Transformers by michaelp42

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Transformers

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POSTED BY: MICHAELP42
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 11:44
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/jIjZAy
VIEWED: 8207
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Sunday, July 3, 2011 10:50 AM

Just back from seeing the new Transformers movie. Maybe I was seeing things, but surely the Alan Tudyk fight scene was a direct reference to River in Serenity??

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Sunday, July 3, 2011 10:56 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

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Sunday, July 3, 2011 6:28 PM

STEGASAURUS

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Alan is the only reason I would be interested in seeing this movie, but even then...

Nope, don't think that's good enough.

That's because you're puritanical in your views of cinematic entertainment. (By the way, nothing wrong with that. To each their own.)

I, on the other hand, can absolutely not wait to see it!

-Steg

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Sunday, July 3, 2011 8:09 PM

MICHAELP42

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Alan is the only reason I would be interested in seeing this movie, but even then...

Nope, don't think that's good enough.

strange views, but each to their own. i thought it was both fun and funny.

anyway, back to my point.... anyone?

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Sunday, July 3, 2011 8:33 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

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Monday, July 4, 2011 1:28 AM

MICHAELP42

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
I'm not sure what your definition of puritanical is, but if it means "avoid a Michael Bay movie at all costs" then that fits me.

and this ladies and gentleman is why i dont partake in internet forums very often.

and back to my point? did anyone else here see the movie yet?

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Monday, July 4, 2011 3:31 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Sorry, Michael. I'll try to avoid this type of comment in the future. I know I've criticized others for similar things.

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Monday, July 4, 2011 6:07 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by michaelp42:
Surely the Alan Tudyk fight scene was a direct reference to River in Serenity??

Tudyk was not doing River at The Maidenhead bar. He was reprising Alpha, the character from Dollhouse he played with many personalities.

Robot dialogue: “You know Sam, I don't know about moving in with this chick. What if she dumps us like the last girl?” Steven Spielberg dumped Megan Fox from this movie. I would prefer keeping Fox and dumping Shia LaBeouf and his noxious onscreen parents. Does Spielberg have a gentleman's wager with George Lucas that any bland guy can be made a movie star if you put him into enough movies?

If invading alien robots are using Chicago as a base to destroy the planet, I think the sensible response is a nuclear strike on Chicago. Michael Bay ought to have dropped the H-bomb so we could have a fabulous 3D fireball!

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, July 4, 2011 8:41 AM

MICHAELP42

Not sure i agree. They used a "key word" to stop him fighting and hence he turned back into his normal character. To me that was a reference to River...

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Monday, July 4, 2011 3:38 PM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by michaelp42:
Not sure i agree. They used a "key word" to stop him fighting and hence he turned back into his normal character. To me that was a reference to River...

It is not code words, like River's go-to-sleep command. My guess is that his Boss told Alan Tudyk, in German, that if Alan doesn't drop the shotgun, we all die. Alan Tudyk is called Dutch, so he must be a German with a weird accent.

As I remember it, they're looking for two Russian cosmonauts hiding in a gambling den. Wasn't it Alan Tudyk that speaks through slot in the door and says to the guard in Russian, «Goodbye!» Whoops... The guard says, "That means goodbye," and slams the door shut. Only laugh in the movie.

The Boss commands, "Dutch, give me something tough to say to these Russians." Alan's got a phrase book and he's complaining about the Cyrillic alphabet looking like all the keys nobody pushes on calculators. "Dutch, you suck as a translator." Everybody is yelling in Russian and Alan can't keep up with his phrase book so he seizes the shotgun held by the barmaid.

The only words Alan Tudyk knows for sure in Russian are, "Can my child smoke in here?" I swear it's in the movie. Alan will be a very responsible father.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011 9:27 AM

STEGASAURUS

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
I'm not sure what your definition of puritanical is, but if it means "avoid a Michael Bay movie at all costs" then that fits me.

For clarification, my comment was not meant as a personal insult towards ECGORDON, and his reply was not taken in that vein either. With his (assuming masculine as we don't chat often) previous post, I saw what he was leading to without seeing this quoted one, and myself am always confused by this type of thinking, but like I said before - there's nothing wrong with it. Diffrent strokes for different folks.

If I did come across as insulting to you, ECGORDON, I apologize. If anyone else is reading this thread besides the OP, I apologize for the misconception. To the OP, sorry if it seems like we hijacked the thread, I'm sure it wasn't either of our intention to do so.

And in answer to the OP's question I state yet again I haven't seen it still... but I still really wanna!

-Steg

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011 4:49 AM

CYBERSNARK

Saw it yesterday:

The Good: Dutch (Alan Tudyk's character) didn't just steal, but was handed every scene he was in. I was expecting a brief cameo, but he was a nearly constant presence, and far outshined Turturro (thouh I have to admit, I do like Simmons' character arc through the three movies, from asshole MiB to paranoid nutcase to a respectable hero. He actually matured a bit).

Cybertron looked beautiful.

I loved Optimus's incoherent "wah-blugh-glurgle-oof" as the Driller knocked him around in Chernobyl. Cullen generally performed far better here than he's been doing in "Prime."

I'm kinda amused that the Decepticon fighters who attacked the building Epps was climbing didn't seem to know there were people in it. Apparently they were just trying to drop it onto Shockwave as he strolled past. They must really hate their boss.

I liked the script; it was mostly coherent, witty, and genuinely funny (even if chunks of the plot were cribbed from "The Ultimate Doom" and "Megatron's Master Plan"). Pity the script stopped just as they arrived in Chicago.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Ultimate_Doom%2C_Part_1
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Megatron%27s_Master_Plan

I did love Director Mearing's comment about not letting the Wreckers off-base because they're assholes.

And after we were all worried the Wreckers would be redneck stereotypes, they turn out to be football hooligans.

The characters (pre-Chicago) were well-detailed and interesting. The slew of never-before-seen characters that Epps rounded up were also cool. Wish we could've seen more of them. Like, say, in the previous movies.

The bad: I saw this in 2D (I've been burned too many times by these movies, and I'm not about to pay $17 for a ticket when I can see it for $5), so can I assume that there were fairly important scenes that were only available in the 3D cuts? People seemed to appear/disappear, get separated, and lose time to an extent unusual even for Bay (the Decepticon takeover of Chicago literally happened between cuts).

As with the first one, the Decepticons weren't actually characters so much as they were plot devices. Megatron didn't really do anything until it came time to beat up Sentinel (didn't even manage to kill him) and get killed by Prime. I didn't even see why he was sitting on his butt during the battle; did Sentinel fling him off the building after reminding him who was in charge? Starscream apparently had a personal grudge against Sam, but could only show up to suck up to Megatron then get killed. Shockwave. . . didn't even need to be in this movie (what were his lines? I heard him making noises, but couldn't make out any words).

Apparently Starscream and Laserbeak are the only Decepticons who can fly on their own. Everyone else has to use piloted fighters (though having an army of Seekers would've made it a lot harder for the Autobots to infiltrate).

After Wheelie and Brains being a near-constant presence through the narrative, they slip off-camera to die unnoticed. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had a bigger send-off.

The Autobots apparently have magical damage-concealing powers when transformed, as Bumblebee can shift from a spotless and shiny Camaro to a scorched, scratched, cracked-up robot.

The horrible, incoherent staging. Optimus and Sentinal are in NEST-Washington, then they're sightseeing together, then Sentinel is suddenly with Sam's group while Optimus is "ten minutes behind." Sam and Carly are together. Sam goes for the control-pillar. Carly finds Megatron (who, remember, was last seen at the same building the pillar dropped from, so they'd feasibly be close together). . . Then Carly and Sam are inexplicably at opposite ends of the bridge where Optimus has been fighting.

As usual in these movies, the TFs might as well be made of glass for how durable they are (though I liked Lennox' observation about full-auto gunfire --it's not the hits, it's the vibrations that shake up their internals). I'm not even really talking about the humans' kill-count (they've been fighting Decepticons for years now; I'd hope they'd have picked up a few tricks), I'm talking about how easily and completely the TFs themselves can kill each other off with relative ease. I can't imagine a war between these combatants lasting for millions of years, especially with the reproductive problems we saw in RotF; they'd have run out of soldiers long ago.

(I don't even mind Sam taking out a Decepticon, I just wish it hadn't been Starscream --a character named Starscream deserves some Shakespearean demise [or an anti-heroic last stand], not going out blinded, screaming, and wimpering. Though I guess this guy was never really a Starscream, despite the name.)

I guess it's not really Bay's fault; it's kind of a necessity in a relatively brief storyline that needs to show lotsadeath. It's the same reason for why there are so many deaths in the comics, I think.

I guess Transformers (as I like to see them, anyway; the durable, resilient, nigh-unkillable warriors) just work better on TV than they do in a shorter-form movie or comic. shorter stories need character death, which means that the characters have to be killable. On TV, you can afford to have characters get repaired, rebuilt, or regenerated from episode to episode.

In short: unsatisfying. I never really felt like this was a conclusion, culmination, or resolution of anything, but just another disposable high-budget action-fest.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011 11:44 AM

GOOSE5068

Thought it was a good movie. The stunts were great and it had great action. In my opinion it was a fun movie with a great relaxation factor to it.

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