TRANSFORMERS

[Nick Mulder]

Yep, I enjoyed it ...

 

and the best part was that I haven't laughed out loud like that and for so long for such a long time ... The whole backyard scene 'oop's, my bad' 'get off the grass!' etc... - still laughing now

 

Sheesh I'll try not to spoil it -

 

Anyhoo's I played with the toys back in the days - was a real nice feeling to fall back into that world ...

 

Bumblebee - expected not to like the fact he was no longer a VW, but he's the best of all of the transformer characters - reckon he should have stayed as the older car...

 

Starscream - I like the fact he is no longer the whining usurper, and the autobots kind of freaked when they knew he was on his way ... respect

 

Jazz ! -

They killed him!

 

 

Megatron/Optimus - ho hum

 

Soundwave ??? - yikes switch that thing off, or better yet - strike him from the script

 

various other bits, bots and baddies - pretty well done

 

What the hell was the vending machine ? an autobot, a decepticon ?

 

oh yeh, and so what was optimus doing for most of that end scene ? - he kinda rolls on in a bit casually huh

 

Sound - nice

 

a heap of grain though for scope ... little blue blobs in the blacks...

 

excuse the ramble ... keen to hear what others thought

[Joshua Dannais]

I saw this last night and I thought it was pretty dead on. The the writing was pretty good and it really was funny. I don't know much about computer graphics but it looked really good to me. I thought the opening shots of the planes flying over the desert were really nice.

 

Definitely one of the better movies to come out this summer, felt like a complete story with good acting that complemented the story nicely... It was worth paying for and standing in line.

 

really fun, great movie

Edited July 3, 2007 by Joshua Dannais

[Guest Giles Sherwood]

I saw this on a DLP screen today... second film I've seen projected like that (the other one was Disney's Atlantis a couple years back). DLP looked *almost* as good as film projection for the most part... there were a few times I could feel or outright see the presence of pixelation and a certain video-y flatness... but for the most part I didn't really notice a difference.

 

Basically Michael Bay delivered 90% of the film I wanted to see... basically the only thing it really lacked was

an epic SHOWDOWN between Optimus and Megatron. I was enjoying the film like nobody's business until the fight in LA was suddenly over, and we hadn't had an extended sequence of the two guys duking it out.

Other than that, I had tons of fun. I mean the story was a total spastic mess, but fun and funny as hell. We really need to see Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime in another flick.

 

As for the look there were all of the usual good and bad things about a Michael Bay film. It was definitely exciting, but sometimes it cut before you knew what you were seeing, and there was a little too much shakeycam. Additionally, though I loved the robot designs, they were a little too complex to withstand super-shakey closeups, because you aren't used to seeing them enough to be able to identify them quickly every time. I was also really surprised at the grain in all of the government base scenes It seemed at odds with the rest of the "slick" photography.

[e gustavo petersen]

I'm gonna jump in to also compliment a great popcorn movie. I grew up with the Transformers but have to admit that I never did much care for the premise since I was a Robotech fan instead. Still the movie delivered on all things Michael Bay. The room laughed at all the right times. We all loved the CG and the slick look. And for the most part, we all got the inside jokes about previous Bay movies.

 

In all, it was by far and away one of the slickest car and toy commercial of the year!

[Tim Tyler]

There was some serious grain in a few shot during the INT Pentagon scenes early on, especially during a scene between the Austrailian woman and Jon Voight. Could have been optical zooms in post or underexposure issues.

 

CGI of the robots looked good throughout the picture.

 

Acting, writing and pacing was pretty good too, but I often felt like I was watching a U.S. Military recruiting film.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

There was some serious grain in a few shot during the INT Pentagon scenes early on, especially during a scene between the Austrailian woman and Jon Voight.

 

I noticed some harsh grain in "Sam's" home as well. It was just very noticeable because the majority of the film was so crisp.

 

By the way, how horrible was Jon Voigt in this film? Ha ha, it was as if he was just being fed his lines without caring for his performance (except for a slight southern accent). And the whole codebreaker tangent could have been disposed of, it just made it harder to fit so much action into a 2+ hour film...during which the pacing suffered a bit.

 

Still, loved the film, definitely a popcorn movie...and the whole theatre heard me cheer when that quintessential "transforming sound" was heard early on. And a certain Autobot's death really pissed me off...I mean, give him something a bit more dignified!

[David Mullen ASC]

Have you seen the Robot Chicken sketch about the Transformers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfhvQAPujds

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Ha ha! "Retardicon"...my new favorite word.

[James Compton]

Wow. They actually did the cartoon series(original) some justice. I am always happy to see

an Anamorphic film with great focus pulling. The CGI was good, not too much American Velveeta.

Jazz was the flyest of them all. Also, glad to hear Peter Cullen playing Optimus Prime again. Pretty Good.

[Nick Mulder]

Ha ha! "Retardicon"...my new favorite word.

 

Yeh, the shower scene is pretty funny - and when optimus tranforms into the coffin ...

 

Still though, who would have expected it ... more laughs at the film :lol:

[Chris Keth]

Have you seen the Robot Chicken sketch about the Transformers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfhvQAPujds

 

Bah, I missed it. There's a message there now about a copyright infringement complaint by Viacom and the video is removed.:( I thought parody was well within free speech protection.....

[Nate Downes]

Viacom is the distributor for Robot Chicken, which itself is copywrited.

[Chris Fernando]

I noticed some harsh grain in "Sam's" home as well. It was just very noticeable because the majority of the film was so crisp.

 

Yeah, that one stood out for me, as well. Looked like it might have been either pushed or brought up in the DI, after the fact.

 

I noticed a few focus issues (on static CU's no less) in a couple of shots. All in an extremely good summer popcorn flick that did the cartoon justice. Lots of fun.

 

BTW, what was the deal with the multiple rectangular 'sun flares' that popped in a couple of shots - i.e. a wide shot towards the end where Sam is running through the abandoned 'warehouse' while being chased by Megatron? Are those naturally occuring or is that a post thing?

[David Mullen ASC]

I saw this today projected in 2K DLP at the Mann Village. Overall, I think it looked great, especially that clean hi-con desert stuff. Even though his style is overly cutty, he knows how to stage a great wide shot, if only he would stay with it for more than 40 frames.

 

Michael Bay's treatment of women, though, still seems like he spent his formative years at a strip club. The low point in the movie was that shot of the nameless woman in the street in a low-cut dress that almost looked like a blue negligee, a super-slo-mo tracking shot around her chest as the camera followed some missiles being fired. He must have spent some time thinking of how he could combine breasts and explosions into one shot.

 

The hyper-caffeinated acting style got a little wearing - it's like a movie made by, and for, crystal meth addicts.

[Tim Tyler]

Michael Bay's treatment of women...

I think that sometime early on in preproduction they all decided that the movie would be targeted strictly at 15-18 year old boys, and every creative decision from then on was made with that in mind.

[James Steven Beverly]

Michael Bay's treatment of women, though, still seems like he spent his formative years at a strip club. The low point in the movie was that shot of the nameless woman in the street in a low-cut dress that almost looked like a blue negligee, a super-slo-mo tracking shot around her chest as the camera followed some missiles being fired. He must have spent some time thinking of how he could combine breasts and explosions into one shot.

 

The hyper-caffeinated acting style got a little wearing - it's like a movie made by, and for, crystal meth addicts.

 

I HAVE GOT TO see this movie!!!! :D

[Ignacio Aguilar]

Any word on the series of Panavision anamorphics and film stocks used for the film?

 

The image is pretty crisp at times, but I've seen it on a huge screen and I feel the overall sharpness is not a big improvement over a good Super 35 (the same happened to "Blood Diamond" last year). I guess they went with C & E series -plus Angenieux zooms- and the DI didn't help either.

 

I think the look tried to replicate once again the "classic Bay", which I don't think that is particularly good, but I admit that it can be gorgeous from time to time. But for a film so desperate to achieve such a slick look, the lack of consistency of the grain structure is really surprissing.

 

The film itself is dumb, but probably it's Michael Bay's best effort to date.

 

Great Fun.

[David Mullen ASC]

Did it look like they snuck some Genesis footage in there at some point, for some night work? And some Super-35?

[Max Jacoby]

Any word on the series of Panavision anamorphics and film stocks used for the film?

There is an artciel in the ICG amagazine (and on www.cameraguild.com). They only mention 5218 for night areal exteriors (surprise!). These were shot Super 35. Nothing specific on the anamorphics, but I'd guess it's the usual E and C-Series mix that they used on his previous films as well.

[Joe Lotuaco]

Loved this movie!! It really brought me back to my younger days. Hell, I even bought the new toys hehe. But I think I loved this one more for the characters than the cinematography. Lots of techniques and themes were used, but they were overused to the point that it distracted away from the story and was probably the best example to Chris Doyle's description of western films as telling its audience "Hey, look at this!!!!!!!" This movie, I think, was just lucky it had some (but not all) good, strong characters, especially Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Though it didn't spend enough time developing the characters of the other Autobots and Decepticons (or anyone of the humans for that matter), the potential to [re]create unique and lovable characters is there. I know I left the theatre wishing I had my own Bumblebee.

 

Did anyone else notice how many magic hour shots there were? I can only recall only one or two regular daytime shots. I also noticed this affected some continuity when shots would show helicopters flying against a setting sun, then cut to them landing at dusk after sunset, then to a shot in a tent where the sun is still out, and then back to the control tower where it was night...all for action that was supposedly happening simultaneously. Obviously some of the shots were beautiful, but there was definitely a level of overkill of its usage. Not only did he have the sun in the background of a lot of shots, the extensive usage of lights in the background blowing out and/or creating lots of anamorphic flares was very very distracting and sort of headache inducing.

 

I also noticed some pretty bad focus shots. The main one is the one in the trailer where Shia and Megan Fox see Bumblebee for the first time and he says the line "it's a super advanced robot, must be Japanese". It just looks so blatantly out of focus, I don't know how not only did it make the final cut of the movie, but the main release trailer.

 

I'm glad Michael bay directed this one, he set the stage for what can be achieved in creating a live action version of the Transformers, but I really hope he doesn't direct the next one (he even publicly admitted he didn't like the Transformers before doing this movie until they told him how much money he'd be getting for it). As fast as he likes cutting, his usage of slow-motion shots really kills the pace of some of the action sequences. Was it really necessary to show John Voight getting off the helicopter in slow motion? If this movie were anything but the Transformers, I really don't think it would have as many people loving it and going back to see it for a second and third time..like me :blink:

[Guest Jake Braver]

Did it look like they snuck some Genesis footage in there at some point, for some night work? And some Super-35?

 

 

To my super un- trained eye, it looked like they did sneak some Genesis footage into the night stuff. Do you know for a fact that they shot with it?

 

I thought it looked good. Slick.Clean. A good summer popcorn film.

[David Mullen ASC]

To my super un- trained eye, it looked like they did sneak some Genesis footage into the night stuff. Do you know for a fact that they shot with it?

 

I thought it looked good. Slick.Clean. A good summer popcorn film.

 

I know they shot some night aerials in Super-35, but there was some action stuff at an airport at night (I think), and some fast shots had that slightly smeary shutter look, with an edgy quality, but perhaps it could have been due to some grain reduction & sharpening being applied to some Super-35 footage. But some of it had some vertical flaring too, another Genesis artifact.

[Tenolian Bell]

I think that sometime early on in preproduction they all decided that the movie would be targeted strictly at 15-18 year old boys, and every creative decision from then on was made with that in mind.

 

I agree. Most of the government officials were complete idiots. How could you have such a secret division in the government hiding a giant robot and said division is run by a group of bumbling buffoons. Many of the jokes really were funny. But in several places they went over the top in the attempt to reach a joke.

 

Several of the character added nothing to the story. They were only introduced and brought along as a running joke through the rest of the film.

 

Die Hard actually was able to walk this line much better. John McClain would have to deal with inept police officials. But these were serious people they just did not make the right choices. The officials inability to deal with the bad guys and the bad guys ability to outsmart them is where the comedy came from. Not by giving the officials little intelligence in the first place.

 

 

He must have spent some time thinking of how he could combine breasts and explosions into one shot.

 

During that shot. I thought isn't this supposed to be a kids movie. Strange we have an extreme close-up slow-motion shot of a woman's breasts.

 

I blame it on our conservative puritan society. Collectively we are unable to agree to view sexuality in a mature context as a natural part of our development as human beings. The result of that is a backlash that creates sophomoric and immature attitudes towards sexuality and women specifically.

[Tom Lowe]

Did anyone else notice how many magic hour shots there were? I can only recall only one or two regular daytime shots. I also noticed this affected some continuity when shots would show helicopters flying against a setting sun, then cut to them landing at dusk after sunset, then to a shot in a tent where the sun is still out, and then back to the control tower where it was night...all for action that was supposedly happening simultaneously. Obviously some of the shots were beautiful, but there was definitely a level of overkill of its usage. Not only did he have the sun in the background of a lot of shots, the extensive usage of lights in the background blowing out and/or creating lots of anamorphic flares was very very distracting and sort of headache inducing.

 

Keep in mind how difficult it is to match these shots during magic hours. All told, I thought they did a good job of managing to shoot in warm light, but still keeping decent continuity. Your average viewer probably would never notice those cuts.

 

While I did enjoy the movie a lot (I had the toys, too :lol:), I agree with the guy who was let down by the Prime-Megatron "fight".... Yeah there was one cool shot of them blowing through a building, but any fan of the old cartoon knows that the highlight of every episode or season was Prime and Megatron duking it out in full view. There were so many damn cuts that you couldn't tell what was going on... then all of a sudden it was over. But that's my only real complaint.

Edited July 12, 2007 by Tom Lowe

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

I think Bay's biggest downfall is he doesn't know how to handle dramatic intimate moments in a story. It basically translates into over-dramatic schmultz...ugh!

 

He tries to make up for it with an overcranked 360 degree dolly move which always makes me laugh.

 

I still like his "Got Milk?" commercial though, he he