Right a new thread with sample images uptop. In addition to how F/X in Revenge Of The Fallen nearly broke ILM, Robert Orci - one of the writers posted @AICN accepts blame while also blaming the 2007 Writer's Strike.


QUOTE: Boborci Jun 24th, 2009 12:06:10 AM

Harry --

thanks for trying to give me and Alex a pass, but the sequence of events isn't exactly right. Two weeks before the strike, Alex and Ehren and I generated a 20 page story outline together, and then Michael used it during the strike to prep the action and to develop some of the things he wanted into more of a 60 page scriptment. The twins were born then. I wouldn't blame Ehren for anything that you wouldn't blame us for, but thanks anyway.


After watching the FLAWL3SS boot, I noticed in addtion to reusing Transformers I effects, parachutes of all things were used to cover up part of Prime not once but twice. When the Twins got their new alt-modes, a transparent sheet was used to cover the scene for further effects saving. That and the Twins were never shown transforming. There is a suggestion that Transformers themselves should be made more simple in terms of detail and moving parts to save on renders. Another suggestion is to bring Speilberg back on board.

I'm sorry to say that my repeated viewings is starting to bring me around to the film. From the unintended racial stereotyping right down to the gold tooth - the Twins are so outrageous, plus the reaction to them, that is making me into a fan. Jar Jar would have been more awesome if he swore, spoke in ebonics, and made homophobic comments like the Twins did. ("Why don't you get a haircut with yo bitch ass", "Go whine to yo boyfriend", "That's cuz you a pussy" *fist bump*)

I'm hoping some retail version of Skidz incorporates a gold colored tooth.


One thing is certain, Revenge Of The Fallen damaged the series. Which in the end maybe a good thing because it means that III will have to be that much better. There is no choice now but to feature Unicron, Galvatron, and the Dinobots in the next feature!

The twins didn't bother me that much.. I mean let me put it to you like this; their behavior and jive talk didn't annoy me as much as their utter pointlessness in the movie. It's one thing to talk useless shit, another to be a pointless piece of shit. Their roles could have been replaced with pre-existing Autobots, or the multitude of new ones for this movie- that to me is the greater crime here.

I willl say though, they had one line, one that was interrupted when one of the twins I think saw the big Decrapitator or something and started to say "mutha-" and he gets bonked on the head with a piece of debris. I thought that was funny, but that's at the end of the movie.

And I can see myself liking this movie more once I see it at home in HD with me totally baked.

That's a pretty spot on observation. I'm really sick of people coping out with lame, tired excuses that suffice as a mea culpa. No, it's not enough that a movie called "Transformers" have giant robots fighting each other anymore so than it's enough for a Batman flick to feature the Caped Crusader duking it out with clown faced villains, especially in a post "Dark Knight" Hollywood. The bar has been raised so high now that we should expect more from our movies, even if the results wind up being noble failures. "Watchmen" may have polarized but at least there was passion behind its intentions.

This film is what is known as a "hot mess" - a term used to described formerly attractive stars on a downward spiral. It's a great film in the same way that Star Trek 2009 was - a 2½ hour ironic film that makes fun of it's predecessors - a 2½ hour comedy sketch.

It's quite obvious that the writer's strike, ILM limitations, and lack of Spielberg can be blamed for the meandering plot and re-used special effects. However the movie could be edited into something better. Namely by getting rid of the controversial base comedy bits, scaling back the lengthy Egyptian quest to [s]Mount Doom[/s] the Pyramid and perhaps making the most the Transformer fight sequences by slowing them the fuck down.

Personally, not only do I think the plot is a mess but the story actually isn't very good at all. I would have preferred they expand on the mythology of the first rather than contradict it by introducing new elements that were only loosely related. In TF1, Prime says Megatron is the leader of the decepticons and he has all this knowledge about Cybertron's history and the origins of the war yet he doesn't know of the original decepticon, the Fallen, that has actually been in control the entire time? It's one thing to allude to the fact that Megatron was a minion of some higher authority and introduce that higher authority in subsequent installments (ala Vader and the Emperor) but the Fallen literally comes out of nowhere and we know nothing about him. We know the original war was over the All Spark so when did their MO shift to eating suns? Not to mention, the Fallen's back story (and the story of the Primes) isn't all that interesting and it's actually FAR less interesting that the one we establish in TF1 - Cybertron splinters into two warring factions for control of the All Spark and galactic supremacy. This whole Sun-eating bullshit comes right out of left field and is never tied in a convincing way to the plight of the current decepticons aside from the reference of how they need energon. Is that what they're shifting to? The old energon plot device for every single damn installment like they did in G1? ROTF is a hack of a story, especially the whole "I can only be killed by a prime" BS.

What pisses me off more is that Michael Bay and co knows it's a shit story. This film is proof that their intentions for the series was to make it as episodic and ridiculous as the original show - with every installment hollow and silly with little story logic. They didn't aim higher and maximize the potential of the material they were given here. They were content with being loud and stupid. I don't mind GFRs and loud action, but at least give it some substance; at least make the story interesting. Not to mention the desert setting is so boring it's sick, especially since it was done in the last movie.

I almost should have seen this coming when they revealed the title was "Revenge of the Fallen"

Any film that uses a "Rise of the" or "Revenge of the" subtitle from now on may as well title itself "this movie sucks." It's the most lame, tired, uninspired garbage any writer can put out. If they sucked enough to not come up with a decent title then it's obvious that what will follow is complete shit.

I want to argue a few points but I cant stop laughing at how right you are to form a coherent thought.

I was under the impression that this movie was about: The cube created life to serve it. The cube needs power to survive, therefore created life to serve it and create machines that would suck the sun to give the cube power. One of those machines was on earth, therefore the cube went to the closest power source.

The decepticons would turn on the machine and restore the cube. The autobots would have to sacrifice the cube again (destroy machine to save humanity) thus killing the hope of a new cybertron. The plot didnt quite turn out that way did it?

I knew The Fallen was going to be bad news as soon as the title hit and it was confirmed it was referring to the character and was not just a metaphor for defeated Decepticons. One reason I never like the original comic version of the Fallen was that he was the herald of Unicron and thus was essentially a bigger threat to both Autobots and Decepticons. This of course would lead to the oft used comicbook cliche of the good guys and bad guys temporarily teaming up to defeat a common foe. That was one of my initial fears of his inclusion in the movie, that he would force the Bots and Cons to team up.

That scenario didn't happen but the movie Fallen is just as pointless a character. The thing that bothers me the most is he kinda ruins Megatron's character by turning him into a lackey. Megatron has never in any of the fiction been second fiddle to anyone. Even in the 86 movie as Galvatron he sought to overthrow Unicron to escape his control because he was not willing to serve anyone no matter how much more powerful than him they may be.

This story adds nothing to the movie mythos or any of the Transformers mythos overall. Even when they try to introduce new concepts they throw them away right in the same scene. Such as the lame idea of the hatchlings. So the question would be how are new TFs born? Okay, we see a bunch of pods with a new TF bursting out of it. So, where do these pods comes from? Is this suggesting that TFs are grown or what? What's the process? I don't like the idea but it's even worse when they don't even bother to explain or build upon a new concept they're trying to introduce.

A few other pointless robots in this movie:

Ravage's "reedman" barfbot. A bunch of ball bearing bots that somehow merge into a larger razor thin robot? The idea stretches the reality even for TFs. Streamline the scene and just have Ravage bust in there, maul the soldiers and make off with the shard himself.

Alice the Pretender. Although I always hated the original Pretender concept/toys, I surprisingly didn't hate the robot too much. Might have been a bit better if it actually transformed into something. With just the human disguise it comes off more as a cheap Terminator knock-off. Instead of Alice they could have brought back Barricade with a new partner to replace Frenzy (how about Wheelie be his new little bud) and have them stalk Sam and the other shard?

Sideways. ILM built and rendered a new model and his robot mode ends up having about 4 seconds of screentime and is killed right off the bat. What a waste. I'm a Barricade fan so I would not have liked to have seen him killed so quickly but if he was substituted for Sideways it at least would have saved ILM one less new model to build and tied up a loose end from movie 1. Two birds, one stone.

Alright, i feel a bit better seeing it for a second time. Going in for the first time at an IMAX I was expecting a whole lot, this go around I was a bit more grounded. Yes, I stick by my previous post and agree with most of the discussions going on within this thread, but I can live with this installment. There really were some great scenes with Optimus and the first segment of the Decepticon hunt down was pretty cool. I did not find the twins as annoying as before and I had a clearer understanding of the fallen and primes storyline. It's all there, maybe a bit rushed in certain areas...

Maybe I had a different approach going into this viewing, but I was able to digest a lot more and the comedic parts I found annoying the first time were actually not that bad....kinda funny.

Transformers II came out on top this weekend over Ice Age 3D (42m vs 41m) for those of you into box office wars.

www.deadlinehollywood.com

Devastator Tribute video by "ROTFRULEZ" uploaded on the 4th of July.

[flash width=560 height=340]http://www.youtube.com/v/b7-b-gYs5lQ[/flash]

That’s disturbingly hypnotic.

CG Society Talks about the shots and robots that Digital Domain was responsible for.
(Some great pics in this one, including a nice shot of Soundwave's face.)

[flash width=699 height=343]http://media.cgnetworks.com/flash/transformers2/transformers2.swf[/flash]

Actually it would help elevate the Review thread since I brought it it down a notch with the Devastator Tribute video



Speaking of which even how Revenge Of The Fallen almost broke ILM (ILM Report @ VFX World):


QUOTE: The other noteworthy development was that the breaking apart of a pyramid top was eight times bigger than the previous ILM rigid simulation record. It only required four or five shots but that took seven months just to create the simulation of the blocks tumbling and being torn apart by Devastator. TD Christopher Horvath oversaw the pyramid sim work.

"It has caused our simulation folks to improve everything and we've got some really clever people that understand cinematic movement better, not just the technical elements," Farrar says. "We push everybody to observe what is real."

Why isn't the main bad guy of this movie a transformer? He's just a giant alien robot who's more alien than robot. And why does he have Force powers? Isn't that the most played and tired bad guy superpower? Why does he even have superpowers? Tacky.

Optimus Prime on David Letterman, pretty funny stuff(especially the squirrel/nuts thing)

[flash width=560 height=340]http://www.youtube.com/v/capoqysbgI0[/flash]


Edit: Alice the Transforming Slut® up there looks like Grievous' wife(Alice Grievous!).

concept art by SW Prequel alum Ryan Church

The mountainous landscape in the pyramid one reminds me of Alderaan in Episode III. I just realized this guy did Star Trek 11 too.

There's something very 'Alien' about the designs. The Fallen is a stupid character that's completely out of place in this series.

That's because The Fallen is Bay/Kurtzman/Orci's interpretation of Transformer Expanded Universe. From the Hatchling sequence, myself I got a Dark Crystal vibe from it.

Regarding the previous force powers query, I'm not sure if you are referring to the teleportation thing, a aspect which bothered me. Teleportation was supposed be the movie universe's Space Bridge. The idea must have been to get JetFire and company to Egypt as quick as possible while incorporating a original animation element into the story, all the while not showing another transformation sequence. It would have been preferable to just have JetFire transform and take everyone else on as passengers to Egypt. Being a SR-71 Blackbird, I'm sure they would get to their destination fast enough.

Another issue with the film is the treatment of StarScream. In the animated series, Scream was a sarcastic underling who could hold his own (the same could be said also for the first film's incarnation). In Fallen we are given a cowardly, subservient persona with a Megatron who is subservient himself to the newer character, The Fallen.


With that said, I am starting to have a anti-reaction to the film: it's so bad it's good

Cool Design sheet of Devastator. Interesting notes on the sheet. Overload's robot design is shown and we finally find out what component he formed, (he's the rear torso.) Hightower apparently never had a robot mode designed for him.



Super, mega high-rez version (8000x5256!): Megaupload


It's cool to see the Overload design finally. Doesn't seem like he was necessary though. We don't really see what part of Devastator he forms in the movie and even looking at the CG model you can't really tell. Guess that might be one reason why Hasbro didn't include him in the Supreme Devastator toy set, although he is included in the EZ Legend set.

When you really start to break it down between the art/renders and the sequence in the film, Devs seems to be made up of more than just 7 vehicles. In the combo sequence there seems to be two dumptrucks, two bulldozers one of which forms the left hand and connects to the truss crane. The Constructicon confusion continues.

Not only the teleportation thing, which felt totally stupid and lazy, but the Fallen levitating an entire army and dropping them. Everything was over the top and cartoony to the point of taking me out of my suspension of disbelief.

I don't need to go on another rant.

Well finally took in a matinee of this yesterday. Ugh. What is most infuriating is how easy this could have been pulled off. And I know you have to sell new toys but to replace pretty much all of the original films transformers with new ones is aggravating. With the exception of OP in the forest scene (best scene of the movie imo) all of the first films autobots get left out. Even Bumblebee gets no love in this movie.

Early on from time to time you see the feel of the first film coming through but it is few and far between. Almost impossible to understand the story. It seems in the final battle the Constructicons are all together as Devastator but then I swear it seemed like they were also in robot form fighting the Army at the same time. I guess that goes with the not being able to tell each robot from another. Robot Heaven? really? So fucking disappointing.

What was good:

-The idea the government might find the Autobots to be as big a problem as a help. I with they could have expanded on this or made it the focus of the entire story instead of this Fallen/Sun Destroying/Primes crap.

-Also the special ops team of bots/military to handle Decepticons around the world.

What was bad:

-Everything else.

Just a quick comment on the "Robot Heaven" as it appears in the film. It's not a new concept for the Transformers mythos but it's another good example of this film trying to introduce something new and not doing it well and then letting it fall by the wayside.

Transformers Heaven, as it were is referred to as The Allspark or The Matrix in other continuities. A better way to think of it instead of robot heaven would be as a Lifestream similar to the concept in Final Fantasy 7. All Transformer Sparks are born from it and all Sparks return to it when they are extinguished adding its life experiences back into the collective whole.

This is one reason why I didn't like the writers calling the Cube from TF1 The Allspark. Most of the time it seems like the writers are just plucking terms out of a Transfomers glossary and saying hey this sounds cool, lets use this name rather than actually using some of the existing backstories to build upon. But then again when they do use one of the more iconic things from the mythos we get the Matrix of Leadership being reduced to a mere key to activate the lame sun harvesting machine.

I wanna go back to the hot Arcee hologram chicks for a second and Alice the Terminator.

What's the point of having holograms that look like human beings when robots can look like perfect human beings?

Is it the next step of evolution for the Decepticon Transformers? Can the Autobots NOT look like human beings?

And why spend so much screen time on mom getting stoned on pot brownies when more of the 2.5 hours could have been spent on this more interesting subject?

You know when people talked about Lucas raping their childhoods with the prequels, Michaey Bay just raped childhoods and entire lifespans.

I recently watched the first Transformers. It increased my level of anger towards the second movie because of how much better a film it is in every single way.

2 years ago we talked about how Transformers wasn't a film - it's a 'movie - big summer kick-ass entertainment that aspires to be nothing more than a vehicle for all that is awesome. Well, it's Schindler's fucking list in comparison to Revenge of the Fallen. I'm still pissed off at how disappointed I am by this movie.

Funny People is my saving grace for summer movies. Wow.

Exactly.

For me Blackout owned the first movie. His arrival and transformations were fucking beautiful.

Even the best parts of this movie are marred with small issues. For example, my favourite moment of the entire film is the music matched with Optimus's final thrust during the Forest Battle. The musical cue is perfect, the action is awesome but Optimus's line misses the mark for me.

"You'll never stop at one..." - that sounds good but then "...I'll take you all on!"

How does one have anything to do with the other? Shouldn't it be "You'll never stop at one...I won't let you have any!" or something like that? I don't think there's a scene in this movie where everything - the direction, music, acting, effects, script - comes together beautifully to make a memorable movie moment.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen DVDRip XviD-iMBT

For those who have access to Cargo:

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