"Our hearts are full of memories but not all of them reflect the truth. The heart isn't a recording device. Even important memories change with time. They warp or fade, leaving us with but a shadow of what we hoped to remember." 天の道を行き、全てを司る。これは僕の世界。
so many future great movie coming out in july. (The simpson movie for exemple, which come out the day of my birthday)
i'm looking forward to see this movie, it look awesome, i just hope it won't have a shitty story...
This is a interesting rant I found on my travels though the internet. It's very interesting view on thisOk, so here is the deal, Larry you listening? I am trying to help you now Larry. Why aren’t you listening to me.
Check it out I have gone Ross Perot on you.
Ok jokes aside anyone who has known me for 20 minutes knows I get all moist of big robots. I have been like this since I was a child. Of course a child in the 1980s would get their first exposure to big robots from the Transformers. Looking back I always ask myself what I was thinking. The characters were shallow, the dialog sucked and was rattled with one liners, and there was a heavy use of stock footage. But I loved it and it was the beginning of a fascination with me. A fascination that eventually lead to Battletech and Warhammer 40K
This fascination is going to be coming full circle with me this July when The Transformers will be recreated for the big screen as a live action film. This movie is directed my Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film finished principle photography over the summer and is in post production just in time for the July release.
Hardcore transformers fans, like the ones who attend events like Botcon, are pissed to high heaven over the movie. I can narrow down their complaints to three things. Design, Script, and Tribute. I would like to address these one by one.
First is design. Fans of the original 1980s transformers see the new designs and look upon them with disgust. Take a look at this image of the ever present Optimus Prime
http://www.harbx.com/archives/2006/1...s_prime_e.html
Tall, distinctly mechanical and yet distinctly alien as well. I look at this CGYI model and I can conceive how literally hundreds of thousands of moving parts would convert a Peterbilt 18 wheeler into this machine. When you lay this picture right next to an image of the old school Optimus, the differences are distinct.
http://flakmag.com/war/images/optimus.jpg
But so are the similarities. Same blue head with the face mask over all body structure. The trucks grill makes the abdomen and the windscreens are across the chest of both models. Now the clip of the “original” Optimus I picked was directly from the 1980s cartoon. The image most transfans worship the most is from the Dreamwave and IGN produced comics.
http://www.pier.i8.com/characters/Optimus%20Prime.jpg
And it is even funnier then that when you look at how many times Optimus has been rebuilt in different versions. He has been a Cargo truck, oil tanker, sports car, cyber-gorilla, fire engine, missile carrier, Bat, and Dodge Ram 1500.
Secondly there is the issue of script. I love how some people have to get every single scrap of information about a films plot before it is released. We have people that have hunted down first drafts of the script posted them online, and said “this is the movie and it sucks!” Apparently these s7nkpil3-wits also do not know the definition of FIRST DRAFT.
All I know about the story is what has been officially released. That can be summoned in one sentence. Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. The Transformers in a nutshell.
Neither Bay nor Spielberg has said much beyond this yet. And probably will not.
The Final aspect of the film that people demand is Tribute. How are we visiting the past in this movie? Well let’s start with the Lineups.
In the red corner, sporting the human looking face are the Autobots. Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, Bumblebee, and Ratchet. If you ask any transformer fan to name five Autobots off the top of their head, these five will more then likely be them. They are the five good guy bots, all civilian and vehicles. This is a core concept of the transformers. The Autobots disguised themselves as harmless looking for the most part.
Bumblebee is a yellow car, and has the closest connection to humans.
Jazz is sports car, and a smooth bot with a sense of style
Ironhide is a Pickup truck and the muscle of the group
Ands Ratchet is an ambulance, and ironically enough the technician and medic of the team
In the Blue corner, dressed in military décor and a purple cyber cat head is the Decepticons. Megatron, Bonecrusher, Starscream, Barricade, Blackout, Brawl, and Frenzy. The Decepticons, with more intimidating names, bodies as military or police vehicles are built to destroy. Blackout even has a pet robotic scorpion named Scorpinok.
Megatron is too proud to have an earth form, and sticks to what he converted into when he was on his planet.
Starcream is a top of the line fighter jet, just like his 1980s persona
Brawl and Bonecrusher are military vehicles, a tank and a mine clearer. And they have an appetite for destruction
Barricade is a police car, the scout and pursuit vehicle of the Decepticons. Slick to have a bad guy disguised as a symbol of civic authority
Blackout is a Superstallion Helicopter, and is an electronic warfare specialist
And well we do not know much about Frenzy yet.
These are classic lineups of characters. And like the first season of the original cartoon, there are no catchy gimmicks like transformers that combine into super robots, or cybernetic animals (scorpinok aside).
Yet despite the massive amount of similarities and homage given, some purists are not willing to give this movie a chance because it is not the original. The key thing to remember though is that the transformers have undergone numerous style changes. Over 20 years the series has changed and evolved. Transformed if you will. This is not the first time in entertainment and old concept has been changed.
The current Battlestar Galactica is one of the hottest shows on television, and yet it is not the original. In fact except for the premise it is almost nothing like the original. And then we look at the X Men Movies. Could you picture Hugh Jackman in yellow spandex? The thought alone makes me want to gouge out my eyes with an olive fork. Star Trek: Enterprise is another example of tasking a concept and turning it on its head in a good way, by exploring what came before the classic series.
What is my point in all of this? I guess it is that people should not be discounting this movie just because so far it is not what THEY want. This movie, like all movies based on a franchise, is created not only for the established fans, but for the mass market. As such the producers want to bring in more fans, rather then placate the ones they already have.
Steve Jobs said it best when he said “the greatest threat to Apple Computer is Mac users”
I think that statement can be easily applied to anything that has a dedicated fanbase. These fans become so attached to some aspect of what they love, that they do not want to see it evolve to survive. And yet survive is exactly what a franchise must do.
Besides, in the end we all know that these purists who are calling for boycotts are going to see the movie anyway… several times… and they will love it. It has happened before, and will happen again. And eventually there will be the conversations of
“Who kicks more ass, Megatron from Generation one, Armada, or the live action Movie?”
We all know it will be the movie
image fail!
Interesting read, Deadfire. I still stand by my earlier statement. The only real problem I have with this movie is the Transformer designs. When I compare the new designs to the old designs, the new ones just look like they tried to "CGI-up" everything. Make the designs ridiculously complicated, with so many moving parts, and so alien-looking, that you just can't identify with the characters at all. IMO they should have gone with a more retro look - simpler is better. More CGI didn't work for the new star wars movies, and I doubt it will work here.
I can't comment about the script yet because I don't want to be spoiled (of course I'll see the movie, at least to give it a chance). But I disagree with this guy about pleasing fans. You should always try to please your core market first. They're the ones that will spend the most on your product, it's common business sense! If many fans are displeased, that's a bad sign. Anyway, here's hoping...
I actually think the cgi Optimus looks really cool. Megatron, I will grant, looks...off. He also doesn't transform into a gun, and that's just not right.
Honestly, it really has nothing to do with the core fans. Why? They'll show up anyway. They're the sure thing. They'll either go to the movie and love all the tiny references shoved in everywhere (okay, maybe Michael Bay is a bit too weak a director to pull those off well), or they'll go see the movie so they can post all the inaccuracies on Wiki or blogs 10 minutes after it premieres. Either way, they're going to see it, if only out of curiosity. The ones who read the scripts, I'd say the half of those horrified would go see it too. The others, are revenue easily made up with casual movie goers.
So the goal is to appeal to the casual fans, or those just looking for something to do Friday night. They're the real revenue. They bring in the 10 million dollar first showings. If you boggle the crap out of them by making it so "for the true fans" that the casual viewer doesn't have the slightest idea what's going on (*cough* Silent Hill *cough*), then the movie is a failure. You'll bring in 5.2 million dollars on the first weekend, and half that the rest of the in-theater term.
Movies are not made for the fans, they're made for the general public. The goal is the make money, and profit of the investment. If you can crank out a good film in the process, power to you.
Think of any children's movie. Sure, they can make a great kids movie, but are the parents going to be bored out of their mind taking the kids to it? The kids have a blast and their parents sit there bored. Those parents will tell others that it was such a bore for them, and the other parents will gladly take their kids to something they can enjoy too. The most successful family movies are ones with enough slapstick and simple humor the the kids, but enough pop culture references, double entendres, and clever jokes for the parents to enjoy. Best example: Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I loved it as a kid, and when I finally saw it uncut on TV a few months ago, it was 10 times as funny because I got all the jokes.
[sorry for the tangent, it seemed to fit with my argument when I was writing it]
It's all well and good that the fans are pleased, but there's no pleasing everyone. For the most part, the studios know the hardcore fans are a sure thing, whether or not they'll love/hate it. The big trick, is to appeal to everyone else.
Last edited by Ryllharu; Thu, 12-21-2006 at 10:07 PM.
Okay, I get that the majority of profit from blockbuster movies comes from the general audience.
But if they don't have any interest in pleasing harcore fans, why even make a movie with such a built-in fanbase? Dreamworks spent a lot of money to license a movie with this built-in fanbase. Why spend that much money to just disreguard the fanbase?
Micheal Bay could be doing something like "Bad Boys 3" instead of Transformers. That would generate the general audience revenue, and no one would be bitching if the movie didn't hold up to standards. No one would expect standards.
The question is, why does Hollywood pay big money to licence established franchises and disregard the fanbase when they already have main-stream franchises of their own?
"Samsonlonghair - The Defender of the Oppressed And Shunned!" -Kraco
Because then they can put a lot less effort writing the movie. They've already got a story to adapt a screenplay to. Why write original material when you can just rip off someone else's creative work?
Final version of Optimus
http://www.filelodge.com/files/room5.../lastscan5.jpg
R.I.P Captain America.
I can't seem to access the picture Knives posted, but here is a pic of Prime on the cover of Empire magazine.
"Our hearts are full of memories but not all of them reflect the truth. The heart isn't a recording device. Even important memories change with time. They warp or fade, leaving us with but a shadow of what we hoped to remember." 天の道を行き、全てを司る。これは僕の世界。
Some new pictures taken from Amazon Japan:
Bumblebee
Barricade
Prime
Last edited by Psyke; Sun, 01-07-2007 at 08:06 AM.
"Our hearts are full of memories but not all of them reflect the truth. The heart isn't a recording device. Even important memories change with time. They warp or fade, leaving us with but a shadow of what we hoped to remember." 天の道を行き、全てを司る。これは僕の世界。
New pic of Megatron in full retard, i mean, robot mode:
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=119712
Currently watching: One Piece, Black Lagoon, Bleach, Death Note, Suzumiya Haruhi,
The 12 Kingdoms, and Soukou no Strain (kinda)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#blood-scanlations~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pics of the prototypes of the Prime and Megatron toys:
"Our hearts are full of memories but not all of them reflect the truth. The heart isn't a recording device. Even important memories change with time. They warp or fade, leaving us with but a shadow of what we hoped to remember." 天の道を行き、全てを司る。これは僕の世界。
Well...they sure made him scary looking i'll tell you that.Originally Posted by FrogKing
Sort of reminds me of Alien because of the teeth.
--------------------------------"THE DROPOUT CREW"-------------------------------
___________________Captain Dropout For Life__________________
Alien vs Preditor. This movie will be same shit.
"Life is hilariously cruel" by Bender
Crapitrons various modes + the big gun...
R.I.P Captain America.
Color Testshot Blackout Toy Images
from: Seibertron.com
A few color pictures of Blackout and what seems to be a small Scorponok from the upcoming Transformrs Movie. See the pics HERE!
Huh ... I wonder how they are going to sound. At the end of the trailer on their website, you hear what is to be Optimus Prime's voice... but for some reason it struck me as something that would sound like Megatron's voice (it may be the newer generation Transformer cartoons just screwed over my hearing to whos voice is whose).
Some day I'll get over how Megatron looks like, but I got high hopes for this movie just cause, like many of us, when I was a kid I wanted to be an Autobot when I grew up...
Now I am.
Optimus Primes Voice is being done by Peter Cullen(same prime as the orignal) for those who have been hiding under a rock for the last few months.
Megatron might be Frank Welker(aka G1 Megatron) but the confirmation on casting has still yet to be finalised. The other possible option that was being kicked around was Agent Smith from the Matrix.
This image pretty much sums up what the movie should have been... for me at least.
Ah so Megatron will finally get a big gun?
I don't understand the "Alien" type teeth though in the Cybertronian form...
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