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

[borg72]

just got back....

je-sus on a bike, that was a long movie... not just in time index but it feels long in places, possibly due to the sheer number of location changes and forward-moving time jumps.

i'll agree with almost everything said so far, with the following to add (in no particular order):

twins and wheelie seem to be dividing people... i like them for the most part.

i completely missed jolt. totally. was that him electrifying prime at the end? i honestly thought it was ironhide... possibly i was more surprised by ratchet, who has much less screentime here

alice? TX you mean. very easily killed by an impact that doesnt even set off the car airbags.

The transformations... bit hit and miss with what we see. the twins (in car alt modes) never actually transform on screen.

i found the twin sets of constructicons very confusing

the fates of several characters is left undetermined. wheelie (who vanishes after the space bridge jump, although you see him land), and (unless i blinked) simmons.

i've decided that leo is the annoying 3rd fat kid from energon or cybertron or whatever.

devastator poses no actual threat to anyone... and despite being fecking massive, is used to uncover the pyramid. 'efficient deployment of assets', megatron? also, he was already there waiting. why? did megs know the device was somewhere there? am i missing something, or paying too much attention?

how did michaela get a locked metal toolbox through airport security?

very boy-ish. mom was not impressed with the slut-factor in the movie, which i agree was immature. my inner twelve year old loves alice, and he is not a measure of maturity...

who was it who was wittering me to death about 'the thirteen' being in the movie just because 'the fallen' was? hmmnn? you? was it you? well IN YOUR FACE. thankyou, i feel much better now

screw "fate rarely calls...", its "I'll take you all on!" FTW!

theres more, but thats the salient stuff.

a great movie that fails if you over-analyse. but brilliant blockbusting popcorn (with perhaps two scenes with any emotional resonance).

off again tomorrow to play 'wheres jolt'

EDIT: terrible grammar and typing, but its late and i'm tired and bumblebee really does kick arse in this one, almost as much as prime.

[Shield Strike]

i'm not saying they should take out all the comedy, just curb it a little. it was all a little OTT for me, especially seeing as (IMO) they achieved a perfect balance in the first film.

I didnt find it particularly OTT but I can see why it may be too much for some tastes.

I found Sams' Mums brownie eating bit rather pointless and unfunny, they could have done without that. The nature of the joke would (hopefully anyway!) be lost on youngsters.

I think they were trying to compensate a little too much for the darker parts of the film with all the comedy. In my opinion it worked pretty well but it wouldn't have hurt too much to leave some of the dafter parts out.

And @ Borg, as for the slut factor surely Megan Fox MUST have been taped into that top! Some interesting views we got there.....

[Patapsco]

randomised thoughts...

- did John Turturro as Jetfire while channeling Oliver Reed via Spinal Tap really say "bollocks"? Whoever did the voice, awesome job
- Loved Megatron giving Starscream a good kicking late on, as well as their conversation after Megs' revival
- Pretender - good idea, but ridiculously flawed. I know that its a summer popcorn flick, but not even explaining who, what or how she/it was, kind of a cop-out
- Jolt - appears early, re-appears late, says absolutely nothing.
- Sideswipe, Arcee and Ratchet's combined lines of dialogue a mighty five
- Bring on the Genericons for the final slaughter
- Devastator - bad-ass with big balls
- Constructicons - how many?
- The Twins were voiced by SpongeBob Squarepants, which makes them fricking awesome
- Too much comedy, too many humans, its called Transformers for a reason guys
- The fight scenes were much, much, much better handled this time
- Soundwave AND Ravage! Too much awesome, and a blindingly clever re-imagination of Soundwave. Kudos.
- Sideways dies without even getting name-checked I think.
- Actually, too many transformers appeared without even getting name-checked. would it kill the writers to at least refer to the robots by their name at some point? I lost count of the amount of times I had to tell my girlfriend who was who, and that was from the insane amount of spoiler info I've gotten here

all in all, a tremendously brain-dead all-out popcorn flick that will make so much coin its silly. BUT, and its probably the inner fan in me, I'm still waiting for the definitive Transformers movie. This was good, and the niggling problems which seemed to pop up every five or ten minutes started to GET really grating but I can just about overlook them, but with abit of judicial editing and a few extra lines of dialogue given to the actual Transformers, this could have been so much better. I'll go 7/10 at a push.

[borg72]

the annoyig thing is that all the problems or issues were all relatively minor and easy to fix. all the epic bits were spot on.

i like how arcee did get one namecheck, but the actor cocked up the delivery. when radioing arcee and the twins, he says 'arcee twins' as in 'RC-twins'. the emphasis makes it sound like hes just talking to the twins, who are remote control (an audible comma wouldnt have killed him, is what im saying). Arcee, Twins. see? easy.

was anyone else puzzled by how little weapons damage was inflicted by the super-advanced robots from space upon each other, but how many genericons bought it from weapons fire from the good old US military folks? unless fighting hand-to hand (and more of that please, as it was awesome), or you were a triocon hive-minded bike, very little lasting damage was commited by transformers weapons fire, at least in comparison to tank and human handguns (which at one point actually drove megatron back)

EDIT: i'm totally sold on Arcee now. £36 spent on bike toys that wont stand up unsupported.

[CounterPunch]

too many humans, its called Transformers for a reason guys.

All the TF shows based on earth have had an abundance of humans.... G1 had - Spike, Sparkplug, Carly, Chip, Daniel and more secondary, so why should the film be different? .. I think the inclusion of human characters is important to give us a human eye view of what is happening... The film was cool, but I didnt CARE for any of the TF robots, whereas I did Sam.

One thing that annoyed me (that I previously forgot) is the editing seemed really bad, the scenes would jump and switch really randomly, just as I felt a scene was coming to a crux point, it would flip to somewhere else, sometimes it seemed like it happened almost before a line of dialogue was properly finished.

Something I did like, was (with the exception of Arcee) the more eye friendly design of the characters, they were far more humanoid in nature... In the first one there were numerous characters with freaky hands and feet (AFAIK Barricade was an example) yet for the most part the new Robots seemed to look far better in design.

[inflatable dalek]

devastator poses no actual threat to anyone... and despite being fecking massive, is used to uncover the pyramid. 'efficient deployment of assets', megatron? also, he was already there waiting. why? did megs know the device was somewhere there? am i missing something, or paying too much attention?

The Fallen knew where the Harvester was, it was the location of the Matrix that was a mystery. Though it was a bit stupid of the Primes to put the latter within easy travelling distance of the former.

very boy-ish. mom was not impressed with the slut-factor in the movie, which i agree was immature. my inner twelve year old loves alice, and he is not a measure of maturity...

To be fair there's lots of sweaty men in uniform for anyone not interested in slow motion breasts. And Simmon's thong for everyone else.

EDIT: And instead of going on the round the world cruise wouldn't it have been simpler to just use to shard of Allspark Sam finds to revive Prime? That's basically what brought Megatron back after all...

[numbat]

EDIT: And instead of going on the round the world cruise wouldn't it have been simpler to just use to shard of Allspark Sam finds to revive Prime? That's basically what brought Megatron back after all...

Alas, Sam already used that to revive Jetfire - maybe he had a 'doh' moment, and whacked his head off the wall after doing that. I mean, he was unaware of the power of the shard, but when Wheelie gets him to use it on Jetfire, he must have been kicking himself later...

[numbat]

Something I did like, was (with the exception of Arcee) the more eye friendly design of the characters, they were far more humanoid in nature... In the first one there were numerous characters with freaky hands and feet (AFAIK Barricade was an example) yet for the most part the new Robots seemed to look far better in design.

Indeed - in particular, I liked Demolishor and Rampage.



I'm not so sure I agree - I think that the level of humanoid designs was the same for the Decepticons (Mixmaster was hardly eye-friendly, and would give Barricade a run for his money I think...), whereas there were more radical designs like Demolishor, Rampage and The Doctor. The Autobots remained largely eye-friendly and humanoid (bar the bike-bints, but then, perhaps the unseen combined mode is humanoid?) - but no more or less than Movie 2007 designs. I think people have just gotten more used to the look.

But, that's just my opinion. And, I really love the designs anyway!

[borg72]

i wonder if it isnt so much the humanoid design as the more humanoid movement... the robot fighting was more based on actual kicks and punches (that will have kids copying it in playgrounds everywhere), than on random twirling as in the first (bee and barricade, for example).

the only bot i had a real problem with (alice aside*) was ball-bearing bot, whose final transformation to a full size bot was a step to far in my book.

(*but i suppose theres no reason not to do dinobots at some point now)

[Summerhayes]

This is a toughy to write.

On the one hand: the action was absolutely stunning. Optimus jumping out of the plane, the fight with three Decepticons, Jetfire kicking bottom, the car chasing, the massive, massive ammount of massive, massive robots. There were nods to the cartoons: the matrix of leadership, Jetfire, the seekers. I was shaking in my chair and squeezing my girlfriend's hand throughout the whole film. There was a tear in my eye when I thought Optimus was dead (til the next film, at least) and another when he came back. I also found the majority of the humour quite amusing.

On the other hand: I can see that the humour, the constant spitting of gunge by the decepticons (which really annoyed me), the swearing and leg-humping and generic black guy "oh my god, he got ate!" business is gonna piss people off. I am 18 years old, I found it hilarious but even I was annoyed by the farts and spitting. People older or younger are not going to react the same way.


I preferred it to the first film, but to the older audience or the audience unfamiliar with Transformers I don't think it will have the same success.

***

As for the designs, I pretty much liked them all, and I think it was the fight coreography and camera work that made it work better than the last one.

[Halfshell]

Right, at the second time of watching...

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. [...] I’m not even sure that Jolt was in it before he popped up to help deus ex machina the combination at the end..

Right, I spotted more of them doing stuff and getting lines this time out. Though still negligible, it is tons more than Random British Soldier got.

The twins were great, and far better wannabe gangstas than Jazz was.

Still great, and the whole "blending in like a ninja" stuff reminded me of the "Autobots trying to hide at the Witwicky house" bit from the first one. Maybe Autobots in general are crap at stealth but think they're really awesome at it?

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?)

Yes, is the answer to that. Five go down. They kill one, revive Megatron, then six come up. Though that might include the Doctor separately as he went down with Ravage.

Noticed he was seemingly disguised as a microscope when they kidnap Sam. Perceptor goes to the dark side! Whooha!

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

Aaaand there is! Remarkably. Cybertronian in vehicle mode, English in robot mode. Which I believe was also the case in the first one, making Starscream greeting Megatron in Earthspeak back then considerably less random.

Still love Optimus chopping off Starscream's arm and then slapping him about with the wet end. And, given that Megatron basically creamed Prime in the one-on-one in the previous movie, the fight's outcome was the only sensible result given it was three-on-one. And means that the new younger generation of fans get to have their hopes destroyed as Optimus dies, but without the lasting trauma as a lot of the rest of the film then becomes about saving him.

Creation Matrix probably would have been a more sensible name for the key, functionality considered, but I think the name they went with was understandable given casual viewers are more likely to be familar with the animated version.

[Prowl1984]

Did anyone else think it was a tad disrespectful the way Prime casually threw away what remained of jetfire's body at the end?

[Wildrider]

Well I enjoyed it for the most part, but part of the charm of the original was the relationship between Sam and Bumblebee. It was quite sweet without being sacharine and amid the destruction of life as we know it, gave a real emotional resonance to procedings. Although there was some of it, I didn't like how Sam dismissed him at the beginning, there relationship is a joy sometimes and the first film was essentially about a boy and his car. They could have drawn more peril out of the prospect of them losing one another, but this is just a personal preference.

The twins, hmm, found them funny, their faces jarred somewhat, but I think personally, they are extremely cartoonish but more obviously human in structure, where as in the first one they had a more alien/insectoid feel to them. I liked them, but they were different and jarred me out a bit.

Loved Wheelie to be honest, but then i loved the original idea for G1 Wheelie, but the little scrap bot and his inter action with megan Fox was amusing to watch.

A teensy weensy bit too many humping jokes for my liking, but not too much of a problem.

The forest fight was an undoubted highlight, although the is that Blackout? Poor Blackout! NOOOOOO BLACKOUT! Phew it's someone else, confused me as did the blink and you'll miss it Bonecrusher Mark 2. Where is Barricade, sad face.

Got over excited at Starscream's EMP pulse and though "TEH THUNDERCRAKAZ", but recovered as Starscream had a bit more snivelling to do and got trashed by oooooh everybody. How come all the Decepticons were covered in Cybertronian runes/lettering now? No more disguises, I guess.

I know alot of people have criticised the alleged over emphasis on the human contribution, but I liked the majority of the characters from the first one and the human aspects were genuinely amusing, however mum and dad were overdone and Josh Duhamel and his men were under cooked.

Oh and Soundwave and Ravage were done to perfection. A fun film and highly enjoyable, a tad over long and the final fight felt somewhat anonymous and deja vu of the original Scorponok fight.

P.S. I didn't like Jetfire at all, I understand the reasoning behind him being a bit rusty as explained, but a beard? What the Alpha Trion is going on here!! Oh right....

Nevermindthough because John Turturro, is and will always be, glorious.

[borg72]

Did anyone else think it was a tad disrespectful the way Prime casually threw away what remained of jetfire's body at the end?

they're robots who not only change form, but completely alter their body shapes at will (in terms of choosing new altmodes, the so-called 'trans-scanning'). i imagine that their physical bodys hold much less meaning for them; once dead, they are simply parts. this would hold with their treatment of jazz, although not necessarily with the reverence they show primes body. so i dunno. but the ubercannonofdoom was damaged to the point of dropping off anyway.

[inflatable dalek]

Did anyone else think it was a tad disrespectful the way Prime casually threw away what remained of jetfire's body at the end?

It did make me smile that kids with the toys will be "killing" Jetfire everytime they combine them.

[Summerhayes]

When five go down and six come up, could it be that when they revived megs they had some juice left to get blackout as well? That would explain him being in the woods later, as well.

[numbat]

When five go down and six come up, could it be that when they revived megs they had some juice left to get blackout as well? That would explain him being in the woods later, as well.

When five go down and six come up, could that be because they revive Megs?

[Summerhayes]

When five go down and six come up, could that be because they revive Megs?

But they kill one of their number and give his spark to megs. That probably wasn't made very clear, if you've not seen it

[Halfshell]

Do they give him his spark too? I thought it was just parts.

[numbat]

Do they give him his spark too? I thought it was just parts.

Erm, yeah - I have seen it, and I thought it was just parts too.

I'm seeing it on IMAX with my bros and some friends on Saturday, so I'll have a closer look on a massive screen!