Movie Review - Transformers 4 : Age Of Extinction (spoilers)

[Bartrim]

Confirmed - Michael Bay Not Directing Transformers 5

<High fives the universe!>

Didn't he say he wasn't directing 4 either? I'd save those high fives until someone else is officially confirmed as directing. Also remember, it could be Uwe Boll.

[Sinnertwin]

Didn't he say he wasn't directing 4 either? I'd save those high fives until someone else is officially confirmed as directing. Also remember, it could be Uwe Boll.

Please be Uwe Boll, please.

[Zommael]

The question is, are these movies now big enough for them to get a good director in, or is the rep so low that they won't be able to?

[GoktimusPrime]

This is a review of the Region 1 DVD that came with the box set that includes the Blu Ray movie disc, Blu Ray Special Features Disc, HD copy and statue of Optimus Prime riding Grimlock.

The statue is made of plastic and is a bit soft in some parts, though not rubbery soft. The sculpting on the base and Grimlock is nice, but I expected better for Optimus Prime. On the whole statues don't interest me all that much... cos ya know... they don't really do anything, but I got this set on sale from Amazon, so the statue ended up being a freebie; so I don't mind it, but I might view it more negatively if I'd paid full price for it.

I don't personally understand much about technical film stuff like aspect ratios and whatnot, but for some reason, on both the DVD and BR there's a 5.5cm border on both sides. It looks weird to me and I'm not sure why they couldn't do it more traditional letterbox style. But I'm sure (re: hoping) that there is some technical film explanation that I just don't understand.

There are some issues with the DVD version, which includes:
* The menu being aligned too low. I assume that there's an underline beneath each menu choice (e.g. play movie, setup, scenes), but because the bottom line is cropped off, you can't actually see which button is being highlighted before selecting that option. You can still navigate your way around by visually where the cursor is, but it's still annoying.
* For some odd reason there's a LOT of script missing from the English subtitles; often just omitting second half of entire sentences. This is invariably be a hindrance for the hearing impaired who depend on having reliable subtitles. (I just use it at times when I need to keep the volume down when the rest of the family is sleeping, like right now ).

I tried to access the Digital Copy, but got geo-blocked. I haven't watched all the bonus features yet, but the packaging is boasting "Over 3 hours of special features," so it's probably gonna take a while before I can get through it all.

Overall, I am glad that I got this copy on sale at Amazon, as I've paid basically the same price as the Australian "bare bones" DVD, but getting DVD, BR movie, BR special features and statue, which IMHO is better value for money. Thankfully the BRs are not region coded, so they can play on region-locked Australian BR players. I don't know if the local version will have a different or adjust aspect ratio or not.

P.S.:
1/ Here's a screen shot of this...

+ The Chinese Vehicon factory has a big sign that said something like 創造美好(的)未来 ("Creating a Glorious Future"), just as we see everyone evacuating

2/ One piece of irony just hit me -- the car that Shane drives in Hong Kong has the Kanji 福 ("luck") written on it, and Shane is repeatedly referred to as "lucky charms."

[liegeprime]

hmmm, to this day I haven't seen the movie. managed to not know anything much about the movie other than it's got Drift and dinobots and a whole new human crew which doesn't die or even get maimed (really? c'mooon ), just a few scratches again like that Lebeauf guy even when he's fighting freakin giant killer robots for goodness sake, really? which irritates the hell out of me, get killed already you little human germs!!!.......

I'm just waiting for the regular dvd release.... when it goes on cheaper price as well, not the first $30+ release... it just doesn't interest me for some reason.. I just need to get one, prolly watch it once and keep it for the collection.

[5FDP]

hmmm, to this day I haven't seen the movie. managed to not know anything much about the movie other than it's got Drift and dinobots and a whole new human crew which doesn't die or even get maimed (really? c'mooon ), just a few scratches again like that Lebeauf guy even when he's fighting freakin giant killer robots for goodness sake, really? which irritates the hell out of me, get killed already you little human germs!!!.......

I'm just waiting for the regular dvd release.... when it goes on cheaper price as well, not the first $30+ release... it just doesn't interest me for some reason.. I just need to get one, prolly watch it once and keep it for the collection.

I smell the opportunity for a private viewing at your place before Xmas. I'll bring the popcorn

[millhouse]

I don't personally understand much about technical film stuff like aspect ratios and whatnot, but for some reason, on both the DVD and BR there's a 5.5cm border on both sides. It looks weird to me and I'm not sure why they couldn't do it more traditional letterbox style. But I'm sure (re: hoping) that there is some technical film explanation that I just don't understand.

There are some issues with the DVD version, which includes:
* The menu being aligned too low. I assume that there's an underline beneath each menu choice (e.g. play movie, setup, scenes), but because the bottom line is cropped off, you can't actually see which button is being highlighted before selecting that option. You can still navigate your way around by visually where the cursor is, but it's still annoying.
* For some odd reason there's a LOT of script missing from the English subtitles; often just omitting second half of entire sentences. This is invariably be a hindrance for the hearing impaired who depend on having reliable subtitles.I don't know if the local version will have a different or adjust aspect ratio or not.

Respectively, here are my thoughts;

Are the borders to the top/bottom, left/right, or both? 5.5cm - what screen size are we talking about? It could be to compensate for overscan, but that's unusual in the days of LCD televisions and blu-ray discs (except for Grease's opening title animation...)

Have you got your TV set to "full", "full pixel", etc? What kind of TV are we talking about? I would hazard a guess it's a settings thing because this seems like a silly oversight otherwise...

As for subtitles, I suspect it comes down to screen real estate and speed of reading. Unfortunate, but a fact of life.

Hope this helps!

[liegeprime]

I smell the opportunity for a private viewing at your place before Xmas. I'll bring the popcorn

Well if someone can bring their DVD copy I'm happy to provide the place and foodstuff. Good thing I bought a new flat screen TV.

[griffin]

Just started watching the extras on the American DVD/Bluray pack.

Some thoughts...

So many tricks to the special effects and filming techniques are shown... it is really fascinating to see the process behind it all. (and to think that during all that time, there was an additional film crew assigned to do all this filming for these hours of bonus BluRay features)

Drift was originally intended to be black and orange instead of black and blue... but the orange cars were sold before they could secure them, and Bugatti only make a limited number.
The character was also intended to be a triplechanger, as a first for the Movies in the traditional Gen1 sense, as Laserbeak appeared to have multiple modes.

Bay in his interviews and featurettes is very enthusiastic and proud of what he's achieved from a creative perspective, and often talks of concepts and characters like you'd hear from a fan's mouth. But his passion for artistic filming takes precedence over his obvious passion for the Brand - as he boasts often about all the things he has been first to do with movie-making, while people on his crew refers to him as "spontaneous and creative" keeping people on their toes to change things all the time.
But to his credit, he is very hands-on with his involvement behind the scenes, instead of just standing behind a camera or somewhere offsite.

The scene with the rally car hitting the guy's face, was a "must do" scene for artistic reasons, and since they spent so much time on something that is 2 seconds on screen, it was on most of the trailers that I saw.

Both Wahlberg and Titus (the pair fighting on the sides of a HK apartment building) are apparently afraid of heights.

According to a number of the actors, Bay has a comedic nature, which is why he has a lot of comedy actors in the TFs movies and does a number of takes for alternate one-liners by the comedians who have their own suggestions... but unfortunately for TF2, it went a bit too far in attempting to squeeze in humour.

The new Optimus Truck is an almost entirely custom built truck body, which will make it impossible for people to find a similar truck and paint it to match.
Galvatron on the other hand is something Australian fans would most easily be able to buy as a truck and paint to match, as it is based on the Australian Freightliner Argosy, only available in Australia and Europe... but not in America due to the height of the cab.


Still another hour of extras to go through yet.

[Sinnertwin]

Well if someone can bring their DVD copy I'm happy to provide the place and foodstuff. Good thing I bought a new flat screen TV.

Sounds like a plan