Topic: Transformers Movie discussion

[TerraEsperZ]

They didn't translate the names, thankfully. They did with the G1 cartoon back then, but the names weren't litteral translation, like Ego (Starscream), Radar (Soundwave), Saboteur (Ravage) or La Menace (Grimlock).



Since those are names, it doesn't matter as much. I really wish they'd called The Allspark something else like "La Source" which would actually mean something.



And yeah, the bots' voices ruined everything. While I appreciate that Quebec makes a lot of quality movies and TV series instead of relying exclusively on French and American stuff, it means that we're often stuck with the same 50 or so actors.



Heck, the guy doing Ratchet did Malabar's (Sparkplug) voice in the G1 cartoon, and the one who originally did Optimus Prime and his dubbing Homer Simpson over here was dubbing one of the army general. Optimus was dubbed by the same guy we see on TV all the time and also did the narration on The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Plus, it didn't fit Prime at all and sounded like an old, tired guy, and his and Ratchet's voices, although done by two different actors, sounded too much alike.



Let's just say that I trust Cullen, Weaving and the other to be able to lend some dignity and credibility to the very cheesy dialog the bots have, while in French it just took me out of the movie everytime they spoke. It was like "Cool Hollywood Epic! Cool Hollywood Epic! ...Bad Kids Cartoon... Cool Hollywood Epic! Cool Hollywood Epic! ...Bad Kids Cartoon..." Etc, etc.



Looking foward to say more about the actual movie once you've seen it. I have a ton to say, it's just that the voices diminished the experience quite a bit.



I'll just say this though: I love Bumblebee, and I so wuv Frenzy



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

I just got back from seeing it.  It's almost midnight so I probably shouldn't stay long, but here are my gripes:



1. Very little screen time for the Decepticons.  More of Barricade, please!  And more of Starscream!  Heck, more of anybody.  (Frenzy had, by far, the most screen time, which I'm not sure counts as a gripe or not yet.)

2. Some of the Autobots (namely Jazz and Ratchet, and maybe Ironhide) were also lacking in screen time.

3. Way too much shaky-cam, so what we could see of the Transformers was often too blurry.



As a Transformers fan, I had hoped to see more of the Transformers themselves, you know, the film's called "Transformers", not "Sam gets a date", but hey, the film was still worth the money, and I had a blast.  Lots of friends actually showed up, so it's all good.  Until what I saw settles in and I have more to complain about.  Fans are good at that.  

[bustin98]

So, 2 months later...



Any more complaints? I got an email from Columbia House asking for a reserve on the DVD coming out mid-October. I thought it was coming later in the year though.



I liked it enough to buy the DVD. I can accept its a seperate universe from G1. I'd still like to see a continuation of the G1 worlds though.

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Cool beans

[TerraEsperZ]

Well, my biggest complaints aside from the horrible Quebec dub, is that yes, the Transformers didn't get enough air time (especially the Decepticons except for Frenzy, who was easily my favorite 'Con) and Michael Bay's frantic editing that almost never really allows the audience to appreciate the incredible CGI models and transformations, and makes most of the battles totally incomprehensible as to who is doing what to whom.



And Bustin98, if you're interested in seeing more G1, there *is* a on-going comic series being down right now by IDW. Of course, it's a new take on G1  since both the old cartoon and comic are *really* dated today, but it manages to capture many of the qualities of the old property while injecting quite a bit of freshness into it. I can tell you more about it if you want.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

I was about to suggest the G1 comics and refer you to Terra.  I haven't read much of them myself (I'm not a comic person, mostly because I'm cheap) but they seem to be the best way to get an ongoing G1 fix.



I did get the first volume of War Within, which is seen as a precursor of G1, as they're still on Cybertron so they have different forms but are all still instantly recognizeable as the G1 characters we all know and love.



Oh, yeah, turns out the IMAX version of Transformers only has two extra minutes.  I was hoping for more, sheesh.

[bustin98]

I'm not a huge fan of the comics. I bought the original series when it was with DW (I have three posters from them in my office), and I got the War Within series but I wasn't too impressed. I have not had a chance to see the new stuff from IDW but thats cause my entertainment dollars go towards video games instead of comics. That and there isn't a local comic shop.

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Cool beans

[StarFighters76]

Now I heard there was gonna be two more movies. I'm wondering what will happen next? My guess will be the second movie will introduce more Transformers, Starscream will think he's the leader but Megatron comes back. The third movie might be loosely based off of the 80s movie. But this is all a guess from my end.

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Creator of over 570 maps on GameFAQs. ^_^

[JonLeung]

I believe the main stars were contracted to do two more films, and as is often the case with film, a popular movie deserves two sequels.  Going for a trilogy, you know.  And also is usually the case these days, the second will probably have quite the cliffhanger that leads right into the third which will be released sooner than the wait between the first two.



I believe the producers did say that something major such as Unicron would be "good for a third movie" so your guess isn't that far off.  Though having Unicron (if at all) and having key characters possibly dying is as close as they could get to the original animated movie, I seriously doubt they'd have enough Transformers and they'd still have too many humans to make it anything like it.  They'd also probably want to keep selling cars and they obviously didn't care about the forms of the original G1 crew so if we do see anyone that would be considered "later G1", don't expect them (or at least the Autobots) to resemble futuristic vehicles.



I do hope they have fan favorites like Soundwave in one of these films in an acceptable enough form, though it could end up like Gambit not being in the X-Men films.

[TerraEsperZ]

Personally, I hope they don't got the typical trilogy route since it almost always involves stretching a story over two movies where the first one isn't complete in itself and the second just doesn't live up to the hype. The only such trilogy where I found the third movie satisfying was Return To The Future so tells you something.



Personally, I hope they do what they did with the X-Men movies. The first one was adequate and served more as a general introduction to the characters and the universe, and the second really went ahead with a real plot and better characterization (we'll conveniently ignore that abortion that was X-Men: The Last Stand) where the bots finally take center stage.



And personally? I'd avoid Unicron like the plague, as I just don't feel he could work in a live-action setting. Regardless of what most people think, I believe that a live-action Transformers movie *needs* the human factor, and humans wouldn't be credible against a universal threat on Unicron's scale. Plus we've had more than enough of him in recent years in everything from cartoons to comics. Let's find something else for the TF to fight than a giant Satan-styled planet.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

Less than 300 days, so can we start talking about the sequel now?



As usual, I got this bit of news from TFW2005.com...here we have some footage taken from PhillyFilmGirl, who snuck close enough to the shoot:



Sounds somewhat spoileriffic, kinda...

[StarFighters76]

Of course I'm ready to see Transformers 2.



I heard some interesting things about this next movie though.



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Creator of over 770 maps on GameFAQs. ^_^

[JonLeung]

Well, on JoBlo.com the other day, they revealed an image suggesting that A CERTAIN CHARCTER is back with a new MORE FAN-FRIENDLY ALT-MODE.  



...



Avoiding spoilers, but that might make it more obvous.



They had a special on ET on Tuesday.  I don't even watch Entertainment tonight but it happened to be on, so I watched their "Transformers Tuesday" where they visited a desert set that they had some jets fly over and then blew up.  They bragged it was the "mother of all Michael Bay explosions" yet they didn't get a good shot of it (obviously that'd be reserved for the movie), so it was rather underwhelming.  Also they talked a little with Shia LaBoeuf, Tyrese Gibson, and Josh Duhamel, but Megan Fox said next to nothing...boo.  They promised more sneak peeks in the future but I'm sure the Internet will reveal just as much if not more than these ET "exclusives".

[StarFighters76]

I saw that too on ET.



As for the certain character coming back, dunno who that is.

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Creator of over 770 maps on GameFAQs. ^_^