems. Granted, a bit of it went too slow (I always hated the humans in the cartoon) but I don't see how you needed to know any backstory. Granted I grew up on the toons but there's no need to know Starscream is Megatron's 2nd who's always looking for a way to take control. You can go without knowing that Frenzy the ADD reconbot is attached to Soundwavem a large boombox. I dunno, I can handle if it's not everyone's cup of tea but calling it anything along the lines of stupid really makes me wonder what people expected. ---Matt  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 07-18-2007 09:22 PM                     Bobby, how was your DLP presentation?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-19-2007 09:23 PM                     I thought the DLP looked pretty good. But anamorphic 35mm without the 2K digital intermediate bottleneck would probably look sharper (also providing the CGI effects were rendered at something better than mere 2K resolution).  |  IP: Logged

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