Transformers - 2007 movie (MERGED)

faceman

projectmayhem wrote:

take some time out from fighting the good fight (trasforumers, roll out.. etc.), have a read of the first 5 pages of the script

major spoiler warnings, assuming this is the real deal of course. i haven't read it, nor do i intend to...

http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/transformers-movie-exclusive-first-five-pages-of-transformers-script-199846.php

damn! Dreamworks beat me to it! :mad:

monkeyfudge

Oh I read it before it went away.

It all starts with an Optimus Prime talking about how they have big war with other robots over possecession of the Energon Cube (which is described pretty much as the Matrix really) the Energon Cube gets lost and ends up on Earth. There is a scene set in the 1800's where a Decepticon is discovered in an ice-cap and then it cuts to modern day with some US soldiers talking crap.. which I guess will pretty much be the rest of the film as expected.

projectmayhem

monkeyfudge wrote:

It all starts with an Optimus Prime talking about how they have big war with other robots over possecession of the Energon Cube (which is described pretty much as the Matrix really) the Energon Cube gets lost and ends up on Earth. There is a scene set in the 1800's where a Decepticon is discovered in an ice-cap and then it cuts to modern day with some US soldiers talking crap.. which I guess will pretty much be the rest of the film as expected.

tbh it doesn't sound all that bad, but the fact that it appears to feature as many gung-ho marines as it does actual transformers kind of irks me. it better not end on the image of an american flag fluttering in the wind

monkeyfudge

Well the fact that that in just the first 5 pages almost 40% of it consists of soldiers yabbering on inanely doesn't bode well.

constitutionus

projectmayhem wrote:

tbh it doesn't sound all that bad, but the fact that it appears to feature as many gung-ho marines as it does actual transformers kind of irks me. it better not end on the image of an american flag fluttering in the wind

not necessesarally mate , considering its meant to be an "accurate assesment of how our armed forces would react to such a threat" it should mean alot of dead soldiers most likely doing amazing impressions of jackson pollocks !

Belle Ende

The upcoming (2007) live-action movie is almost guaranteed to be utter drivel. The leaked script makes for face-in-hands cringeworthy reading. Personally, I'm not looking for a 100% super-faithful recreation of the original (G1) story/robot appearances/characterisations, but I AM looking for an action film that isn't as utterly dumb and cliched as what the leaked script implies. It IS possible to translate-and-update comic book heroes for the silver screen (the recent X-Men and Spider-man flicks being good examples), but I'm very sure that The Transformers will be cocked up in the process (see: Dolph Lundgren in MOTU and The Punisher).

The various tidbits from Michael Bay, Don Murphy, Orci, Kurtzman, and Rogers hint that this project is going to STINK to high heaven (par for the course for a moronic Bay flick). That pea-brained mouthy Shia LaBeouf deserves a good kicking too.

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That said, it will probably be a fair _commercial_ success at the box office, which will please Hasbro, no doubt. Watch out for those cash-in McDonalds happy meal toys come June 2007!

The average cinema-goer (i.e. easily-pleased dullard, *hoighty scoff*) will be satisfied with this CGI toshfest, and a new generation of "Transformers fans" (i.e. not really; they'll merely be fans of a crap 2007 CGI Transformers film, not of the various The Transformers series as a whole) will be primed (pardon the pun) for Hasbro et al to sell their tie-in toys to. Fair enough, nothing wrong with earning an honest buck. It's just all so artless, disheartening, and it will be an utter failure to live up to the great potential of what a TRANSFORMERS film could actually be (i.e. something excellent, without compromising intelligence/characterisation/depth for guns-blazing action).

Polemic over (for now)...

wayne040576

Belle Ende wrote:

The average cinema-goer (i.e. easily-pleased dullard, *hoighty scoff*) will be satisfied with this CGI toshfest, and a new generation of "Transformers fans" (i.e. not really; they'll merely be fans of a crap 2007 CGI Transformers film, not of the various The Transformers series as a whole) will be primed (pardon the pun) for Hasbro et al to sell their tie-in toys to.

The main goal of the original cartoon was to sell the toys.

Kinetic^

wayne040576 wrote:

The main goal of the original cartoon was to sell the toys.

Ditto, clearly the OP hasn't realised this yet :rolleyes:

Belle Ende

wayne040576 wrote:

The main goal of the original cartoon was to sell the toys.

I agree. That's by-the-by.
[As an aside, the cartoon was fun kids' stuff (trying to be nothing else but that), but was fairly _rubbish_ with silly stories, inconsistent animation, and wafer-thin characterisation of the Autobots/Decepticons.]

Back on track, my *main point* being that the upcoming movie could potentially be critically-AND-commercially well received, but instead it will likely be JUST be commercially well received. The follow-on toys will sell almost regardless of whether the story is sh1te-or-not, it's just a major pity that a great story couldn't come out of it as well.

Belle Ende

Kenny 5 wrote:

Ditto, clearly the OP hasn't realised this yet :rolleyes:

Clearly you're wrong. :rolleyes:

Kinetic^

Belle Ende wrote:

Clearly you're wrong. :rolleyes:

Clearly I was mislead

Rozie

The worst thing about the movie is that it's splitting the fanbase. One half of the fanbase thinks it makes them more mature to accept change, which ultimately means shoving it down other people's throats; they often don't give a crap about the characters either, just want another "Badass" toy to collect. The other side get called "geewunners" and are made out to be intolerant closed minded 80s throwbacks.

Belle Ende

Rozie wrote:

The worst thing about the movie is that it's splitting the fanbase. One half of the fanbase thinks it makes them more mature to accept change, which ultimately means shoving it down other people's throats; they often don't give a crap about the characters either, just want another "Badass" toy to collect. The other side get called "geewunners" and are made out to be intolerant closed minded 80s throwbacks.

I have two minds about the movie: that of a movie buff, and that of a Transformers fan.

In the first case, I want a brilliant, well-written, magnificently-acted film, regardless of whether it's about robots from an alien planet or about an innocent man in shawshank prison or about a toy cowboy and his new spaceman toy friend, or whatever other scenario. Just make it damn good.

In the second case, I want a film that largely focuses on _the robots_, and not so much on the annoying humans (cue: awful teenage romance subplot and a thousand other cliches). I don't want a cheesy plot about a McGuffin (check Wikipedia) device like the matrix/the energon cube (which is what we're getting *groan*). I want it obvious that these are living robots with unique well-developed personalities, where the 'good' guys aren't cartoony goody-goody archetypes and the 'bad' guys aren't cartoony baddy-baddy archetypes. Mostly black and white but with prominent shades of grey.

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As for the 'current' fanbase (i.e. TF fans before the movie hits the screen), well it's tiny compared to the potential ordinary movie-goer potential audience. Note that once the movie starts showing in July 2007, "Transformers fans" will mean something quite different. It might become a diluted term (i.e. new 'casual' fans, in contrast to the 'fanboy/hardcore/longterm' fans), but a more encompassing one (i.e. more people). Plusses and minuses to that.

projectmayhem

Rozie wrote:

The worst thing about the movie is that it's splitting the fanbase. One half of the fanbase thinks it makes them more mature to accept change, which ultimately means shoving it down other people's throats; they often don't give a crap about the characters either, just want another "Badass" toy to collect. The other side get called "geewunners" and are made out to be intolerant closed minded 80s throwbacks.

isn't it the same situation with beast wars and so on? there's loads of people who think beast wars is great, and loads who disagree. the film will do the same thing as beast wars did... except hopefully the film wont suck as much (oh, i went there! )

EDIT: here's some handy links for film info/pics that i linked in the film thread (on the film board!)... might be better use here now

interview with writers
pics/short clips from the set
loads of pics and the first few pages of the script

Vokes

Heh, I must've missed someone posting this in the thread on the Film board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCxJyGJzjL0
...I can't recall seeing it before. Anyways, its not really a teaser, is it, but still better than the actual one.

Spot the way they worked Cybertron into the Dreamworks intro

projectmayhem

SofaKing wrote:

Heh, I must've missed someone posting this in the thread on the Film board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCxJyGJzjL0
...I can't recall seeing it before. Anyways, its not really a teaser, is it, but still better than the actual one.

Spot the way they worked Cybertron into the Dreamswork intro

the music there gave me goosebumps... hadn't seen it before!

constitutionus

you know i actually have a bit of faith in the film. at the very least it'll look good and lets be honest, crap or not theres not a poster in this forum thats not at least gonna go see it

i will admit to a bit of trepidation, i remember the legion of really bad comic book films that littered the video shelves till blade came along and made it possible for xmen and then spidey. ibut its quite nice to see that the comic/cartoon is integeral to the story elements as opposed to just focusing on what the TFs are, toys. and creating something compleatly new from scratch with no regard to the legacy thats been built up

come on you cant tell me it doesnt make you feel good to know ironhide and prime are still old mates and ironhides still his bodyguard. that megatron still has a scheming starscream to deal with. and the matrix, jesus no one new about that outside of the comics till the old movie came along. if it retains its comics roots as their main source of procreation then its more than a mcguffin to get them to earth (and lets be honest these days a story about a foreign super power invading a foreign land to plunder its energy resources leans a tad too close to a certain other issue )

basically i look at this like xmen. i can handle all the changes , even though some of em are drastic, as long as the core spirit is retained. as long as primes flawed, jazz is cool, bumblebees friendly and megatron hands the autobots their chassis on a regular basis till the final battle when someone besides prime stops him (think mirage in the original mini series, i always loved that thoug prime never gave up it was the autobot team effort that stoped em. not your stereotypical heros here!:D ) ill be happy. and it helps that half the people involved in xmen are involved in transformers. speilberg for gods sake! even if he's spoofing about his love of the concept the input he can provide on a creative level can only be good

of course if we get a trilogy that allows something like target 2006/time wars i'll be even happier

Vokes

Loving the line by Prime at the end. From the original movie i guess?

The ship crashing into the Paramount mountain is a nice touch.

faceman

Im open minded to this flick, a real way for me to get back in touch in one of my addictions from my childhood. HOwever I have to say im very disappointed by the snaps ive seen of bumblebee. I can get over and understand why hes not a VW. but his face looks likes an arse!

constitutionus

faceman wrote:

Im open minded to this flick, a real way for me to get back in touch in one of my addictions from my childhood. HOwever I have to say im very disappointed by the snaps ive seen of bumblebee. I can get over and understand why hes not a VW. but his face looks likes an arse!

from what i hear volkswagon wont allow a model of their cars to be a weapon and thats why he's not a bug. they cant even make toys of him as a beetle anymore, plus hes supposed to be spikes car that he choose himself and if you were 18 would you want a bug or a muscle car?:D as for the face its meant to be CGI'd on after wards so what were seeing is only a template.

that said i do sympathise. BB will alway be a yellow bug to me

Crucifix

I wasn't going to say anything...but Megatron's mouth looks like robo-ass too.

Rhyme

Crucifix wrote:

I wasn't going to say anything...but Megatron's mouth looks like robo-ass too.

Agreed... but ill wait to pass judgement until i see it moving. It may be plausible.

RuggieBear

Rhyme wrote:

Agreed... but ill wait to pass judgement until i see it moving. It may be plausible.

you mean it might be passable...?;)

Karl Hungus

Seeing as we've a new forum, I think this mighty thread could be moved over there.

constitutionus

yay! first one in since the transfer. bit of news to impart while im at it . i was on the don murphy site and apparently all the filming for the flic is done, now its onto post production to cgi in all our bots and cons. this is great news because since its done so quickly it means the transformers actually get the lionsshare of the filmtime

we should see a trailer before the end of november and a mock up reel is in existance to shop to industry types which murphy seems to really like.

cant wait for the trailer

projectmayhem

Karl Hungus wrote:

Seeing as we've a new forum, I think this mighty thread could be moved over there.

ty Karl

energon cube on the house

Speedway

am i the only one thinking hmm a new transformers movie - HOW BAD?!

theyre making an effort to bring back the transformers, it appears that they are TRYING to to stay faithful to the G1 series in ways. it's a new movie that at least is going to look great. i can't wait to see it, maybe they'll mess it up, OR maybe they won't. who cares if prime is 0.313mm shorter than he was in the G1 series or blah blah what ever else.

Karl Hungus

projectmayhem wrote:

ty Karl

energon cube on the house

Not a spot of bother, forums that are starting off need all the discussion they can get imho.

monkeyfudge

FYI Everybody!

I merged this with the newer thread that was already in the forum.

spacecoyote

constitutionus wrote:

from what i hear volkswagon wont allow a model of their cars to be a weapon and thats why he's not a bug.

So Ze Germanz vill not allow Ze Fuhrer's car be uzed as a Veapon