I saw it last night at a preview screening here's a quick review below, I've tried to steer clear of some spoilers but just in case:

Let me start of by saying, you OWE it to yourself to see this film. If you've never seen a transformers cartoon before or have never had a vague interest in the adventures of Optimus Prime in toy form regardless of the blatent cross-promotion of GM this movie is seriously More than meets the eye...


Michael Bay (and Steven Speilberg, though less of the latter) have crafted THE Summer movie you've been waiting for, it's action packed...it's paced fast enough for you to have an interest in the action, but also paced just right so that even in the quieter moments, you can feel the building tension of just wanting to see a giant robot.

So where to begin? Well first off...The story, albeit ho-hum and some of the dialogue is almost embarrassingly bad, it makes StarWars sound like Shakespere, it's a FUN story...you start of following 3 seperate storylines, and even though only 2 of them are really interesting and you have a vested interest in 2 or 3 of the human characters...you just can't wait to see how the unfold. Whether it's 'boy gets his first new set of wheels' or 'random army dudes survive first strike in desert' both are captivatingly (and beautifully) shot and you slowly piece each bit of the story together.

The whole stuff with the Pentagon and the Virus is pretty boring, it's pretty much unecesscary come the 3rd act you'll wonder why they spent so much time trying to stop a virus which "infects" the computers even though, everything gets fucked up in the end anyway!....but it's a nice filler between action sets and even though Jon Voight looks like he's totally lost in every scene (I swear he had a stroke or something on set) it's not bad enough to do any damage to the brilliant work done by the other 2 threads...

....and OPTIMUS PRIME because seriously, his name DESERVES Capitals. Peter Cullen IS PRIME and every aspect of his character is nailed. He's noble, he's heroic and...shock horror...he's funny when he needs to be (though Ratchet gets the BEST line of the ENTIRE movie and Ironhide is simply "insert instruction to Sam's Character now" robot....his CG is prolly the next best to Optimus). And Bumblebee...he's always been my favorite character, and apart from one scene where he comes across a little "try hard" cool, he ooozes charisma and love for Sam...there's a real vested human-ness in Bumblebee that obviously, given his screen time, you really feel it. He's a triumph of CG but also, is second only to the likes of Gollum in the portrayal of his nature, his humour and his motives....who would've thought glowing blue Robot Eyes could emote?! I was seriously choking up in some scenes...

The CG is seriously unbelieveable...OPTIMUS PRIME - I mean his VOICE sounds like it's piercing your very vital organs (and the sound was barely turned up in my screening, I can't wait to see it in an empty cinema in the afternoon sometime...it'll just sound incredible) the SFX are simply ground-breaking, from the opening titles (you'll hear it....) you know you're in for something special.

But, it's not perfect. Yes, the action is shot in Michael-Bay-Cam 2000 and therefore, it's a little troublesome to follow. Yes, the final act is a little haphazard, I know to keep costs down you can't have EVERY Robot on screen ALL the time, but I found it hard to follow what Robot was fighting whom and who was dead, who was alive and which battle had ended...so you find yourself wondering "where is Ratchet" and "why doesn't Optimus help out, is he trading Hasbro Collector Cards somewhere?" ....and like I said, the 3rd act makes one of the major plotlines totally redundant...

Jazz is annoying, Starscream gets little to no screentime and Frenzy goes from being a 1 trick joke, to a recurring 1 trick joke, but they're all tolerable...because there's so much greatness around them, it's too fun not to just laugh along with the funny noises Frenzy makes, and the sheer genius of having "Cybertron" subtitles just kicks ARSE!

...oh and the Sector 7 stuff is crude, worthless and only in the flick because the viral and internet marketing I would guess...if you bothered to take part in all that online stuff, you'll prolly get a kick out of it, but for me it was just annoying. I knew of it, but didn't need it....

But there's enough in the first, second and bits of the third to make this movie sheer entertaining brilliance...Whether it's the Autbots hiding out at Sams place trying to be 'subtle' or the amazing tranformations which are breathtaking OR the amazing characterisation of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee who simply are true hero's in every sense of the word, it's just so much fun you can't help but smile, laugh at the great one liners and go along for the ride. OH, and car chases?......you got it!

Kids are going to LOVE this film, it's got plenty in it for them...and plenty of violence to keep the 'even-younger' ones at home for the parents to skip through the 'rude bits' on DVD with later on.

Michael Bay KNOWS how to do action movies, he KNOWS how to make a 'boy' film and he's hit this one out of the park, the annoying story pitfalls are no match for the overwhelming FUN that is Transformers.


...and I'm happy to take questions from the floor

Please post as many spoilers as you can remember.

So what you're saying is....

I need to see this movie.

Okay then:




You NEED to see this movie.

Do you want to be optimus prime?

How's Shia?

Thanks for the review, Biggs. Glad you liked it, I really haven't seen a truly negative review for this film yet. Everyone from longtime fans to people who have never heard of TF's have seemed to liked it. I'm pretty much spoiled out from reading all the reactions on the TF boards so I just want it to hurry up and be July 2nd already. I can't wait!

I am Optimus Prime.

Shia is great, he's not even slightly annoying. Has some great comic timing and yeah, he's good. I wouldn't say him and Megan have much chemistry together, but it's an okay love angle thats not really a focus for the story, in fact I can't remember them kissing. The whole gag with Bumblebee trying to set them up is really cute, and not in anyway 'herbie the love bug'

...Oh and Bumblee doesn't just play songs to "speak" to Sam, he also plays excerpts from television and movies, including Uhura from Star Trek, Kirk and so forth. It's pretty funny, I'm sure there will be geeks somewhere working out what movies were referenced...

And the first time he speaks, is really out of the blue, but it's a good voice...

But god damn Peter Cullen owns the screen...

Oh I forgot one interesting note, is that the humans have tapped into the All Sparks power, and are able to create Transformers of their own out of electronic equpitment, like cellphones and stuff. There's a scene where Sam drops the cube, or accidently activates it and a Soft Drink Vending Machine turns into a Transformer.

I'm glad to hear that Optimus Prime rules this movie. That's exactly the way it should be. You want to love your heroes.

I hear the 'hero' transformation of Optimus while the camera does a 360 is amazing....any comment?

Good to hear it's a good movie. Your review is kinda confusing though, what with the: "YEAH! It's SUPER! True, there was little to no plot for two thirds, and so-and-so might have as well not been in the movie, but OPTIMUS!" It sounds like, based on what you say, that it's about so-so. But you say it's great, so, cool.

I'm looking forward to it.

Couple quick questions:

1. They don't reference his name, from what I can remember...I think it was all done in subtitles...Brawl for memory was what it said, I'm pretty sure.

Barricade does dissappear, yeah...but he gets pretty wasted by bumblebee, so he might just be hiding, not really referenced so yeah.

There's lots of little inconsistencies like that, but it would be hard (and costly) to have all the robots showing up all the time to remind us where they are and where they got to. I think that may be covered off in deleted scenes maybe? Just seems there were some bits missing every now and then, but by no means is it bad.

Gimme somethin on the hero transformation of Prime....coolest. moment. ever?

Yeah, it's pretty impressive for sure, lasts forever onscren, from what I can remember. Prime gets a couple of kick arse transformations though, the one while he was in motion on the freeway was pretty impressive....

His fight with the big tan coloured tank robot was short, but we he busts out this GIANT sword, it's pretty sweet...

IGN.com just posted an interview with Todd Gilchrist and the cast.

That in itself isn't too interesting, but then Michael Bay busts into the frame while Gilchrist sits there eyeing him with his mouth shut like the bitch he is. I've never seen the guy, but I suspected he would look like a cockless gutless dork that can't put his money where his mouth is.

You talk a big game about how much of a hack Bay is...here's your chance to give him a piece of your mind. But no, you won't do that...because in the end, you are a nothing.

Gilchrist looks like someone who's head I'd dunk in the toilet and flush it.

Sorry, I just think everything this guy thinks and says is inspired by idiocy.

END RANT

Went and saw TF yesterday morning after work, and I have to agree with pretty much all that Biggs has said. This is definitely the cream of the crop of summer movies from the last 2 years by a very big margin.

Sitting there in the theatre I got the same sense of joy and excitement from this movie that I used to get watching the TV shows as a kid. While there are few similarities between the movie and TV show apart from the bleedingly obvious ones, the way the movie was crafted together, with the mix of both action and light comedy moments pulls out the best parts of what made the TV show great to watch placing them fittingly into a more contemporary story.

The only downside was that I saw it on a crappy screen, but that will be rectified over the weekend.

I'm dying to HEAR the movie properly in a decent sounding theatre, the sound effects were just amazing, I wasn't listening the score properly, because I was really just enjoying the fun ride of the movie too much, but that Linkin Park song (now it's finally growing on me) is thrashed a bit throughout the movie...

...quite a bit actually. Their royalties on that song will be massive.

Being a LP fan I had no problem with it, but in actuality you hear about 20 seconds as Sam's dropping Michaela off, part of it again during the final battle (when Sam and Michaela are together with BB and the rig) and then the credits. Actually, they did a really good job with the balance between using the score and the contemporary songs as backing for the scenes.

damn flu was gonna see this thursday night but will probably catch it on tight arse tuesday now instead.

THE MOST ENTERTAINING MOVIE OF, maybe, THE LAST 5 YEARS.

If you didn't like this, you are wrong about everything in life. or gay. or both.

Great fucking film. I loved it. My only complaint is the action is so fast and so intense that it is hard to follow at times. I definitely want to see it again just to catch everything that I missed.

All the spoilers are pretty much mentioned above. But he's some stuff I can add of the top of my head.

My detailed thoughts:



That's all I got for now. I can't wait to see it again. I can't fucking wait.

I went to the theater to see Die Hard tonight, realized this was opening instead. The plot was cheesy, had lots of needless tangents, and the in-jokes and product placement got annoying...

But wow. This was a fun movie.

The things that really grabbed me were Shia's well-delivered humor, Megan Fox's hot body, and the jaw-dropping effects work. I honestly teared up watching the first robot transformation - I don't remember the names; it was the helicopter Decepticon. I can't even imagine the hours that went into making those robots look as good as they did. ILM has once again earned my endearing respect.

And I think Michael Bay set the record for the number of explosions in a single film. Oh - I really want the orchestral soundtrack to this.

Just got back, I fuckin loved it! I gotta let my excitement settle down a little and collect my thoughts but it was great. Crowd was really into it laughing, cheering and clapping throughout the movie. I already got tickets to go see again tomorrow.



CoGro, did you stick around through the credits a bit? Because Starscream...



Looking forward to seeing it again!

FUCKING ORSM

One person was meant to shoot Transformers The Movie and that person was Michael Bay. Given the recent Cartoon Network imports and the upcoming Transformers Animated 2008 series, Micheal Bay's Transformers is all sorts of coolness.

Sam's Happy Time: Shia Labeouf basically plays his Even Stevens character and Megan Fox's hair extensions, implants, fake tan, and blue contacts were awesome. However, the real cock-raiser of the film was 5'11 Australian actress Rachael Taylor (google image search), whom I sure was utilizing hair extenstions and blue contacts of her own.


Michael Bay's Tranformers may cause metric fucktons^© of drama. During the opening scene there is an accented soldier who while discussing eating gators and insects, is outright told to speak english. The portrayal of blacks in the movie, including the autobot Jazz is sure bring out the Al Sharptons.



Starscream can never die!

From the in-air transformation takeout of rival jets, to the city street brawl, Starscream independantly owned and operated any opposition. Unlike Megatron who just basically pops his chops.

Yeah, I went to see it again yesterday...Jazz was the most annoying of the T'Formers, and it bothered me that you had, essentially...a white robot, being voiced by a black man...in true stereotypical fashion...it was just a bit silly, but all the other "botherments" I had originally written in my review, wern't actually that bad the second time around...I actually enjoyed it alot more, the whole sector 7 stuff actually entertained me more...

So go figure, a Bay movie that is better second time around?

I also brought 'Barricade" yesterday for $25 and I gotta say, freakin' hard to transform the dude back into Vehicle mode, but if he isn't the coolest Transformer I've seen....pretty movie accurate really, 'cept for the front bit....I'm waiting to get the 07 Camero version of Bumblebee...is that one out in the 'States yet?

"Whats crackin lil bitches?" (as poser hip-hop poses are struck ending in a backwards flip onto a parked car with arms crossed.)

And then spends the movie getting his ass kicked.

Naw, I don't see how any racial stereotypes are playing into this. :P

Then again, the whole movie is a stereotype. From the jerky jock, to the nerdy teacher with glasses and bowtie. And the soundtrack imported directly from every previous Michael Bay movie ever.

At least the robot fight sequence at the end kicked ass. Too bad it takes an hour and a half to get there.

I liked Shia though. I look forward to seeing him in Indy.

And Optimus, outside of the dopey flame paintjob (that kinda makes it hard for him to blend in) was

PS: What in the holy hell was that trailer about the guy who had a going away party turned New York getting destroyed?

What's the name of that flick? Fucked up trailer.

It had everyone in the theater talking and going 'WTF'? Apparently it's an untitled film by J.J. Abrams. I found a blurb about it here.

The scene with Bumblebee talking to Sam through the radio was awesome....

I think these types of scenes gave the movie a bit of magic beyond the whole notion of wanting to simply see giant robots wreak havoc on one another.

I was all about Prime beheading Bonecrusher.

That part, and Starscream taking on an entire squadron of F-22's. Nice.

Fucking love it.

Can anyone who has it post some clips from the film? I need my fix before I see it again.

Starscream vs F22 raptors (not the best quality)

http://rapidshare.com/files/41110910/st ... s.wmv.html

Prime vs Bonecrusher

http://rapidshare.com/files/41112214/Pr ... r.WMV.html

Anyone else find it a bit odd that Shia's making out with Mega on top of a sentient Camaro, with the remaiming Autobots just watching out, Prime standing over him in the "I so approve of your actions" manner? I know it's Megan, and we'd make out with her anywhere, but...

It's Megan Fox...I'd wreck her in front of my Grandma....

Truth.


That Starscream scene was fucking incredible.

Great movie. Bumblebee was one of the best things about that movie. Can't wait for the sequel.

I think the reason why Bumblebee was able to finally speak at the end was I believe Rachet(sp?) shot that laser beam into Bumblebee's vocal cords towards the beginning when they had that group meeting and Sam met Optimus and the other Auto Bots for the first time. It probably just took a long time for the vocal cords to regenerate I guess. That's just my theory on it.

Yeah, there were some weird awkward bits to the story, like the bumblebee speaking part, I mean he didn't REALLY need to speak at all! But I think all the little nitpicky things (like Barricade dissappearing) will get ironed out with the extra scenes on the DVD I reakon...

...either that, or the sequel is going to kick all sorts of anus!!

I figured that he got to speak again because the All-Spark regenerated his vocal chords in the same way it gave Frenzy his body back....made sense to me.

There's a TON of shit you can nitpick at the movie - having just got back from it again - but it's all so rediculous that I just laugh at it. It just doesn't matter in the grand scheme of this movie.

I could watch that final battle every day and it wouldn't lose its entertainment value. Still though, nothing gets your heart pumping faster than Blackout's first transformation. I got tingles seeing it again and I knew it was coming.

.....my favorite was Barricade's first transformation, looked so good...I wanted more Barricade....

Those transformations won't ever get old. They define cool. CGI was invented so a movie like this oculd be made.

Being a Mustang guy Barricade was always one of my favorites. I was just reading over the script again and some of his scenes definitely hit the cutting room floor. There was more to the fight with Bumblebee. A scene where he reactivated after the fight. He was also involved in the fight against Prime with Bonecrusher. Prime slammed him into a freeway pillar. Great material for the DVD but I'm glad that the possibility is now there for him to return for the sequel.

I think Frenzy should also return. If he could survive getting his head cut off from a saw then he should be able to survive getting his head cut off from his own razor discs. He certainly did his best Waspinator impression with his head scurrying around like a spider.

I didn't mention it in my other post but I also liked Scorponok. Being a big Beast Wars fan it was nice to have a beastbot in the movie even though he didn't have a robot mode. But since he survived as well maybe the designers can give him bot mode for the sequel.

I agree about the opening Blackout scene. I really liked the tone of that scene and how Bay shot it. It was kinda a scary sequence in a way.

Lets not forget that Frenzy's eyes were still alight, and he's good at playing dead.

Also, what happened to the 3 transformers that the cube created? The MountainDew Machine, the computer and that other thing? Are they good or bad?

Well the novelization's explanation is, the Allspark provides a spark of life to machines but does not instill intelligence.

Speculation: Random machines brought to life are nothing more than machine animals, they are neither good or bad, they are acting solely on animalistic instincts. Maybe the machines brought to life in the movie felt threatened and lashed out in self defense which would certainly make sense for the little cell phone bot trapped in the glass box. Perhaps a new TF created by the Allspark still needs programming to gain its personality and intelligence.

I was thinking the same thing, something similar to feral transformers. It kicks that feral transformers can create RPG's and Machine guns, though.

Still, it would be cool if they could gather those creations and program them. I'd kill for a sentient mountain dew machine that could kick someone's a@@ when I asked.

what a shitty/awesome movie.

Checked it out. Eh, it was alright. I'm not a fan of Transformers in the least. Meaning I've never had a toy or watched the cartoon ever in my life. I just went in to see a sweet ass summer blockbuster with robot battling action and all the stereotypical stuff you expect from a Michael Bay film; shots of soldiers and shit running in slow motion to jets on an airstrip at sunset, assloads of cars flying through the air in slow motion, really awkward slow motion close-ups on faces, explosions every fucking where, asinine storylines, etc. It was all there and while it may not have been a great film, it sure as hell was entertaining. Retarded, but definitely entertaining.

You forgot the vengeful Mountain Dew machine.