Thursday, July 5, 2007
Member since:
October 2003
October 2003
Truly, this was the most Michael Bay-est of Michael Bay movies that Michael Bay ever Michael Bay-ed.
I'm with Sean on this. The movie is called "Transformers" not "Boring Humans I Don't Care About." They could have easily cut out a bunch of the B-stories and all the lame attempts at comedy. It's not like they were ever going to be well-rounded, multi-dimensional characters anyway. I want to see giant robots smashing stuff not playing hide & seek. Good lord, did that sequence go on forever.
I have to say the eye candy is superb. The Transformers looked amazing and their movements were absolutely fluid. They were just so much more interesting characters and I wished they had devoted more time to them.
Maybe I have the burden of knowledge being a huge Transformers fan and child of the 80's. Starscream was always one of my favorites and I was really disappointed he didn't really do anything. Where was the treacherous, backstabbing bastard Starscream? On the plus side, it was MUSIC TO MY EARS to hear Peter Cullen once again voice Optimus Prime.
-Will
I'm with Sean on this. The movie is called "Transformers" not "Boring Humans I Don't Care About." They could have easily cut out a bunch of the B-stories and all the lame attempts at comedy. It's not like they were ever going to be well-rounded, multi-dimensional characters anyway. I want to see giant robots smashing stuff not playing hide & seek. Good lord, did that sequence go on forever.
I have to say the eye candy is superb. The Transformers looked amazing and their movements were absolutely fluid. They were just so much more interesting characters and I wished they had devoted more time to them.
Maybe I have the burden of knowledge being a huge Transformers fan and child of the 80's. Starscream was always one of my favorites and I was really disappointed he didn't really do anything. Where was the treacherous, backstabbing bastard Starscream? On the plus side, it was MUSIC TO MY EARS to hear Peter Cullen once again voice Optimus Prime.
-Will
Friday, July 6, 2007
Member since:
January 2006
January 2006
I agree with a lot of what skspence said "Transformers" is too long. I think the film runs literally about twenty minutes over what it should. Despite its weaknesses, it is still probably one of the top three films I've seen this summer. (I realize that may not be saying much...) I DO think it's worth seeing in the theater! The audience seems to really react to it which heightens the experience.
That said, I am really looking forward to "The Bourne Ultimatum"!!!
That said, I am really looking forward to "The Bourne Ultimatum"!!!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Member since:
March 2002
March 2002
As usual, I have to agree with most of what Sean says. The movie is way, way too long, the final battle going on for at least forty-five hectic minutes. My only disagreement is minor. I found myself fidgeting by the second half and almost nodding off during the climactic shoot-out.
I think maybe you either have to be very young or have to have grown up with the Transformers action figures and cartoons in the eighties to appreciate the film fully. The audience I was with seemed equally divided between children and men in their late twenties and thirties. As an old fart, I found the movie very loud, very frenetic, and, as I say, very long. Fortunately, there is enough eye candy to satisfy the fun factor for a while, and the Transformers' CGI transformations look splendid. At least, the first few times we see it. Unfortunately, director Michael Bay seems to think that anything that works once he should repeat unto the threshold of pain, so we get to see the transformations about 800 times.
Anyway, what should I have expected? It's a movie based on a series of toys and cartoons. Darn right it's going to be cartoony. What I didn't expect, though, was the movie's huge similarity to "Independence Day." The same interweaving of several plot strands and several sets of characters, all of them coming together at the end. There's even the same government cover-up of alien technology involved.
Shia LaBeouf is good as the put-upon teenage protagonist. John Voight keeps a straight face as the Secretary of Defense (more than Don Rumsfeld could have done). Megan Fox is appropriately foxy. Josh Duhamel is acceptably heroic. And thank goodness for John Turturro, who seems like the only one in the picture who realized the whole affair probably started out as a campy, tongue-in-cheek thriller instead of the dead serious or outright comedic movie that most of the cast play it for.
Anyway, it's lightweight summer fun for the kid in all of us. Emphasis on the "lightweight." 5/10
John
[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Jul 7, 2007]
I think maybe you either have to be very young or have to have grown up with the Transformers action figures and cartoons in the eighties to appreciate the film fully. The audience I was with seemed equally divided between children and men in their late twenties and thirties. As an old fart, I found the movie very loud, very frenetic, and, as I say, very long. Fortunately, there is enough eye candy to satisfy the fun factor for a while, and the Transformers' CGI transformations look splendid. At least, the first few times we see it. Unfortunately, director Michael Bay seems to think that anything that works once he should repeat unto the threshold of pain, so we get to see the transformations about 800 times.
Anyway, what should I have expected? It's a movie based on a series of toys and cartoons. Darn right it's going to be cartoony. What I didn't expect, though, was the movie's huge similarity to "Independence Day." The same interweaving of several plot strands and several sets of characters, all of them coming together at the end. There's even the same government cover-up of alien technology involved.
Shia LaBeouf is good as the put-upon teenage protagonist. John Voight keeps a straight face as the Secretary of Defense (more than Don Rumsfeld could have done). Megan Fox is appropriately foxy. Josh Duhamel is acceptably heroic. And thank goodness for John Turturro, who seems like the only one in the picture who realized the whole affair probably started out as a campy, tongue-in-cheek thriller instead of the dead serious or outright comedic movie that most of the cast play it for.
Anyway, it's lightweight summer fun for the kid in all of us. Emphasis on the "lightweight." 5/10
John
[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Jul 7, 2007]
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Member since:
March 2004
March 2004
"Bay took it too far"
Story of his career.
Story of his career.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Member since:
February 2006
February 2006
To each his own tastes. Personally, I've seen it four times in one week and it never looses its luster.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Member since:
October 2004
October 2004
I haven't seen it, but I'm sure it sucks. (just filling in for Eddie)
Seriously, though, 2 1/2 hours for this thing? Why are so many of the recent blockbusters so ridiculously bloated? Pirates at nearly 3 hours. Spider-Man 3 at 2.5, etc. Did Lord of the Rings start this whole phenomenon? Fantastic Four 2 was lousy, but at least it had the decency to be short.
Seriously, though, 2 1/2 hours for this thing? Why are so many of the recent blockbusters so ridiculously bloated? Pirates at nearly 3 hours. Spider-Man 3 at 2.5, etc. Did Lord of the Rings start this whole phenomenon? Fantastic Four 2 was lousy, but at least it had the decency to be short.
