Now, as Stern says here, this week. LEAD INs are everything in television. Leno’s Tonight show had GREAT Lead ins, SUV, Law & Order… listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-9gawf1JCk

Leno CHOSE 10pm through manipulation. Zucker said 8, Leno said to early, Zucker said 9, Leno said too early Zucker said an hour at 10, Leno said SURE!…Leno did this KNOWING it would hurt Conan’s ratings.
Leno ADMITS here NBC wanted to give him 8′O’CLOCK and they tried a couple other things:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMYCk1OzDbQ

This is last night. Leno talks again here but fails to mention that they asked him to do the show at 8. He says they begged him to do the 10′o’clock show…BEFORE Conan. I HIGHLY doubt this. He knew as well as anyone that doing that would be damaging for Conan’s ratings. He said no to every time they offered until they put him on as a lead in to Conan’s show. He calls it an experiment. He KNEW it wouldn’t work! So why do it? You got it…
http://www.thejaylenoshow.com/video/clips/jay-pov/1194348

Sure, Zucker messed up and is an idiot but Leno did this purposefully.

cycomyko

There are a couple moments that get slow in the middle and there is some humor that is a bit force / not funny but hell, life’s like that too. To me it wasn’t a problem. What I really enjoyed was the nods to the televised Hulk and the theme of a loner on the run, te close up on the green eyes during transformation and dipping into its soundtrack was an excellent choice as well.

I thought in the end the Abomination was put down a little too easy. It seemed we had already seen the Hulk go through worse of a beating and this guy was supposed to be tougher.

Still really enjoyed the movie and look forward to the next.

The effects were very realistic. But edited and shot in ways that at times made it difficult to read what was happening. The action was great although I did feel like I saw most of the best shots in trailers and TV spots. Starscream transforming back and forth taking out F-22s was awesome, better than i’ve imagined in a great Starscream battle.

Audience gave a small reaction to: Feature Presentation, when Prime scanned the truck, when Barricade transformed into vehicle mode! People loved Frenzy’s ridiculous walk when leaving Air Force One. Lots of laughs at the humans joking and the masturbation scene. I didn’t mind that, nor the dog peeing. Not a big deal to me. People loved the Prime/Megs fight, me too, especially flying through the building? SWEET.

However, I think I did know and I had seen a bit too much. Despite never reading the script. However I also felt watching the movie that the movie’s budget did shine through as there wasn’t enough robot characterization given to really care about any of them. I guess I did have pretty high expectations but I don’t believe this movie lived up to either of the movies it tried to emulate. Jurassic Park or E.T. Despite the multitude of scenes dragged and dropped directly from those movies. We weren’t given enough time for Bumblebee and Sam to bond and thus you barely care when Bumblebee is captured by the feds (unlike in ET). We are told Bumblebee is Sam’s protector but Bumblebee doesn’t actually *protect* Sam enough for you to feel that. A basic rule in storytelling and film making is you should always SHOW and not TELL. Instead of Sam being TOLD bumblebee is his protector. We should have WITNESSED it. Optimus Prime could have used more of a build up to getting to him. Making his reveal grander. A moment with him in the shadows. A calmer demeanor. The Decepticons not nearly enough characterization, not nearly enough interaction between one another besides talking over the radio. The only ones I remember actually interacting at all was Megatron and Starscream for a brief second other than that you get a 10 seconds of Starscream here, 10 seconds of Barricade there. Cinematography could have been kept on more of a human level to accentuate the perspecive more.

The plot. Yeah the plot sucked and we’ve been forewarned. Why should we go to a movie expecting a plot to suck again? I’ll never get that. Anyway, should I even bother mentioning the plot? Or am I being stupid just hoping there would be a decent plot? Still don’t get it. The Allspark. To me the Allspark is like an episode of the Transformers cartoon. Where Megatron gets his hands on this new device that allows him to do some kooky thing. Like create Decepticons out of thin air. You know, the type of shit that worked great in a children’s cartoon but should probably never be in a live action movie? At least not the introduction movie.
It doesn’t serve the greater story to Transformers at all. Infact it takes away from it. It cheapens the lives of Transformers if you can just create them out of nothingness. Why not abandon all Cybertronian back story if characters can just be created with the Allspark? Which in the end Optimus Prime does as well. He decides he’s just gonna stick around Earth cause he’s decided that Humans are good, he has seen that they are good! How? cause Sam pushed the Allspark into Megatron and not the robot that had been defending him? Maybe he’s just staying on Earth cause hell, Cybertron is just a barren world anyway, nothing to go back too. And Earth is just an all around great place. That does leave a sour taste in my mouth cause I always liked to think that Cybertron was infact a much more interesting place than Earth and finding out that even the Autobots don’t mind sticking around here makes me not really give a rat’s ass about what goes on on Cybertron.

I’d like to know how in the late 1800s they transported Megatron back to the states while keeping him on ice. Oh yeah i’m not supposed to talk about the plot.

The humans. Too much time on so many characters leaves you not really caring about any of them. Not even Shia or Mikaela. Even though Shia’s greatness does shine through. And he is quite a likable character. He’s a bit like a Han Solo, Harrison Ford, I can see this…..

The robots. Some great compositing on these creatures. The mouths of every single one of them bothered me, especially the swivel jaws of Ratchet and Ironhide. Not so much Megatron for some reason. I felt a lot of the lines were thrown in as an after thought and wondered if the mouths were even actually animated or they just overdubbed the voices. When at times the line felt like something that character would say it didn’t fit his particular action or body language at that time. MOSTLY because the characters were highly over-animated. Always swaying around pointlessly, Optimus prime swinging around under a bridge like an ape. Walking around just to step on Sam’s dad’s lawn. I really didn’t like the way they walked either, too mechanical and unnatural. More so than the cartoon, despite all the extra joints for articulation. The voices would have felt better if the volume levels changed. If you actually felt like Prime was shouting when addressing Megatron at times. If the voices changed in accordance to the distance they were from the camera. But instead every character seemed to ALWAYS be just talking at. the. same. monotone. volume. Megatron did have a nice amount of character but nothing Welker couldn’t have pulled off. I especially loved when he actually called Sam a fleshling “Is it bravery or foolishness which compells you fleshling” (something like that )

The death of Jazz, one minute Jazz has spotted Megatron and shouts, “Autobots retreat!”. Couple shots later you see Megatron flying along clasping Jazz with his talons just before he rips him in half. So how did Megatron get his claws on Jazz? It doesn’t show. Is this what Michael Bay calls “shooting for the edit”? At the end of the battle Prime is mentioning what a great warrior Jazz is. Noone else really seems to care too much what he’s saying, I don’t remember if they were even listening. How about a close up of some of the Autobots faces? How about Optimus Prime looking over Jazz’s body as opposed to dangling the lower half of Jazz’s body from one hand and the other half from the other hand. More weight was given to the death of Skyfire in the cartoon. (probably my favorite transformers episode BTW “Fire in the Sky”)

I was hoping I would want to see this movie a second time on my next trip to the theater but i’m gonna have to go see Ratatouille for my fix of some great story telling. Something Transformers COULD have had but many people just seem to think that’s too much to ask for from a movie based on a cartoon. To me you’re never asking for too much to have great story telling. Pixar makes it’s movies for EVERYONE not children, they are great story tellers. Pirates of the Caribbean, the first one had some great story telling and it was based on a…………..theme park ride. So yeah, i’ll never understand the low expectations had by many others out there. Lowest common denominator indeed.

I do think a lot of the issues can be resolved in a sequel. Much more respect should be given to the source material though.

Here is another article i’ve written on te subject of this movie:

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1. The Transformers cartoon was a weekly toy commercial, not high art. You can’t expect Citizen Kane here. Why do you care so much about the portrayal of Transformers in film?

The Transformers cartoon was created to help sell toys. Yes. This is true. Congratulations. However, if you ask the writers, Hasbro had little to no involvement in the writing process of the television show. The writers have said they didn’t think of it as writing a toy commercial they were just trying to write interesting stories. In addition, the PREMISE and character bios were fleshed out by a Marvel comic writer Bob Budiansiy-(wiki) . It was nothing more than bios on the backs of the boxes giving alternative names and personalities to each of the characters but the proof is in the pudding. These bios were used as the foundations for both the cartoons and comics and……… these characters and stories are still remembered and revered today.

Granted the ’84 cartoon often had mistakes, flubs, continuity errors; characters had their weapons appear in their hands out of nowhere upon transforming into robots. Optimus Prime’s trailer disappeared off screen when he Transformed into robot mode. Decepticons would sometimes randomly be standing amongst the Autobots as if it was no big deal etc. But believe it or not some of these mistakes proved to be interesting elements of the story.

animation errors and consequences of being a toy commercial proving beneficial to the mythology:

If Megatron built the Constructicons (Devastator) on Earth (as stated in Heavy Metal War) How is it that later in Megatron was depicted as being created by the Constructicons on Cybertron millions of years ago? Its interesting to note that MANY fans had come to the same conclusion that Megatron was indeed given a body by the constructicons but the constructicons either arrived on Earth badly damaged or in a protoform state so Megatron did indeed build them, giving them bodies while on Earth. (Here’s another example of the explanation (link).)

 

All the characters in the cartoon were mercilessly killed for the sole purpose of making way for a new line of toys in the ’86 animated movie. However the Death of Optimus Prime was probably the most heart wrenchng scene in the entire Transformers universe for every kid watching it. It turned him into a martyr. It made him so much more of a hero. It made the movie have BALLS! All because they wanted a new line of toys to march in, the writers were given an obstacle to masterfully create a hero around. Incidentally, if Optimus Prime couldn’t emote without a visible mouth, how is it that the death of OP scene in the movie had kids crying in the theater and all the way home forcing parents to complain to Hasbro? Angry Video Game Nerds opinion on the TF:Movie ’86

So you see we all know of the results of the Transformers being a weekly toy commercial but much of the time we are actually pleased by them!

2. Why do you want to see the same story on screen that you’ve already seen 20 years ago? Do you really want to see the characters portrayed as boxes piled on top of each other like in the cartoon?

 

Look, we’re talking about transferring a story, a mythology from one medium to the other. No one wants to see the exact same thing on screen. We want an elevated, evolved version on screen. We want to see the mistakes corrected but more important than anything we want to see a movie that seems to respect the original property. We want to know that the filmmaker knows exactly what it is that was so bad ass about Transformers.

There was a special aesthetic to the boxier / rigid designs of the original Transformer designs. But thats not exactly what most fans would have wanted. They of course wanted an extreme amount of details but to have kept the general silhouette and shape of the characters. Sure there could be many parts but give them a similar mass to their original counterparts.

3. Bumblebee. The reason Bumblebee is a Camaro is because VW refused to be associated with war. It wasn’t Bay’s decision.

Personally I am fine with Bumblebee being a Camaro but many people are not and this false rumor has been consistently spewed all over the internet. Fact is, it’s wrong. This was the case with a proposed Masterpiece Bumblebee toy (this one). Not the Transformers movie. Bay has even stated it was simply his choice to use a Camaro for Bumblebee. Another reason? GM got the deal to be providing the vehicles. So yes, this is a toy commercial AND a car commercial now.

There are two other reasons Bumblebee is not a VW bug:

1.Michael Bay had said that he did not want to make a movie about toys when he was approached about this film. He decided he would indeed like to make a movie about “A boy and his car” though. Part of the boy and his car story line revolves around the boy having an impressive vehicle worthy of wooing a female companion. And it was decided a VW Bug wouldn’t be the right vehicle for this boy and his car story.(proof link).

2.Last year a film was released called Herbie the love Bug. A Volkswagen with a mind of its own that communicates to its driver silently and by opening doors, changing the radio station etc. etc. It was decided Bumblebee would be too similar to Herbie in this form. (proof link)

The thing is Bumblebee was never mistaken for Herbie before so why would he now? He would now because in this movie Bumblebee is a mute, like Herbie and like Herbie Bumblebee can only communicate by opening doors, trunks, hoods, changing the radio, etc. etc. This was a choice made by the writers for the sole purpose of creating a special moment of silence between the human protagonist (Shia Labeauf) and Bumblebee when Bumblebee is first discovered by Sam.

So you see, Bumblebee’s true familiar underdog form of a VW has been indirectly cast aside in favor of rendering him incapable of speach unlike his Autobot comrades. Apparently Megatron ripped out his voice box back on Cybertron. Guess he couldn’t find any spare parts back on Cybertron to fix it? Doesn’t make sense to me either.

Megatron is a ruthless general and a cunning warrior.

Optimus Prime, noone wanted a recreation of the toy, but something that acknowledged the solid / rigid style and silhouette of the character would have been nice and couldn’t have hurt the success of the film.

And now for a great Transformers comic book cover that was never released: