TRANSFORMERS

[Johann]

The special effects by Industrial Light & Magic deserve an Oscar.

The autobots and megatron were jaw-droppingly rendered.
The DETAIL!
Steven Spielberg is producer, so the proceedings seemed to be the natural progression of War of the Worlds sfx & vibe with a large dose of childhood whimsy.

The story is all about a boy and his car (and hot chick who fuels his raging libido, and his annoying parents and his life in the burbs).

The dialogue is downright dumb in some spots. I was wondering who approved the script. Some lines and scenes were too corny for words. But overall the action sequences put it over the top.
It's rock 'em sock 'em robot death match 8000!
It's easy to give it up on the scale- yeah it's totally preposterous but the way the autobots are shot (i.e. giant feet passing by a child's head, the "silent scream" shot where the robots tumble over the girl in slow-motion)- some genuine movie magic there.

I forgive it's flaws because of what it is and what it's aiming to do.

If I was 6 years old then this film would be the greatest thing ever created. It's a child dream, from Dreamworkers

[mouton]

TRANSFORMERS
Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Directed by Michael Bay

Optimus Prime: Sorry, my bad.

No, it is I who is sorry, Optimus Prime, for I do not accept your apology. You can hardly be held accountable for the two-hour plus mess that is TRANSFORMERS, 2007’s tent pole original blockbuster, but my anger needs to be directed somewhere. Seeing as how director Michael Bay is not standing here in front of me, you my fictional friend will have to do. It could have all been so simple. You had a pretty solid cartoon back in the 80’s. The Autobots and Decepticons had their crews in check and their goals set. Both teams found themselves here on Earth. The Decepticons were bent on bleeding the world of its energy to bring back to your home planet somewhere so that they could rule while you were here to stop them and protect us simple humans at the same time. They would plot and you would plan and battles would go on with very little involvement on the part of the human race. Why then, in your live action feature film debut, do we see no trace of you but instead a few unpopular Decepticons and a ton of one-liner jokester humans for the first half of this film? Could your agent not negotiate you some more screen time?

The Transformers from the cartoon series had personality, ranging from a corny sense of humour to loyalty to caring. The movie machines, well, they have names and that’s about it. Gone are the neurosis and power struggles, replaced by supposed strength and stature. Standing and looking pretty for our enjoyment only takes us so far. Without squabbling between Megatron and Starscream to scoff at, we’re left to seek out personality from the human faction of this ensemble. Unfortunately, like any “good” action movie, actual colour in a character or a performance is entirely optional. Army boys anxiously await their return to their loved ones at home; high school jocks mock the dorks to look good for their girls; and those same girls can twist their hips just right to catch the setting sun against their bare stomachs. With such reusable filler characters, no actor actually has to try to craft depth into the fold. Luckily, the “IT” boy himself, Shia LaBeouf, is young enough and hungry enough to not forsake his own talents to the point of banality. As Sam Witwicki, TRANSFORMERS’ central human character, LaBeouf is charming, shy and earnest. His performance shines like the brightest piece in a sea of scrap metal and solidifies his face as one that will be seen for many years to come.

Why do I find myself going on and on about people in a review for a movie about machines? Perhaps this is because TRANSFORMERS treats the Transformers like an afterthought most of the time. Granted, they are very elaborate and exquisite constructions but how can they be seen as anything but secondary when some of the most popular Transformers don’t make an appearance until the last third of the film? And as beautiful as the talented folks at Industrial Light and Magic made these reincarnations, they are a bit too complex for their own good. Watching all the metal pieces swerve in and around while the machines transform made me think of the toys I had as a boy. If they were ever that complicated to transform, I doubt I would have played with them for as long as I did. The abundance of detail gets even messier when the Transformers start to rumble with each other. Through what he believes to be fancy camera work, Bay over uses close-up’s and quick editing to turn his machines into metal monstrosities that are at times near impossible to distinguish from one another. You can’t tell who’s who until the metallic mess breaks apart and one machine stands while another has fallen. There’s an awful lot of fighting but it’s also a lot of not being able to tell who’s winning.

It is pointed out to me time and time again that big budget action movies require a good chunk of our brains to be shut off in order to be enjoyed. Are we not tired yet of filmmakers giving us the bare minimum and the same old conventions while expecting us to fall over ourselves at the sight of awesome movie magic? TRANSFORMERS is not horrible because it is a special effects driven action film. It is horrible because it took the enormous potential to be a cheeky, geeky visual wonder and diminished that by dumbing it down to a mess of gunfire, product placement and hollowed-out, clunky machines. While it can be fun to relax our minds and enjoy the good times, it is not acceptable to dangle a shiny piece of metal before our eyes to distract us from seeing that that’s all you got.


www.blacksheepreviews.blogspot.com

[Johann]

AWESOME REVIEW MOUTON!

[mouton]

Wow ... thanks. I thought you would not like it so much just because I made such a point of blasting the special effects for being squandering in the hands of a poor filmmaker. A pleasant surprise for my morning.

[Johann]

I'm in the middle of an amazing book that has some relevance to these types of "action" movies.
It's written by Joost Smiers (yes that's his name- I thought it was a wacked-out name too) and it goes by the title of
Arts Under Pressure: promoting cultural diversity in the age of globalization (Zed Books, 2003)

Corporate-Driven Culture

'The rental decision that drives our video business now is a teenager/young adult decision, by and large', Strauss Zelnick, then president and chief executive of Twentieth Century Fox, declares. 'They are not going to rent intimate little movies, they are going to rent action adventure movies' (Ohlman 1996; 26).

In the $1 trillion global film and television business companies are striving to create programmes with global reach, and without recognizable nationality. The boomlet in international co-production over the past decades has been driven by the increase both in the number of overseas television channels and networks and in programme production costs.

Most televison and movie producers cannot even break even on the domestic market. They are forced into video and foreign sales to make a profit. therefore, they need a dramatic ingredient that requires no translation, "speaks action" in any language, and fits any culture. Violence dominates US exports. The strategy wastes talent, restricts freedom and chills originality. Violence "travels well".

Me, Johann: does this have anything to do with Transformers, yes, to some extent. Read that book. You'll learn a lot.

[Johann]

Noam Chomsky was probably not far off the mark when he stated in 1993: American companies stand to gain $61 billion a year from the Third World if US protectionist demands are satisfied at GATT (as they are in NAFTA), at a cost to the South that will dwarf the curent huge flow of debt service from North to South

Meanwhile, GATT has changed into WTO, but this makes no difference. A proportion of the sum concerns copyright on cultural 'products'. What does it amount to?
It's difficult to calculate because commercial statistics differ enormously between countries.
We may assume that the amount of money poor countries are required to pay for copyright is growing, partly because Southern and Eastern countries are under pressure from the West to fight piracy, which also uses up scarce police resources.
At the same time, transnational cultural conglomerates are penetrating these countries ever more effectively with their entertainment and cultural products, with the result that these countries are handing over scarce hard currency to the cultural industries in the West and Japan.

Me, Johann: does this have anything to do with Transformers, yes, to some extent.
Read that book. You'll learn a lot.

[Johann]

The sequel's trailer promises much more of the same action.
Looks to be the best summer blockbuster so far.
Terminator is fierce competition, and so is
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

all trailers are available at:

www.youtube.com

[cinemabon]

Sometimes it is difficult to argue with success, Johann, as "Transformers" is one of the highest grossing films of all time (ranked 20th at 319 million domestic). However, I am skeptical the sequel will have the same punch. We'll see...

[Johann]

Transformers is definitely a smash success.
When you have those kind of impressive special effects, it's gonna make money all over the world.

I wasn't really a fan when Transformers was all the rage in the 80's. (All my friends were, however).
I think it's really really cool that Hollywood is taking stabs at Transformers and G.I. Joe. They were hits with kids in the 80's, and a lot of people my age are loving the nostalgia of it.
And they actually seem to be doing right by it, bringing the goods.
The first Transformers movie is still impressive to me.
They did it right.
Some of those sequences are excellent.
I really loved the attack on the base near the beginning and that scene where Sam is on the car and that machine slams it's arms down on either side of him- hella yeah!
Impressive sfx to my mind.

These movies aren't Shakespeare, but they are damn fine summer blockbuster entertainment. They're the "popcorn" flicks that you can just sit back and enjoy. Your mind doesn't have to be alert to all kinds of subtleties or character developments.
Everything's pretty self-explanatory.

[Johann]

Here's a link to an incredible trailer (it's an ILM summer! they did the effects for this, Terminator and Star Trek).

This one looks intense man. I'm gonna see it a few times I think..
This is Oscar-worthy special effects man.
This shit pumps me up.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb2fUOW1ne4