Transformers: Dark of the Moon POST-RELEASE Discussion - Page 5

I don't see that happening but it would be an awesome enough movie to make the other three retroactively better.   It's pretty obvious by now that Bay doesn't really like Transformers that much and he shows this contempt especially with Optimus Prime.   Another thing (as stated above) there was a chance to let Starscream do something in this movie by goading Megatron into fighting Sentinel Prime.   Also, where's the whole lust for power from Starscream in this series?   Seems like an arc that could have been utilized.

But you know, with all the complaining I'm doing about this movie, I am falling into the "like" category if for nothing else than the absurd spectacle of it all.   I can't hate a movie with this much energy behind it unlike the truly horrible Green Lantern.

I had the same problem about Starscream. I thought that Starscream was one bot who sort of came pre-packaged with some definite character traits that could be woven into the main story pretty easily. Instead he's absent from the story until he gets taken out by LaBeouf like a totally anonymous character -- which I guess he is, but didn't have to be.

It amuses me too that Optimus is clearly the leader of the Autobots only because all of the other ones are so obviously unfit for leadership. Can you imagine Bumblebee or Ironhide making any kind of logical decision about anything? They're essentially children with missiles on their arms, and Optimus is the older kid who hangs out with them because nobody his age can stand being around such an arrogant hypocrite.

On a more serious note though, I think the foolish, bumbling vulnerability shared amongst even the more badass Autobots is why some people feel pangs of something resembling concern for them occasionally.

I don't know, Ratchet seemed fairly reasonable.  Other than totally cockblocking Sam back in the first movie.

Starscream was a total waste in all these 3 movies, in all aspects. The design (looked like a gorilla), the voice and worse of all no personality.

I think it was funny how the dumb Autobots were "captured" yet it seems their weapons were still pretty functional. Why didn't the horrible Einstein looking bot (seriously the top 3 worst looking robot in the history of cinema), desperately shoot a couple of Decepticons just before being executed?

You see Bumblebee do the same stupid thing, until something happens (what was it, the comic relief bots saving the day in the spirit of Inspector Gadget?) then he finally decides to use the weapons apparently mounted on his body.

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Originally Posted by NoahtheStud 

I used to think a good script would help Michael Bay, but his lack of pacing and logic in the Chicago battle shows he doesn't know how to shoot pure action either.  It was scattershot setpieces with no relation to each other.

Every review or comment I've read about this film that's been bang-on has made this point. It really is quite amazing how many people can be convinced something is cool just by bombarding the screen with noise and light with no sense of rhythm whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by ElCapitanAmerica 

Starscream was a total waste in all these 3 movies, in all aspects. The design (looked like a gorilla), the voice and worse of all no personality.

The same can largely be said of all the Transformers across the entire trilogy. Those drawn clearest (Prime and Bumblebee) are still rudimentary at best. The others are semi-2D.

Some of the people who seem to really like this (and R.O.T.F.) are people who have no knowledge of (or interest in) the series and make it their business to let you know they don't want any attempt at story, character, or coherence. Apparently, having robots in a film mandates stupidity for stupidity's sake. I find it pretty funny that, in seemingly every other genre, most people want to at least marginally care about what's happening. Yet, when it's this, a portion of the audience refuses to accept anything other than "ME ROBOT HIT YOU ROBOT!"

Bobby, I'm with you 100%, although I did somewhat care what happened in the first movie. The sad thing is that there's much better Transformers media to latch on to. Anyone remember Beast Wars? That still holds up quite well. The most recent 2-D animated Transformers series (called "Transformers Animated") was also quite excellent. You know why? Because the robots are honest-to-God characters, and even when there ARE humans, they don't take over the freaking story.

Beast Wars will always hold a special place in my heart.

Aaaand, on topic, I never saw Transformers 2 and don't plan on seeing this one, either.

Saw it, same as the other two... no better, no worse.  Great FX, everything is else is paper thin...

Nice ass shot though...

For some reason im really into seeing Real Steel.

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Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Bobby, I'm with you 100%, although I did somewhat care what happened in the first movie. The sad thing is that there's much better Transformers media to latch on to. Anyone remember Beast Wars? That still holds up quite well. The most recent 2-D animated Transformers series (called "Transformers Animated") was also quite excellent.

Thanks, Chris! I was interested by what happened in the first film as well. Granted, that was mostly because I remember dreaming of a live-action Transformers movie as a child in the mid-90's when most people didn't give a monkeys about them. Although it was partially down to Bay actually attempting to engage the audience emotionally with a halfway coherent story, too. I've said it again and again, but the "boy and his car" stuff Spielberg talked about was the best thing about the film by a distance.

Beast Wars never really won me over back then - I was all about the original characters and designs - and I didn't see any of the latest Transformers Animated series, but your positivity has made me curious to see if they can match the original animated movie which I'd still watch over any of Bay's movies in a heartbeat. Any day of the week. And any other additional cliché you'd care to add.
 

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Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

Being an underdog for underdog sports movies, the latest trailer for Real Steel actually got me looking forward to the movie beyond the fun robot designs.

I want to be looking forward to that more than I am. Everything that makes me want to see it comes from the version in my mind though, based on the premise, not the promo photos and footage for the actual film.

Bobby, I would actually argue that Beast Wars and Transformers Animated have a much better sense of storytelling than the original cartoon, which I attempted to watch recently, and only my love of voice actors like Peter Cullen and the indomitable Frank Welker kept me from shrinking away from the dreadful animation and dumbed-down stories. I enjoy the original animated movie immensely, to be fair, but there's no denying that it has plenty of narrative flaws, namely that damn kid Daniel and the still-present stark black-and-white morality of bad 80s cartoons.

BW and TA actually put a lot of thought into their characters and world, as well as terrific voice acting on both shows. The CGI animation for BW is rough, sure, but it gets better as the show goes along, and TA's strong direction and boarding (as in "storyboarding") tend to make up for the often stiff animation.

Finally saw it the other night with a friend.

The first one was better than it had a right to be, if flawed. The second one was fucking awful.

This one, I really don't know where to begin. It's not that I *hate* it, but it's a loud, excessive, bloated, jingoistic clusterfuck with a bipolar tone that swings from startlingly dark to sitcom zaniness at the change of a shot, dragging its feet at every chance it gets for the sake of trying to outdo what has happened before. It's Michael Bay firing on all cylinders and doing what he does best, yet that comes at the cost of numbing your senses and shattering logic.

With a half hour or even 20 minutes shaved off of this, I would have been an apologist for it. It's not a disaster like Revenge of the Fallen was. The extreme contrast of lightheartedness and mean-spirited actions are as cuckoo as other sequels that have done the same thing. RoboCop 2 and Superman III come to mind, and both of those came to mind during it. But in all honesty, the craziness and unevenness of it all reminded me of the schizoid Bob Clark anti-classic Loose Cannons, and like that, it's a fascinating fiasco. It's as if a 9-year-old was shown the first two and then given the pile of cocaine on Tony Montana's desk, and the highs and lows he had made this. For example, Ken Jeong's character getting killed so frivolously would have worked if this was a RoboCop movie, but here it comes off as off-color and shocking. Same with how Simmons is reintroduced as a haughty cartoon and is then paralyzed during a very serious action sequence. I can't be the only one who thought these were strange actions.

On another note, I will say that the part where Megatron destroys the Lincoln Memorial, then SITS IN THE PLACE of the obliterated Lincoln made me laugh slightly less than the "there's a colonial woman on the wing" line in Bridesmaids, which is the frontrunner for funniest movie moment of 2011. Just for that, I can't really hate the thing, and I thought John Malkovich was great.

But fuck Patrick Dempsey's eeeeeeeeeeevil bad guy doing a Sean Penn impression. Fuck Sam's parents. Fuck the fact that the climax is about an hour and ten minutes long. Fuck Bill O'Reilly's cameo and the obvious right-wing slant it has. Fuck Buzz Aldrin's weird appearance. Fuck Alan Tudyk's Balki voice.

Oh yeah, and what the hell was with the Tarantino homages? Oh, whatever.

The Mexican standoff was the obvious one, but I also kind of thought that part with the Russian mob club was like some strange version of the Le Louisine sequence in Basterds.

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Originally Posted by NickP 

Saw it, same as the other two... no better, no worse.  Great FX, everything is else is paper thin...

 

Nice ass shot though...

This. In fact I think I feel asleep for 15 minutes and felt like I didn't miss a thing. Way too many human characters that I didn't care anything about. I feel like a movie snob or that something is wrong with me because I couldn't relate to most of it. I did like Shia, didn't understand the purpose of the big lipped girlfriend or her boss.

Oh, it is a disaster, Hunter. It really, really is. For the reasons you mentioned in your first paragraph and others have here and far beyond as well. It doesn't matter how expensive it looks or how funny the changes in tone sometimes were. It doesn't even matter how cool you might find it to watch cartoon characters and toys you loved as a kid rampaging through a massive summer film (as I found out personally, once again.) This is a sorry excuse for a film of even the most frivolous, disposable nature.

There would need to be be, at least, 45 minutes taken out of this to get it down to anything approaching acceptability. Preferably, an hour.

Bobby Bear, So much negativity for such an...Awesome, film!  I would have...Loved a...3 1/2 hr cut of Transformers 3!

Believe me, duke, I didn't want to hate this at all, but I've never been so annoyed by a film during a cinema-going experience than this. It surpassed even Revenge of the Fallen in that regard. There are very few films I know right there in the moment I never want to see again, but this is definitely one of them.

Saw it tonight, at the behest of a friend who I'm sure was just trolling me. Needless to say it was hands down the worst fucking film I have ever, ever seen. Even worse than Spawn, worse than anything dear old Ed Wood ever did, even goddamn worse than Spun (till now the Heavyweight Champion of Terrible Cinema I've endured).

I asked my friend how it compared to the previous one, which I still refuse to waste time on and he said the second really is much, much worse. I'm not sure I can even conceive of a major motion picture so irredeemably awful as he suggests after the garbage I just sat through.

Jesus H. fucking Christ on a space hopper. All involved should be dragged out by the balls and shot. Still, I'll tip my hat to Michael Bay for pulling off the impossible not once but twice:

i) He made a film about giant alien robots fighting that was BORING;

ii) He also somehow managed to make Wheelie...likeable? Seriously, him, his pal and the doddery old professorbot were the only decent things about this godawful piece of shit.

Yeah...Spun. Fuck that fucking movie.

I guess I'm in a minority that purely loved this thing, warts and all.

I honestly thought outside of two or three scenes, the second one is pretty bad. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love how Optimus just completely owns The Fallen and Megatron at the end.

PBar, mcnooj82, I...Loved, all 3 Transformers films!  So that makes it at least a minority of...3!

Watching these movies, even when the action is good, is a very strange experience. All that craft and effort for an insipidly stupid movie about giant robots that transform into cars for no discernible reason. It doesn't help that Bay can't create a character that doesn't make you despise humanity. Sure, Bumblebee is sympathetic, mostly because LeBoef berates him constantly and his voice performance is all comprised of a fun sound collage. I mean, I don't think Shia is that annoying in every role he's done. But paired with Michael Bay, it pushes all his most unlikeable qualities to the surface.

I rented this from the library, but I shouldn't have bothered. Despite everything having been polished to a high gloss, and the obvious expense of the effects on display, I've never been less engaged by a blockbuster. By the end, I could hardly keep my eyes open even as hundreds of millions of dollars in pixels went whizzing around my TV

I don't even know where to start my complaints, so I think I just won't bother. I refuse to put more thought into this movie than Bay, Orchi and Kurtzman did. I'll sum it up by saying this was anti film making. Everything, literally everything, was just a rip off or pale imitation of something another movie has done before and done better. It was just reheating fast food pop culture and serving it back to an already dangerously bloated McNation

Repugnant on every level, creatively bankrupt and actively hateful, this movie would have left me enraged if it hadn't put me to sleep. Appropriating Speilberg's WOTW 'dusting' imagery, in a horrific, unearned ploy for gravitas (complete with sappy pop song out of nowhere)? Simply disgusting. The film's dialog was painful to the ears, the characters utterly loathsome, and once again it's politics - racial and otherwise - were more suited to neanderthals than homo-sapiens

Oh, and the robots continue to suck. They're all a whir of little fiddly bits, and there is no awe or mystery to them. They seem to have no weight or mass, and I didn't care about anyone on screen so when the explosions started to happen, it was like the worlds least interesting FX demo real rather than anything approaching "drama"

Last but not least, I actually like Shia. I thought he was one of the best parts of WALL STREET 2. He's growing into a real actor, but I think it speaks to the quality of the film that here I found him to be intolerable. The attitude forced on him by the script, and the ensuing hijinks, did not work on any level and he came off as a total creep. I hope Kurtzman and Orchi never work again, because every character in this film speaks with their voice, and it's the fratboy voice of the damned

Why does Speilberg continue work with Bay? Does the man have no dignity? No self respect? Or is it really all about the Benjamins? I think, in light of TRANSFORMERS 3, we have our answer

PS I have to concur with the poster above who told Buzz Aldrin to fuck himself for being involved in this, though I must say I thought Patrick Dempsey had the best character in the film, since he had actual human emotions and motivations. Once he went bad, his character was the only thing in the movie I found interesting

Princess Kate, Transformers Dark Of The Moon, is one of my...Favorite Films of 2011!  Spielberg works with Michael Bay because the...Master Of Bayhem makes...Awe-Inspiring Action Extravaganzas!  To me the best characters in each of these...Transformative films are Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, and Josh Duhamel as Lt. Colonel Lennox!  The Action is...Epic, Rosie Huntington Whitely is...Beautiful, and no longer just...Victoria's Secret!  This is the...First film I could stand...Patrick Dempsey, and that is because he is...EEEEEEEEEEEvil!

Just saw this.

Does Sam Witwicky have Tourette's?

Intolerable piece of shit. And Optimus Prime is an asshole.

Yeah fuck this everloving cunt of a movie. Anybody who likes it should stuff their head in a blender and rid the rest of our society of the horrible obstacle they pose to everything we consider important.

Gabe T, Really?  I find Optimus Prime to be the...Hero, of the Trilogy of Transformative...Rock Em Sock Em Robot Films!  Peter Cullen is Awesome as the Leader of the Autobots battling to save Earth from...EEEEEEEEEEEvil Decepticons!   To me Transformers 3 is the...2nd Best Film of 2011, right behind...Captain America!

The last 40 mins of this is such a dreary slog. Sam and his merry band of troops just march pointlessly on and on.

There's no sense of geography, where they are going or what they are exactly doing.

Sorry fleed, the entire thing is a piece of shit. It's slightly better than Fallen. But thats not saying much.

felix, What were they doing?  Umm, our heroes were trying to rescue Sam's Rosie by another name, Carly, held captive by her...EEEEEEEvil Boss, while the Decepticons were destroying Chicago.  Bay did miss an opportunity to play the Frank Sinatra Song...Chicago, My Kind Of Town, as the city is being Razed to the ground!  You also had the return of the Autobots, sneaking up on their enemies, and taking them down.  Hate on the film all you want.  There are plenty of...So Called...Good films, like...Drive and Warrior, that I couldn't care less about.  I will most likely not even watch them on dvd or cable, unless someone has it on.

"let me go man... let me go... I beat Tom Hardy up, I can handle this!!"

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Originally Posted by duke fleed 

felix, What were they doing?  Umm, our heroes were trying to rescue Sam's Rosie by another name, Carly, held captive by her...EEEEEEEvil Boss, while the Decepticons were destroying Chicago.  Bay did miss an opportunity to play the Frank Sinatra Song...Chicago, My Kind Of Town, as the city is being Razed to the ground!  You also had the return of the Autobots, sneaking up on their enemies, and taking them down.  Hate on the film all you want.  There are plenty of...So Called...Good films, like...Drive and Warrior, that I couldn't care less about.  I will most likely not even watch them on dvd or cable, unless someone has it on.

I am glad you found enjoyment with this movie. I agree Patrick Dempsay made a great evil villain

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Originally Posted by Joseph P. Brenner 

Not really on topic for discussion of the movie. Perhaps a better fit for the GOSSIP or MISC CULTURE section?

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Originally Posted by JMulder 

Yeah fuck this everloving cunt of a movie. Anybody who likes it should stuff their head in a blender and rid the rest of our society of the horrible obstacle they pose to everything we consider important.

You know, I don't think I'm going to do that.

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Originally Posted by Princess Kate 

 

I am glad you found enjoyment with this movie. I agree Patrick Dempsay made a great evil villain

 

Not really on topic for discussion of the movie. Perhaps a better fit for the GOSSIP or MISC CULTURE section?

of course it is.  Shia was drinking moonshine again!!!!

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Originally Posted by Renn Brown 

You know, I don't think I'm going to do that.

The vulgarness of that post aside (which I'll admit was excessive -- teaches me to go on CHUD after a night of drinking), I'm surprised you dug this. There's really just nothing here to like.

I thought it was entertaining, which is more than can be said of the second one.  I don't think I want a fourth film from Bay though.  Bring in new blood or let it lie.  Besides, the man has more important things to do (aka Bad Boys III, bitch!).

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Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 
Besides, the man has more important things to do (aka Bad Boys III, bitch!).

You know, I used to think this way as well.  But then I read about what he wants his next movie to be - a low budget black comedy that he describes as "a mix of Fargo and Pulp Fiction" - and suddenly a 4th Transformers movie sounds downright merciful.  

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Originally Posted by HunterTarantino 

The Mexican standoff was the obvious one, but I also kind of thought that part with the Russian mob club was like some strange version of the Le Louisine sequence in Basterds.

There's no way that the Mexican stand off scene wasn't stolen from the 1987 Hong Kong film "City on Fire".

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Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

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You know, I used to think this way as well.  But then I read about what he wants his next movie to be - a low budget black comedy that he describes as "a mix of Fargo and Pulp Fiction" - and suddenly a 4th Transformers movie sounds downright merciful.  

 

I don't care about Pain & Gain.  Bad Boys III is indeed in the works, but is waiting for Smith's schedule to clear.

I finally got around to seeing this and while I think it's probably the best of the bunch (I appreciated how far they actually pushed the violence and scope of the story) Bay's directorial excesses and some story killing weaknesses in terms of characterization and plotting kind of pushed it back down to serviceable and a decent way to kill 2 hours.

I really did appreciate the visceral and just utter viscious nature of the Decipticons during their attack on Chicago. I think maybe if we can just convince Bay to ditch the lens flare, Aerosmith and be a little more judicious with the slo-mo he could probably give us a really great, Hard R war movie based on what I saw.

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Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

Bay's been doing Mexican stand-offs since The Rock, at least.  Even then, it had already become a cliche.

True, going back to "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (which might have actually been in Mexico) and beyond but I think that this specific three cornered triangle stand off was taken from City on Fire. I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, just a thing. Of course I could be wrong but I have my reasons for thinking this.

Finally saw this.  Hated it nearly as much as the second one,  Only thing that surprised me was how offended I got that Bay went for Challenger disaster imagery.  I'm still kinda offended. Bay and Murphy, such massive tools.  

But everyone here knows that.