Lil Formers #153: Transformers 2
So, now that the movie is out everyone has been asking when I’m going to do somethign about Transformers 2. Well, this is pretty much how I feel about it. This movie has been so universally hated, so torn apart by every critic and blog as one of the worst movies ever, I really don’t think I can add anything. In fact it’s almost become an art form of it’s own finding as reviewers find new levels of hyperbole to insult the movie.
Though I will say that the movie’s supporters generally say things like “It’s not supposed to be brilliant, just turn your brain off and have fun!” Sorry but, “turn your brain off” and “have fun” are directly contradictory. I’m not going to give any movie a break and pretend I’m stupid because it has expensive special FX (not good, expensive).
Anyways, it’s sort of a sad statement about entertainment when this quality of movie does so well. It’s just encouraging studios to abandon plot and acting in favor of girls bending over and junk blowing up.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:49 am
IMO, (Call me crazy) the TF2 movie’s better than the first one but not as good as G1 (which I perfer). Face it, everyone has different tastes of the movie. Yeah, it has some weird things.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:54 am
sorry Matt, but i think you let your feelings for the movie cloud your judgment of the SFX. it was GOOD, nay, AWESOME to say the least. and i wonder how did 3 hours go by without a plot? i enjoyed it very much. i admit it has lots of plot holes and flaws but in the end, i had fun watching it. different strokes for different folks i guess, but i won’t be sorry that you found it that way. usually a fan of your monday comics, but this is your worst strip yet.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I really don’t get the complaints about the length, the first one was nearly 2 1/2 hours as well. In fact, counting credits, I think that’s the exact runtime.
The “script”, as I understand it, is a product of trying to rush something before the writer strike and then trying to string together action pieces Bay had already done during the strike. There’s a plot, albeit a thin one. The biggest problem in my mind is the crudeness.
Dogs humping (twice). “Wheelie” humping Megan Fox’s leg. Autobots calling people “b****es,” “p****es,” and the other profanities they used. The Decepticons actually got a little characterization this time around (well, Megatron and Starscream, and I do mean little) which was a step up from the last one where they were all “grr,” “rawr,” “kill.”
June 29th, 2009 at 1:05 am
I enjoyed watching it while there in the theater (although I winced a lot at the crudeness), but as I turned the completed thing over in my head I was very disappointed. I amused myself for the last half hour of the movie (and several days afterward) thinking how I’d keep the same basic plot, but make it a better movie. It’s kind of a “watch it once and never have the urge again” kind of movie- unless you like drooling over Megan Fox. But that is what the internet is for . . . that, and porn.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:27 am
I usually don’t bother with critic’s reviews, but when I saw the first trailers for TF 2… my intuition screamed “not worth forking over $8″. It was vindicated when I found that an overwhelming amount of reviews agreed. (My favorite review is by Shawn Levy of The Oregonian, by the way. It was a good read.)
June 29th, 2009 at 1:29 am
You know, I think I have the best analogy about the film.
There’s a good film, surrounded by Michael Bay’s sheer refusal to admit that he isn’t a thirteen year old boy anymore. When it’s on DVD, just skip past all the stupid testicle and fart jokes. I mean, Optimus Prime’s scenes are great, it’s just sad that everything else is there between them all.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:01 am
I’m somewhat in agreement on this one… I don’t think the twins were racist caricatures like everyone stated, but I do think their bickering and antics did get out of hand towards the end (brawling in the temple was really forced). I didn’t mind the dogs humping or the testicle jokes, but wheelie humping megan fox’s leg was forced and kinda… uhhhh, okay. I don’t mind crudeness in a film, and the action scenes were spectacular, but I do think the film did get out of hand at a couple moments.
The comedic moments are as forced as most comedies are, such as Zoolander or jim carrey films. The script though fairly unintelligent, is about as strong as most slam bang action films. I think Transformers ROTF is getting beat on because it’s a childhood franchise and everyone has their own ideas of where it should go (some thing it should be like the old cartoon, other beast wars, some thing it should have the style of the budiansky comic run, others think it should be like furmans comic run, ect). Taken on it’s own strengths and weaknesses, it’s an above average action film with some great comedic moments and moments where the humor is very strained and weak.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:12 am
All I can say is who cares, the movie had fun and did not take itself very seriously. More than I can say about that crappy Dark Knight movie from last year. TF2 never clamed to be a five star movie and its just there to entertain while with the Dark Knight(I compare it simply to the last huge blockbuster movie) was just crappy everything, from acting to action and everyone took it so damn serious. TF2 was good in this old school transformer fans opinion because it was enough to keep people laughing and ENTERTAINED. Rock on lilformers.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Went to see giant fighting alien robots beating the ever-loving crap out of each other, and by god I got it. Money well spent as far as I’m concerned.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:29 am
It worked for most of the movies in the Eighties…
Much like the man-slut will tell you; Lower your expectations, and everything will be good…
As terrifying as that concept is… it does work in a sick and twisted way.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:30 am
To be honest I enjoyed this movie. Loved it! Watch it 3 times here in Malaysia.
It was so much better then the first one. The fighting scenes were amazing, the military cooperation were outstanding and the relationship between Sam and Mikaela was simple & sweet. And Optimus’s fight scene! Awesome!
I read everyone’s opinion on this movie and respect it.
As for me, I loved TF : ROTF and can’t wait to buy the dvd!
PS: To Matt, I love your comics and humour. Keep up the good work!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:52 am
I am a big fan of the original transformers, and frankly tf2:Rotf was a horrible movie. It was mostly just crude jokes, with not as much robot fighting as it should have. Obviously it was made for the lowest common denominator with no regard with how actual fans of the transformers universe would feel about it.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:27 am
While I certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone from enjoying something to their heart’s content, I couldn’t agree with you more, Matt. The overwhelming box office the film is earning will only serve to encourage producers to fund projects that seek only to appeal to the least common denominator, be it in terms of oversexed female characters, mindless violence, and crude humor.
By all means, for those who loved the sequel, I’m glad you were entertained. I, on the other hand, am ashamed I contributed even my measly movie fare to the film’s gross. My friends and I are in agreement: The only means by which I might even be persuaded to see the third film is if it were Beast Wars.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:42 am
So, I went in with no expectations, because I like giving films a chance. I’ve learn’t the hard way that you shouldn’t judge a movie before you see it, because it ruins the film.
So with no expectations, willingness to give it a chance… do I come out entertained? No. Here in Australia the average movie ticket costs you between 10 and 15 dollars depending on where and when you see a film. I want my 14 dollars back! And I pity those who pay any more than that to see it.
Matt Moylan is right in that there is no insult left to throw at this film. I am highly dissapointed. Two pros about this movie: graphics and action. Cons about this movie: never ending list from overuse of slow motion, overacting, crude humour, a filler of a storyline… maybe the screenplay guys should buy a dummies book on how to make a film…
I will probably buy this on DVD, because I’m an absolute hypocrite, but I will be skipping until the old Decepticon has the cast in Egypt and is explaining the story to them. For me, the movie didn’t start until that moment, and that was what, and hour in?? Even in saying that, no amount of action or graphics can make up for the atrocity this movie has become for Michael Bay’s reputation and for the reputation of all movies, no matter the genre of the film. I find it hard to be entertained by a movie that thinks its ‘awesome’ for a lead character to be brought back to life by dead Transformers… to be honest I tried very hard not to laugh out loud in the silent, full, enraptured cinema when this scene played.
So glad to hear that there are people who both like it and dislike it though
Makes for an interesting universe to live in. Keep drawing Matt, your comic rocks.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:00 am
I enjoyed watching this movie more on imax than on a normal movie screen. the fight scenes were great and enjoyed tha parts where they slowed it down so you could really get a good look at the action and the detail put into the bots. yes there were downsides like a bit too much crudness, humping dogs a bit too much, and also volt didnt really have much in it, if you watch it and when they are in their hanger and the army says this is where the autobots stay, theres no volt at all. i did find although the testicles a bit funny, or as micheal puts it, no they are construction balls. also try and keep a look out for r2d2, he makes an appearance in the movie.
I can see that micheal does have a hard job on his hands trying to excite new fans of transformers and also appeal and satisfy the tf fans who have grown up with it and have their favourtes and their thoughts on what should n shouldnt happen, but let us remember this is one mans view, the writers choices, on what they want to put up on the big screen, if you have the money to do a movie your way, well go ahead and do so.
LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE
June 29th, 2009 at 4:06 am
I hated the movie…
Nuff said, Imma going to have some ice cream now.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:10 am
But it had Robot Fu!
June 29th, 2009 at 4:33 am
what ever.
The level of crudeness was too much, given that its a movie about toys when it comes down to it. Surprised no brings up the “Succubot” when mentioning that though.
I went into with no expectations, in fact I expected worse. So I got a movie where I laughed and was amused for a time being. Its only after the fact when my mind goings to analysis mode that the movie’s thin none-sensical plot is torn apart and the many errors and illogical actions in it are thrown to pieces. The whole story behind the Fallen and the sun-harvester made no sense (just kick the guy’s ass and move the damned machine to another location…why seal it and all that? and why did he hate humans enough to break a law that apparently the rest were willing to go ape about being broken?
The twins needed less screen time, they were amusing at times, but less of them would have been better, and more Arcee. and we basically needed another introduction scene (who were the other two female biker bots? Not sure we even got names for them out there).
But my biggest complaint and nitpick lies in one crucial element. Why are the Autobots commiting genocide? Last I checked they were supposed to be the good guys, who capture their defeated enemies to stand trial back on Cybertron (did I miss something in the first movie about it going completly dead or something? This is the darkest version of TF ever after all) Rather we get Prime doing a Mafia style execution on a downed Decepticon right at the start.
However this one was better than the first one, at least some decepticons got some characterization, and Michael Bay got over his lack of wanting to use female autobots (their lack of screen time tells me he didn’t get over it much though) and we really need someone who actually likes the classic styles of the transformers instead of the ugly matrix look which makes it real hard to recognize anyone.
Before they do a third one some one should be the writers and Michael Bay to sit down and watch every-episode of all the cartoons (maybe not the Japanese only ones) but G1, Beast-Wars, Armada, and Transformers Animated would be great places to get some feel of Transformers that isn’t just a bunch of sexual humour and explosions.
I would like a movie that is enjoying to watch, and after words my weakness detector doesn’t actually hit so many flaws that give it a bad after taste.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:39 am
one last thing. I will say something nice about the movie.
On the scale of good and bad Transformers. It rates as better than Beast Machines. and made more sense than Beast Machines (take that for what its worth).
June 29th, 2009 at 4:41 am
Okay, so TF2 sucked pretty badly and Optimus Prime suddenly became a stranger to me, Wheelie was slightly less rhyming and little more Brooklyn, and Megatron became the biggest bitchbot this side of the Silver Surfer and Galactus.
Look at the brightside:
They gave Soundwave tentacles. That’s got to be good for something, right? Right?
….*shrivels up in a corner and cries*
June 29th, 2009 at 4:50 am
It was okay, your typical teenage action movie with sex humor thrown in. Typical of this generation. Remember the live action movies aren’t generation 1 movies, we will most likely never get a generation 1 movie. As for the crude humor it appealed to the current generation of teens. I was in a theater full of teens and every single one I talked too thought it was the greatest movie ever. They are trying to introduce transformers to a new market so to speak. The toys are misleading, needless to say children toys 6+ from a movie like that but that is no worst than their being Terminator 2 toys back in the day from a R rated movie.
Anyways not trying to sound stupid or what ever but the movie was what I expected it to be. Did I like it, yea somewhat but the question is did their target audience like it, and I would say that was a yes. As for autobots killing decpticons. That is odd for us fans of G1 because all of us cried when autobots died in the animated movie and so on and so forth. As I said this isn’t generation 1. They are war, during war people die whether these people be transformers or humans.
To me the most disappointed part of the film was Prime being brought back to life and saving the day. Would of been better if some how Hot Rod would of showed up etc.. especially with Bay now saying Unicron is going to be in the next movie. I did enjoy Megatron’s canon mode but once again, he is back from the dead, has a canon mode why not call him Galvatron. Their reasoning was because they did not want to confuse any other fans and that this isn’t a generation 1 movie.
God Bless,
Dustin
†
June 29th, 2009 at 4:53 am
Okay, plot was pretty weak, and I was overwhelmed by the fighting and explosions, but maybe my love for all things TF got me through this movie. Twice.
Still, when I get the DVD or Blu-ray, I’ll probably just watch the fight scenes and skip the rest.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Fart jokes, dog humping, and testicles in a Transformers movie? I’m definitely giving it a pass then. My friend’s son was allowed to watch the first one supervised because he was mature enough to handle it. He loved it. I’m not so sure about this one.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Ehehe I guess it’s bad but…I liked this more than the last one if only cuz…I dunno I just liked watching Optimus Prime kicking ass. Is that a bad thing? :_>
June 29th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Ehehe I guess it’s bad but…I liked this more than the last one if only cuz…I dunno I just liked watching Optimus Prime kicking ass. Is that a bad thing?
Also, for Transformers appearing for more than 20 minutes…unfotunatelty ONLY the comic relief/racist/why did you EVER make these ones got any screen time >_>
June 29th, 2009 at 5:25 am
“it’s sort of a sad statement about entertainment when this quality of movie does so well. It’s just encouraging studios to abandon plot and acting in favor of girls bending over and junk blowing up.”
Normally I’m all for each to their own and everyone has a right to their own opinion, but seriously?
I love TF. LOVE it. I grew up with it and when asked who my childhood hero was I will unashamedly proclaim without any hesitation that it was Optimus Prime. But this kind of comment makes me pretty mad. The sad statement you refer is a total crock. The “studios” aren’t out there pointing guns at people’s heads making them turn out in their droves to go view a movie they have no vested interest in. People went to go see it, and are still going to see it because of the spectacle of it all. They want movies where they don’t have to think too much to. Why? Because they want to be entertained. They want to escape. They want to know that for the next however many minutes/hours they can sit and watch something that while by no stretch of the imagination is perfect (or arguably good), but can give them an opportunity to switch off from reality. That’s what is meant by switching off their brains. Not that they want to sit and drool and have no conscious idea of what’s going on around them. The world is still chock full of real so called plot driven movies which continually clean up and the awards ceremonies and receive universal praise from critics the world over, such as No Country for Old Men and whichever 3 hour long epic Russell Crowe has got himself attached to. And that’s fine, because there’s an audience for that medium. There’s a support system for that genre. We however, as fans of TF, follow a world that started life as half hour long toy advertisements. We’re not now nor were we ever watching tales of Shakespearian magnitude. Go back and watch the G1 cartoons. Tell me your witnessing writing that anf plot that’ll stop the world in it’s tracks. We’re watching 50 foot robots beat the crap out of each other, because it’s fun for us. Anyone who considers this movie an affront to the G1 universe needs their head examined. Because they’re talking about a movie based on a cartoon, used as a mechanism to sell toys. What the hizell did you expect?!? Judge it for what it was. An effects driven, robot centred explosion-a-thon. You want something plot driven with spectacular acting, watch The Departed. You want something to blow up every two minutes while the sun permanently sets, watch Michael Bay movies.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Wow! So much love/hate…. Haven’t seen it but dramatically lowering expectation….. now.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:12 am
hey rhuen, the bikes where introduced as arcee twins, yet i know htere are 3 so they would be triplets, writers muck up??? but as for them have names as toys, it has been done so that children dont get confused with 3 different toys called arcee.
SOundwave will be mean in the next movie, and also what happened to barricade????? why was scorpinok black, when he was brown in the first one? or was it a different scorpinok, just like there was a bonecrusher and multiple constructicons.
this is a bay movie done in the bay way, and thats that.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Man, I haven’t even seen the movie yet and all these reviews say it’s bad. I guess I’ll wait for the DVD release, but if those reviews have any influence on that, there won’t be a DVD release.
(Actually, I haven’t seen many reviews, but they seem to say the same thing from what I’ve heard, being “This movie isn’t worth the film it’s printed on!”)
June 29th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I agree with you Matt. This is the worst movie since Spider-Man 3, and just like that movie, it’s doing ridiculously well. There’s just no accounting for good taste nowadays.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Uh… Well, heres my argument for most complaints :
1- Megan Fox: Folks, half the freaking movie had her and her jiggling boobs… Were you on a bathroom break during the movie? @_@
2- Robot Fighting: … The last fighting scene was 40 minutes long…
Plus, a real fighting scene wouldn’t last long…
And it’s realistic to prose there be not much fighting… Seriously guys, this transformers had a lot more fight scenes than the last… Get over it.
3- Racism : Guys… Most freaking movies do it… Where have you been? Plus.. How can GIANT ROBOTS… be racist? o.o so shush please..
4- Crude Jokes : Personally I found some jokes hularious… And so did 90% of the movie theatre I was at…
5- Length : So you’re complaining about there not being much fight scenes… Then you complain the movie was too long?
haa
I swear, some of you are hypocrits.
My opinion was this movie was spectacular… Much better than the last.. The action was amazing.. and everything about it gave me goosebumps. I was shaking from the intense action.
10/10- go see it now
June 29th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Personally, I enjoyed it. It’s pretty much what I expected: Giant robots fighting, and a little bit of other things. However, I do admit that many things could have been better. More story focus would have helped, as well as more character development and less sexual humor (seriously, did we really need to see Devastator’s testicles?). Which is sad, because, after seeing Star Trek, I know that Orci and Kurtzman are really good writers. If Michael Bay didn’t help with the writing as much as I heard he did, the movie would have rocked. But, in reality, I’d have to give it a B-. Which is a step down, because I gave the first one a B+. If a third one is made, someone should tell Bay not to contribute too much.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:58 am
i agree with thein because i hear alot about the crude humor and i say that the movie should have humor because the series was never intended to be so serious. ever watched the original series? maybe you should because it’s something that you can actually see how it started, plus it’ll proove a lot wrong
June 29th, 2009 at 8:12 am
When it’s on DVD, just skip past all the stupid testicle and fart jokes. I mean, Optimus Prime’s scenes are great, it’s just sad that everything else is there between them all.
Honestly, I have to agree with this. Considering the first movie where he pretty much was… well, a schlub, it was nice to see Prime actually kick ###.
Of course, the more I think about the stupid nature of the scuzziness… well, I suppose it was rated PG13 (and yes, it was, for what it’s worth) for a reason. I did like the points worth liking, and rolled my eyes at the rest.
I will say that it’s better than the first one, though. And there were nice references to the classic TF (Ravage, Soundwave, space bridges (sorta), the Matrix of Leadership, etc.).
And yes, the original series had humor. However, it didn’t have crude humor, like this movie did.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:42 am
TF2 wasn’t absolutely awful, nor was it outstandingly brilliant. I didn’t particularly approve of all the crudeness but I laughed all the same, and the special effects were amazing. The plot was rushed, and there are other things that made it not as good as the first movie.
But one major thing that I don’t think anyone has commented on yet…
There was a huge lack of feeling and emotion between the robots and humans. I realised this when recently watching only a small part of the first one. They seemed too distant from each other even though they were supposed to be working together. When Optimus died, no one seemed anywhere near heartbroken, and this annoyed me. There wasn’t enough talking or feeling between characters…and I have to admit the best part was when Optimus was talking with Galloway at the start.
If there is going to be a number three…I hope they put more depth into it characterwise…
Otherwise, an enjoyable film.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:06 am
If Prime wouldn’t have been so cruel and antipathetic I could have even liked it, even with its flaws. But for that there’s no excuse for me.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:18 am
I’m in agreement that the attempts at humor should have toned down, but it wasn’t that bad. Mostly quick shots that didn’t affect the story. I absolutely hated the twins though. Why did the writers/Bay/whoever decide to devote so much screentime to Tweedledee & Tweedledum while Sideswipe & Arcee barely appeared? There were plenty of characters in the movie, and all deserved a moment or two in the spotlight. So why were the twins made Bumblebee’s sidekicks and focused on to the exclusion of these characters? The twins added nothing to the story, so why do they even exist? The story was good, the rest of the characters were well done - I loved Jetfire & Wheelie, and the effects were convincing. I liked the movie a lot, but I’m really looking forward to a fan edit which barely acknowledges the twins.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with the original Transormers. Maybe it’s because I’m still young. I don’t know, but I did enjoy this movie. The action scenes were fantastic, and while there were plot holes, I still enjoyed the overall movie. Like someone else said, I paid to see giant robots beat the crap out of each other and that’s what I got.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I haven’t seen it yet. So I’m not sure what it will be like. I just can’t wait to see my favorite decepticon.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am
This is why I despise film critics. >_>
And that doesn’t stop me from gonna watch it.
And I’m gonna watch it.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Its official… No one can just enjoy a movie these days…
June 29th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Rhuen - The other two bots were Arcee as well. The same way all those seperate vehicles were just Devistator instead of being the constructicons. I read somewhere that it’s explained in one of the prequel comics or something. Apparently they were supposed to join together into one robot, but that got left out of the movie.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Ha ha
Loserbots XD
June 29th, 2009 at 11:49 am
In my opinion…I love the twins…I laughed my ass off whenever they appeared
and as for the whole “Racism” debate…they are not racist.
in the first movie the Transformers explain that they learned earths language through the “Internet”
so the twins…they are just acting like Wanna-be Rappers…Whites/Chinese/Mexicans/Indians/Japanese/Russians…Etc…all have people who copy the Gangsta-talk…yet everyone jumps on the “black” bandwagon.
oh and lets not forget that originally..everyone thought they where “retarded”
talk about hypocrisy
got something on your mind people?..maybe Bigotry?
June 29th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Okay, The Twins Were Okay Because Its Funny That They Kept Cussin.Wheelie Humping Mikaela’s Was Sending Me To The Boarderline Of Hateing The Movie. But Devastator Having Testicles Just Made Me Mad Because They Made A Good Character Look Bad.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
well, I thing that the movie wasn’t so bad, but I like the first one better, because here the most cool ‘bots have almost no lines (I think Ratchet speaks only once, Sideswipe just the same and they don’t give any importance to femmes!>< Arcee, Chromia, Elita, what happened??!)
June 29th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
i think that the rotf movie was great
June 29th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Oh please, the ridiculous, “This will destroy good cinema!” line of thinking is just stupid.
Movies that are stupid, pointless fun have been being made for ages, just like movies that are stunning brilliant masterworks. This movie isn’t going to change a damn thing, you just want to get your panties in a bunch so you can feel more important than you actually are.
I liked the movie, I was thoroughly entertained, the audience I saw it with applauded at the end. Why is it not enough for critics to go, “I didn’t like it, it’s a stupid movie” why this doom and gloom crap, and insulting the intelligence of anyone who enjoyed it. I like smart movies, I like dumb movies, and I’m getting real sick of being insulted for what I choose to enjoy.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
But that is Michael Bay’s M/O, exchanging Plot for Explosions, just like M. Night Shyamalan exchanges Plot for Twists, and the Wayans Brother’s exchange Plot for Perverted Jokes… It’s very simple.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I was disappointed with the lack of characterization of the Transformers. In the first movie, at least the Autobots had some depth and some of the Decepticons received a shard of character. But for the second, it seemed like both sides were stripped of any real character depth. Optimus did the most fighting in the whole thing, and while I don’t mind a strong, capable leader, it seems superficial to have a team when you’re the only one doing something useful.
The Fallen was Darth Sidious in another form and Jetfire reminded me too much of Davy Jones (PotC) for me to take him seriously. I kept hearing so much about Jolt and Sideswipe, yet I missed any reference of either. I’m told the one who said “I’m good” was Sideswipe but I didn’t care by that point. The new Decepticons appeared and then….they were taken down within 10 minutes of screen time. The only exception I had was Ravage, the only new Transformer that really impressed me and held my interest throughout the movie.
Did I like the movie? Yes, for what it was, but I left with a lot of conflictions with the director and the way it was run. I don’t remember G1 or the older serieses, so that’s not my basis of comparison. I wanted depth on the most general level; a reason for them to be alive, their position on the team, something to explain their character and importance.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I believe that the movie was good. Considering that the first movie didn’t follow any existing story for the most part I felt that the plot for the second movie tied in great with the first. I can agree that some of the humer was crude and maybe not needed but I also look at it as if it were happening in real life would some of this stuff be plausible and I have seen lots of people like the twins (of all colors) and know of lots of people that would react in such ways as those in the film. In my opinion the movie was great in what it was supposed to be a sequal to the first with an original story to add to the various stories already a part of the Transformers universe.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Anyone that can honestly sit up and say “blah, rubbish film” is taking themselves far too seriously, and indeed, missing the point. Of course its going to be a little silly. Its a movie based on kids toys involving giant transforming robots from another planet. Its not a social commentary on the inequities of capitalism. “Turn off your brain and enjoy” is exactly the right phrase. No-one is asking you to act stupid.. you’re being asked to accept a fictional premise and enjoy a movie with giant robots and heroic humans.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
(Formerly Magnus Minor) Wow. These are the longest comments I’ve ever seen
June 29th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I’m waiting for the inevitable fan-edit DVD.
I’d suggest the rest of you do the same.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
This time Matt I’m inclined to disagree entirely. While the movie had its flaws with some crude humor (some of which I managed to ignore) lack of characterisation (Sideswipe’s single line summed him up perfectly though, and Ironhide was great once again) and uncomplicated plot (it’s the Matrix of Leadership, surely that’s a substantial plot), I think it was a brilliant movie. The action scenes were fun, Simmons was once again hilarious, and the robots looked damned cool. I do feel some Decepticons were used as throw-away characters who they could have done much more, though.
But as has already been said that this is a film based on a toy franchise - you can’t expect the Da Vinci Code. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I’m not fond of Michael Bay movies, and had low expectations for the first movie, then 20 minutes into the first time I saw it in the theatre that day, my brother-in-law and I turned to each other and both said “This is the best movie ever.” What I found to be the biggest high note of the first movie was the pacing, it flowed almost exactly the same as the G1 episodes: Scene with lots happening, cut to scene somewhere else with lots happening, cut to scene somewhere else with lots happening, and so on.
After watching RoTF I found one of the low points was the pacing; the scenes were too long and slow which was made more apparent by the much slower paced and moodier background score and there wasn’t two or three distinct plot lines that were converging that they could cut between like the first one. This made the story seem even slower as we were really just following one long drawn out plot line.
I also felt that instead developing the existing cast of transformers more and then supplementing them with new characters, they decided to bombard the audience with seemingly endless amounts of new robots without developing any of them old or new — except for that one good scene between Starscream and Megatron which actually felt almost out of place in this movie.
To be honest, the first thought I had once the credits started was: “This movie needs someone to do a Phantom Edit of it.” (The Phantom Edit was a fan re-edit of the Phantom Menace that shortened the movie, made Jar Jar Binks not annoying, and got rid of a lot of unnecessary scenes and characters. Reviewers who saw it actually said it was the way the movie should have been made in the first place.)
At least that’s how I feel about the situation.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I agree with Matt whole-heartedly. among other things, I’m slagging *tired* of endless barrages of movies where the only possible way to enjoy them is a lobotomy or similar way of turning oneselve into a mindless vegetable. It starts making me wonder if maybe those Hulu ads aren’t as much of a joke as we think–not so much the alien thing, as *intentionally* turning people’s minds to mush…
And the kicker? This steaming pile of crap, with its hideous body designs, disgusting mangling of characterization (I agree with another poster–why *are* the Autobots genocidal lunatics? IIRC in the first movie, it’s mentioned that the primary reason the Decepticons are there in the first place is because Prime and crew stole the power source for Cybertron, which is now *dying* because of them…), the problem of half the movie being ‘Look at the squishies trying to reproduce!’, and the garbage like leg-humping, piss jokes, and mecha-testicles….have you looked at the box office gross (a better term was never coined, in this case. :-/) for the thing? This, more than anything else, kills what tiny ember of faith I had left in humanity. :-/
June 29th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
The effect were awesome, but poor Optimus and Bumblebee had to practically carry the damn movie in the scenes they were in because everything else was LAME.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Here’s my take on the movie, it was okay; not great, not good, not bad, not horrible. Just okay, the special effects were great, some of the action scenes were pretty good (should I be scared I enjoyed the opening scene more than the rest of the movie?), but the story was weak, character development almost wasn’t there at all, and at times it was almost like every character was the same person. The crude jokes got old after a while, but when you’ve known the people I’ve known over the eighteen and a half years of my life, you get used to it; of course I only found a couple of the jokes remotely funny, but they weren’t so bad I wanted to walk out. That being said, I liked the movie for what it was, it was better than the first in some areas, but worse in others; besides, this was a freakin’ Michael Bay movie, what do you expect from him? Just my two cents…
June 29th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
If you ask me, the only bit that DEFINITELY shouldn’t have been there, and I’m amazed no one spoke much of it, was when Agen- no SEYMOUR Simmons reveals that he now wears an S7 THONG?!?!?!?!? WTF?!?
June 29th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
You know what? I will never listen to the critics again. SCREW. THE. CRITICS.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
If you asked me a few years ago if I would want to see a Transformers live-action movie I would have slapped you cold in the face for assuming there’s a universe that could exist in which I wouldn’t be camped out to get the first ticket.
After the first movie and a look at the trailer, I haven’t seen it ROTF, and refuse to unless it’s on some medium without a fee. I repudiate putting money towards Micheal Bay’s bull.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I liked the movie, although there were a lot of cliches. Blackout came back to life (destroyed by Lennox in the first movie), Arcee was three people, Sideways barely made an appearance, Soundwave didn’t fight at all (I expected this but I hoped it wasn’t true), Megatron is in the ocean as his tank form (unexplainable considering he was dropped in the ocean as a jet form) and the whole story of the Fallen was destroyed, along with any possible involvement of Unicron in the third movie, unless Michael Bay is willing to twist the storyline up further. Wheelie was a disgrace, much like Frenzy in the first movie. Skids and Mudflap were funny, if not vulgar. They were introduced as a made-up character much like Barricade, Blackout, Brawl,…etc. The sex jokes, like the dogs and Wheelie, among others I can’t remember, were annoying and reminiscent of Superhero Movie. Scorponok and Ratchet were said to make an appearance, FOR ALL OF FIVE SECONDS. Along with this, many characters were pointless through the movie. Some weren’t even introduced, like the ones in the battle scene near the end. Jetfire… I don’t even want to talk about him. He was old (How does a transformer grow a beard?), he had a cane(WTH?!), and he kills himself to help Optimus by taking himself apart and fusing with him. My favorite scene was when Optimus fought Megs, Stascream, and “resurrected” Blackout, even though he died (big surprise). I liked the movie fight scenes, but the story and most of the jokes were a disappointment.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
THE CRITICS MUST GO!!! I mean COME ON!!! that movie kicked butt!!! it did not suck, it was not bad, it ROCKED!!! so I agree with anyone who is against critics who think the TFROTF is bad!!
June 29th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
so…many…plot holes….
well- you could point out the part where devastator is climbing the pyramid at te same time that bumblebee is fighting rampage…and the humans are fighting mixmaster…and– well, you get the idea…
June 29th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I saw it and hated it, if you have not seen it then save your money.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Those critic quotes are fantastic! My personal favorite has to be, “marginally better than s#*tting your pants.”
Good call Matt, I agree with you 99%!
June 29th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I paid my money to see giant transforming alien robots beating and shooting the crap out of each other for two hours.
That’s what I got. This made me happy.
I would gladly go and see it again. Twice.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
TY Matt! I was just about to give up on TF fans/supporters of “BayFormers”…
I, for one, have decided to boycott watching TF2 - I can’t get myself to support crappy movie making, despite my love for transformers. I’m glad to see we’re on the same page. Kudos!
June 29th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
BTW, the helicopter is Grindor, and there is a Bonecrusher knockoff as well.
Directors aren’t known for intelligence.
Why do you think in “Hoist goes Hollywood” the director keeps calling Hoist “Moist”?
June 29th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Grindooooooor! Grindooooooor!
Grindor was a robot… I mean he was a Chopper ‘bot… Er, I mean he was a chopper… but he was still, Grindooooooor! Grindooooooor!
(sorry… I was referencing the Trogdor song)
June 29th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
It’s uh… It’s a freaking action movie. Turning your brain off and watching the explosions is the norm for the genre. Certainly, RotF had it’s pitfalls. But I doubt it would have gotten half the complaints it did if it hadn’t been tied to the transformer franchise. If you could take transformers off its golden pedestal for just a little while, I think you might enjoy it quite a bit more.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Can we start a petition for a re-edit of the film when released on Blu-ray/DVD? One that takes out the majority of twin-shenanigans, parent flubbing, random spanish dude, and trims down several other sections:
Upon watching the film a second time, I started looking for scenes that could be taken out:
1. The scene in Egypt where Simmons contacts Eps and the surrounding seconds TAKE OUT
2. “Waa I’m a government official get me out of here” “we can’t contact our men” TAKE OUT
We know/don’t care enough to confirm that the official doesn’t die.
3. Alice/pretender TAKE OUT
we don’t really care about you, honey. In fact, it seems all the work is done by “mini”-cons and the fighting is done by bigger ones. I do wish they hadn’t killed Ravage, though. I would be fine with him retreating at the end. Soundwave can make another one.
4. General pacing from death of Optimus into finding Simmons, then finding Jetfire, Fallen exposition, etc. If you trimmed it all up you’d have the pacing of the first movie and the complaints we have about wierd and stupid things would be lessened because they’d be OVER. FASTER.
Bagels
June 29th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Guys, slow down. DO you know why there was crude humor?
[i]because Bay is a Prick[/i] (hopes those work)
Well, okay, I deserved that. But let;s face it. I can’t think of ANY High School now that isn’t bursting at the seams with crude humor. testicle jokes are as common today as knock-knock jokes. Sad, but true.
I don’t neccesarily agree with stereotypes, but they end up in movies anyway. And sometimes I don’t think it’s intentional. We can draw a stereotype from almost anyone. Other times, it has to happen because a story only has so many characters. ANd as an added kicker, they are sometimes true. How many atheletes do you see wearing pocket protectors?
Oh, and why can;t an alien culture have similar personality traits, stereotypes. Sure, you can;t deal with skin color, but the rest is open, no? And for hat matter, why can;t 80ft alien ROBOTS not have the endrance to fight longer than the average human?
June 29th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Oh, Matt, I would encourage you to find an old theatre, somehere with discount seats and a nice, old style atomasphere, and go see it. Whether you suspend higher synaptic functions or not, you at least get to see a movie in a nice theatre
June 29th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
RAZZIE TIME!!
The cartoon was never this stupid.
People saying “What did you expect it’s an action movie” “It’s not Shakespeare ” just proves that the movie sucks.
Poorly shot soulless, random, pointless, action scenes ruined by shaky cam, blurry, zoomed in, 1 second, ADHD editing, with 20 different camera angles.
Blatant and lazy story, plot holes, continuity errors, pacing problems, terrible cliche and excessive ad lib dialogue, horrible acting, robots emote better than the humans, cringe inducing comedy and toilet humor that would make a 10 year old vomit in disgust.
Wheelie and the Twins have more screen time then all the other Transformers
Wheelie is a cussing farting leg humping idiot.
The Twins are racist gold bucktoothed mongoloid faced thugged out “bust a cap in your ass” cussing gangsters. They look like robot versions of how cartoonists used to draw African natives back in the early 1900s. Big teeth, big mouths, big ears, small heads, like monkeys.
Devastator is shown with testicles and is pointless and a wasted character, killed by Agent Simmons shot to the balls.
Soundwave has little dialogue and never leaves space to fight or is show in robot
mode.
Sideswipe Ironhide Ratchet and Arcee have little to any dialogue and little screen time.
Transformers have babies now
Alice the pretender is pointless and wasted.
Sam’s mom getting high.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Are you kidding? The movie was AWESOME. Jeez, does a movie have to have a complex plotline to be good? I’ll admit that some of the profanity got to me, but other than that and the fact that Soundwave did nothing, it was just plain awesome.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I could see why the critics didn’t like it, and I did have issues with it (lack of characterisation for other bots, crude humour that was too visible, plot that dragged), but I really enjoyed it for what it is, especially for Optimus Prime being…well, awesome. =D
I’d also like to point out a few examples of how, at its most basic level, ROTF actually resembles the old G1 cartoon in essence, in my opinion. (Yes, I am aware they have had quite a few good stories, particular the one where the Aerialbots travel to Prime’s past, but let’s not pretend that some of the plots weren’t goofy. =P)
ROTF: The Decepticons are back! And they want to DESTROY THE SUN!
G1: Well, let’s recap some of the Decepticon’s less than memorable plots…
-Attacking the underwater wonderland of Atlantis only to be stopped by Seaspray of all people
-Insecticons make clones only to be stopped by ROBOT INSECTICIDE
-Decepticons raid the middle east multiple times!
-Decepticons unleash electrical gremlin on TOKYO!
-Decepticons brainwash club-going citizens using SUBLIMINAL DISCO MUSIC! Oh, and Tracks befriends some sort of ethnic mechanic ex-car thief kid.
-And of course: Trying to destroy the earth…BY THROWING CYBERTRON AT IT
However they were written, however entertaining, those plots seemed pretty goofy as me. As goofy as wanting to destroy the sun. If you just arrange the scenes right and take the crude stuff out, you’d actually get a G1 cartoon, or something with a semblance to it. XD
June 29th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Wow its either hate or love. the truth is I am between. I still stand by everything I said. And here’s the thing, the teens not us older fans were certainly the target audience. I saw teens coming out of the theater yelling out that it was the best movie ever. and when I left most of the teens around were loving it.
My nephews loved it (but the fact is they are kids, like ten years old). I could have sworn Michael Bay said he was going to tone down the comedy, instead it just got cruder and more of it. My Nephews didn’t care for the crude humour but loved the action and the robots.
The line with Arcee and the Twins is “Arcee and the twins” the Twins being the two crude bots, Mudflap and…I really don’t remember these two. Would it have killed them for a few seconds to explain that all three bikes were Arcee in three parts?
As for Alice, or as I call her the Succubot: WHy do I feel like this was a demented creation inspired from the Techno-Organic “Sari” from Transformers Animated who could change from a human mode to a robot mode “third season”.
But in the end the truth is, it is entertaining and worth watching on a large screen (those special effects only really work on a giant screen: speaking of which a thirty foot high ass shot of a hairy man I could have done with out.) But the plot…again made no sense. Of course it made as much sense as “RiD’s Atlantis plot” or “Cybertron’s” Cyber-planet key plot.
But “the last Prime?” really? what? Why do something that eliminates the chance to use other Primes?
And It feels like these movies are going to act like the X-men movies where they focus on a few and bring in many others which they marginalize or kill off quickly.
oh and PS: given the sexual stuff, if they do go with Techno-Organics for a sequal and bring in Black Arachnea I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed something that could be interprited as a “robot sex-scene”.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:47 am
I watched “Five Faces of Darkness” to prepare for TF2:ROTF. I ended up actually enjoying both for the same reason: new revelations about deeper mythology. The Autobots stole Cybertron from the Quintessons in the same way as the USA stole central North America from England? Okay! The Fallen was one of the seven original Cybertronians tasked with feeding the children of the Allspark with solar power, but a moral failing made him forever an enemy? Why not!
I guess the new Star Trek mellowed me when it comes to parallel universe remakes.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Well, it’s a good thing we live in America, eh? Everyone is allowed to have an opinion and nobody can tell you it sucks. Not that I would.
I personally found the movie very good, and entertaining. I still favor the first, and while I lean more towards g1 as opposed to rotf’s way of potraying Cybertron’s history and the characters (I am a shameless tf addict, sue me) the movie itself was pretty good. I could’ve done without the many sex jokes (”Location- I am beneath enemy scrotum” by Simmons was just stupid. Why? Why did they say that?) and it did have the glaring factor of completely killing certain parts about the series, but every movie has poor parts. This one’s were bad character planning (the pretender Molly, the not-g1-twins, ‘devastator’, 3-part Arcee, and Sideswipe-who-is-tracks being among the ones I dislike) plot holes (if all of the original Primes sacrifices themsellves, where did Optimus come from?) and confusing elements (does Ravage have another bot inside or is that a drone, and WTF was Soundwave doing, raping that satelite?) were this one’s. Other parts made it shine - pretty good character acting, good interaction with surrounding for CGI bots, some good characters, and of course, obligatory Starscream bashing among them.
All I can say, is while I didn’t like it as much as the original, I’ll still buy the DVD, merchandise, and beg for a sequel (WITH A RESSURECTED JAZZ PLZ?)
June 30th, 2009 at 2:55 am
I’m a fan of G1 Transformers, I loved the 1st animated movie, I loved the 1st live action movie. But I gotta agree with all those who reviewed RotF negatively. For me, it was just disappointing. The writing and plot was clumsy in parts. Much what carried the 1st movie forward was the novelty and wonder if seeing the Transformers live, yet the new movie didn’t carry through that wonder.
I was really looking forward to seeing Arcee, but while her chasing Sideways was cool, we didn’t really hear her talk much or display that simple female awesomeness she had in the 1986 movie.
I also looked foward to Mudflap and Skids, expecting cute and funny, but got annoying, immature redneck stereotypes (and I mean that they’re an insult to fun, funny rednecks like Larry the Cable Guy). They’re only redemption was Mudflap getting swallowed by Devastator only to blow his way out of his skull, both of them swashbuckling side by side.
There were so many new Decepticons shown, especially in the last battle, yet all they did was blast, get shot, fight and die. And we didn’t even see any of them Transform in the middle of the battle! I understand that they didn’t have time to reformat having just arrived on Earth, but what made the final battle of the 1st movie cool was them going around blasting everything and transforming between modes in the fight!
Matt’s past jab at Jetfire being old and needing a cane was spot on. It was just silly. I understand the age, lack of energon and falling apart thing, but the performance was more cranky, old but respectable Brit war vet than cranky, old but respectable Cybertronian war vet.
Lastly- they upped the carnage and (robotic) dismemberment here. I saw lots of gruesome dismemberments and holes in torsos. When the scipt is dumb, just up the body count as they say. And note: when they did that in the original 1986 movie (example: Prowl), it was dramatic and frightening; in RotF, it was there just to turn off the thinking part of your brain.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:00 am
I’ll probably love the movie. Going to see it wednesday or this weekend.
People tore down the first and i loved it.
Just as they bashed the Star Wars prequels. Frankly i don’t really care. It’ll be at the least highly entertaining. And all this political correctness, purism and bitching is totally irrelevant to me in the end. I’ll go see, form my own opinion and most likely will disagree. Critics are wrong a lot in my experience both in movie and games industry. In the end the true critic will be the box office and wether or not it sells.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:54 am
There is a lot of over-reacting going off in this thread…
Its not a brilliant movie, its not a masterpiece of storytelling. But neither is it a bad movie, it certainly does not suck. If a movie entertains, then yes, its a good movie. I was entertained, I laughed, I enjoyed the action sequences.
But I do wish there were less humour and more character development and more plot and better character reactions, especially in the case of Optimus Prime’s death.
To achieve those kinds of desires, you have to slow the pace of the movie, focus on the characters more. If you follow that path, the film would quickly diverge away from being a “family” movie to one that is more for mature viewers. Transformers is supposed to be a program aimed primarily at children that the family can watch and in that aspect it does it really well.
If you’re after a more mature/adult film with complex storylines and character development, then the fault is your own because you really are looking at the wrong genre.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Meh, im going to watch the film tomorow, but from what i’ve read and seen i doubt i will be happy with the ‘creative changes’ he made.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:48 am
i think the movie was great, much better than the first. the first had the awfull exposition to go through, and transformers has never hqad a fixed plot or story like other series. its allways been the decepticons and autobots fighting, and littole stories making a part of a much larget tapestry of small events.
the plot and basis for the movie was pretty poor, i agree, and i didnt like Wheelie’s face or actions, but it was more than made up for by the rest of the movie.
ei dont quite get what the big deal with the twins being seen as racist steriotypes. of course they are! so is the entire trilogy of Rush hour! thats all those three movies are about, chinese and african american steriotypes blowing stuff up and being helarious about it. same deal with the twins.
i wasnt expecting a masterpiece or a fantiastic story such as Star Trek 11 or other story driven movies, i wanted to see prime kicking ass, transforming, and huge action scenes. i got that, so i’m happy.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Sadly Leo is supposed to have an expanded role in TF3.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
This film was awsome how could someone not like it. it was better than the first film by miles!!!!
June 30th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I say the best course of action now is to just mass-email speilberg and demand he cut bay out of movie three. if you look at bay’s work you know he makes it bad on purpose because he knows he can get away with it. he is specifically targeting 13 year old boys. though I don’t know about racist. I didn’t see a bit of that. people are claiming it’s the twins, but those aren’t stereotypes I see in common with any given race. just with morons. 85% of all morons I’ve ever known have acted like that, regardless of their race. the rest are the morons who think they’re smart. all in all, I say this: if you can ignore some of it’s faults, it’s genuinely a good movie. the plot was good, but they kept skipping over it because bay wants explosions, tits, and dog humping. but let’s keep one thing in mind here: STARSCREAM AND MEGATRON HAD A REAL RECREATION OF THE CHEMISTRY THEY HAD IN G1! I mean, honestly, that alone made up for half of the film’s faults for me. Well, aside from arcee being four characters. forgive me, but I cannot accept that. make more if you want, but don’t give them all the same name. all in all, it was a fun movie with admitable faults, but the way I see it, people are over reacting. this is transformers. we’re not going to see something as deep as watchmen was, we’re going there to go watch giant robots beat the crap out of eachother. I think some people forgot that, but that doesn’t mean it was perfect.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
We don’t need two dogs humping, we don’t need Bumblebee leaking even more fluid unless its his life-oil in battle, we need no robot farts. We don’t need humans (could anyone care less about them? Sure Fox is a hot girl but that does not a great movie make, if we wanted that we’d watch porn) WE WANT OUR CHILDHOOD IN A KICKASS GROWN UP VERSION! Why is this so hard to do? I’m making myself sound like the biggest nerd in the world but to hell with what the kids think and like, give us back our childhood with mature violance, without capable and deadly villains and, in Transformers, NO F¤(#/(¤#)/G humans that isn’t running, screaming or dying. To hell with Ms Witwicky’s drug abuse!
June 30th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Seriously guys, it wasn’t that bad.
And Steelwave, how could you forget the GIANT PURPLE GRIFFIN?
June 30th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
The Transformers have been around for almost 30 years, and they deserve much better than Michael Bay’s lowbrow, adolescent hack-work…
June 30th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I went to see a movie about explosion and giant robot kicking the crap out of each other and that is what I got. As for a faithful Transformers movie, at least the X-men, Star Wars, Star Trek and Spiderman fans share our pain.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
By the way, I know racist stereotypes when I see ‘em, and Mudflap and Skids definitely are. Michael Bay knew what he was doing when he created those two, so let’s stop making excuses for bad behavior. Guess it’s still ok in Hollywood (and the rest of America) to insult Black people - directly and indirectly…
June 30th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Sorry, didn’t have time to read every comment, and don’t mean to repeat a point. As someone who has gone to all three TF movie opening, it was not that bad. Look at the driving force behind TF. IT was a show to get out toy lines, plot was always second. The 4th season was a way to get 50 new toys on screen in three episodes. It’s the fans that make this world up and some follow every story line, American or Japanese, and you will never please everyone. The language, was a bit much, I felt bad for the woman with four kids when Mud flap called the dude a pussy. In truth I felt like< i was watching a G1 story line with the visuals to go with it. I mean how many times in the old series was Starscream coloured wrong, OF facing or in the first movie was an auto killed, but then fighting in the next battle. Sure I felt cheated when devastator was climbing the pyramid, but Mix Master and Long Haul were also in a shoot out with NEST. I was never expecting any of these movies to be better then the show I grow up on, or the memories I have. And you know what? It never will be, sorry I will never be disappointed.
Besides it hollywood, so someone will remake it in like 5 to 10 years with story in mind and real cars that can transform. Thanks for letting me have my say, good luck with the third on already in some per production.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
As a member of Michael Bay’s forums, let me clear some things up: First of all, Blackout did not come back, it was another robot that scanned the same vehicle. Second of all, the reason you see Megs in his tank form is because the little robot called “the Doctor” told the Constructicons to sacrfice one of there own to resurect Megs, which they did. Hope that filled in some holes.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:01 am
The only thing I did not like about the movie are those STUPID potty jokes.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:53 am
yeesh, fanboy rage is the right of all sentient beings I suppose, but the length of this comment section is making me regret my fandom.
I saw it a second time yesterday, and I still defend the film. Sure it has it’s plot holes (the allspark is supposed to be the chief source of energon for the transformers? So what have they been living off of for all this time that megatron and the allspark have been chilling out (literally) on earth?) It has it’s contrivances, it’s unlikeable and useless characters, It’s moments of stupidity and It totally forgets about wheelie during that final battle, it would have been nice to get a bit more closure on all the seperate characters or focus more on the new guys. But it’s still a big dumb and awesomely loveable film at heart. I watch this for the same reason I watch kung fu films (and I swear, NOONE watches Kung Fu flicks for the original or daring story). Its an action film that does the action MUCH better than the first, and doesn’t quite get as stupid as the first one did. At the end of the first one, Prime rips off megatrons leg when he goes for sam in that last scene, and THEN asks sam to kill him. After all, why the hell do you think megs was crawling the way he was? I still lose brain cells every time I watch that scene, and thankfully, the second never got quite that stupid.
I suppose the argument could be made for racism, but I didn’t feel that way. I think the jokes, wheelie, and the twins had their “meh” or “wha” moments, but I never felt that the director was slamming any cultural group.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:54 am
At least it had a better plot than G1. Yeah, I said it!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:10 am
this movie was so effing good!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:43 am
I went back and watched my old G1 collection from when I was a kid, a few episodes anyway. and something I realized. We overly romanticize what we watched as children, we didn’t anaylise shows and plots back then we just sat down and enjoyed it. But as we get older we start to have these expectations and don’t realize that the things we liked as kids don’t have the same things that appeal to us as adults. The old cartoon was actually pretty corny at times and filled to the brim with plot holes (many of which due to them not hashing out how their world works until much later on).
and none of the series over the years are 100% good or bad. Although sexual stuff didn’t pop in till Beast Wars with the stripper inspired BlackArachnia LoL. Gotta love how 90’s and beyond they started to sneak stuff into cartoons for the adults.
But that’s the crutch. the movies arn’t any different aside from crudeness than the cartoons. Yes we know more about the cartoon characters because twelve hours for a season or two certainly gives more time for background than even a two hour movie which focuses mainly on action.
If nothing else my one and only major complaint was the crude humour and over-use of sex (a little less, innuendo is one thing but sheesh its a toy commerical made into a movie for crying out loud). I liked the scene with Alice…but it was out of place for a movie where people took their kids, especially as it reminded me of the movie “Species”.
Basically to enjoy the movie. you must watch it as you watch the cartoons, have fun and don’t think too hard about the details. But yeah a better plot would be nice for the third, but not something critics will love (I hate most movies they love like “The Spring” )hopefully we don’t get another writers strike that overlaps production.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:01 am
Quoting Em, you brought up I forgot the GIANT PURPLE GRIFFIN, which for the record, is one of the most outrageous images in my head. XD
Well, I was tempted to bring that up, but as the Griffin wasn’t essential to the plot (meaning, the episode didn’t revolve around it, though I’d pay for an episode or a Spotlight Comic about the Giant Purple Griffin), I decided to leave it out of those other things mentioned.
There’s also that episode where the Autobots go to Hollywood thanks to Hoist saving a director whose style seems to be a prototype of Michael Bay. Seriously. Watch ‘Hoist Goes to Hollywood’. It’s hilarious. XD
Oh. And if Soundwave and Blaster duke it out in movie 3 (provided Blaster gets in somehow), they NEED to have smack talk like they did in the episode where Soundwave brainwashes those citizens with subliminal disco music.
Blaster: I’ve been waitin’ a long time for this, you poor excuse for a sound system!
Soundwave: All talk. No shock. (sonic duel commences)
July 1st, 2009 at 6:44 am
look. Even for dumb fun, stuff that sucked. Robot designs were worse, and I’ve grown used to the electric spaghetti look they all have. They should at least have legs. Arcee(s) were terrible, and they HAD A DESIGN for the first one, with legs. I’ve seen the cgi model, I OWN the damn toy. WHy change it and make it look worse. Giant thing what with 2 wheels just kinda stuck on there. One word: Legs.
Second, not so much freaking robots that could have been other more important robots. Girl Humanlooking plot: pointless. Living kitchen robots: kinda neat but waste of time. Plotholes: LARGE and looming, and I’m the kind of guy that ignores this stuff, just to try to enjoy the movie. Fallen. Had no point, and I really wanted him to. But it was all over the place. And for giant robots fighting? Come On, most of them you couldnt tell who they were, so the fights ment nothing, and even when you knew who was fighting who, the shots were so bad, and close up, I couldn’t follow the action. So even for a dumb “fun” movie, it lacked what I would want out of even that. But Soundwave was good enough. That is the only thing I take with me. I got his toy, so at least I know his robot form. And though they didnt vocoder Frank Welker’s Voice, it was his from G1, so…I’ll deal. Ravage was great (but why one eye when could just as easily been 2…arrrgh.)
Ok, I’ll say it. To hell with mudflap and skids. SHould have been someone we know already, since they were the whole movie. Ironhide and Ratchet. Or if they Have to be new ones, Hound and Wheeljack. Whynot? Bah!
Dont even get me started on devastator. I excuse much of what …that was. But to make it pointless as well? Bah!
July 1st, 2009 at 7:48 am
People are complaining that the storyline for a movie about giant robot cars from space is too silly? What series have you guys been watching for the past twenty-odd years because it certainly wasn’t Transformers…
July 1st, 2009 at 10:42 am
I think it was really good, but not as good as Transformers 1. The problem is that they focused to much on humor and not enough on story and action.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:10 am
I appreciate Bay making the transformer movies, but at the same time, I can complain about the flow of the movie, his inability to direct without explosions, and the fact that he’s good at creating plot holes big enough for Unicron to squeeze through without considering rewrites.
Not to mention the little thing about the fallen, an iconic figure for everyone who is a real fan of transformers, not being his iconic powerful harbinger of unicron self. How is he most likely going to take all this? like TF:A Sentinel Prime.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
Just “amen” to all you said.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Well, opinions can go either way with this film. This is the type of film tailor-made for one specific type of audience: young teens.
As for me, well, the crude humor is good for a laugh the first time around, but what this film was really for was the action sequences, especially Optimus VS The Decepticons. That’s all I asked for, and that’s what I got. Story was mainly an excuse to lead up to those battles, but that’s to be expected from a writer’s strike salvage.
Also, some of you guys are hard to please. I was gonna use the “turn off your brain” argument, but you specifically debunked that. You even go as far as to use the “true fan” argument, which I hate because it shows a good degree of arrogance. I know I’m going to be flamed for this, but is it too much to be able to like what I want and not be lamblasted for it?
July 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
It had good parts and bad.
Most of the humor was over the top, Leo should be shot and the wrecksticles were a WTF? moment if there ever was one. It had femmes >.>
it had the matrix, it had combining (of more then one kind), it had loads of new mechs ‘Cons and ‘Bots, and it had truly G1 aftkicking!
Face it, it was by and large a rip off of G1 eppy ‘Changing Gears’, with some key points removed and filled with other stuff.
I still enjoyed it and I will enjoy again and again and again…. :3 just like I enjoy some of the really dum G1 eppys (purple mechanical griffon anyone?)
July 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
To be honest, i didn’t read / hear anyone else’s opinion on TF@ till after i’d watched it, but my personal point of view remains the same: it was WAY BETTER than the first movie. i may not be as old as a fan (i was born about halfway through G1), but i think the first movie was concentrated way too much on the human part of the…. cast. i mean it wasn’t really Transformers, it was like “The American society and military dealing with the threat of NBE-1 and 2 and 3 and….” and “Sam Witwiky’s tormented adolescence”. although these aspects are still followed in TF2, the Transformers themselves were outlined a lot better, even though not so much as individuals, but as a race, with it’s whole history and such. i loved the part about the 7 Primes, it kinda made Optimus Prime seem royality :). although ofcourse it has MAJOR plot holes, overall the movie was very enjoyable. it had everything: humor, action (although a bit too many explosions, but the fight scenes between the bots totally ripped), a love story (although that part is not really one of my faves, it again shifts too much focus on the humans insead of our beloved bots)…. it was a good movie.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Not only does this have the longest comments, it’s only been 3 days and it has yhe most comments of any page!
July 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I think it is very wrong for anyone to call it a bad movie critics don’t understand that this movie had to appeal to all of the fans of Transformers and just the other people who saw it and are douchebags to anyone else who like Transformers. There had to be cheap laughs for the kids, foul mouthed humor for the teen to young adult age, and just jokes for everyone and everyone else. And I fail to see how “have fun” and “turn your brain off” are contradictory but I do believe that you didn’t have to turn your brain off. The only reason anyone can say they didn’t enjoy it is if they tried not to enjoy it.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
On my opinion, the twins sounded more like hillbillies, the “balls” joke was the second i saw in a Transformers related anything (First in the popular fan made Mac VS PC vid) but still was funny. Sam going to The Well of All Sparks (That is at least my gess) was dumb. And as a comidean on Youtube states “.. And Arcee that i think onl had one line, and Jolt who i don’t think had any lines at all!” I’ll try to get links to the MVP and the comedian’s vids later. Thanks for reading. Also, as i keep saying these are the biggest comments that pored in the fastest, and this is also my longest and i think i can stop changeling names.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Ho! and this movie was way better than the last.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Heh. Just came back in today and saw the comments on people trying to defend BayFormers with ‘But the 80’s Transformers were silly!’ Wrong end of the stick, kiddo. Yes, the G1 Transformers were silly–but so was ever other 80’s toon. It’s something of an identifier for that era–not to mention that they were all silly in a very similar, kid-friendly level way. BayFormers…goes *stupid*. Beavis and Butthead level stupid–and I can’t *stand* that show.
I mean, compare and contrast here–Bay’s potty jokes could easily be totally edited out of the movies and have no effect whatsoever on the story (then again, 75%+ of the movies could be edited out and have no effect whatsoever on the story, but that’s a different complaint…). The one occurance of crude humor I can think of (namely, the beans/fart hoke from Beast Wars) was not only intregrated into the plot in a way that made sense, it was important to it as the ‘punchline’ for the episode (the Boris Vallerjo pose by the crew immediately after they blast through the wall, though–yeah, that was silly.
)’
If Bay had used this stuff stuff subtly, and/or as *background* elements that you need to be paying attention to catch, it would have been one thing. But instead, he basically has them hanging out there (pun intended, especially in the case of the mecha-testicles) in the viewer’s face–it’s like he’s a 2 year old running down the street naked, swinging a full diaper around and yelling ‘Look at me! Look at me!’. :-/
July 1st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
devestator has balls of steel
July 1st, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I’m not so sure that Matt Wants me advertising other sights, so no links
July 1st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Come on, this movie was awesome. Optimus Prime fought three Decepticons at once, and Jetfire sounded like the “What do you kids think you’re doing on my !#$!$ing lawn” guy from the GI Joe PSA’s. There was some crude humor, but that’s par for the PG-13 course.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Actually, I just found two links that pretty much describe things better than I could…
First, the Best. Review. EVAR. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2009/06/transformers_190609.html
And a more descriptive one: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/06/bonus_robs_transformers_2_faqs.php?page=1
Notable especially for pointing out that Bay is the first movie-maker to Teabag the Audience. And…wow–and I thought I was using hyperbole when I said Bay was shoving them in the viewer’s face…he did it literally? Gah.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:39 pm
There really is such a thing as mindless fun. If someone wishes for examples of this allow me to present -dun dun duuuun- video games! -gasp- what a revelation, you can turn your brain off AND have fun! This has to be true otherwise I would gain no enjoyment from killing hordes of zombies. Beside am I the only one who sometimes dislikes ‘good’ movies, I still haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire because frankly I don’t want to be moved emotionally by a tragic story involving class struggle and what not. Cinema is an art form, this is true, but it is also a vehicle for escapist fiction that allows us to have fun without reading into a trillion layers of symbolism. This is the difference between high culture and popular culture, and the truly cultured should be able to distinguish between the two and enjoy them regardless.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:16 am
personaly i loved the movie >.> i thought it was awsome. but then again i am a simple person who easily enjoys a movie. unlike critics that look way to deep imo ….
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:22 am
After thinking about it for around 5 days, the movie wasn’t bad… As I said in last post, wasn’t G1 but I didn’t expect it to be. I was reading other comments. The line when it says Arcee The Twins I do believe he wasn’t calling Arcee (the three motorcycles) twins but was doing a roll call in the next scene was the twins combined into the ice cream truck… get what I’m saying.. anyways it wasn’t bad. It was fun, and will sell a lot of toys and selling toys and getting kids to buy toys is what Transformers is about more than anything. Making toys, selling toys, making things based of toys all to make the all mighty $$$$ and the movie has and will continue to do so.
God Bless,
Dustin
†
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:27 am
yeah you go through stages. 1: enjoyed, 2: pick-apart, 3:eh what ever it was fun.
really only three things needed removed: Devastator’s testicles, pet humping(dogs and Wheelie), Succubot.
anything more is really nitpicking. yeah it would have been nice to cut back on the twins can give some others more screen time. But on one side you can tell Bay is working towards something better, third times a charm they say.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I really felt the movie was aiming tward a young audience, altho I was confused as hell because the film was PG13 and had alot of foul language.
I didn’t like Skids & Mudd Flaps, Wheelie & Jetfire, but the 5 year old sitting next to me was in stitches over all of them.
I coun’t help but feel that Hasbro had something to do with adding them into the movie or something to sell more figures.
So I didnt enjoy the movie as much as the first cause i do beleive it was a 2 1/2 hour toy commercial.
The special effects were nice, lots of Micheal Bay stuff as expected.
Would have liked to see more Iron Hide, Sideswipe & Ratchet and more interaction between the Autobots. They felt more like background except for Prime & Bee.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
As always, the apologists for this movie only have a few arguments.
“I just wanted special effects” - well, you can probably open Winamp and watch the visualizations for hours, couldn’t you? If swirling masses of unidentifiable metal is your basis for a good movie, you aren’t worth talking to.
“Transformers is silly and therefore crude humor is okay” - really? If “Stepbrothers” had toy franchise characters it would have been appropriate? Should the Spongebob Movie have had dog humping? There’s a fine line between crazy science fiction and stupid sophomoric humor.
“Just shut your brain off” - Imagine a Venn diagram for me. On one side is the stupidest movie you can imagine - a montage of naked women and beefy guys firing guns and explosions leveling cities. On the other side, imagine Transformers. These should never intersect, and if you think they should, then enjoy your fart jokes. TF2 is that gray area in the middle.
“I got to see fighting” - I hope it was worth it. You can just sit through anything with your ears plugged la-la-laing away while Michael Bay essentially teabags you with pure crap, can’t you? If you’re trying to defend him for that, you’re pathetic.
People’s minds are so easily blown that they didn’t even realize the only real fighting was for a total of like 3 minutes between Optimus and the Decepticons in the forest and then the 20 second of Optimus and the Fallen. The rest was the military shooting buildings.
It amazes me just how many simple people there are out there who lapped this movie up like lard.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
To 1morestatistic : Video game make you turn your brain off? Huh–you must not be playing very good games at all, then. A good video game does the exact opposite–it makes you focus your attention in order to deal with increasing difficulty levels, and makes you think more about how to get past obstacles. In short, a good game makes you turn more of your brain *on*.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
I must be the only person who didn’t have a problem with the “crudeness” in this movie. There are worse movies out there that get a load of laughs, that are 100% more raunchy and far gone. It had a loose plot, lots of things didn’t make sense, but it amused me, and I enjoyed it. Thank god I’m easily entertained, and not picky. *shrug* To each their merry own I guess xP
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I just saw it. I will admit it definitely was not anywhere near the best movie. The crude humor could have been toned down (read: eliminated) and replaced with character development. It would have been MUCH better. I will not complain about the explosions because I enjoy explosions.
Honestly I really only went to see it for the robots fighting, and the fact that Starscream got more than two lines. Also, since the previews had no indication of any plot, I was curious as to what would actually would happen. Plot was good, dialogue could have definitely been redone (see above comment on crude humor).
In fact, they could have gotten rid of the twins entirely (or, hey! used some of the ALREADY AVAILABLE CANON TRANSFORMERS TWINS) and I’d be happy.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 am
I have to agree with you 100 percent Matt. The movie was actually a waste of my time. Regardless of the fantastic special effects, the plot and crudeness left a lot to be desired. When did Transformers start to involve sex? I agree with Cheshire and hope that if they make a third movie, Bay will wise up and get with the program.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 am
Indeed I agree with Matt - it’s a shame our expectiations of Hollywood movies - a good plot, character development - are so low.
The excuse that you can’t expect more than robots fighting is a poor one and Michael Bay should be embarrassed that people defend him as such.
Imagine buying a novel, reading it cover to cover and then going to a mate:
“You should read this, the story is terrible but it uses a fantastic font!”
All I hope for is a real director and a good plot.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:40 am
I’m thoroughly disappointed that the movies interpretation of transformers is what is being shown to the general public. In G1, we had the originals, the characterization, the charm. Beast Wars brought its own level of depth, and I’m thoroughly impressed with everything animated has done. It seems that the movie has butchered the craft of previous transformers work, whittled it down to bare aspects of what was done before, ignoring the components which made it memorable in the eyes of many.
Ironic, and also saddening that a movie is being done about a franchise which has stayed for so many years due to the recurring characterization in its various forms(however basic it may at times be), and that characterization is being wholly ignored in the plot of the movie.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 am
This is what we as fans will be judged by in the years to come. If I’m wearing an optimus shirt, I don’t want people to think of the butcher from the movies, but rather the leader, father, if you will, of the G1 series. He may have fiercely protected his men back then, but he had standards. This one has none. I’ve so far bought no toys from the movie line, and do not intend to, even for completions sake, as I can’t look at them and consider them to have any character.
Can you picture your kids playing with mudflap and skids? areaargh! I let my kid play with his optimus, but even then, I explain, its not all about guns, but bravery.
A curse upon bay. He could have done alot, but instead decided to base the characters on what seems to be garbage refuse from a scrap metal dump with blotches of paint, along with all the other cinematic travesties he’s performed.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
And bumblebee with sound bites! (shudder (violent shudder (nerves breaking in skull))) What the? One of the things I remember most about G1 bumblebee was his voice! Optimistic! This iteration feels like some poor attempt to modernize him, give him some quirk, and he also has the nerve to carry it over to the second movie again? It beggars explanation, and suspension of belief.
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
See, here’s the thing: Generation 1 was never a Shakespearian masterpiece. Never ever ever. The episode “Fire On The Mountain” (where Megatron was out to gain control of an awesome energy source) is a good example of that: Megatron’s goal was a supposedly-unstoppable energy… but the gun Megatron built on top of it was completely immovable, and so the Autobots could have just ignored it. Also, Ironhide got hit with said supposedly-unstoppable energy, but was up and fighting not two seconds later. Now tell me, is that sophisticated (or even logical) writing?
Hell no. But was it *fun*?
Hell yes.
You might want to take off the several pairs of rose-tinted sunglasses and see it for what it really was: a big, dumb cartoon designed to sell toys.
The new movies are big, dumb live-action films designed to sell toys.
Funny, that…
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The movie could’ve done without the American teen sex humor. If that was toned down It would’ve been even better. Flaws were expected, present and accounted for but what else were you going to except? It’s Micheal Bay… Mr “lots of explosions and no story”.
I was born in 1989 so I never got to experience the original G1 of 1984 but that means I don’t have rose-tinted glasses on 24/7 when it comes to transformers.
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
note: hitting the return key to auto fill the email address makes a post…
Anyway back on track.
The film was good in my opinion, the story was random (but its the same with anything transformers, Apart from TF:Animated, the story in that was really good! Best TF cartoon in my opinion, at least it was better than beast wars) but it fit and worked well considering you’re working with gigantic robots from outer space… anything goes really.
From what I’ve seen the only people who hate TF:ROTF are super hardcore fans (who need to remember that this isn’t 1986 anymore) and the “critics” (I use the term loosely) on rotten tomato’s. Everyone else in the world likes it, it’s smashed the box office here in the UK.
Thats my two sterling ££.
~BB
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Never said G1 was Shakespearean, just that at least the characters were consistent, and engaging enough to keep the show entertaining.
As tf is essentially fiction, being sophisticated is not a requirement, nor should even the new movie be so.
Dont need rose-tinted glasses if I know the originals were better. Well aware of its premise, but I have to disagree. It wasn’t dumb (well, not all the time), just simple, without being overly self-praising and smug, in sharp contrast to the film and a number of people who support it.
Besides, comparing G1 writing to the current batch of writers available, its not horribly illogical to presume the writing would be of a somewhat higher standard than, say, 20 or so years ago, at least.
Besides, why should it be dumb? Take the 2nd x-men film, which may have been action, but was well written for what it was, or the dark knight. There was a chance for bay to improve, and re-imagine, and what he did was whittle, and regurgitate (in both senses).
Also, people are still buying g1 toys a number of years later. Can you honestly say people will buy rotf tf figures anytime beyond next year? (unless you guys are completionists, very big fans, and the like) Most of the local stores I’ve been to still have a whole bunch of toys from the first movie, yet whenever a new batch of universe classic figures come in, they go within the week.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 pm
…well, he’s still got one shot left. That’s the third movie. After watching some old G1 episodes, I can safely say that the 86 Movie, and the Third Season was when the cartoon finally hit it’s stride.
I mean, if I’d been writing the film, I would’ve done it a little differently. I had a concept idea I posted some time ago, I may share it with you guys. It focuses on Jetfire. This is Bay we’re talking about. I think he had to make something up on the spot when the Writer’s Strike came in.
As for the people against this film, well, they come off as kinda ‘high-class’. Especially tekkie above me. I’ll say this again: is it too much to ask for wanting to have an opinion and not be lamblasted for it?
July 4th, 2009 at 1:00 am
I found the movie to be quite entertaining. There were various odd moments within the movie but it was a good movie. I liked it more than the first movie. Certain moments in the movie actually reminded me of the original G1 cartoons. An example of this is when the Constructicons form Devastator but you also see Long Haul, Mixmaster, Rampage, and Scrapper on the battlefield.
I also enjoyed the Twins. I don’t care what anyone has to say about them. I was able to relate to them quite easily because my brother and I fight back and forth like they do. I guess I am more of a Mudflap…
July 4th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Well for me it was good but could have been better if only it was not rushed like Gijoe, batman, dragonball etc. you get my point. If he released ROTF at 2010 even with 3:30 play time I’m sure it would be called the movie of the decade or century perhaps. With some script rewriting, plot gap checking and more plot depth, it would be good.
I mean beast war season 1 runtime was 10 hrs and season 2 and 3 was 5-6 hours each how can you compare a 2hour30min movie with that for it to have the same plot level as beast wars that 2hours and 30mins would all be about the story of fallen optimus megatron starscream conflicts blah blah no fighting no megan fox no joke(lot of bad one though)
Though the reason transformers is a great hit to lovers and even haters is because
1. It’s one of the best special effects this time.
2. If you watched the old transformers(is G1 the correct term?) their transformation isn’t as cool and like all of them have the same weapon a laser gun mmmm.
3. It releases your inner childness of not caring much about plot and only there to watch the effects and stuff. Heck I didn’t even know the important parts and plot of starwars 1 2 and 3 when I was like 10-12 yrs old. Actually I even wanted more action sepcially bumblebee’s muaythai move(knee to face) against rampage or whatever his name is and Optimus’ famous forest fight scene 1v3 against blackout starscream and galvatron(coz he already tank that can fly for some reason…) I wanted more fighting I expected 3-5 autobots fighting against that huge demolishor. When devastator trailer was released I was expecting all of the autobots maybe 15 of them would be going against that machine while still needing to fight Megatron and his 15+ decepticons(not including constructicon).
Well there’s already combiners(devastator) though if bruticus was there well autobots would cry.
If there were 3formers the one that have multiple modes and in the fight scene there would be a 8 man rumble where there would be robots shooting lasers rockets cannons and a robot would punch then do a low slide kick that would make an enemy fall down then he would immediatley transform to car mode or stuff then transform again to fight etc.
I expect in transformers 3
Better plot even though not really the best plot but if possible put 3 years to production. I don’t even think they double checked for plot gaps or setting errors and for example it was daytime when one came in then when they went out side the house after 4mins it was pitch black(transformers 1) or jetfire was in the smithsonian museum then he destroyed the back part of the building and presto they were in some desert with old planes lying around.
Better script same as above.
Better fight scenes though it was good I hope there would be better fights coz its only reason 40-70% of people watch transformers.
And of course the entrance of rodimus, ultra magnus, omega supreme, Primus(though isn’t Primus’ planet mode supposed to be cybertron? that Optimus tells was destroyed because of the war uhmm Im so confused) and of course the catalyst for transformers 3 Unicron who eats planets that is heading for earth to destroy it. Though Unicron and Primus would be the only one fighting coz Optimus is like 1/100000 the size of Unicron. I mean rather that than minicons right? Oh w8 unicron’s only fear is the matrix of leadership but that’s already in ROTF so uhmm noooooo.
Or go retard and introduce dinocons seacons insecticons the big ones(magnus,supreme) the huge ones (primus, unicron) and go an all out robot war where you don’t know who is your enemy consisting of 100+ robots from the earliest transformer to now where the plot revolves not one the allspark not on the sun destroyer but that there’s a star/blackhole/wormhole/quasar only a few lightyears away that can produce a concentraded amount of energon that in the hands of unicron means GG.
July 4th, 2009 at 7:48 am
high-class perhaps, but I went to the movies to see transformers, not a series of vignettes about the american military, and the wacky adventures of sam the lucky and his craaazy friends. I know I’m going in with pre-conceptions, but abandoning those pre-conceptions doesn’t mean I can forgive said film for being a bad movie. It had some virtue, but not enough to redeem it, and those virtues were copied and pasted from prior tf work, without care for how they fit in, and it shows to anyone with knowledge of where it came from.
I honestly didn’t mind the humour, I could ignore it if I chose to. While not agreeing with the redesign, that in and of itself doesn’t break the film. What made it ultimately a cinematic failure was poor direction, and a weak plot. It’s like a badly thrown punch from a steroid filled weightlifter, lots of force, but often can’t connect, if it does, it shatters, without care or capacity for how that blow hits, or what it does.
I can understand how and why people can choose to enjoy it, and don’t think less of them for doing so, and agree with what is good in the film, but I choose not to blind myself to some pretty glaring cinematic faults. I can enjoy bits of it, but not the film in its entirety.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
@Noonegotmyname
“Dont need rose-tinted glasses if I know the originals were better. Well aware of its premise, but I have to disagree. It wasn’t dumb (well, not all the time), just simple, without being overly self-praising and smug, in sharp contrast to the film and a number of people who support it. ”
Having the Autobots and Decepticons travel back in time, meet King Arthur, Starscream enslave the peasants and then everybody fighting a dragon isn’t dumb? What show were you watching? G1 had its great episodes like Webworld and Triple Takeover, but really, as far as characterization and the like goes it was about as well written as a McDonalds burger is healthy. I can’t even remember about 9/10 of the Autobots and Decepticon’s names, and most of the ones I *do* remember, I only remember because they appeared in later series that actually develops them, ie Animated and to a certain degree, the live action films. I have yet to see ROTF, but the first film did a decent job of portraying the characters in my opinion. I’ve heard the second film doesn’t develop a lot of characters and has too many, which is similar to G1, in a way. The difference I see is that in ROTF you actually have CASUALTIES; there’s not much of a chance to get to know the characters because they are getting shot down in battle. G1 had the same batch of characters for around 60 episodes and developed like, five of them to any great degree, and many of them just disappear for no reason and never show up again (Jetfire and Jazz come to mind). Now, I can understand that G1 was made to sell toys and that it was made in the 80s, and I can very well accept that, but they could have thought of something more creative than ‘they just disappeared’. The G1 film did a good job of this by at least trying to mask it by actually killing off said characters instead of not even bothering to write them out.
Now, G1 has its great parts too. The writing had its really shining moments and it took a less silly turn after the film, albeit still retaining SOME of it (Anybody remember ‘The Many Adventures Of Daniel and Grimlock’? You know, the episodes that sucked?), but had a far greater amount of ‘dark’ plotlines, or at least plots that didn’t involve throwing Cybertron at the Earth or blowing the Sun up. Though it DID have that one about traveling to a planet where the denizens all communicate through glass-shattering, ear-piercing opera (though I must admit Blaster and Soundwave orgasming over it was pretty funny). My point is, G1 had its flaws just like every other series. It lacked decent character development and had poor writing with some good, memorable moments tossed in. I’m not saying ROTF has great writing or amazing character development because, again, I have yet to see it, but those comparing it to G1 really need to think back to how incredibly, mind-numbingly stupid G1 could be at times. If you want to talk about overlooking flaws, try looking at G1; its got plenty of them
Now, I’m not bashing on anybody who likes G1, I mean, I love G1 too, but I’m not about to overlook its flaws either. It was a great show for its time and I respect it for starting a franchise that I’ve come to love, but what good is a start if nobody will recognize any of the improvements? Beast Wars had remarkable writing with one or two ‘cheesy’ moments but kept a main, interlocking storyline, the anime, which I do not enjoy that much, even had some great moments, like when Thrust betrayed Galvatron in Armada. Their brief little spitting match before Thrust kicked the bucket was well written and Galvatron’s line, ‘If you dare to have dreams of power, then you will be consumed by them’, is just as memorable as anything from the previous series. Animated took what G1 did and enhanced it for a newer audience, taking the Beast Wars formula of storytelling and using it to build upon itself. Animated had some silly episodes too but they almost always helped to progress the plot in some way, and had at least some degree of development of the characters. The first film took a bit of a more ‘realistic’ turn, what with the military and government inclusion (which makes sense, when you think about it; if I were in charge of a country and giant alien robots were trying to blow everything up I’d sure as hell be fighting them!), but still had a bit of a campy feel when it wanted to. It made things slightly more realistic while not taking itself too seriously at the same time. As far as human interaction, pretty much all of it progressed the plot. And you know, I actually enjoyed seeing the army fight the Decepticons. I’d even go as far to say I enjoyed it more than seeing the Autobots fight them! Its not often we get to see how human beings would handle the Decepies and I was happy to see that play out the way it did. After all, we’ve all grown up or at least previously known for the most part who the Decepticons and Autobots are; the people in these films have never heard of them, never even imagined them. This is a new threat; something that could easly wipe them out, and the needed to find a way to kill them. it was neat to see, at least for me personally.
I’m going to end this now, as it is getting obscenely long, but I guess my main point is that all of the Transformers series have good points; all of them. But all of them also have bad points, and once you ignore these completely, you’ve stepped dangerously close to fanboy territory. However, this does not mean you cannot let the good outweigh the bad to enjoy it; that is up to you entirely on whether or not the good parts make it worth tolerating the parts you don’t like. Thats why we have opinions. Just don’t act like the bad isn’t there; because it is, in one form or another. Enjoy things for what they are, instead of critisizing them for what they aren’t.
July 4th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
See the film first. I didn’t mind bits of it, but it really is a butchered up movie. Even at its cheesiest, stupidest (yes, I said it) moments, G1 was amusing enough to be watchable, and the new film doesn’t measure up, the cheesy moments just don’t mesh with the entirety of everything else thats going on.
The movie has this sense of bravado, and utter mega-awesomeness, more heavy-handed than any other iteration of TF ever. At times, that works, but it doesn’t seem as much a re-telling, or re-imagining of any prior iteration as its bastard zombie cousin, freshly arisen to terrorize the populace into survival mode, and fear for our brains. Its the hideously deformed spawn of a devil and an angel, with moments of good, but no clear purpose, and a bestial visage only those who know not its true import dare gaze upon, summoning fire and devilry to do its bidding, half succubus, half god.
The film needs the MST3K treatment, criticizing it for what it isn’t is viable and amusing because it really is that bad, mainly because it tries to be so good, with the CGI, sun explosion, etc, and ultra-win, good vs evil righteousness prevalent in it.
Dogs humping? C’mon. Barely amusing on any level, but I’m supposed to ignore that to start liking the movie? and its shot twice? Like Matt said, others have torn it up, hated it universally. I can’t add anymore to this. I guess I’m just frustrated with Bays work, when he’s done a passable job on films like the island, the rock had its moments, yet hackneyed a beloved franchise, stating the whole time he’s doing this for us? the fans? This is the last reply I’ll make, the movie speaks enough for itself.
July 4th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I found the movie funny, but a poor tribute to the original Transformers. Needs better writing, better character development and SLOWER ACTION. You can’t call it an ‘action scene’ if all it is are two blurry objects fighting…
July 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
That movie is horrible, so many uneeded parts…,plus The Fallen was a loser.
July 4th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
For the Ghost of Simon Furman.
Don’t saw these movie!!!!!
July 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am
something I have to say about “character development” and people complaining about so many transformers not getting development.
Look up “skids” in the original show, he got zero development. On that note look up how many characters have existed across the board in Transformers, its an extensive list, with many which change sides, roles, and are killed off in mass.
Basically the only characters ever likely to get any development in any series are the main ones used up front (Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Star Scream) with the other small group of mains for any series getting the rest. For this movie series that would appear to be BumbleBee and the two main humans.
Yes this is a smaller group than the shows tend to develop backgrounds for, but they get more time to do it.
July 5th, 2009 at 5:21 am
If you’ll notice, the more coherent ‘apologists’ for this movie seldom excuse its flaws or pass it off as the best movie ever. Not that the legions of adrenaline pumping fanboys aren’t visible from space.
I think a large problem is that the movie itself was just TOO BIG for its own boots. If you stripped it down to its nuts and bolts without any hype or unnecessary portions, you’d actually have a passable story.
Things to strip down:
-Excessively crude humour
-Cannon fodder transformers that do nothing but shoot at things off-screen
-Throwing out cool concepts that never get expanded. People can connect the dots on its potential, but to just ignore it afterwards is quite wrong. The whole ‘get Sam or the planet dies’ ultimatum was potentially cool, even if it was right out of The Dark Knight, yet it got almost zero attention whatsoever.
-Unnecessary characters that didn’t really serve much of a purpose
Things to keep in:
-The main characters Sam, Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream getting their good parts. I would have liked it if Bumblebee spoke, but really, they actually play the ‘radio sound bytes’ part really well.
-The dynamics set up between those characters.
-The romance subplot, while assuredly cheesy and far from perfect, is passable for a popcorn flick and was certainly more engaging than the one from the first, which helps to make this movie ’rounded’
Things to add:
-Robots developing their character. I know people often cite ‘it’s nothing but CGI’ as a criticism for movies, and it’s expensive as slag, but with all sorts of talented voice actors, you could actually pull this off just right. If CGI is WAAAAY expensive, why not talking in vehicle mode?
-Moar Jetfire. He’s awesome in his own way. XD
-Reconciling all forms of media to one another. The novelisation takes the time to explain that the Fallen defeated/killed all BUT ONE of the Primes, and THAT Prime was the one to seal up the tomb. It stands to reason that this lone Prime is the one to leave behind successors/descendants
At any rate, I hope that movie 3 gets better writing and deals with its characters better. I can deal with most sorts of plots, so long as the characters still prove endearing and kickass to myself. How they do it might not be other people’s cup of tea, but ah well.
Y’know what we need? A Giant Purple Griffin spotlight, and a Movie Giant Purple Griffin. XD
July 5th, 2009 at 10:37 am
To Prankman: Well, there’s a important detail there. Yes, the original G1 was generally dumb–but it was *kid*-dumb, in the same way shared by all other cartoons of the era (in fact, I maintain that it’s something of a defining characteristic of a an ’80’s cartoon’). Bay’s work isn’t dumb, it’s out and out *stupid*, in ways that make even the worst of the ’stupid toons’ (namely Beavis and Butthead as well as Ren and Stimpy, though the latter is more aiming for surreal rather than stupid) look good.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Movie was good when I watched it, but when I thought about things….
“Only a Prime can kill another Prime” -Jetfire…..
Yet Megatron kills Optimus, last time I checked, Megatron not a Prime, and Optimus was reffered to as the last living Prime…go figure…
Also wasn’t Devastator suppose to form from the Constructicons, two of which, Mixmaster (The HEAD), and Long Haul (A LEG) get killed in the fight with the Autobots and Military…How can Devstator tear apart a Pyramid and have two of his pieces in a fight AT THE SAME TIME….Bay must think moviegoers are to stupid the see gaping holes…
July 5th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
@Shanemus Prime:
Only a Prime can kill the Fallen, technically, is what was said. Of course, I saw the movie opening day, and not since, so I could be misremembering. Besides, Jetfire’s an old coot, his HD might need reformatting.
A 2-part G1 episode buried under an hour and a half of crap. That’s my final verdict on the movie. Still will probably get it on video, though. If only because I can chapter-skip through the bad parts (it works to watch Eps II-III).
July 5th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
the worst part about TF2? The effing long queue that makes me unable to get tickets!
July 5th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
on the Prime thing, if the Fallen was a Prime himself, perhaps Megatron was meant to be his descendent, rather than just his disciple also a “Prime” then I guess. and then we have the whole “brother” comment from the first movie when Optimus was talking to Megatron. Who knows, this movie did have script issues that they had to rush through despite the writers strike to hit their scheduled release date. Aw the movie industry, still and industry like any other, having to hit deadline even if it means putting out something that wasn’t as good as it could have been. We get videogames missing a ton of stuff for the same reason too, and animation with messed up scenes and voice-overs, ect… . Its a shame, but it happens. Maybe next time they’ll pay a little more attention to the script, and edit out junk we don’t need wasting screen time like dogs humping and…I’ll stop before I get back to repeating what I and many others already said. This dead horse is past beaten, I think we shoved it full of TNT and blew it up.
oh and Matt, want something to make fun of that no one hit on? (meaning the cretics), Alice the Succubot, Optimus Prime going gandland on Decepticon, the designs for the movie having a total lack of armor and the transformers being easier to rip apart and damage then they ever were before, Ravage’s hair-ball drone, Soundwave tentacle raping a satelite, see you can twist things in new ways not expected as well, like pointing out that Sam’s girl friend called him unfaithful because a robot girl was straddling him, yet she doesn’t notice that she calls Wheelie faithful in Sam’s face in total irony which is a robot boy humping her leg.
July 6th, 2009 at 2:30 am
@vulpis- A good video game makes you think…. really? Um… alright? Have you noticed the insanely predictable plots of 90% of video games. Increasing level difficulties don’t really exist anymore, and tends to be replaced with tons of violence, which has been accepted by many gamers. This is a topic I could argue about until the cows come in, however this is beside the point. The fact is you are nit-picking my example and thus can’t see the forest for the trees. My argument is that there is such a thing as escapist fun. It exists. Deal with it.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:54 am
@Shadrachvs: I beg pardon, but the 80’s had a slew of terribly good action films that didn’t insult the intelligence, and never forgot the basics of cinema. There’s Alien, Aliens, Predator, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Terminator, etc, etc.
These movies were rated R mostly, but didn’t go down to the level of gratuitous fart jokes and dog humping.
There’s nothing wrong with watching bad movies, but you should reserve watching them off a rental, with a couple of friends and a few sixpacks. To make fun of them. Actually forking over money at the latest THX or IMAX theater for a movie that looks like it was made by a film school dropout is just sad, and sends the wrong message.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:56 am
I am a fan from G1 and have the DVDs myself. I have some serious gripes about the movie
1. There was never crude humour. There was light hearted humour but it was NEVER cruder then a kiss on the cheek. OK I just remembered an episode where Seaspray fell for an Atlantean but even then it was never crude.
2. Decepticons having testicles. Seriously, this one makes me wanna grab Bay and throttle him. Cybertronians never had genitals even in Beast Wars.
3. I’ll probably rent it and spend more time picking out the plot flaws then actually paying attention. Sorry but even “escapist fun movies” sometimes called “stoner movies” should have a plot that actually flows. Even Yellow Submarine managed this and that was a complete “switch your brain off and relax” movie.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Although I tried, I concur - better people than I have more effectively trashed this film. The best was toplessrobots.com for sure.
And I like my brain. I cannot and will not check it at the door. This film hurt as a fan of movies and of Transformers.
July 6th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
“More than meets the eye”, certantly fits this movie, I mean, I could barely see anything, after the movie I said to my bro -whoa I can’t belive all of those explosions had a plot!-
ok so the testicles joke was a lame one, but c’mon who did not laugh, and i doubt they where actually genitals.
July 6th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
gosh, am I the only one who liked the movie? I can concede the following points: too much sexual humor and the two racist robots. However, the main complaint I’ve been hearing is “This movie about robots and explosions has too many robots and explosions in it.”
July 6th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I loved the movie and thought it was excellent. What most of the critics have missed, and perhaps you too, is that Transformers is purely giatn robots fighting each other. There really isn’t a need for a plot because it’s already there - 2 teams of robots beating each other up. Why must there be a plot? Is it mandatory these days?
As for the humour parts, they were funny regardless of most peoples tastes. It’s meant to be crude and as a Brit it appeals more to us =P Cmon, sex jokes are pretty funny somethings, and some of them in the film were very good
July 6th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
issue number 153 surely?
July 6th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Anyone who says that the G1 cartoon had any logic or entertainment value besides seeing our favorite toys do battle and hearing what they sounded like is flat out lying to themselves. Every episode was little more than an excuse to get more toys animated and doing battle, plots were seldom worthwhile (dark awakening) and mostly whacked, lazy, and seizure-inducingly stupid.
If you’re a fan of the concept of giant robots beating the crap out of each other, plot is only an excuse to get these giant robots to wail on each other. The plot in revenge of the fallen did what it had to do, and got out of the way when it came time to blow stuff up or for optimus to kick arse. It was good enough when I was 8 years old, it’s good enough now.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Irish makes the main point. This movie is supposed to be based off a kid’s cartoon, that came out in 1984. Anyone old enough to remember it clearly when it first aired is now too old to remember how bad it really was, it was a cartoon for kids. Every generation has its Transformers cartoons, and they are meant for the next generation to enjoy. Yes parents sit down with their kids and remember their own child hood and how little things change and enjoy.
Which is really my main point about the movie, honestly the plot makes about as much sense as the plots of any of the shows, the crude humour is really the one element that needs to be toned down.
I mean Black Arachnia in the cartoons being flirty and very feminine looking and a few eye brow raisers is about as far as it should go. If it can’t be put in the cartoon don’t put it in the movie should be the rule. Its something you should be able to take your kids too watch and they enjoy it.
I know they sneak in stuff for parents like Shrek did and others, but those are subtle enough not to get the kids repeating things or asking odd questions like why is the male dog humping the other male dog? or, what’s a scrotum?
Giant robot team A, fights giant robot team B. Yep that’s the main point. Don’t make it hyper-sexed and crude. Make it a live action version of the stuff the kids are watching on tv.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
correction, what I meant on the age thing was anyone old enough to remember it clearly should be at an age now that they should understand that they had lower expectations as a kid than they do now and should go back and re-watch those old episodes again. I was a baby when the show was on the air, I remember just oohing and awwing over it, plot meant essentially nothing. But I wouldn’t take such a young kid to watch the new movie, and THAT is the problem.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I don’t know why people say it was a bad movie, I liked it (Yes I did see Devestators “Weaking balls”). Sure, the plot could use a little work, Autobots (or atleast Prime) are brutal compared to past intertations (like tearing off Decepticons faces). But it was good. wasn’t perfect, but still 4/5 stars in my opinion.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Umm… You know you numbered two pages #152?
July 7th, 2009 at 8:02 am
About that “age thing” i don’t really agree with you, Rhuen. i think movies in general (and i’m not including the animated ones here) are for a rather older audience than cartoons. ofcurse they don’t show dogs humping in the cartoons, because TV is much more accessible than cinema, and cartoons a lot more than movies. i see a lot of teenagers and adults going to all kinds of movies, but a lot less kids. at least where i’m from (maybe in the US it’s different - assuming you are from the US). although this film is rated here as not to be viewed without supervision under the age of 12, i think the general age is somewhere aroung 17-25 at these kind of films, so i find the “imoral” parts of the film quite funny, being 21 myself. i’m more displeased about the “too much explosions” part :D, but Optimus ripping decepticon faces is cool with me. i mean let’s take it like this: IF that were to really happen (the batlle between the Decepticons and Autobots), they wouldn’t fight eachother with brooms, would they? they’s kick eachothers’ rear servos ’till their sparks are out. to get back to the age thing, i don’t think i’d take my kids to watch 99.9% of the movies out there until they get older. i’ll just let them stick to the cartoons and animated movies, because that’s what most kids do :). i think we all did mainly that back in our day.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Where’s the new one Mr. Moylan?
July 7th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I really want to say I liked the movie, but I didn’t. Not because the plot was cheesy, I kind of expect that. But I wanted to watch the movie because of the characters that I loved when growing up. The Transformers got less screen time than the human actors (half of the TF screen time were the idiot twin-bots). That’s really the main disappointment…we got to see Acree and Chromia, but other than one line uttered in the final gunfight we don’t even notice that they are female (remember they were deleted from TF 1 because explaining gender would be too difficult). The corvette was never even mentioned- I’m not even sure he had a single line! Yet the movie spends half an hour on this ridiculous twins and Sam’s roommate….
July 7th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I liked the movie, although the humor was a bit…off but the fighting scenes and story were decent. Oh and odin, the corvette was mentioned and had couple of lines, his first line (after he chpped Sidways(the car everybody was chasing in the beginnig)) was “Damn I’m good”.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Kira I think you meant to say-” after he chopped Sideways(the car Arcee and her sisters were chasing in the beginnig)in half”
July 7th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Oh, thanks for correcting me
July 7th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Me Grimlock think movie was good. Sorry to those who think. But could have let Ravage live. He my favorite Decepticon. But also Arcee in it. but not big enough part in movie for her. But movie still good.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Matt, I just want to say that, while I typically agree with your assessments of new Transformers fiction, and respect the validity of your opinion, I’m extremely disappointed in this strip and the associated post.
I don’t know where you picked up this pretentious streak, but it’s insulting to the rest of us Transfans who enjoyed the movie (especially since this one actually chose to focus on the robots, rather than bit human players). Perhaps a reminder of how “intelligent” the original Transformers cartoons were - replete with plot holes, story flaws, and internal inconsistencies as they were - is in order. Never mind that we’re talking about a property designed around toys for 10-year old children.
And based on your rave review of this latest Abrams-helmed Star Trek garbage scow that suffered from all of the same problems you claim RoftF does AND was a hideous abomination of an interpretation to boot, I can’t help but wonder what’s actually coloring your impressions pf this movie.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I know some peeps don’t like a movie based on a kids toyline to have sexual humour and possible racism, but I loved this movie, simply by not labeling it as a “kids movie” or something that people think should be directly based off of G1. The twins were some of my favorite charactes in the movie and i am looking foward to seeing them in the third installment. Characters like Arcee and Sideswipe not getting enough screentime? Thats why they are planning on having a third film, so they can probably elaborate more on em’. Hell, arcee might end up being the main character of the third film(probably not, I don’t care about her though).
July 8th, 2009 at 5:19 am
@Geoff: You liked the movie. Others didn’t. Their opinions are just as valid as yours. Not wrong, just different. There is no need for a (quite personal) attack on Matt. If you hate his work so much, well, goodbye and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I enjoyed the movie more than the first, but that’s my opinion, and I respect others’ as well.
While it seems that most fans don’t appreciate the Autobots becoming more brutal, what with Optimus executing Demolishor and the Fallen, but here’s my take on that: This Optimus is one of few (correct me if I’m wrong, but I think he’s the ONLY one) that has had to see a very large number of human lives (At least in the thousands, film mentions more than 7000 dying during the Decepticon landing already, and that’s not counting military personnel) perish because of their battles on Earth. That could have made it hard or even impossible for him to forgive the Decepticons…
July 8th, 2009 at 10:35 am
The fact that this movie did so well proves that all is right with the world.
How? Because despite every reviewer and blog hating and ranting about the movie, it did so well as to render those reviewers and blog-haters completely irrelevent. Which, as is obvious, is how they should be.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I was expecting so much more from the film, but, at the end of the day? It was fun to watch. At least, until my mind started wandering..
I think ROTF was the first film I ever watched where within ten minutes I was thinking of something completely irrelevant. I got snapped back to attention just to time to spot the many MANY mistakes! Particularly toward the end.. weren’t the Constructicons combined as Devestator? Why then were they fighting in the battle at the same time..
I put it down to budget cuts, or simply just rushing through with the CGI. Guess they didn’t have enough models to fill up the ranks. Or provide decent water/blob effects. I think Toy Story had better liquid effects than that rubbish..
But I’m not one to think badly of a film just because of the CGI. What makes me think badly of a film is plot, and nonsensical rubbish. Which this film seemed to have in droves. Weren’t the Transformers pretty hardcore in the first film? In this one they seemed to be made solely of aluminium cans.
At the end of the day, I think this film will do what it was meant for. Making money. Whether or not it’ll sell toys, is up to the parents who let their children watch this garbage. I was willing to give Bay the benefit of the doubt, but when I was watching it, I just couldn’t wait until it ended.
(But Soundwave was very cool!)
July 8th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
To those complaining that Devastator being combined while the ‘Constructicons’ fought the Autobots was a mistake, well, to somebody who just saw the movie and knew nothing about it before, that would be the case, but wasn’t it revealed a while back that the ‘Constructicons’ in ROTF were more of a RACE then individual Transformers? It was at Botcon or in one of the prequel comics or something, that there are more than one of each Constructicon, sort of like the Insecticons in G1 having multiple Kickbacks and such. Yes, I think it was a mistake to not include this tidbit in the movie itself, but it WAS brought up at least in some part of the fiction.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
@”anon” I do not believe my comments amount to a personal attack against Matt - I believe the worst thing I said was that he had a pretentious streak. On the contrary, I am a big fan of this strip. But I apologize to him now should he disagree, as it was not at all my intention to attack him. If you’re going to accuse me of making personal attacks, however, then don’t make one against me: that merely repudiates your own argument.
Also, if you really understood what I was trying to say (which, based on the wording of your reply and your dismissive use of profanity, I suspect you didn’t), I never in any way say or even imply that his opinion is wrong. I’m simply pointing out how insulting his implication can be that, since the movie requires one to “turn your brain off,” people who liked it must be stupid. Matt has been very good about respecting the intelligence of his fans: I can’t recall any other strips of his to, even subtly, imply that one’s brain must not be functioning in order to like something. This particular strip, however, disappointed me for that reason, and I felt a need to say something about it.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
[IMPORTANT NOTE] matt , i love how you are a caring fan
and I AM not / AND NEVER WILL / INCLUDE YOU with the people i mentioned in my reason 1. list .
JAG
July 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Geoff, you were the one calling him pretentious. The next time you look at a dictionary, look up ‘egocentric.’
July 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
G1 premiered like 25 years ago right? And they don’t really show reruns of G1 on “cartoon network” or “Nickolodeon”, thus many kids who saw the movie(like 7-12 age group) may have never SEEN G1, thus for those who criticize the film for being A LOT different from G1, perhaps it was made not to be directly based off of G1 as many kids wouldn’t know what the source material was. Anyone understand what I am saying?
July 8th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I honestly cant understand how anyone over the age of 14 could have possibly enjoyed this movie, it was worse than Troy and almost as bad as King Kong (the only film Ive ever walked out on) in terms of being a `letdown blockbuster’ for me. Just so, so weak.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:15 am
King Kong was awesome what are you talking about?
July 9th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Grindor!? That’s marginally better than s#@*ing your pants. he looks just like blackout.
July 10th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Well not exactly what I would call: “The Best Sequel Ever.” but still reasonable enough as a Transformers Movie. Now more of the Canon is shown. And good/bad news: It’s a Trilogy. Shia said in an interview during the US premier.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:27 am
OMG SUCH A AWESOME FUNNY CUTE COOL ACTION FUNNY PACKED MOVIE….. i think i had a mini heart attack during it
the fallens and megs voices so Cool
STARSCREAM was a COWARD!! YAY
and PRIME awww he died but then came back to life X)
but sideswipe EeeeKKKK Awesome even though it feels like he is replacing jazz…
WHY couldnt bumbleBEE talk? anymore?
WOO my first post lol
wow the comments here……
July 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
0.we all know GI joe is gonna suck , and if you look at the military crew we got introduced to in TF1 we get to meet (use your imagination on this one,guys) :roadblock -tyrese-,duke-mjr.lennox-,first aid-glasses,who got impaled by scorpy-, shipwreck (the gator guy) so this is the closest we are EVER going to come with a cool JOE/TF movie ( i said this on VF and JAB first , before anyone else)
1. all YOU fanboys and Fembots are forgetting one IMPORTANT DETAIL.
which is = the real GENERATION 1 MEGATRON came back to the franchise .
FRANK WELKER ! ! ! ( ok so he did Soundwave , but still ! ! !)
finally the two giants we first generation fans Grew up with are happy .
2. GET RID OF THE COWARDLY-I Aint”SpokenToAgirl-OR-SEENoneNekked Latino guy ( Spitz)
and bring back the blond side kick from TF1 who had 2 minutes of screentime . HIM ATLEAST WE CAN ENJOY BEING taZerd and punched in the Nuts.
the chemestry that SAM and SIMMONS HAVE is good enough , we dont need a random NON-CHARISMATIC SPANISH guY in there .
Fer Gawd’s SAKE WE GOT AN oompah-loompah IN THERE 2 ( johnny depps Willy wonka movie )
3. IF THE WRITERS ARE READING THis … WE LOVE THE VIOLENCE ….. now GET MEGAN FOX in a species scene in TF 3 .
she complained about TF and her relation to it , and damn near badmouthed BAY , so i suggest in TF3 we get her to pay the price cus she is willing to do it in any films .
4. @# Tekkaraiden
June 30th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I went to see a movie about explosion and giant robot kicking the crap out of each other and that is what I got. As for a faithful Transformers movie, at least the X-men, Star Wars, Star Trek and Spiderman fans share our pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
response ==== > it could be worse , THAT LOSER WHO KILLED THE BATMAN franchise JOEL SHCHUMACHER could have done the script / directing .and dont jinx TF3 in movie length (because knowing hollywoods trend , we definatly D*0*N*T want a hour and a half movie like SM3 and Xmen3)
5. I am friggin unhappy that my poor sexy cat got turned into a PRED-ALIEN for GOD’s sake .
6. that part where that lil sports car D-con was just rolling away from the fight scene at the begining when um, sidesweipe ( the guy with the lance’s on his arms ) just cut the poor bot in two …. WTH was that Crap about Oo . every other bot was shooting away and this poor guy was running away from the fight , then out of no-where he got cut .actually i saw it today after class in the movies and i payed close attention … it was premeditated .
the poor bot was gunnin for his life ( he only was guilty of bustin up that chinese home) .
when the scene came on that Coward moved to his side and chucked it in D-cons hood … nay
STABBED the hood .
[censored] autobot coward-HONESTLY im glad PRIME is finally one we can be proud of ( and i mean he redeemed the title from that garbage/monkeypoop that is TF : ANIMATED’s prime)
7. RAVAGE : i noticed that he was a vessel for the Doctor and call me crazy but i could have sworn i saw ratbat come out as well O_O in this……..in the scene where we see the doctor , and his victim sam on the table , the two bots who flew and brought the brain squid to him . one i am officially calling RATBAT and the other im calling Lazerbeak ( cus i cant really see what they look like from the front , and they were nestled or returned to Ravage for storage )
8. (for all the Dr.jones fans out there) i thought the Grail temple got destroyed in the last crusade O_o , how come he never saw the cybertronian symbols over the door ??
jag
THATS ALL .
i loved the movie enough to get a copy after i saw it 3 times in the theaters .
July 11th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
You know what? To all the haters out there. I just have to know that it can always be worse. How so, you may ask. Well, there’s Kiss Players. I just listen to any rant on the movies and think “well, at least it wasn’t Kiss Players.”
July 12th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Transformers 2: ROtF sucked, bottomline, those who liked it and defend it by saying things like “who cares” or “just turn your brain off and enjoy…” got a few screws loose if not completely unhinged. There were a couple of nuggets of potential awesome in the film but even they were absolutely ruined by all the stupid crap in the movie. Sideswipe: I could have forgiven the fact that he was a corvette and didn’t have his brother with him in the film if he were a more pivotal character in the movie. a minute in the limelight and then he was put in the background. The twins. Back in ‘84 that would have meant Sideswipe and Sunstreaker that disappointment was lifted at their hilarious performances. Everybody got all huffy and offended by them but I am more offended by their real life counterparts that inspired them. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see Bay recognizes the fact that there are billions of “skids” and “Mudflaps” out there devolving our culture and isn’t afraid to put a spotlight on it for everyone to see. Furthermore it burned my butt to see Megatron reduced to a snivelling lacky a role that was originally filled by Starscream. The constructicons pissed me off as well. They were supposed to be original and unique characters but Bay had clones of them running around all over the frickin place in the movie. Also damn near every bot that was killed in the first movie was brought back except for the best one, Jazz. WTF!?!? Barricade as cool as he was went MIA probably still on that highway trying to figure out where Bonecrusher and Prime went. Then there’s Jolt. Who the hell is he? where did he come from saw him for like 20 seconds then he was gone. As far as I could remember there wasn’t any Jolt in Transformer history. Why not use a name more recognizable like I don’t know Bluestreak maybe. He’s blue and shoots electric bolts. Which coincides with Sideswipe. With so little character background you could have called him Tracks and no one would have noticed. In conclusion the best Transformers movie ever still remains the animated one in ‘86
July 12th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
At least Matt is in agreement with some of us perplexed movie goers. Pretty much summed up my thoughts, sadly. Thanks Matt, this is teh epic statement.
Here’s to TF3
July 12th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Giant robo-nuts? Jive talkin’ wigger bots? Pot-brownies? Robot farts? Leg humping mini-bots? Transformers fans deserve better. Ordinary movie-goers deserve better. The characters themselves deserve better. Save the lame, anti-intellectual arguments, folks… No socially-conscious, artistically-conscious, or genre-conscious person would think this movie was good by any stretch of the imagination. Batman got the respect he deserves - why can’t Optimus?
July 13th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Okay, Matt, I think you’re being increadibly unfair. I liked ROTF. A lot. The crude humor made me roll my eyes, but… still. This is too uch.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Mike. Jolt was one of the mini-cons in Transformers Armada.
I mean heck Bay used a pretender in the movie (Transformers Master Force) a reference you don’t get unless your a geek *guilty*, or Japanese. So its should be no surprise he’d scrape in stuff from all across the board.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] there you go, proof why Michael Bay wants to destroy the Transformers movies! I recommend signing this and then reading [...]
July 21st, 2009 at 4:12 am
I’ve got one: Rainn Wilson is in it.
July 21st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
To Autobot Gunslinger
“Amen brother!!!”
July 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
To Rhuen,
I don’t fault him for that I’d just would have liked to see more of the new ones, rather than have the twins, OP, and Bumblebee eat up all the screen time.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
i like the transformers 2 but I REALLY DONT LIKE THE CRUDE HUMOR seriously Michael Bay why why crude humer is he sick of making that ideas i love the story but the crude humor!?!?!?… Micheal your going to pay for this!
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:47 pm
@Rhuen: There’ve been other Jolts; the first was in Generation 2, one of the Decepticon Laser Rods (except he was called Hotrod in Europe); there was also the Minicon in Cybertron.
And while Japan may be the only place the Pretenders got screentime, they still had plenty of toys and comic appearances in the West, so they’re hardly obscure.
Anyway, my point: I actually kinda liked the film. It was far from perfect, obviously, but I deliberately went in ready to hate it, and didn’t.
The main thing that put the film down for me was the crude jokes; less because they were crude (I have no issues with that), and more because, as another poster put it, they seemed so forced. Not to repeat what man7y others have said, but things like the Devastator balls (which must have taken a bundle of animating effort for a cheap, unnecessary gag that just makes Dev look like a joke), and the humping (which may have been funnier if they hadn’t focused on it for so long), helped drag it down.
The other is the lack of characterisation, which the first film was equally guilty of; and like the first film, it’s the Decepticons that suffer the brunt of it.
I actually liked the characters that did get airtime (yes, even the twins really grew on me; especially Mudflap after his scrap with Devastator), but so many others got no more than a couple of lines (I was actually really looking to forward to hearing Mike Patton as Mixmaster - who I think got one line which I could barely make out).
July 24th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Yo! transformers2 rocks! its a big hit in my school!. anyway, i saw one website that they say that TransFormers ROTF rocks!
here are the comments from them:
” TF2 rocks! its much better than the fisrt movie. ”
” its sh**ing cool! ”
” Its same just like in the original movie. like prime dead then alive, man i hate the basics! “
July 27th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Jose, you sound like a kid. Your sense of aesthetics hasn’t fully developed yet… Fear not - the real Transformers fans (from the 80s) can forgive your lack of sophistication, as it is clearly due to your youth. You’ll grow out of it… I have faith in you.
July 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I thought that ROTF was much more awesome than the first one. I simply ignored all the stupid stuff and enjoyed the movie for what it is, just like I did with the first movie.
July 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Now I loved the first movie. But I merely liked the second one and that like is walking that fine line between like and dislike. So many things wrong with tis movie and so many sad plot holes that it just frustrated me to no end. I can’t defend this movie in any way shape and form. But then again, In comparison to the original G1 cartoon, with all of it’s animation errors and plot and continuity holes, it still looks lots better than ROTF. So yeah, I am just gonna pretend the second movie didn’t exist. Worked well with every Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, so I can make it work with ROTF.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:18 am
Sorry, but the frat boy’s wet dream didn’t work for me. Dropping Prime’s body didn’t work for me. Megan Fox’ ass in the air didn’t work for me. Robots displaying the WORST side of humanity didn’t work for me. Tentacle rape didn’t work for me. Teenaged boys in the theater making lewd jokes about the females in the movie didn’t work for me. Autobots murdering Decepticons didn’t work for me. What works for me is my BRAIN. And I’ll be apologizing to it for a long time for subjecting it to the work of a man who -admittedly - hates the subject matter to begin with.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Hey at least it had explosions….. lots and lots of explosions…..
(My retinas are still recovering)
August 1st, 2009 at 1:51 am
@SET:
After calling yourself a “real” fan, you just lost the argument.
I guess aparrently it IS too much to ask to be able to like something and not be lamblasted for it. Foolish me. I should have known. -_-
August 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
i agree with what everything that Thein had to say but then again ii ddi like the movie more action than the first wins where entertainng same as bumblebee but thing that critics are probably never hear the fans say is you put down this moive saying its crap but us fans must know something that you do not.
$811,431,704 how much money it has made at the boxoffice is still going up thats what i find funny about this whole trasnfromers 2 situation with the critics
August 7th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
@ dragonballz: The fact that a buch of little kids (and adults who think like them) enjoy a crappy movie does NOT vindicate the movie. Don’t tell me how much money this wallbanger made and expect that to equal ‘quality.’ The critics were right on the money with this one…
I absolutely love Transformers - which is why I hated this movie. I agree with Autobot Gunslinger - the fans, the public, and the characters themselves deserve better. Spielberg needs to divorce Michael Bay and call Ridley Scott STAT!
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I admit it had a few mistakes but none of them affected the overall plot! And i would like to point out that spiderman had a weak plot (it actually seemed to be plotless) and it got good reviews!
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Also the fact they don’t look like the originals is a bad arguement as you aren’t bearing in mind that the transformers are aliens and G1 looked like giants in samurai armour. While these designs DO look alien.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 am
Not surprisingly, this has a million comments. Alright guys, there’s something to be said here, and that’s that EVERYONE HAS OPINIONS
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 am
Not surprisingly, this has a million comments. Alright guys, there’s something to be said here, and that’s that EVERYONE HAS OPINIONS. I personally LOVED the movie. that fact has nothing to do with the quality of the movie, the crappy action, or anything else. I loved it because it gave me something that i can obsess over. I’m a transformers fan through and through. I thought that as far as plot goes, yes it had holes. as far as action goes, yes it wasn’t very good. and of course, its a michael bay movie. when you go see a michael bay movie, this is what you get. i’m sorry if you expected more. if you want more then what he can give you, go to a jerry bruckhiemer movie, or a guillermo del toro movie… those are art. this is silly, fun, and really a throwback *allbeait a strangely distorted one* to the origins of our fandom. though i do agree that the twins in this where a HORRIBLE addition.
i agree with prankman and kage81 on pretty much everything they said.. and since they said it, i’m not gonna repeat it.
just gonna echo my sentiments that everyone has their opinions. and its really hurtful to bash those. heh, my boyfriend teases me every single day becuz i liked ROTF. but thats not going to change the fact that i liked it and it really doesn’t matter why. i dont have to explain myself to anyone.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Seriously, it wasn’t bad. The only things I disliked were Megan Fox’s acting, the length, and the few plot holes. Other than that, I loved it
There shouldn’t be so much hate over the movie, because, really, it’s the same thing I have been seeing for years, just modernized. And please, be quiet about the crudeness. If you think TF2 is too crude, go watch Bruno or something of the like.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Transformers is a good science fiction idea that unfortunately fell into the wrong hands - Michael Bay’s. Give the next one to Ridley Scott to direct, and let Greg Egan write the script…
January 8th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
[...] Fail - Wat mij betreft het feit dat Transformers-fans, over de hele wereld, er gewoon weer ingestonken zijn, en weer hun geld aan Michael Bay gedoneerd hebben. Serieus, hoe [...]
January 20th, 2010 at 12:30 am
What the hell are you talking about?
January 20th, 2010 at 12:43 am
As a fan of Transformers since i was a kid, i was kinda disapointed. Yes, the movie had a lot of cool CGI and effects, but it was crude and focused more on brain numbing slow- motion scenes and bad jokes. Not that I dont apprieciate my fave show coming to life on the big screen, but Bay turns into another summer blockbuster. Transformers these days is run mostley by the fans who have watched it through the years. And Bay kinda tramples it with his fantasies of just explosions. He even said that he wouldnt put the Dinobots in the third movie, because he simply hates the dinobots. Its like, your making movies on one of the most iconic cartoons and toys in the world, and your dont even care what the fans might think? He might as well throw dirt in our faces and say, “this is for the fans!”
January 28th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
First of all i loved it. i found the plots simple and the robots awesome. personally i somewhat dislike g1. the fights are boring cept op v meg in the old movie. theres no humour or its horrible (though i can see the bay jokes as cringeable at.) and the bots look boring. so my fav tf series is live action
January 28th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
I just hate seeing the Transformers ruined by Michael Bay. They’ve been around since 1983, and the idea deserves better treatment. People liked this movie for the same reason they like fart jokes and reality tv - shallow, juvenile, and gross…
April 24th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
hey that was a good movie…kind of
August 14th, 2010 at 2:19 am
Okay I changed my mind-
Revenge of the Fallen was a gigantic, humongous, enormous FLOP!
No, seriously
Even Rifftrax did a Riff on ROTF
Noonegotmyname’s prophecy has been fulfilled (That of ROTF getting the MST3K treatment).