Can you trust micheal bay on TF3 not sucking?

[Emmett L. Brown]

Hey, you asked the question in that way. Don't be buthurt now that you've got a truthful answer. =)

[Facehugger]

I knew the answer when I asked the question, and it only served to prove my point.

I had a similar debate with someone of this nature recently. It proved your other points correct, yes, but not the actual point selected. (And yes, B'aaaaaaaawwww semantics!)

seriously other than megatron they're all pretty much nameless and stupid

You can't not know who Shockwave is. I knew who Shockwave was as soon as he appeared, and even if you don't recognise him by appearance, Optimus literally states exactly who it is approximately a minute later, so my apologies, but I'm going to have to call bullshit on that, because you'd know what characters are what if you paid attention.

[Saint Nathan]

Come on now, at the very least you can admit Laserbeak was a total badass and interesting (and fucking terrifying) 'Con.

Seriously who the fuck is that. Was that the bird?

You can't not know who Shockwave is. I knew who Shockwave was as soon as he appeared, and even if you don't recognise him by appearance, Optimus literally states exactly who it is approximately a minute later, so my apologies, but I'm going to have to call bullshit on that, because you'd know what characters are what if you paid attention.

I have really no idea who he was. I remember really only Megatron's name ever being said.

also duh I wasn't paying much attention the movie was utter shit. i was too bored to give half a fuck.

[SuperStingray]

Just curious- will I need to see Transformers 1 and 2 to better understand what's going on throughout and/or appreciate 3?

[Saint Nathan]

Just curious- will I need to see Transformers 1 and 2 to better understand what's going on throughout and/or appreciate 3?

Nothing will help you appreciate 3.

But yeah it's decently dependant on the first two.

[SuperStingray]

Nothing will help you appreciate 3.

But yeah it's decently dependant on the first two.

Edited July 8, 2011 by SuperStingray

[Emmett L. Brown]

Okay, I'm gonna say something nice about this movie. The last hour is pretty good. Lots of action sequences.

The hour and a half before that is the infinite bleak expanse of death, where humour and good taste go to die. Well, except the scenes with Optimus Prime and the other robots, which is about 1/20th of that stretch.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Grumpy Old Guy

[Saint Nathan]

Truth be told, I don't even really care about Transformers. I tried to get into it by buying War for Cybertron when it was on sale on steam but there's just something to laugh at about titanic, macho robots that morph into vehicles being part of a story meant to be taken seriously. It's like expecting us to find relatability in subtle romantic tension involving a comically, malproportioned, anthropomorphic cartoon animal and a human princess.

The movie pretty much takes itself completely seriously. Like, entirely. It really thinks it's a good movie.

If you want to see explosions in Imax (it was out on Imax???) then wait for a movie worth the money. This is the kind of movie you wait for it to come to NETFLIX before you see it.

[lounge]

I saw it July 2nd. The first half hour or so I thought the movie was going to be dissapointing. That new girl is so annoying. But then when the decepticons start to bring out their plans to enslave the human race. And seeing them actually kill humans on the streets and the whole double crossing that happens, it really made me really care and hope that the otobots and sams friends win.

Towards the end, it just looks like there's absolutely no way sam and the otobots are going to win. But when they start winning it actually made me really happy. There was a lot of clapping in the theater whenever the otobots would do something so amazing to prevent someone or their teammates from dying. I was just thinking how the hell are they going to win? Seeing the humans also do such cool strategic things on foot was just so cool. It really got my heart pumping. Great experience.

[Facehugger]

I have really no idea who he was. I remember really only Megatron's name ever being said.

also duh I wasn't paying much attention the movie was utter shit. i was too bored to give half a fuck.

You couldn't even last 20-odd minutes? If you clocked off after less than twenty minutes, I think you went in wanting to dislike the movie. Hell, I thought the movie was for the most part, quite awful, but I watched it through to the end before making my verdict. Regardless, I still think you are overplaying this ignorance thing.

Yeah, watched the movie. It was okay, but much of what Bay did was unforgiveable. It wasn't the acting, the dialogue, the story that irked me, but some of the combat scenes, and what they did to some of the characters....

Edited July 8, 2011 by Facehugger

[Saint Nathan]

You couldn't even last 20-odd minutes? If you clocked off after less than twenty minutes, I think you went in wanting to dislike the movie. Hell, I thought the movie was for the most part, quite awful, but I watched it through to the end before making my verdict. Regardless, I still think you are overplaying this ignorance thing.

[Badnik Zero]

Laserbeak is the spy bird that comes out of Soundwave in the original series.

[Facehugger]

I will grant that some of the characters were forgettable. I still don't know who that red Autobot is with the razorblades running up his arms, nor can I remember if Ratchet was even in the film. I also can't recall the names of the two small Autobots.

[Johnny Boy]

I will grant that some of the characters were forgettable. I still don't know who that red Autobot is with the razorblades running up his arms, nor can I remember if Ratchet was even in the film. I also can't recall the names of the two small Autobots.

Ratchet was in the film.

The red robot is Mirage (but they unessecarily changed his name to Dino at the last minute)

The two small autobots are Wheelie and Brains (wheelie was in rotf as well)

[SuperStingray]

Alright, I just came back from watching the entire trilogy in one sitting. It's hard for me to say whether I thought they were good movies or bad movies, but either way I enjoyed the ride. I wasn't really expecting to get much out of it. It's a popcorn series, no doubt, but the characters weren't too poorly manifested, shallow as they were for the most part. I actually felt really bad for Que when he was executed. But I did notice a pattern: an Autobot or Decepticon's size is inversely proportional to how likely he is to be comic relief. And as far as the comedy goes, I have say I'm surprised at how good the humor was most of the time, but there were some times I just had to say, "Really?" Like I laughed at the "red cup in the yellow room" bit and the interview with Bill O'Reilly, but when Bumblebee pissed on Simmons or we got a shot of Devastator's wrecking ball scrotum in ROTF, I was like WTF? Although, I do have to admit that Wheelie grew on me.

The first film was fairly strong; Bumblebee, Ironhide and Optimus were awesome and the Decepticons were solid enemies with very intimidating designs. I think my favorite thing about it is how Sam's relationship with Bumblebee reflected the mixture of a youthful thirst for adventure with the need for responsibility that both come with first getting a car. But that's really as relatable as Shia gets because, first of all, do they really expect us to believe him and Megan Fox are in high school? And secondly, their relationship just looks superficial as hell. The only reason they have any spark at all is because danger is a turn on for her and Sam happens to be the centerpiece in a war between giant killer mechas.

As for ROTF, the action scenes were kickass, and the mythos was well developed. Fallen was a good villain and Jetfire was a great character as well. It was hardly memorable, but can anyone tell me what made it so bad? So it wasn't exactly A-grade writing, but the critical reception made the response to Sonic 06 sound generous. My only major complaints about it were that there was a little too much focus on Sam and Mikaela's relationship than would be necessary even if I cared about it, and the portrayal of Skids and Mudflap. Maybe it was just that I went in expecting it to suck, so I was more focused on where it didn't, but it wasn't godawful.

Dark of the Moon was by far my favorite though; I think what held back the first two the most is that they tried to mix in a relationship drama to complement the intense action and suspense, which is kind of the equivalent of growing half a beard because you can't decide whether you want one or not. Finally, this one put Shia's love life in the backseat to let the Transformers shine more. Beyond that, the action really balanced well with the story for most of the film, even though it was a bit slow to start. I also found Optimus and Sentinel's philosophical dichotomy to be pretty interesting and well developed; same on the human side by having humans that work for the Decepticons. It kind of showed the nature of the Decepticons more clearly by reflecting them in Dylan and his cronies: they're cowards who feared losing their own lives over losing the entire world; the Decepticons are no different.

So yeah, it was fun, but unfortunately that's pretty much all the credit I can give it. I think this franchise has a lot more potential than it lets on. The films were definitely more interesting to me than the cartoons or War For Cybertron canon, but if anything held them back, it's that they aren't letting the franchise be taken seriously, but I really see a lot of potential in the subject. If it were up to me, I'd bring more light to the philosophy, raising Asimov-ish questions like how can robots function in a world without masters, or how do we mirror robots? In the case of the Transformers, it led to a junction in philosphy: The Decepticons, who need a social order of leaders and slaves, and the Autobots who refuse to abandon the laws of robotics because they are the tenants that allowed their world to exist. There's nothing wrong with special effects if they're justified by a thought provoking story rather than some generic Gary Stu protag. My suggestion? Get Christopher Nolan to head the next Transformers film, should there be one. If Hasbro can do with Transformers what they did with My Little Pony, maybe I'd follow it.

[Stacy]

Alright, I just came back from watching the entire trilogy in one sitting. It's hard for me to say whether I thought they were good movies or bad movies, but either way I enjoyed the ride. I wasn't really expecting to get much out of it. It's a popcorn series, no doubt, but the characters weren't too poorly manifested, shallow as they were for the most part. I actually felt really bad for Que when he was executed. But I did notice a pattern: an Autobot or Decepticon's size is inversely proportional to how likely he is to be comic relief. And as far as the comedy goes, I have say I'm surprised at how good the humor was most of the time, but there were some times I just had to say, "Really?" Like I laughed at the "red cup in the yellow room" bit and the interview with Bill O'Reilly, but when Bumblebee pissed on Simmons or we got a shot of Devastator's wrecking ball scrotum in ROTF, I was like WTF? Although, I do have to admit that Wheelie grew on me.

The first film was fairly strong; Bumblebee, Ironhide and Optimus were awesome and the Decepticons were solid enemies with very intimidating designs. I think my favorite thing about it is how Sam's relationship with Bumblebee reflected the mixture of a youthful thirst for adventure with the need for responsibility that both come with first getting a car. But that's really as relatable as Shia gets because, first of all, do they really expect us to believe him and Megan Fox are in high school? And secondly, their relationship just looks superficial as hell. The only reason they have any spark at all is because danger is a turn on for her and Sam happens to be the centerpiece in a war between giant killer mechas.

As for ROTF, the action scenes were kickass, and the mythos was well developed. Fallen was a good villain and Jetfire was a great character as well. It was hardly memorable, but can anyone tell me what made it so bad? So it wasn't exactly A-grade writing, but the critical reception made the response to Sonic 06 sound generous. My only major complaints about it were that there was a little too much focus on Sam and Mikaela's relationship than would be necessary even if I cared about it, and the portrayal of Skids and Mudflap. Maybe it was just that I went in expecting it to suck, so I was more focused on where it didn't, but it wasn't godawful.

Dark of the Moon was by far my favorite though; I think what held back the first two the most is that they tried to mix in a relationship drama to complement the intense action and suspense, which is kind of the equivalent of growing half a beard because you can't decide whether you want one or not. Finally, this one put Shia's love life in the backseat to let the Transformers shine more. Beyond that, the action really balanced well with the story for most of the film, even though it was a bit slow to start. I also found Optimus and Sentinel's philosophical dichotomy to be pretty interesting and well developed; same on the human side by having humans that work for the Decepticons. It kind of showed the nature of the Decepticons more clearly by reflecting them in Dylan and his cronies: they're cowards who feared losing their own lives over losing the entire world; the Decepticons are no different.

So yeah, it was fun, but unfortunately that's pretty much all the credit I can give it. I think this franchise has a lot more potential than it lets on. The films were definitely more interesting to me than the cartoons or War For Cybertron canon, but if anything held them back, it's that they aren't letting the franchise be taken seriously, but I really see a lot of potential in the subject. If it were up to me, I'd bring more light to the philosophy, raising Asimov-ish questions like how can robots function in a world without masters, or how do we mirror robots? In the case of the Transformers, it led to a junction in philosphy: The Decepticons, who need a social order of leaders and slaves, and the Autobots who refuse to abandon the laws of robotics because they are the tenants that allowed their world to exist. There's nothing wrong with special effects if they're justified by a thought provoking story rather than some generic Gary Stu protag. My suggestion? Get Christopher Nolan to head the next Transformers film, should there be one. If Hasbro can do with Transformers what they did with My Little Pony, maybe I'd follow it.

[SuperStingray]

Thats one of the fairest reviews of the Transformers series I have seen so far, nice one SuperStringray!

[Stacy]

Maybe its just because I'm watching it objectively without real prior interest in or knowledge of Transformers or Michael Bay, or that I watched them able to brace myself for what I was getting into, but I don't see why there's such a big fuss either way. They were three of the most visually thrilling films I've ever seen and if I can only applaud them for that much, it's enough. The trailers gave away the style this movie was going for; this wasn't exactly supposed to be a modern day Iron Giant. The only real issue to me isn't that it had a bad story but that it expected us to be interested in that story. It had its moments, and the moments it did have were very enjoyable, but too many were just pointless. And the worst story moments were the ones that actually made me care and then just drop it point blank. The worst offender had to be in Revenge of the Fallen when Sam was seduced by a Decepticon that took the shape of a woman. If they've proven capable of taking our form, how could anybody trust anyone else at all? And if they can copy people, why didn't the Decepticons do that more often rather than violently infiltrate all the most well-guarded human strongholds? I'm sure Bay's answer would be that it takes less explosions, but why taunt us with that premise in the first place then?

Edited July 10, 2011 by BW199148

[Facehugger]

'OMG SUCKS BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS SAYING'.

That's funny, I could have sworn that people are complaining because there are definitely elements of the film which are sub-par. I'm sick of this viewpoint that if someone exudes negative sentiment towards something, wether they provide justification or not, they are automatically shunned as B'aaaaaaww'ing for no good reason, or following the masses.

I still have incredibly mixed feelings about the film, but being a Decepticon fan at heart, that is understandable I guess.

Edited July 10, 2011 by Facehugger