Transformers Age of Extinction

pixelburp

"When you’re talking about aliens, robotic machines which disguise themselves as vehicles and animals, you start to make your peace with the idea that logical sense doesn't have to be the be-all, end-all."

Ha, well at Ehren Kruger is being honest, that his scripts don't even make any lip service towards basic common sense or logic.

http://www.slashfilm.com/transformers-logical-sense/

constitutionus

just seen the vue are doing a midnight showing on thursday !

thatll be 3 in the fecking morning before ya leave the cinema, let alone get home !



looking at other cinema websites its gas that thanks to its bloated run time some of em only have 4 showings a day (including the 2d option).

johnny_ultimate

Pfft, midnight screenings. The 5 AM screenings of The Dark Knight Rises were the ultimate in pointlessly staying up late (or in this case early) to watch films.

It was wonderful.

krudler

10pm and midnight screenings are the norm over here, I could have gone to the first showing of Edge of Tomorrow, and I didn't cos I was tired and who turns up?


fecking Tom Cruise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_MZERmVHNY

Wasn't a premiere or press screening or nothing, just arrived along to it. I go to that cinema all the time it's bloody huge.

krudler

pixelburp wrote: »

"When you’re talking about aliens, robotic machines which disguise themselves as vehicles and animals, you start to make your peace with the idea that logical sense doesn't have to be the be-all, end-all."

Ha, well at Ehren Kruger is being honest, that his scripts don't even make any lip service towards basic common sense or logic.

http://www.slashfilm.com/transformers-logical-sense/

Yeah but in the context of the universe you've established in the film you can still have logic, I hate this piss poor excuse for bad writing. "oh it's a movie with monsters/turtles/robots/space in it" soooo? should still make sense!

pixelburp

krudler wrote: »

Yeah but in the context of the universe you've established in the film you can still have logic, I hate this piss poor excuse for bad writing. "oh it's a movie with monsters/turtles/robots/space in it" soooo? should still make sense!

Oh yeah, I wasn't posting it as a defense of the Transformers films, just as a perspective on the mindset and thought processes its 'writers' go through. Astonishing to think a paid professional believes internal logic is optional just because of some fantastical elements. I imagine any genre writer that read Kruger's opinion laughed into their tea

It's funny 'cos on sub-forums like The Walking Dead, this depressing argument of Kruger's is used by posters: ack sure you can't be fussing over internal logic, they say, sure doesn't the show involve fictional monsters?

Adamantium

Supposedly Christopher Nolan is a big fan of Bay's work!

http://www.slashfilm.com/christopher-nolan-loves-watching-michael-bay-movies/

I know this is going to get me grief but Transformers (2007) is the equivalent of Star Wars (1977) in terms of the influence it has had on big budget mainstream blockbuster cinema for the next 20 odd years, for the worse probably. I do remember watching it in 2007, marvelling at the thousands of moving parts in the robots and sheer bombast of it. Actually the Star Wars prequels were probably on the same level in terms of their influence since 1999 to today

I think much of it has to do with that Bay is making robot movies (and they are lazy as you can get), but if is camera was focused on any other subject, we'd like him a lot more I suspect. I think we get caught up in the personalities of directors and forget these are 10,000 people productions.

Because I love the hell out of Armageddon, logic be damned.

A messy transforming robot does not go well with his style. His fruity style only works when CGI is at a minimum.

Armageddon was for me the last truly good movie he made, it even made the criterion collection.
A lot of things that I adore about movies, I can see in his early work.
He can make a simple shot look gorgeous, that you could never conceive looking that way

I fairness if you walked into The Avengers and Transformers with no knowledge of who make these things or the film industry, You'd be hard to press to tell who made each one.

constitutionus

but the problem is the "messy transforming robot" was his fecking idea!

there was no need for prime to have 10,000 moving parts. look at the amount of waste that goes on in the first flim, what with his fecking "ears" rotating and the like in the scene where theyre looking for the glasses at sams house.

that was completely unnecessary on the effects front.

his "Style" IS the current transformes look. and he pissed off many a fan inflicting it on the franchise. even the bloody toy company couldnt replicate it at the time.

Adamantium

This is GOLD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THVvshvq0Q

He's no better than a dozen big name directors out there, so why this guy? I have no doubt there are kids out there that 20 years from now will say they will be directors, who were inspired to get the industry because of him.

There's also a serious "20-30 something nerd" contingent out there and I hate to use that word, but that's what it is, who never HATED this guy until he started working with the Transformers franchise.

In fact he made the Island, a great movie (one of his best) and also his least successful by far, so the audience has much to answer for. The same thing with the reviled Zack Snyder who made a stunning recreation of the comic down to the finest detail, Watchmen, were was the audience for that?

Big dumb action movies like Commando actually get put forth as good, not because of any previously unknown intellectual quality, but because everyone decided to agree that it was big, stupid fun and it's alright to enjoy big, stupid fun from time to time. It may be well be bread and circuses, but you know what? If I was a citizen of Ancient Rome, I'd have probably enjoyed a day out at the Colosseum every now and then too. Even if it involved slaughter :P

The best term for it is "lowest common denominator", which, sadly, has a fairly negative connotation. It shouldn't mean something bad, it should just mean that it's designed to be enjoyed by as many people as possible... and it shouldn't be surprising when it outperforms more targeted entertainment. The success of Transformers doesn't prevent the success of smaller, more intellectual fare... something which we're pretty much awash with on TV at the moment

I also have to laugh at some people's complaints about his blind patriotism or pride (as if we even know he believes in those things anyway, as if he mightn'd trying to say something) with regards to Armageddon and the like, people do realise the only country that could launch two shuttles into space and stood a chance against the threat was the USA? (and Russia, and the MIR station is involved too) Sami Raimi couldn't wait to show off sweeping shots of the USA flag in his Spiderman movies!

We don't see John Woo being crucified by native chinese over Chinese patriotism in Red Cliff. Why can't Americana be celebrated as much as any of them?

Great, brave video that elaborates on what I say:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/9491-Leave-Michael-Bay-Alone


http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/48-armageddon

cloud493

I always enjoy these movies hate LeBouf though so the lack of him from this should make it even better.

Was considering going to see this over the weekend but saw that Cold in July is coming to Galway so that'll be getting my first preference. I have no expectations for T4 to be anything other than 3 hours of mayhem which mistakes characters looking pretty for character development. The one thing I do like about Bay is his use of space, he has an ability to take small scenes and make them feel epic though more often than not he marries them with ridiculously over the top editing.

allibastor

Good Movie, They went the way of Godzilla with the human actors being shown and the Giant arse kicking robots being shown in background.

They should have showed More Dinobots though, Grimlock as a horse for 10 mins was not cool.

constitutionus

422 milion in less than a week.

i keep thinking of that McBain joke from the simpsons.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeSUuj98Rx0

cloud493

Well I loved it. Like genuinely, loved every second of it. I'm gonna pay to see it in imax again in fact, it was incredible.

rockbeast

cloud493 wrote: »

I always enjoy these movies hate LeBouf though so the lack of him from this should make it even better.

I'll pay to see any film he's not in!

Although:eek: word is that he's quite good in Fury...

ancapailldorcha

I just saw this and I've never seen the local Cineworld so packed. Thought I was going to have to settle for Mrs. Brown for a minute.

It was alright. The new Autobots are terrible, barring Hound of course. I have no idea why Bay keeps surrounding Prime with these horrid caricatures. A bit like Iron Man 3 and Cap 2, there appears to be something resembling a plot at the start before Bay remembers that he's Bay and needs there to be an excess of explosions, CG and whatnot. Someone needs to tell him that explosions only work when they're used sparingly. Also, is there some reason why there's only 1 identifiable Decepticon and several faceless henchmen for Prime and co. to slaughter while posing?

On a positive note, John Goodman, Kelsey Grammar and Titus Welliver are nice additions and it was interesting to see a version of Prime who's had his fill of protecting humanity.

Unfortunately, I have a soft spot for the Transformers so it's partly my fault that we'll be seeing more sexism, racism, product placement, butchering of classic storylines and big explosions from now on.

constitutionus

just back from this and im in shock.

its not bad. in fact its probably the BEST TF flim since the first !

its not only has it got something dangerously close to a plot , its got actual subplots going on that are actually worthwhile.

now dont get me wrong, bays STILL pissing all over my childhood heros with this. the dialogue for the autobots is just cringe inducing (except with drift for some bizarre reason, who may be a walking bay cliche, but at least isnt grossely offensive like hound.)

and theyre ALL still portrayed as psychopaths. but all in all there's actually some decent screentime for em for once and there is a genuine moral quandries going on in relation to what humanity (well TBH attinger) is doing to the bots and cons.

i think the biggest change for me is the tonal quality of the movie. it really is alot different to the others, more sombre and harsh and prime really has been fuked around by his supposed allies. i still dont buy prime doing what he does in this film based on that, but at least ya can understand WHY he's pissed.

on the visual front the effects are as you'd expect, but the 3D stands out as not only not being completely useles - but really really good. i'd actually advise someone to see it in that format which is rare for me.

the dinos are wasted though having no character at all, but for stompy crushing action they do their job and at least they got to transform into bot mode

the bizarre thing though is the end. this ones CLEARLY set up for a sequel and theres some really nice plot threads to be tied up, but what got me is unless a certain character ISNT going to be in the next one then i cant see anyway a good chunk of it cant be set off world.

that'd be a huge departure for bay as up to now all the off world stuff has either been incidental, or exposition.

anyway back to this. grammer and tucci made it for me. kelsey is just fun as a bad guy, wahlberg is a HELL of alot more enjoyable as a lead than lebeof and far more sympathetic leading this to be one of the few TF films where you actually give a shyte about the human story. your here for the robot action but at least thats a nice change too.

in fact bay manages to reign in his trademark "humour". theres still elements of it, but nothing over the top.

8/10 from me.

you KNOW what your getting here

ancapailldorcha

I've no idea how anyone can defend the first film when the Autobots have a negligible effect on the story (such as it is) and you don't even get fight scenes.

cloud493

The first isn't good at all. Only the 2nd, 3rd, and this one have redeeming features, I think anyway.

Otacon

cloud493 wrote: »

The first isn't good at all. Only the 2nd, 3rd, and this one have redeeming features, I think anyway.

That is the EXACT opposite of what I think.

Wow, freaky.

Rubber_Soul

cloud493 wrote: »

The first isn't good at all. Only the 2nd, 3rd, and this one have redeeming features, I think anyway.

Just curious, but what are the redeeming features of the 2nd and 3rd in your opinion?

cloud493

.... I don't know. I can absolutely see why people hate these movies, they're a bit too long, theres not enough transformers, the human characters in the first 3 are absolutely awful, the humour is misplaced, the glorification of the US army, etc. Yet, I absolutely love them. The reason I love age of extinction the most in fact, is cos the weakest link, that is the human characters, have been significantly improved, Wahlberg and Co are much much better characters than Lebouf and Fox.

krudler

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I've no idea how anyone can defend the first film when the Autobots have a negligible effect on the story (such as it is) and you don't even get fight scenes.

No fight scenes? there's like a half dozen of them at least.

krudler

cloud493 wrote: »

.... I don't know. I can absolutely see why people hate these movies, they're a bit too long, theres not enough transformers, the human characters in the first 3 are absolutely awful, the humour is misplaced, the glorification of the US army, etc. Yet, I absolutely love them. The reason I love age of extinction the most in fact, is cos the weakest link, that is the human characters, have been significantly improved, Wahlberg and Co are much much better characters than Lebouf and Fox.

Revenge of the Fallen is appallingly bad, it's on my list of the worst films ever made. Nothing about it makes sense. nothing.

Mickeroo

The only redeeming feature of the 2nd film was it ended at some point.

krudler

Mickeroo wrote: »

The only redeeming feature of the 2nd film was it ended at some point.

That one brief scene where Optimus fights the three Decepticons, that's it. The rest of the film is farting robots, racism, leg humping robots, more racism, Ghettobots roll out, being in Egypt for...reasons, John Turturro's jocks and dangly transformer balls.

oh and Transformers heaven. Shia going to Transformers heaven, that's genuinely the dumbest thing I've ever seen in a film, I could sit down right now and write a better script than that, they can blame the writer's strike all they want, if they were that hard up for a good script then Bay should have taken a stroll into any comic book store, found the nearest person that knows anything about the series and just got some idea off them.

constitutionus

yup.

that forrest fight was the ONLY time in the entire franchise where optimus actually behaved like optimus.

krudler

constitutionus wrote: »

yup.

that forrest fight was the ONLY time in the entire franchise where optimus actually behaved like optimus.

You mean he's not supposed to execute surrendering enemies or murder humans?

It's what annoys me the most about these movies, the Transformers themselves are background noise. Optimus just spouts cliches and speeches and the rest are so interchangeable you don't even know who's fighting who half the time.

There's so, so much scope for a decent film to be made, tons of mythology and characters. Scrap the human element altogether and set the entire thing on Cybertron I say, and write the robots like actual characters instead of special effects who talk occasionally.

ancapailldorcha

krudler wrote: »

No fight scenes? there's like a half dozen of them at least.

I meant fight scenes we get to see. If I thought I was in for watching Shia getting chased about for over 2 hours, I'd have left that stinker on my mates hard drive.

Rubber_Soul

krudler wrote: »

Scrap the human element altogether and set the entire thing on Cybertron I say

I'd say that would cost an absolute fortune to make, can't see the studio ever signing off on something like that when they can just regurgitate the current formula every few years and rake in a load of cash.

rcdk1

Awful movie. For a big budget movie the CGI was ropey. The editing was all over the place. Maybe not so important in action movies but the dialogue was terrible. Couldn't recommend anyone go see this, especially a fan of Transformers.

Warper

Ya this is bad, overly long, awful dialogue, poor CGI and what the hell was going on??? Shame really

FutureGuy

Rental for me I think!

Vinz Mesrine

I watched this last night, I can honestly say it is one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I've watched The Room! I'm a huge fan of the cartoon having grown up in the 80s, I didn't even mind the first movie. However I wanted to leave this after about 15 minutes, it was just awful.

Why the hell does a transformer smoke a cigar?

Samurai Spoon

Will wait to watch this on sky movies.

beakerjoe

Samurai Spoon wrote: »

Will wait to watch this on sky movies.

Do people still watch Sky Movies :pac:

cloud493

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

I watched this last night, I can honestly say it is one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I've watched The Room! I'm a huge fan of the cartoon having grown up in the 80s, I didn't even mind the first movie. However I wanted to leave this after about 15 minutes, it was just awful.

Why the hell does a transformer smoke a cigar?

Because its not a real cigar, its supposed to be a symbol of the stereotype he's portraying?

ArPharazon

For the first time in my life I came out of the cinema feeling exhausted. Its got nothing good about it apart from the special fx.

Tefral

krudler wrote: »

Scrap the human element altogether and set the entire thing on Cybertron I say, and write the robots like actual characters instead of special effects who talk occasionally.

Totally agree hopefully

With Prime flying off in search of the creators which I assume are the Quintessons given the squiddy hand terra-forming the planet in the opening scene that we will meet Primus and Unicron.

Although given what happened in Transformers 3, does that essentially mean Primus has been destroyed given the fact Cybertron was only half teleported?

cloud493

Now I've seen it 3 times, I like it even more. Cant help but think of Kelsey Grammars character as Frasier though :pac:

FAILSAFE 00

It was an endurance event sitting through the film. At 2hrs I wanted to leave and I was hoping for a power cut.

It's without a doubt the worst transformers film I have ever seen. It was more like a 2 1/2 hour commercial for big brands that were littered throughout the movie.

The script was awful. It felt like it was written by 20 writers, all arguing over what direction they should take the film.

A reboot at this stage is so badly needed. It's obvious that Micheal Bay doesn't care about transformers anymore. It's just an opportunity to make easy $.

brianregan09

He cared in the 1st place! !!?

Rubber_Soul

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

The script was awful. It felt like it was written by 20 writers, all arguing over what direction they should take the film.

I still to this day can't fathom that the writer responsible for this series also wrote Arlington Road.

FAILSAFE 00

StarshipPooper wrote: »

I still to this day can't fathom that the writer responsible for this series also wrote Arlington Road.

Whoa :eek:

That was such a great film.

Lamper.sffc

Similar to others. I was totally bored by the film and after the 2 hour mark I just wanted to leave. I was exhausted by the time the film was over and not because anything good happened. Nothing different bar maybe less American army crap. Waste of money but we all knew that would be the case right:o

candy-gal1

One word = EPIC!

cloud493

Candy gal gets it :cool:

highly1111

My little fella is 5 and transformer mad - and i mean mad.

But would i be mad on bringing him?

I know it's 12A but i read the guidelines and he can go once he's with a responsible (!) adult!!

It's 165 minutes long and there needs to be more action/explosions than an actual plot to keep him interested for that long.

Any thoughts from those of you here that have already seen it?

cloud493

Hmmm. I don't know. Theres only one actually kinda scary thing I can think of, no blood, more action than story.