[SPOILERS] Movie #2 reactions; film now out!

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Did you like it?

Yes, it was great
9
25%
NO.
6
17%
The first one was better
9
25%
It was okay
7
19%
Yes, it was better than the first
5
14%
other
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 36

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Prowl1984
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[SPOILERS] Movie #2 reactions; film now out!

Post by Prowl1984 »

This is the first (and will probably be the main) reaction thread, so just to remind folk -- you don't need to bother with spoiler tags in threads in this subforum that are already marked as containing spoilers.

If you're posting in threads that aren't, please be considerate to people who haven't seen the film yet and use spoiler tags.

--Denyer


* * *


went to catch the midnight showing last night and i gotta say i was bitterly disappointed. i loved the first film but i think they really did ruin it with an abundance of comedy and terrible characters. namely skidz, mudflap, wheelie and sam's roommate who served no purpose whatsoever. on the bright side the action was spectacular, particularly the fight scene in the woods and starscream got some good dialogue that helped reveal more of his personality. didn't enjoy seeing Megatron as the fallens whipping boy though, especially when prime took him down so easily at the end.
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Post by numbat »

I actually thoroughly enjoyed ROTF - more than the first. While the first spent a lot of time setting things up, ROTF played more like a G1 episode, brought up-to-date. The plot, while hardly mindblowing, was enough to thread together an amazing amount of exciting action and suspense scenes, and the Transformers themselves were allowed to develop characters - especially the Decepticons.

Like Star Wars, Transformers feels like a rich universe on the big screen, and I like that. I like the variety of 'bots, the fact they have different characters (that are rather human - that's always what set apart Transformers from general robots/machines, such as typical Terminators, say - there's always gonna be an element of WALL-E in there, but that allows such great characters as Optimus Prime and Megatron to shine, with a bit of Jetfire in the middle), and that there is a good attempt at rich back story. The tension between the Autobots and the humans is also an interesting undertone to the general atmosphere.

Also - Pretenders were made for the films! So cool!

And, I actually like this incarnation of Wheelie.

The Fallen was fun - a totally 2D character, but more than a little creepy and evil. His death should allow Megatron to really bloom.

Shame about the Matrix - I found it's design a bit 'meh'.

Although it makes little difference to enjoyment of the film, I am rather confused by the Constructicons - as Mixmaster, Long Haul, Rampage (red - not yellow, and constantly pile-driver, no legs) were all fighting as individual robots while Devastator (who, other than similarities with the dumper and mixer seems to consist of different parts - i.e. no Rampage - and was seven vehicles) was also attacking, are they entirely seperate? Do Devastator's components have robot modes (or, do none, or just some?)? I'm probably being daft, but I can't quite work that one out.

Basically - I enjoyed the balance of adventure, action, suspense and comedy. I think it is perfect for this subject matter, and I'm amazed that it has been made to work so well. A real rollercoaster of a film!

And, I like the fact that big concept ideas were added to the mix. After seeing that, I am actually very hopeful something as epic and destructive as Unicron could make it in to the film franchise.

I would also note, though, that I was thoroughly searched by the cinema staff after the film. I noticed on my way out they were putting up big posters indicating that ROTF would be high security. That did affect the experience a little - but I suppose without it, we wouldn't get so many films down the road...

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Post by Clay »

Prowl1984 wrote:went to catch the midnight showing last night and i gotta say i was bitterly disappointed.
numbat wrote:I actually thoroughly enjoyed ROTF - more than the first.
Teh lolz, here we go again.
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Post by Halfshell »

Good fun. Not sure if it’s as good or better than the first one yet. Definitely bigger and epicer though. Pacing was a bit patchy early on, but settled down once it found its rhythm. Longer than I expected going in… anybody know a runtime comparison with the first?

A few possible continuity queries in regards to character motivation, but the first film was vague and ambiguous enough for me not to worry.

Possibly suffered a bit for too many characters, specifically for the Autobots (the cons were after all meant to be a vast faceless army). Beyond the tiny bit early on, Sideswipe (see, I’m not even sure that’s his name – the silver one with the blade hands) may as well have not been in it. The same can be said for Ratchet, but he got screen time last movie. Arcee’s general role and inclusion was just bizarre. I’m not even sure that Jolt was in it before he popped up to help deus ex machina the combination at the end..

The twins were great, and far better wannabe gangstas than Jazz was. Jetfire was awesome, and I never thought I’d type these words but Wheelie was superb. What happened to him?

And did Ironhide have a new voice actor?

Good to see Scorponok again, though slightly disappointed by the lack of Barricade, especially after the rampant “Bay kept him alive for the sequel” explanation for his disappearance first time around.

Wonderful (and sensible) role for Soundwave. Ravage was great and Alice was wonderfully slutty. Brutal death scene for Ravage though – absolutely superb. The little Doctor creature was cool. Would have been nice to see what parts of “the small one” he used to repair Megatron with (and did I imagine it or did more Decepticons emerge from the ocean than went down, even leaving one behind?)

Devastator I thought was glorious as essentially a big ape. Combiners everywhere – very symbiotic theme going on.

Would have liked something resembling consistency for what language the Decepticons use to communicate in.

The Prime/Jetfire combination thing was a bit tacky, but I'll forgive it because I'm good like that.

Nice post-prod addition of the swine flu gag. Thought the Bad Boys poster was a bit indulgent, but then remembered the Armageddon gag from the first one, so I can let it slide. Smiled quietly to myself at the rail gun mention.

And also good to find out exactly what scuppered IDW’s The Thirteen – this time out, there’s only seven. Huzzah!

Liked that most of the big stuff from the trailers was in the opening ten minutes or so. Genuinely didn’t expect them to go the “Prime dies” route. How many times in all is that now? Though him battering Starscream around the head with the guy’s own severed arm was class in a glass.

Simmons was, as always, the absolute star of the show. And points to whoever decided to have lots of slow-motion shots of Megan Fox running towards camera. Jiggletastic.

Could have done with more songs from Bumblebee though. And the parents were great again, though their scenes did go on a bit longer than necessary. Whoever knew Mojo was the butch?

Interested to see if there’s any expansion on the whole reproductive process in the threequel, given everything that happened.

Obviously not without its flaws, but it’ll do for me. Gets Three Shells out of Five on first watch. Huzzah!1

[EDIT] Oh, also loved the little nods of the Chief of Staff being called Morshower and the main thrust of the plot being borrowed from "the matrix is in Buster's heeeeed". Spike wasn't cool enough to have secret alien knowledge implanted in him.

[EDIT AGAIN] Shit. Seriously, can't believe I forgot this (well I can, there was a lot to remember and forgive me for not making detailed ****ing notes puh-leeze). Deep Roy? Seriously? Was it? Fantastic.

IMDB doesn't list him, but IMDB lists a voice credit for Frenzy - whose head was in Simmons' lair. That was awesome too.

Can't believe I didn't spot it was Welker doing Soundwave, nice touch. Not sure if it would have been better if treated.

I was quite glad that Anthony Anderson was nowhere to be seen, slightly annoyed he's listed as Jolt.

Turturro is now full of super awesome win after I discovered he voiced Jetfire. Which thinking about it I knew beforehand but had forgotten and spent most of the dialogue thinking "who IS that?". Two characters, both mad as badgers. Love it. And an official usage of the term seeker, deployed to mean something compleeetely different. WIN.

Mike Patton supposedly did Mixmaster - did Mixmaster even have any lines other than some generic and drowned-out-by-explosions garbling prior to getting bitchslapped?

Also, some very strange things with time going on in that movie. Mikaela getting all the way to Sam's college in virtually no time at all. The military guys just basically standing about for the entire time Sam's on the run then running around Egypt.

More soon, no diggity. I'm off to do something else before I get geek everywhere.
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Post by Shield Strike »

Just got back from seeing it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Loads of action and explosions (to be expected with Mr Bay running the show) and it kept me entertained throughout.

The opening was great, it was just a shame that neither Demolisher nor Sideways were on screen for very long. And Primes execution of Demolisher was full of win. " Any last words?".

I thought Wheelie and the Twins were great. Wheelie vanishing in Egypt was disapointing though. Would have been great to see even more of him.

As for Jetfire, he made laugh so much. Bless him.

A couple of questions, was that actually Blackout who Prime killed in the woods then? Or another Decepticon who had the same alt mode or something? And did anyone spot Bonecrushers vehicle mode in the fight at the end, again was it Bonecrusher of a different 'Con?

The Devastator/Constructicon thing has already been mentioned and that confused me too.

Really enjoyed the film, the special effects were awesome (even if the whole "flying Optimus" thing was cheesy), great characters and can't wait for the third one!
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Post by Halfshell »

Shield Strike wrote:A couple of questions, was that actually Blackout who Prime killed in the woods then? Or another Decepticon who had the same alt mode or something? And did anyone spot Bonecrushers vehicle mode in the fight at the end, again was it Bonecrusher of a different 'Con?
I'm working under the assumption it's just another 'con who grabbed a chopper mode. I think the robot mode character model was slightly different too, but don't ask me for specifics.

I spotted Bonecrusher's mode too. Again, I'd assume it was just another of a similar model. An explanation that can also be thrown out there for the "what comprises Devastator" confusion.

Going by the (almost) packed house for the 2pm showing round my way, it's going to take shitloads.
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Post by numbat »

Shield Strike wrote:And did anyone spot Bonecrushers vehicle mode in the fight at the end, again was it Bonecrusher of a different 'Con?
Bonecrusher is large-and-in-charge in robot mode, kicking ass in the final battle as well. I am confused a bit about him and Blackout - but given Blackout has been released as 'Grindor' as a toy, I suspect this must be some sort of 'these guys have the same exoskeleton and happened to scan the same alt mode' situation?

I was very surprised that those two made a return, but Barricade was nowhere to be seen, though - that thought did cross my mind at the end.

Jolt does appear as part of the Autobot team earlier on, and is seen standing around at Nest HQ as well. He doesn't do a lot - I guess he's there for the purpose of fusing Prime and Jetfire.

Which I actually liked far more than I would have Prime and Jetfire 'proper' combining. Using Jetfire's components was quite fun, and avoided too many size issues.

And Jetfire did rule!

Also, I have to say, I really loved the joke with Devastator's balls! Oh, how I laughed...
Clay wrote:Teh lolz, here we go again.
And you know me Clay - I'm easily pleased by Transformers! (Don't take that the wrong way!)

But seriously - anyone able to illuminate me regarding Devastator and the 'Constructicons'? Is Devastator just a combination of multiple vehicles without individual robot modes? He certainly doesn't appear to be associated with Mixmaster, Rampage, Long Haul or Demolishor (or even clones of them). Is this due to editing to keep action together, or genuine? And this is before we even get in to continuity with Devastator the tank in the 2007 film...

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Post by Halfshell »

I get the vague impression that Devastator is one robot who happens to split into five or so component vehicles. A bit like a Duocon. A Quintecon, if you please.

Isn't one of the toys of him being released under that premise?

As far as continuity with Tank Devastator goes, was this one actually named? Were any of the Decepticons beyond Starscream, Soundwave, Megatron and The Fallen actually named thinking about it? Oh, aside from The Doctor.

What was the line one of the twins used? "Mean robots suck"? That was wicked cool like guv.

And on a similar subject, what was it Prime said to The Fallen (who I've just discovered is Tony Todd, Dalek's going to love this film to death) at the end? Give me your face? EH? That's almost DW v1.

Speaking of Dreamwave, I like to think Pat Lee got absolutely nothing out of the character's use, as he looked nothing like the design. Ch-Ching!
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Post by Clay »

numbat wrote:But seriously - anyone able to illuminate me regarding Devastator and the 'Constructicons'? Is Devastator just a combination of multiple vehicles without individual robot modes? He certainly doesn't appear to be associated with Mixmaster, Rampage, Long Haul or Demolishor (or even clones of them). Is this due to editing to keep action together, or genuine? And this is before we even get in to continuity with Devastator the tank in the 2007 film...
I think Orci and other writer guy said at Botcon that Devastator was formed by just whoever happened to be around at the time, making the Constructicons more of a class than a team. However, this is a new and neat way to think of gestalts.

As for the re-use of character models, money.
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Post by CounterPunch »

I saw it today, thought it was pretty damn good, had some gripes thought...

I spent alot of the time enjoying, but struggling to accept Wheelie, The Twins and Jetfire, I kind of thought that they may have gone slightly over the top with them (atleast until the Twins kicked complete arse against Devastator)

The use of Soundwave was absolutely fantastic, perfect, as was said, I wish they would have treated his voice as it just sounded like his Dr. Claw voice.

On the subject of Soundwave (kind of) wasnt Ravage just absolutely brilliant? He was bloody perfect scary, dangerous... and his death scene ruled.

I was kind of disappointed by the action scenes to begin with, as they just felt kind of empty but then they just exploded in to brilliance, the final battle and the forest battle were mindblowingly good.

Also, was it not amazing to see the Autobots actually kicking tail this film? I hated that in the first one Prime pretty much got owned my Megs, but in this one he and Bumblebee were bloodthirsty
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Post by Ice Shard »

CounterPunch wrote:
Also, was it not amazing to see the Autobots actually kicking tail this film? I hated that in the first one Prime pretty much got owned my Megs, but in this one he and Bumblebee were bloodthirsty
I agree, during the forest scene Prime went mad and I was reminded how many times I seem to find Prime getting owned (from the small selection of series I've seen) and now he was back for ass kicking as being a leader should be class at - he was on to it this time.:up:

I spent half the film being with my rowdy friends yelling about how frigging awesome this film and the Transformers was (Much to my shame afterwards. We also got to the cinema half an hour earlier than it opened to see the first showing of it...), I preferred it alot more than the first. I could more or less see what was going on this time.

And Devastator's balls? LOL is all I could say. Afterwards one of my gang went and bought the Optimus ROTF Leader class, giving me the free poster :D
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Post by Denyer »

Probably won't see it until next weekend, but our survey says: this time Denyer's going to order the ****ing score before it sells out and not pay this or up for a copy...
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Post by Halfshell »

I'm fairly sure that 80% of it was just the score to the first one reused anyway...
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Post by Denyer »

And most of the first score was variations on a theme. Yeah. It's a pleasant enough theme.
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Post by Halfshell »

Clay wrote:However, this is a new and neat way to think of gestalts.
Even though it's just basically an expansion of the Scramble City premise.

Also never thought I'd see a workable Pretender in any media. Yay.
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Post by CounterPunch »

When she first revealed herself, I did question it alot, thinking it was just stupid, it took a few minutes (until they were getting to the car) until it clicked that she was a Pretender
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Post by numbat »

Halfshell wrote:As far as continuity with Tank Devastator goes, was this one actually named? Were any of the Decepticons beyond Starscream, Soundwave, Megatron and The Fallen actually named thinking about it? Oh, aside from The Doctor.
I'm pretty certain Megatron calls out 'Devastator...' then something or-other shortly after he transforms.

And, I actually like the idea that Devs is formed from a load of vehicles. I had thought at first that Mixmaster may be able to combine, and that the name was appropriate, given the presence of a Decepticon mixer was the final blatant giveaway to Devs. But that didn't seem to be the case, given mixmaster was fighting elsewhere at the same time. I guess in Movieverse, you don't get repaints - just lots of clones... A shame, because I always liked the individuality of TF characters - I can cope with the same chassis, but it would be nice to at least have different colours!

Oh - and Rampage was certainly named as well.

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Post by CounterPunch »

After big hulking construction vehicle Devastator formed, and it showed the wide shot of it in the pit with Simmons and peeps (i think) you hear Megs voice saying "Devastator" which I found really off putting, as I had no idea why Megs would shout that when he was busy elsewhere.
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Post by Shield Strike »

CounterPunch wrote:After big hulking construction vehicle Devastator formed, and it showed the wide shot of it in the pit with Simmons and peeps (i think) you hear Megs voice saying "Devastator" which I found really off putting, as I had no idea why Megs would shout that when he was busy elsewhere.
I thought Megs was shouting at Devastator as a kind of "Come up here you big oaf!" thing. You know, trying to get his attention so he'd smash up the pyramid rather than fight the twins. Or something like that anyway.

The whole clone idea makes some sort of sense as in the games you were always fighting identical clones, Swindle/Payload etc. Saves money as well.
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Post by The PS3 KILLeR »

wow sounds great you guys are lucky you got to see it a full 5 or 6 days before us here in the US. I got one question does mudflap die? Also could you do us who have not seen it a favor, If you post something big like say a death of a major autobot could you use spoiler tags? We whould do the same for you. Not saying go spoiler tag crazy, just put one if it's major. haven't seen anything major yet that I didn't know about. Just keep in mind the spoiler tags and enjoy the movie.
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