they can change the name whenever they want. Just look at devastator in TF1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sky Shadow
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they can change the name whenever they want. Just look at devastator in TF1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sky Shadow
Hope that they'll improve? (and also because I had the chance to see it twice for free :p)Quote:
Originally Posted by Starscream77
And I think there are notable improvements and merits in Age of Extinction, including:
Greater focus on the Transformers instead of humans
I think this was helped by the fact that the military haven't been given a major role, so it falls directly to the Autobots and their human allies to step up as the primary protagonists for the story. In the previous films, it often felt like the Sam and Army Vs. the Decepticons, guest starring the Autobots as the humans' accessories. :rolleyes: In AoE it really does feel like the Autobots have taken greater central stage than in previous films. There are still a few moments in AoE that are a bit too human-centric for my liking, but overall I think this was better done. And the humans' story mostly ran concurrently with the Transformers' story. Some people have criticised the motorcycle chase scene in Hong Kong as being too human-centric, and sure, it probably could've been a lot shorter (especially when Joyce is stuck in the lift trying to be funny), but overall I think it's getting better.
Far less crude humour
No robot peeing or humping or farting or dangling their janglies! Some of the stuff between Cade and Shane was annoying though ... but on the whole, the crassness was notably toned down compared to previous films. Bay is very hit and miss when it comes to punctuating action with humour, but I felt that this film had less misses than the others.
Plot
Age of Extinction does attempt to elevate Transformers to another level, introducing humans as enemies and off-world alien scifi elements (re: The Creators). It makes some rather interesting socio-political statements, such as individuality vs authority (Cade & Co. vs Cemetery Wind), moral panic/mass hysteria ("Remember Chicago"), ethics (Galvatron and the Decepticons represent what happens when man's dabbling in forces he doesn't understand turns against him), losing and rediscovering faith (Optimus Prime) etc. Age of Extinction also seeds plot elements for sequels, such as:
* Galvatron is still a threat.
* The Dinobots left to their own devices.
* The Creators; whatever their mysterious agenda is, it involved putting a price on Optimus Prime's head, which in turn put the Earth-bound Autobots and the humans in danger. In order to protect them, Optimus Prime has decided to leave Earth (thus any other mercenaries coming after him won't come to Earth) and confront the Creators directly.
This some cool science fiction s*** right there! :D
Story
While Age of Extinction does have quite a few problems with loose ends that should've been resolved (e.g. whatever happened to that last stand that the Autobots and Dinobots were making on the bridge? Prime flies?), it does have a much more coherent storyline than ROTF and DOTM. TF1 is still the most coherent of all the live action films, but it's also the simplest (which is also what makes TF1 the best in this franchise -- it was simple but it worked). Age of Extinction takes Transformers to a higher level of story complexity, which is also what ROTF and DOTM attempted to do, but those movies made a big mess in doing so (especially ROTF). Age of Extinction manages to take the story to that level while still relatively maintaining story cohesion.
Characterisation
The live action movies have long been criticised for lacking character development -- that none of the Transformers ever embark on a journey. They remain constant and never changing in their personas (especially Bumblebee). While this is still true for most of the Transformers in Age of Extinction, there is at least one character who did actually go through the Hero's Journey; Optimus Prime. In the beginning of the film, Optimus Prime is broken, not just in a physical sense, but emotionally and spiritually too. His faith in humanity has been absolutely shattered, leaving him to question the beliefs that he once held true. It is through his experiences in the story with Cade Yeager that Prime gradually comes to grip with his feelings of loss, anger, sadness, disappointment, guilt, shame etc., and once again decides to become humanity's altruistic defender as he was before. But it was certainly an arduous journey. And it's also somewhat reminiscent to G1 Optimus Prime's personality in the Marvel Comics, although he never quite slumped that low, but he was riddled with all "dem feels." ;) Yes, Optimus Prime was a lot darker and brutal in this film, but it was all justified considering what had happened and was happening to him. Some people have criticised Prime for killing a human, but I don't have a problem with this. Attinger was holding a gun to Cade's head and was going to kill him. Prime shot Attinger to save Cade. I find it a LOT more morally acceptable than when Prime executed Scavenger in Revenge of the Fallen (as Scavenger was a mortally wounded, defeated and completely defenceless/helpless combatant who wasn't threatening anyone at the time of his demise, the same cannot be said about Attinger). This is the most character development I have ever seen in any Transformer in the live action films.
Age of Extinction has its good and bad points, but those are some of what I think are the better elements of this film. :cool:
It must be Alchemy - Anything can change to anything ;) Unlimited transformations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnus
Of course, I know the T-1000 is different. :rolleyes:
I am expecting something to change.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starscream77
How do I know how good/bad a film will be unless I go see it? If I don't like it, I have just as much right to say I dislike it as those who say they like it.
Agreed. I did spend quite a lot of time wondering when the good stuff was going to happen. When it did happen, I wondered why it couldn't have happened sooner.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMHFConvoy
Watched it a second time tonight. The writing/plot has matured quite a bit which I found to be very impressive but there's plenty still wrong with the movie - particularly the running time where so much could have been left out to make the experience more concise.
Highest grossing movie of 2014, has made more in 4 days than Pacific Rim made in total.
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...et-anymore.jpg
Brilliant! Well deserved.:).....roll on TF5!Quote:
Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark
i agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Omega Metro
Yeah agree with your comments. Fair enough to expect change, but unfortunately the director can't seem to go so far as his signature is all over this movie. Your daughter is a Hot teenager!, "honey your shorts are shrinking", shots between the legs :rolleyes: over indulgent scenes of destruction, the Hong Kong scene with the ship sucking the objects into the air and then dropping them again, repeat and again, and again. It was overly long.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy
Also when I was watching the movie, about half way through I started to get worried, I was enjoying it, but where are the dinobots? If I had to pick just one criticism, it would be that the dinobots came in to late. It was their inclusion which dragged me into this movie in the first place.
Speaking of; that hole in his chest makes galvatron look like a miniature Gypsy Danger. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark
That chest hole goes all the way through Galvatron in the film. I'm surprised Optimus Prime never exploited that by putting his arm right through it and attempting some serious grappling. By quite literally penetrating Galvatron's centre of mass, Optimus Prime would easily end that fight in seconds and Galvatron would be majorly screwed.
The chest hole cut his old sword in half when he stuck it in there, so I don't think it would be a good idea to stick his hand in there.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
(it was probably why Optimus grabbed a new sword later... one that the writer probably wrote in as a significant plot element, but the Director failed to emphasise)
DJD'd! :eek: That makes sense though. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
On another note, this pretty much describes why I found the Dinobots to be disappointing in this film...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps9bc3b852.jpg
I would have accepted them as caricatures. It's what I've come to expect from Bay and it would've been a lot more preferable over seeing them being treated as set pieces. Just simple things like giving them some cheesy dialogue would've made a world of difference in seeing the Dinobots become caricatures rather than set pieces. Like say when Optimus Prime attempts to recruit them, Grimlock could snarl at Prime and say, "Among winners there is no room for the weak! Only the strong may command the Knights of Cybertron!", which then leads into the big smackdown fight.
I hope that they'll be at least portrayed as caricatures in the sequel. Better if they can be characters. Optimus Prime's portrayal in AoE proves that Michael Bay can portray a Transformer as a character. Although considering it's rarity, I'll stick with just hoping for caricaturisation rather than characterisation. :o
Although on a visual level, I was pleased that Grimlock has red eyes in both robot and dino mode. Although Slug, Strafe and Scorn have blue eyes in robot mode but red eyes in dino mode. :/ They really should just put in a greater variety of eye colours in the Transformers regardless of faction (reinforcing the notion that Autobots and Decepticons are political factions, not races - as Jetfire pointed out in ROTF, it's an intensely personal choice).
Overall, I guess I liked the movie. The pacing of it is what I disliked the most. Bay's frantic shooting schedule Lockdown was fantastic (Shockwave should have been this badass) and it was a damn shame they killed him. Ratchets death was very sad but very important and in my mind it was the most well done piece of the movie. I liked Prime's empassioned talk with Tucci at KSI about how they are living beings/destruction of Transformers (but I do think they should've destroyed the KSI lab beyond repair). There are plenty more points but I only have internet access via a mobile and typing is way too slow.
Some interesting reads:
Eleven Things I Would Like to See in "Transformers 5"
Top 10 Plot Points in Disguise
Top 7 Things to Fix
Yep some interesting reads there. Agree AND disagree with a lot of it though.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Seen it twice in the last week and now that I've had a chance to digest what I saw, I would rank it as the third best live action movie behind the first one and DOTM.
I agree with most comments here regarding Galvatron being a plot device only, the Dinobots not speaking, and Optimus being able to fly. To me, it started out really well but the last hour (or so it felt) just descended into chaos and I left the cinema both times with a raging headache. It should be noted that these were 2D sessions.
I'll probably see it again for a third time - promised to watch it with my nephew when he comes back from OS, but unlike the first movie which I saw 5 times at the movies, I'm not hanging out for it.
Saw a pretty insightful short examining the visual language of Michael Bay films, aka "Bayhem", including much of what is seen in all of Bay's TF films. About 8:40 long. Worth a watch: https://player.vimeo.com/video/99798626
I agree, it's definitely better than ROTF, but still behind #1 and DOTM. Great to see much less forced awkward humour, and lots more dedicated screen time and dialogue for the TF's - now they just have to learn how to give the TF's something interesting to say. They went to the trouble of giving Hound, Crosshairs and Drift decent voice actors, but then gave them horrible lines - I kept waiting for John Goodman to crack me up, and it just didn't happen. Drift came off as a buffoon. And I think they meant for Crosshairs to come off as surly, but they overdid it and instead he came off as an asshole. Lockdown was alright though, except for the 'I don't care' come back. Seriously, it takes months to animate these guys, you can't come up with some witty dialogue for them to say while you're waiting for them to render...?Quote:
Originally Posted by 5FDP
And why did they have Hound call the humans meatbags when DiMaggio was voicing Crosshairs...? :confused::D
Oh, and Bumblebee's radio-speech is now almost exclusively voice clips, most of them with the same sound/accent, to the point where he's practically talking anyway? What's the point? Either do the cute radio thing or just give him a voice already.
I honestly thought they had just cast a voice actor for him. It was very ambiguous as to whether they were meant to be clips or if he was just talking through some sort of synthesiser.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutton
Hear hear! :D Sadly with Ratchet gone, there's no chance of seeing his vocal circuits ever being repaired (unless they introduce a new Autobot medic like First Aid, FixitQuote:
Originally Posted by Sutton
or Pharma). ;)
Judging from the fact that noone's credited as being Bumblebee's voice actor, I'd say that it's all just spliced together sound bytes. :( Although arguably better than TF Prime Bumblebee's "digital farts." :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Zommael
Just saw, and completely lost.
Was the little hug eyed robot with wheels chasing New Girl/Farm Daughter (on the alien ship) Wheelie from the previous movie? They looked kind of the same.
Did anyone recognise some of the other captured Cybertronians on the ship. Saw a few faces, and there was one I thought might be Starscreams head, but not sure - it was too fast.
What happened to the captives, and their captured sparks Lockdown was collecting? Popped out for a moment and missed that explanation....
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Is there a novelisation coming out?
Brains, from the previous movie.Quote:
Originally Posted by reillyd
I think he meant the drones that took the car to the furnace with their silly comedicaly big eyes.
Given that Brains and Wheelie were last seen going down in a ship in DOTM, it appears only Brains made it (with the nasty leg injury) and was captured from the wreckage.
Also, I guess the Autobots that survived DOTM just ran off without offering to help clean up the mess (or look for missing allies) and leaving it to the government so they'd get all that Transformer tech.
I thought Lockdown had captured Ratchet's spark but I think he just ate it (like Megatron in the first movie novelisation), since he kept his captives whole on the ship.
I noticed this the first time I watched this film, but keep forgetting to mention it -- and I'm sure most other people noticed it too, but there's a yellow truck with the Tonka logo printed on the side which appears in the film. :) As most (if not all) of us would know, Tonka is the company that created Gobots (Machine Men) and has since been acquired by Hasbro (where they also made some lines of Transformers aimed at preschoolers like 1-2-3 Transformers etc.). Apparently it's a customised Ford F-250 Super Duty that's known as the "Tonka T-Rex", so another reference to the Dinobots' later appearance in the film. :o
And something which griffin pointed out to me before I saw my latest viewing, and I looked out for it -- there's a "TFP Vehicon" car in the scene where we first see Stinger (when Bumblebee, Cade and Shane have infiltrated KSI). I had a look at it, the car isn't an exact duplicate of the TFP Vehicon (as I think that's a fictitious vehicle), but some other kind of car that resembles it and has been painted in the colours of a TFP Vehicon (the dark eggplant colour with purple highlights). It's only on screen for a second, but the homage is there. :)
Also, I noticed that when Li's character is speaking in Chinese, she refers to Transformium as "Transformium" in English, i.e. I hear her saying "Blah blah blah Transformium blah blah blah." IMO it would've been cooler at least for Sinophone audiences if they tried to approximate a Chinese word for "Transformium." The Chinese word for Transformers is 変形金剛 -- I don't know how you say this in Chinese, but in Japanese it's Henkei Kongou, and kinda translates as "Transformation adamantine" (adamantine meaning a super-hard material, which is of course where Marvel got the word 'adamantium' from). This would seem like a cooler translation for "Transformium" to me. Or would the audience not accept it because it's too direct a translation for "Transformers" (and thus be too confusing)? An alternative translation may be 変形合金 (Henkei Goukin), which means "Transformation alloy". <shrugs> I'd be curious to see what the Chinese version of this film decides to translate "Transformium" as (though possibly they may just directly call it 'Transformium' :p). I suspect that the Japanese version will do just that and call it トランスフォーミウム (Toransufoomiumu). It'd be cool if another language version decided to translate it as "Cybertronium" though. :D
I also noticed that Optimus Prime does use his leg jets quite shortly after his Arms Up, including when he first dismounts from Grimlock -- so the film does seem to establish that he does have these jump jets soon after his upgrade. But I still don't understand why it didn't have him using it during more crucial moments such as controlling his ascent towards Lockdown's ship, or especially after he's destroyed the Super Magnet and is seen crashing back down to Earth... surely he could've used those leg jets to try and land more safely! Aaargh...
And someone told me that they saw dinosaurs aboard Lockdown's ship, but I don't recall seeing that, just alien creatures and the DinoKnights. If Lockdown had captured dinosaurs from prehistoric Earth, surely they'd be dead. Those cages didn't seem to have any form of suspended animation. :/ Unless they're alien dinosaurs... or alien ninja turtles. Hrmm... ;)
He's talking about those other robots with the big oogly eyes who Tessa initially kicks away to get out of the car. I don't know what they are, but I don't think they're related to Wheelie in any way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sky Shadow
I think it's best not to overthink these movies ;) Just switch off, sit back & enjoy.
Best Scenes:
Autobots Reuniting
Attinger gets blown by Optimus Prime
Saw it a second time on the weekend, this time in 3D. Things really 'pop' in 3D, with debris and objects flying at the camera adding to the depth perception.
I think it helps to watch it a second time, because even though I had no trouble following the story and characters, there is a lot to take in, such as the fact that the ship was a former exploratory vessel used by the 'Knights' that Lockdown appropriated, and the name of the chamber where Lockdown kept Optimus and the other Knights: the Knights' Terminus (I wasn't able to find anything about it at the Transformers Wiki - is this from a comic, or would it be something new for the movieverse?).
The line in the news montage stating 'thirteen hundred dead' is an excerpt, so it could easily have been 'thirteen hundred dead on the first day of the invasion alone' or something.
I read on another forum that the ship has some Unicron-esque elements to it, namely the mechanical arms used for disposal in the furnace and the circular maw that sucks in metallic objects. Interesting...
I bit the bullet and saw AOE despite all the terrible reviews, all the way through I was trying to figure out how it could be worse than ROTF and yet I never got there. So after just watching it I can't decide if it's the 2nd best film or the 3rd best film. I'm not sure like would be the correct word, but I didn't hate it either, and I was expecting too. Maybe it's because I lowered my expectations majorly.
Pro's:
Autobots I could actually tell apart who actually do things and had a few lines, and aside from Brains (who is small anyway) none of them vanished half way through the film. Aside from Prime they were all cartoon characters, but that's arguably more than Movie Sideswipe ever was.
3 actors who actually had charisma.
No Shia
Lockdown, first ever interesting live action movie TF villain.
I could actually make out the combatants in several battles
Autobots (aside from Prime) were less blood(energon) thirsty than previous films when fighting.
Prime had a story arc (small as it was).
Less crass humour, no one pulled their pants down
Some interesting threads left open for future films.
US military didn't steal the show.
Less human characters, slightly more robot action
Cons (not the good kind)
Too Long
The last 10-15 minutes made no sense whatsoever.
The walking along the anchor scene.
The Vehicons silly transformations, and yet somehow they can still be pulled apart when in robot mode.
Once again a tow truck saves the day.
The usual Bayisims
Bumblebee (kill him and replace him with Hotshot or Hotrod already)
Neutral:
The Dinobots, they only appeared in a small portion of the film and never spoke and as so were not really characters. On the other hand they never spoke and showed themselves to be total asses. And I kinda liked their design more than I thought I would. The jury on them for me is out till I see if they return in the next film.
"I think we found a Transfor-mah!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
And yet still the second best of the Bay movies. I think the first one really nailed the narrative with the whole Americana "boy and his car" idea.
I found AOE to be just a 'mishmash' of the previous 3 movies. Nothing original. :(
Heh, yeah, I did notice that Wahlberg was using his native Boston accent even though Cade Yeager is meant to be Texan. But hey, perhaps Cade was born or raised in Boston/Massachusetts and later moved to Texas... although he would have at very least been a teenager when he moved to Texas since he and Lucas recall bringing their dates to the local run down theatre. Speaking of which, I'm guessing that Lucas must've grown up California before moving to Texas... maybe he and Cade were the two "outsiders" with non-Texan accents at school and became friends (goodness knows that neither seem to have any other redeeming qualities that would make them stand out as buddy material :p). Neither Cade, Tess or Lucas ever spoke with a Southern American accent though. :rolleyes: Even Anna Paquin put on a Southern drawl when she played Rogue in X-Men, despite growing up in New Zealand, brah! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by millhouse
As the film started I assumed part of Cade's background was that he worked in robotics (possibly quite successfully given some the company materials around his garage), but after a bunch of robots destroyed Chicago the business failed - the public's newfound hatred and distrust of robots wouldn't be good for business. That would explain why he moved out to Texas despite coming from Boston, but it seems that he was just always a wannabe inventor.
Yeah but both Cade and Lucas would've at least spent part of the high school years in Texas, since we see that scene where they enter the abandoned cinema; Lucas asks Cade something like, "Do you remember all the girls that we used to bring here?" and Cade answers with something like, "I only remember one." But yeah, the film sure doesn't give us a whole lot of background detail about Cade... but then again, I guess we don't want any more of the humans' story to be derailing the film away from the Transformers' story (at least, any more than it already does :p).
Oh well, I guess whenever something doesn't make sense in a Transformers film...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps0264fd27.jpg :p
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Zed
This.
Before my girlfriend and I went and saw it, both our brothers warned us how bad it was and why were we even bothering to go. So naturally we had very low expectations, were pretty much seeing it just cos you cant not see it and wouldn't you know it we both enjoyed it.
Did what it was originally designed to do... made me want to buy the toys :D
And I'm sure Michael Bay and Hasbro are pleased. Unfortunately, that is all that matters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshy
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omega Metro
Yes and no, don't go much on most of the new ones, much prefer G1/G2.
Well, be prepared to be continuously disappointed mate. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshy