Post by Jenner Carnelian on Jul 5, 2007 0:35:23 GMT -5
Let me first preface this by saying that a couple of external factors
hampered my full enjoyment of this film. The first being that a lot of
people in the TF fanbase were speculating that Jazz( the token black
Autobot ), would get killed. I wasn't happy about that. He was one of
the few Autobots from Season 1 of the original cartoon series to NOT
get killed. If any of the Autobots should get killed, it should be
Ironhide ( since he did, after all, get his head blown off by Megatron
at point blank range ). But anyway, it wasn't so much that they were
offing Jazz instead of Ironhide, it was that I had expected it because
of all the outside speculation, so when it happened, I missed out on
that "OMG" surprise emotion that I enjoy in films. It was done well
though, as it grossed me out to see one of my favorite characters get
ripped in half and have his robo-spine/guts all dangling out ( funny,
since I wouldn't have batted an eye at seeing humans get squashed into
meat-bone goo ).
Another thing is that I'd stayed up till 6am that day on less than 5
hours sleep from the night before, and again had only aloud myself
barely 5 hours more of sleep, so I wasn't of a full state of mind to
enjoy the adrenaline-junky action sequences.
The other thing is that I ended up having to get up to go pee in the
middle of the movie.
Having said that, this movie sucked in all the ways that the original
cartoon sucked minus the continuity errors and animation fuck ups. At
the same time, it FUCKING KICKED ASS in all the ways that the original
cartoon show kicked ass, and then some! It was like I was watching the
cartoon all over again, in all it's hyper robot action, sparse
character developement, sci-fi adventure glory TIMES TEN! Specifically
it reminded me most of the animated feature film that came out after
Season Two. Characters barely being developed or even getting a single
line before getting axed ( see: Almost Entire Season 1 cast ), things
moving from scene to scene with hardly any sense of time, but with all
kinds of crazy robot action awesomeness.
I have some other quips and quibbles.
It needs more Starscream.
Bonecrusher died too quickly.
I wanted the Allspark Cube to go into Prime's chest and turn him into a
more powerful Prime ala the Autobot Matrix.
They were focusing on Sam when they clearly should have been focusing
on Prime and Megatron duking it out. It was anti-climactic for me. It
would have been so much better if Megatron came out all badass ( which
he did, best Megatron ever ) with Prime having to take the Allspark
into his chest to become all Super-Prime and they throw it down in an
all out battle royale, Neo Vs. Virus Smith style.
Also, the frenetic action editing where you can't tell what the fuck is
going on gets old after a while ( of course I felt the same way about
Domino and that's one of my all time favorite films now ).
No explanation as to why all the new cybertronians created by the
Allspark were evil ( the one I made up is that it got corrupted somehow
either by Megatron back on Cybertron, or by Sector 7 ).
With the plot device of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, Vector Sigma,
the cartoon Allspark, and the Energon Cubes consolidated into The
Allspark Cube, something that was essential for me was the reverencial
quality that was given to the leadership title of "Prime". In this,
"Prime" is just part of Optimus' name, not his title as Leader of The
Autobots. To me, after the original animated feature film, that was
always a quintessential part of the Transformers mythology.
I do wish they had kept Jazz in his original rock 'n roll blues
musician black dude stereotype instead making him into a modern hip-hop
wuddup black dude stereotype. It's funny, because I really feared that
Tyreese Gibson was going to be the token black dude that gets killed in
every film, and he ends up surviving, and the token black dude that
gets killed ends up being Jazz.
I also don't see why they couldn't have allowed Ironhide to keep his
original battle-hardened southern drawl.
One other thing; with politics consuming my mind as much as it has been
these days, I couldn't help but see this movie as one obvious piece of
U.S. Military propaganda.
Anyway Having gotten all my nitpicking out of the way, everything else
kicked motherfucking ass.
Mixing in the original *chrkchkCHK* transformation SFX worked out
awesome, I was afraid it would be cheezy but they did it seemlessly. I
just wish they had had more of it.
Frenzy: an almost completely different take on the character that I had
feared I wasn't going to enjoy but ended up really digging.
Megatron's overall personality; like I said, after about 8 or 9
different reinterpretations, this one was the best.
Barracade's interrogation scene with Sam.
Starscream kicking ass in flight( we need more of him, we barely get
any of the traditional Megatron Vs. Starscream character dynamic, it's
there, but barely ).
All the Autobots had relatively unique personalities that you learn to
love just like in the original cartoon.
And of course, Peter Cullen, the original Optimus Prime, reprising his
voice-role the legnendary Leader of The Autobots kicked
supa-assholio! !!
It most certainly ruled.
So, while it's not the most brilliant film ever, it is definitely the
most brilliant cinematic interpretation of the Transformers franchise
ever! I will be seeing this movie again in the theatres. Probably
this weekend, hopefully I'll be able to get a better seat instead of so
close to the effing screen, and it will be easier to tell what the fuck
is going on.
J.
hampered my full enjoyment of this film. The first being that a lot of
people in the TF fanbase were speculating that Jazz( the token black
Autobot ), would get killed. I wasn't happy about that. He was one of
the few Autobots from Season 1 of the original cartoon series to NOT
get killed. If any of the Autobots should get killed, it should be
Ironhide ( since he did, after all, get his head blown off by Megatron
at point blank range ). But anyway, it wasn't so much that they were
offing Jazz instead of Ironhide, it was that I had expected it because
of all the outside speculation, so when it happened, I missed out on
that "OMG" surprise emotion that I enjoy in films. It was done well
though, as it grossed me out to see one of my favorite characters get
ripped in half and have his robo-spine/guts all dangling out ( funny,
since I wouldn't have batted an eye at seeing humans get squashed into
meat-bone goo ).
Another thing is that I'd stayed up till 6am that day on less than 5
hours sleep from the night before, and again had only aloud myself
barely 5 hours more of sleep, so I wasn't of a full state of mind to
enjoy the adrenaline-junky action sequences.
The other thing is that I ended up having to get up to go pee in the
middle of the movie.
Having said that, this movie sucked in all the ways that the original
cartoon sucked minus the continuity errors and animation fuck ups. At
the same time, it FUCKING KICKED ASS in all the ways that the original
cartoon show kicked ass, and then some! It was like I was watching the
cartoon all over again, in all it's hyper robot action, sparse
character developement, sci-fi adventure glory TIMES TEN! Specifically
it reminded me most of the animated feature film that came out after
Season Two. Characters barely being developed or even getting a single
line before getting axed ( see: Almost Entire Season 1 cast ), things
moving from scene to scene with hardly any sense of time, but with all
kinds of crazy robot action awesomeness.
I have some other quips and quibbles.
It needs more Starscream.
Bonecrusher died too quickly.
I wanted the Allspark Cube to go into Prime's chest and turn him into a
more powerful Prime ala the Autobot Matrix.
They were focusing on Sam when they clearly should have been focusing
on Prime and Megatron duking it out. It was anti-climactic for me. It
would have been so much better if Megatron came out all badass ( which
he did, best Megatron ever ) with Prime having to take the Allspark
into his chest to become all Super-Prime and they throw it down in an
all out battle royale, Neo Vs. Virus Smith style.
Also, the frenetic action editing where you can't tell what the fuck is
going on gets old after a while ( of course I felt the same way about
Domino and that's one of my all time favorite films now ).
No explanation as to why all the new cybertronians created by the
Allspark were evil ( the one I made up is that it got corrupted somehow
either by Megatron back on Cybertron, or by Sector 7 ).
With the plot device of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, Vector Sigma,
the cartoon Allspark, and the Energon Cubes consolidated into The
Allspark Cube, something that was essential for me was the reverencial
quality that was given to the leadership title of "Prime". In this,
"Prime" is just part of Optimus' name, not his title as Leader of The
Autobots. To me, after the original animated feature film, that was
always a quintessential part of the Transformers mythology.
I do wish they had kept Jazz in his original rock 'n roll blues
musician black dude stereotype instead making him into a modern hip-hop
wuddup black dude stereotype. It's funny, because I really feared that
Tyreese Gibson was going to be the token black dude that gets killed in
every film, and he ends up surviving, and the token black dude that
gets killed ends up being Jazz.
I also don't see why they couldn't have allowed Ironhide to keep his
original battle-hardened southern drawl.
One other thing; with politics consuming my mind as much as it has been
these days, I couldn't help but see this movie as one obvious piece of
U.S. Military propaganda.
Anyway Having gotten all my nitpicking out of the way, everything else
kicked motherfucking ass.
Mixing in the original *chrkchkCHK* transformation SFX worked out
awesome, I was afraid it would be cheezy but they did it seemlessly. I
just wish they had had more of it.
Frenzy: an almost completely different take on the character that I had
feared I wasn't going to enjoy but ended up really digging.
Megatron's overall personality; like I said, after about 8 or 9
different reinterpretations, this one was the best.
Barracade's interrogation scene with Sam.
Starscream kicking ass in flight( we need more of him, we barely get
any of the traditional Megatron Vs. Starscream character dynamic, it's
there, but barely ).
All the Autobots had relatively unique personalities that you learn to
love just like in the original cartoon.
And of course, Peter Cullen, the original Optimus Prime, reprising his
voice-role the legnendary Leader of The Autobots kicked
supa-assholio! !!
It most certainly ruled.
So, while it's not the most brilliant film ever, it is definitely the
most brilliant cinematic interpretation of the Transformers franchise
ever! I will be seeing this movie again in the theatres. Probably
this weekend, hopefully I'll be able to get a better seat instead of so
close to the effing screen, and it will be easier to tell what the fuck
is going on.
J.
. But yea Transformers = movie orgasm in a cup!