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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Transformers 3 Discussion

If you want to put a fork in your eye... Go and see Mr Poppers Penguins staring Jim Carey then you can complain. I go for the sake of my kids (all four of them from 12 - 1). But I am looking forward to seeing Transformers with my 12 yr old son as its good father/son viewing.
 
Andrew Rieger said:
My cousin (8 years old) was in town from New Mexico and that's what he really wanted to see so believe me, this was not my choice. This is coming from a guy who saw The Tree of Life a few days before.
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Well that's allowed, but only just:) In fact, my wife took my 8 year-old last week, even he thought Rosie Huntington-Whitley couldn't act and probably should have taken her heels off when running from the robots. Still, she looked good in the Victoria Secrets TVC...
 
Johnny Friday said:
I'll take that BET and annie up with Sergio Leone's little film....the remastered version is just a work of art: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.....
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Haha, totally! I thought I was one of the few who believed these were artistically underrated. I mean, when he's running through the graveyard ... the music is playing ... I get goosebumps.

Yes, they are a little bit comic-bookish but fantastic storytelling and cinematography - I'm going to look for the remastered version now :)
 
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To set the record straight, I'm not part of some anti-Bay hate group. I have enjoyed a few of his films. Bad Boys II is one of my favorite action films and The Rock is a boatload of fun. Transformers was way worse than it needed to be. For me, it was the lame attempts at humor, piss poor acting (which is the script's fault), severe overacting by Malkovich, Labeouf, and Jeong, no acting at all from the model. I don't mind the robots and the action is undeniably spectacular but when Bay tries to add his "humor", it all falls apart.
 
Andrew Rieger said:
To set the record straight, I'm not part of some anti-Bay hate group. I have enjoyed a few of his films. Bad Boys II is one of my favorite action films and The Rock is a boatload of fun. Transformers was way worse than it needed to be. For me, it was the lame attempts at humor, piss poor acting (which is the script's fault), severe overacting by Malkovich, Labeouf, and Jeong, no acting at all from the model. I don't mind the robots and the action is undeniably spectacular but when Bay tries to add his "humor", it all falls apart.
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Hey Andrew,

Sorry I wasn't implying your critique was way off base -- especially since I haven't seen it, I have no idea how bad it really is.

Just a general complaint I have when I see professional critics complain about every movie (some legitimately funny or entertaining - and fulfilling their purpose as such).

I agree with you as well, some of Bay's other films have been a lot of fun (Bad Boys, Rock, etc) ... anyway, I may post again once I see it this week.
 
I loved it seen it twice once in 2D and once in 3D.
LOVED IT.
 
My issue with Bay among many other things is that I feel like he is personally insulting me. There are so many staggeringly awesome things about his movies that it is flabbergasting to me that he expects me to put up with script/dialogue/plot/characterization that is below the intelligence of maybe 90% of his audience. No matter how dumb the average movie going person in America is they are not soooo dumb that deep down inside they wouldn't rather have better script/dialogue/plot/characterization that doesn't insult their intelligence. I challenge ANYONE to tell me why he couldn't keep his visual and auditory style and improve upon the elements that are severely lacking in every one of his movies. Great 'popcorn' directors have shown us that achieving both things are possible. As a paying audience member I think it is an insult to everyone else in the theater to continually pay for a movie that doesn't demand more from a director story-wise that can do so much in so many other ways. I trust that at least 100 people on this message board could write a better script for Transformers 3 and not have to lose any of what makes it A Michael Bay Film.

To me, this is why he is so insidious. The potential is there but I feel that he looks down on his audience so much that he would rather give them whatever makes it easiest for him to make the visuals and FX the way he wants and not bother with any of the other story-telling details.
 
Justin McAleece said:
My issue with Bay among many other things is that I feel like he is personally insulting me. There are so many staggeringly awesome things about his movies that it is flabbergasting to me that he expects me to put up with script/dialogue/plot/characterization that is below the intelligence of maybe 90% of his audience. No matter how dumb the average movie going person in America is they are not soooo dumb that deep down inside they wouldn't rather have better script/dialogue/plot/characterization that doesn't insult their intelligence. I challenge ANYONE to tell me why he couldn't keep his visual and auditory style and improve upon the elements that are severely lacking in every one of his movies. Great 'popcorn' directors have shown us that achieving both things are possible. As a paying audience member I think it is an insult to everyone else in the theater to continually pay for a movie that doesn't demand more from a director story-wise that can do so much in so many other ways. I trust that at least 100 people on this message board could write a better script for Transformers 3 and not have to lose any of what makes it A Michael Bay Film.

To me, this is why he is so insidious. The potential is there but I feel that he looks down on his audience so much that he would rather give them whatever makes it easiest for him to make the visuals and FX the way he wants and not bother with any of the other story-telling details.
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I agree 100%.
 
Justin McAleece said:
My issue with Bay among many other things is that I feel like he is personally insulting me. There are so many staggeringly awesome things about his movies that it is flabbergasting to me that he expects me to put up with script/dialogue/plot/characterization that is below the intelligence of maybe 90% of his audience. No matter how dumb the average movie going person in America is they are not soooo dumb that deep down inside they wouldn't rather have better script/dialogue/plot/characterization that doesn't insult their intelligence.
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Regardless of how intelligence insulting you consider it, there's one inescapable fact about this picture. It's going to make over $400 million in its first week. And more than half of that is from international locations. That means that lots and lots and LOTS of people all over the world are seeing the picture, many more than once, and enjoying it.

Give the man some credit.
 
It's not necessarily true that most of them are enjoying it. From my own anecdotal evidence i hear the same thing generally. "I knew it wouldn't be that great, and it wasn't, but I went anyway because I figured I had to see it." But that's beside the point.

Obviously the guy sells ticket. Far more then I probably could ever dream about. That doesn't change the fact that we deserve better. And that if he wanted to, he could deliver it.
 
Ditto :)

Brook Willard said:
Everybody loves to hate Michael Bay and his movies. Lame plot, bad acting, absurd drama, comically ridiculous action sequences and dialogue, you name it. Take that and couple it with his on set persona and his oft deplorable approach to dealing with humans and the hatred writes itself. Critics love to hate him, seasoned moviegoers love to hate him, crew members love to hate him, etcetera.

The thing that gets to me is that all of these things are known quantities at this point. When one goes to a Michael Bay film [or works on a Michael Bay film], one knows what they're getting into. If somebody goes into one of these pictures expecting anything different than what has been served up time and time again... it's idiotic. It's good sport to hate his pictures for how cliché they are but I can't help but remember that the man invented this cliché. His movies are what they are but there is no denying that they are an astonishing spectacle to witness and that, for lack of a better term, they kick ass. The man can blow things up like nobody else. The man is an auteur in the truest sense - if you give Michael a movie, you know that what you will get is a Michael Bay Film and nothing short of it. His dedication is unparalleled and his scope is astronomical.

I choose not to hate Michael, I choose to enjoy his films for exactly what they are - awesome. I don't mean awesome in the high-five sense, I mean awesome as the word is defined. Transformers isn't Taxi Driver, it isn't The Godfather and it isn't Saving Private Ryan. The thing that people seem to overlook is that this is no accident - his films are designed to be exactly what they are. It's a purpose-built sugar goblet full of equal parts gasoline and adrenaline. I don't anticipate ever shedding a single tear at one of his films... and I'm good with that. I didn't go to Transformers to have my world rocked, I went to Transformers to see the kinds of action sequences and set pieces that no other storyteller chooses to create. He's the best of the best at what he does. If one is sick of that sort of thing... don't go see his movies.

I enjoyed the hell out of his movie because I took it at face value. That's what Transformers is all about. Shit exploded, people screamed and the sun set for 2.5 hours.
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Andrew, right now you sound like a wine critic complaining about the taste of Red Bull. It wasn't made to be sipped at dinner parties while discussing politics. It was made to be chugged before parachuting out of an airplane. I agree the movie was bad, but let's not lose perspective.
 
I'm 31 and grew up owning legions of Transformers. What Michael Bay brings to the screen is precisely the sort of Epic battles that were played out on my living room floor! To see the robots 'alive' and so real on the big screen is incredible and the sort of thing I dreamt about as a kid. I love the transformer movies, even if the story sucks.... when I watched Transformers 3 last night I left the 'grown up' behind and enjoyed the ride just like any child in the audience..... that part of me will never die! :-)
 
aha. but.....if you are going WITH a 12-year-old, like i did last night (my nephew) then it can be enjoyable. wasn't about to sit him down in front of taxi driver.

many forget that movies like this are not trying to be taxi driver, they are what they are. i fully knew what i was about to see was going to leave an impression on me for about 2 seconds, but i enjoyed it anyways. maybe cuz i was watching it through the eyes of a 12-year-old.

i do the same with my 8-year-old daughter. watching movies that she likes is still fun, no matter how bad the movie is.
 
Julio Quintana said:
Andrew, right now you sound like a wine critic complaining about the taste of Red Bull. It wasn't made to be sipped at dinner parties while discussing politics. It was made to be chugged before parachuting out of an airplane. I agree the movie was bad, but let's not lose perspective.
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I don't think that asking for a big budget blockbuster with some degree of intelligence is out of line. People love to say,"well don't judge it too harshly, it was never meant to have any intelligence, it is just stupid silly fun." The problem is, when this stuff makes boatloads of cash, studios figure that this is the stuff that audiences really want so they produce more and more of it. Soon, they start to think that audiences can't handle thought provoking blockbusters like Inception. I have no problem with explosive action, I love it in fact. The more explosions the better. For me, it was the childish humor, the female objectification and the poorly written dialogue. All of those things could have been fixed while keeping the giant robots. The FX were very very very well done but as a whole, it was a poorly made film. For a film to work, everything needs to come together. A film that excels visually but fails everywhere else is hardly a success, even if it brings home the bacon.

I look to Super 8 as an example of a blockbuster that does not insult the intelligence of the audience. It has a good script, good acting, spectacular action but most of all, it has heart. We use to get summer films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and ET. Now we get crap like Green Lantern and Transformers. Sure the FX are better but the overall craftsmanship is not present. They seem like mass produced schlock with a bit of polish. No heart, no emotion, just mind numbing action with stupid sex humor.

I see nothing wrong with calling the film what it is, garbage with a shinny wrapper.
 
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