Amph The Transformers. More than meets the eye!

Don't remind me about the fact that Megatron obeyed the Fallen. That would be like the new superman movie having General Zod say "Kneel before Zod!" right before he asks Brainiac for his orders.

Let me rephrase my point then, I want more Transformer characterization.

I'll settle for a movie that isn't a sex joke every 30 seconds. How about a movie that rises above potty humor?

Let's be realistic here.

Yah know, the G1 Autobots-and especially the G1 Decepticons-were pretty two-note at best sometimes.

And I say this after having watched the entire season one and about two-thirds of season two of G1 and reviewing it for another message board.

Well, I must say, that although the Transformers movies haven't been the best(I enjoyed the first one, the second one gave me a headache from facepalming too many times), from what I'm seeing in the trailers, this third film looks to be an improvement(tone-wise at least). It seems that using the 3D cameras has caused Bay to tone down his trademark "shakey cam" style, for something where you can actually SEE the action and know who's fighting who. All the action scenes look well staged and clearly shot.

It also seems like there's less of that juvenille, high school humor that kind of plagued the first two films(especially the second). Things look relatively serious and bleak here (more like War of the Worlds instead of ID4). It actually looks like a full out Decepticon invasion, and Earth is getting it's butt kicked! We also see a quick shot of Sam pointing a gun at someone or something. I wonder what would prompt this? In the first two movies, the only thing he did was run around and scream, now he's actually getting into the action and doing something for once.

The only issue so far from what I see is the new girl. What's the point of having her there? I know Bay fired Megan Fox, but if they couldn't work things out with her, and still wanted to have a female lead, they could have at least brought back a character we know ( like the cute Austrailian hacker chick from the first movie), or just have Sam be alone this time, instead of shoehorning in some random girl he's just met and expect the audience to care. It screws up the continuity and makes Megan's character look like a total bitch for leaving after all of the crazy crap they went through together. I hope the filmmakers come up with a good excuse for her absence, and don't just say that she simply broke up with him. I mean, they saved the world TWICE now, you would think that would bring two people together instead of apart, lol.

Aside from that, the movie looks pretty decent. i'm hoping it doesn't suck.

Remember, we still don't know what happened to Mikaela. I'm hoping that she was killed by the Decepticons rather than it being a straight break up between the two. And maybe Sam feels guilty for not being able to protect her. Maybe that's why he's so desperate to help that chick in the trailer.

Just speculation on my part, but you never know.

Oh, wow! I wasn't aware at all that the new girl was supposed to actually be Carly! That changes things a little. I like that they are using a bit more of the G1 lore, but it might be a little too late in the game to be bringing her in, especially since this is apparantly Bay's last TF movie. Maybe instead of creating the Mikaela character, Bay and the screenwrtiters could have had Carly be Sam's best friend/confidante from the beginning, and have their relationship naturally grow throughout the three movies, until the third, when they would finally get together. That would have been good character development for both Sam and her, with their experiences with the Autobots strengthening them as people and bringing them closer and closer together.

Now, with the direction Bay's decided to go with, they're probably going to rush all of this stuff and have Sam say "I love You" to this new girl that him and the audience have just met and don't have prior feelings for at all. It's too bad when they could have had this subtle romantic subplot developing through the trilogy and culminating in the end, but we all know that subtlety isn't what Michael Bay is known for. In fact, he has all the subtlety of a gas explosion! lol. It's sad when the fans can come up with better plotlines and stories for the films than the actual filmmakers.

And couldn't they have a cast a, I don't know, more "normal" looking girl to play Carly? So far, all of the girls that Sam has been with have been unrealistically hot, supermodel type women. I know that's probably a wish-fullfillment thing on the the part of the writers(nerd gets the hot chick), but from what I remember from G1, Carly was just as much of a nerd as Sam/"Spike" was. They could have cast an actress who was more of a "cute girl-next-door/nerdy chick" type of hot(personality-wise, i'm thinking more like Willow from Buffy, Fred from Angel or Kaylee from Firefly), instead of just another "pornstar/Exotic Supermodel" type.

Except that would have been Character Devolopment, and Subtle/subtlety, two things for which Michael Bay is not known, and which the writers had no clue about. (actually, the Writers nave no clue about a lot, but I am convinced they are utterly ignorant of the concept of Subtle). What next? Do you want Lucas to actually make a good movie? Sheesh. That would be like expectiong Episode 3 to be good after seening 1 and 2. How about Shia LeBouff not sucking? I haven't seen that since "Holes".

Like I said, two-notes. there were some good moments for a lot of the characters, but they rarely got expanded on and sometimes there was even backpedaling.

Most of the Decepticons never rose much beyond 'thug' or 'loyal thug'.

The comment from Prime was from 'War of the Dinobots', btw. Good episode, there. Liked Grimlock showing quite possibly the only moment of humility... ever and Prime shaking his hand. But again, he reverted to type pretty quickly after.

And... time marches on. G1 is not the end-all be-all of TF and nor should it be. The movies should not be expected to adhere to them the extent some of you folks say it should.

Look at Beast Wars.
OK, that's like 15 years old at this point... But it continued the existing mythology and expanded it greatly. And had depth and characterization.

Then there was Beast Machines, which sucked beyond the telling because the guy in charge "Had a Vision", and screwed it all up to make the characters fit. All of it based on the lamest eps of the old cartoon ane Evangillion-type anime.

Still, at least Beast Machines was still more intelligent than the Bay movies.

Yeah, to actually have character development and subtlety would require better writers, better actors, and a better director than what we are getting now. It's a shame, these movies have so much potential that's not being fully realized under the current production team. Sure, the visuals are sometimes impressive and the action is occasionally thrilling, but it could so much better! I hope someday in the future, when this franchise is inevitably rebooted, we are given a director and writers who know know how to properly balance good story and character development with amazing visuals and action scenes.

My favorite was his "All Hail Starscream." at the end of the 5-part miniseries. I have to hand it to this show, they actually made Starscream into someone I could see leading the Decepticons.

The studio wouldn't let us do any 2D shows but the 3D shows did get ok'd for us to show them starting at 9pm. Chances are though if you see the 9pm show you won't have trailers on it since the movie is almost 3 hours long and they will need to use the theater for a midnight show directly after. We're doing midnights of both the 2D and 3D though.

Sounds like the movie still sucked, pretty much as expected. No wonder they made sure it had the 7/4 weekend. Otherwise is would have had absolutely nothing going for it.

Well, as you said, hopefully now the series will be rebooted in the hands of someone remotely competent.
Though I do love the youtube video of the EMS vehicle crashing into bumblebee.

I saw the film a few days ago. Honestly, I have to say, it wasn't too bad. I quite enjoyed it actually. There were still a few stupid moments(Ken Jeong's character), but overall from the point when Sentinel Prime(brilliantly voiced by Leonard Nimoy), betrays the Autobots to the end of the final battle in Chicago, the movie was pretty dark and serious. I would have to say it's the best of the trilogy(which may not be saying much for some people). The Action sequences were top notch here as well. Bay finally learned how to slow down the camera and pull it back so we can actually SEE the robot fights. I was surprised to see that most of the Decepticons were actually killed in this movie, even a lot of the important ones( Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave). The one death that I didn't like was Shockwave. The mareketing had hyped him up a lot, and now I realize he was just a red herring to keep Sentinel Prime's betrayal a secret, but they could've at least gave him something to do!! His "Driller" pet had more screentime than him, hell LASERBEAK( who ended up being the stand out Decepticon) had more to do. Seriously, when Optimus Prime killed him like he was nothing, I felt like this:



But other than that, the movie was an entertaining,fun action-fest.

Haven't seen the movie yet... but if Megatron, and all the main Decepticons are dead... A certain Orson Welles voiced planet eater resurrecting them into Galvatron, Cyclonus, the Sweeps seems like a logical next step.

If they decide to go that route, it's gonna have to be with a different director and filmmaking team. Bay has repeatedly said that this is his LAST Transformers movie. He wants to move on to something else.

Yeah Shia isn't coming back either. But I don't they'll stop making more movies, they'll milk it for all it's worth.

Yeah Shia isn't coming back either. But I don't they'll stop making more movies, they'll milk it for all it's worth.[/quote]

Wow, so they're ditching two of the biggest albatrosses around the franchise's neck.
There may be hope for the next film after all.
Maybe they can hire some of the writers from MainFrame.ca to do the next one...

The problem is, I can't think of any directors who would be willing to even touch this franchise after Bay has already "left his mark" all over it. It would have to be someone who knows how to do good, visually impressive action sequences, but knows when to reign things in if need be(unlike Bay, who seems to fly off the handle and go wild, if he doesn't have a producer or someone to watch over him). It would also have to be someone who could respect the source material and the Transformers lore and not simply use it for the sake of creating tons of explosions with a weak storyline. They also need to be able to give ample screen time and character development for the robots themselves, so the movie won't be just ""HUMANS!: also featuring some transforming robots". Maybe James Cameron(with someone else writing the script)could be a possibility. If only he wasn't busy working on "Dances With Smurfy Cats" 2 and 3, lol.