-------------------- Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Posts: 782 | From: Arlington, TX | Registered: Jul 2005
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Mr. Furious
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
The new 20th Anniversary edition of the original animated movie is helping to whet my appetite for the live-action version. I agree, it looks awesome.
Has Peter Cullen been confirmed as Optimus, and Frank Welker as Megatron?
posted
Cool! I don't know about Megatron, but Cullen's definitely Prime.
My only gripe is that they didn't use the transforming noise. I knew they were going to go with a more realistic metal-on-metal approach.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I wonder what it's rated? I also wonder how many mis-amd un-informed parents we'll see taking their 6-9 year old kids out of the theatre after the first intense scene (like the opening night of Jurassic park)?
I'm looking forward to it more now than i was before, i tell ya.
Posts: 225 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Oh hell, I finally understand what Mr. D was talking all excitedly about a few weeks ago now! I thought he was talking about the animated one Mr Furious mentioned, and I bought that for him for Christmas! GAH!
Amethyst "well, at least the Dragonling should like the DVD" Dragon
Posts: 255 | From: New York | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Yleemjseg: I wonder what it's rated? I also wonder how many mis-amd un-informed parents we'll see taking their 6-9 year old kids out of the theatre after the first intense scene (like the opening night of Jurassic park)?
I'm looking forward to it more now than i was before, i tell ya.
I'm pretty sure it will be PG-13. It's going to be too violent for PG but I doubt it will be violent enough for an R. Plus it will be a summer blockbuster movie and those almost never go above PG-13. Personally, I would love an R rated Transformers movie but will be more than happy with a PG-13 one.
Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Amethyst Dragon: the animated Transformers movie is extremely violent; many of the good guys are brutally and graphically murdered in the first 10 minutes. I saw it as a kid and it traumatized me big-time. I don't know how old and/or desensitized your kid is, but thought I'd give a warning.
Me, I had spent two years watching these guys on tv, so seeing them visciouly murdered was a shock. It'd be like a Smurfs movie where Gargamel bites off Papa Smurf's head, with blood spewing everywhere. Not fun for kids...
Posts: 44 | From: San Bruno, CA | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Mormegil: Amethyst Dragon: the animated Transformers movie is extremely violent; many of the good guys are brutally and graphically murdered in the first 10 minutes. I saw it as a kid and it traumatized me big-time. I don't know how old and/or desensitized your kid is, but thought I'd give a warning.
Me, I had spent two years watching these guys on tv, so seeing them visciouly murdered was a shock. It'd be like a Smurfs movie where Gargamel bites off Papa Smurf's head, with blood spewing everywhere. Not fun for kids...
Yeah, that movie had a lot of balls to kill Optimus Prime in the first few scenes. Of course, he came back to life several times after that.
Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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Mr. Furious
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Mormegil: Amethyst Dragon: the animated Transformers movie is extremely violent; many of the good guys are brutally and graphically murdered in the first 10 minutes. I saw it as a kid and it traumatized me big-time. I don't know how old and/or desensitized your kid is, but thought I'd give a warning.
Look, there are spoilers in this post for a movie that's twenty frickin' years old. Bah.
The whole subject of violence in the original Transformers movie is very interesting, and I recommend that you watch the new DVD with the commentary on. Flint Dille gives a lot of insight on the subject.
Interestingly, the creators put two curses ("shit" and "dammit") into the film because they were concerned that it might earn a G rating otherwise, even with all the violence.
Another thing I found interesting was that they actually had no idea that killing off Optimus Prime was going to cause the furor that it did; from their perspective, they were simply killing off toys that weren't going to be in next year's lineup, and Prime was in that category. Prime's death apparently caused a serious shitstorm, because a lot of kids took it really hard. I was a little beyond that point when I saw it, but I can totally see myself in hysterics if I saw it when I was, say, 8 or 9.
Plus, as you note, the other deaths are pretty grisly as well. Ironhide gets executed by Megatron, for heaven's sake, and they lingered on a shot of the corpses of Wheeljack and Windcharger when Arcee, Ultra Magnus, and Springer are moving a cannon.
Another thing they said was that if the movie were to be made today, not nearly as much violence would have been included; not because they felt that they included too much in 1986, but rather because the climate has changed since then.
posted
Since, to my recollection, not a single Transformers character had been killed in the television series (hero or villain), so the film slaughtering off a half dozen characters in the first couple of scenes was fairly shocking.
If a G.I. Joe film had been made where an equivalent number of characters bit the dust that early, I'm sure it would have inspired similar outbursts.
Mack da "and don't get me started on the movie version of 'Dick Tracy'" Knife
1. Michael Bay directing. Nuff said. 2. The robots are completely unrecognizable in robot mode. You could still tell Optimus was a truck, Megatron was a pistol, etc. Here, they look like generic giant robots.
-------------------- Meanwhile, at stately Wayne Manor... Posts: 1316 | From: Oregon | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Macheath: If a G.I. Joe film had been made where an equivalent number of characters bit the dust that early, I'm sure it would have inspired similar outbursts.
Perhaps you're aware, but the fallout from Optimus Prime's death meant last-minute changes for G.I. Joe: The Movie. Duke was supposed to have died, but instead they included a line of dialogue about him recovering.
EDITED TO ADD:
Judging by the trailer, you'd be excused for thinking this was a horror movie, like Screamers. The trailer at least doesn't commit the sin of giving away the plot. (As opposed to, say, the "We're clones!" style of trailer.) It also hides its main attraction in split-second cuts. This is either A) to preserve interest, B) to avoid criticism of the CGI, or C) actually the way Michael Bay edited the movie. I'm not so sure it isn't C.
Even though the trailer was low on dialogue, it still contains a factual error, which is par for the course for Bay. They refer to "multiple sonic booms." From a single crashed spaceship? I don't think so.
Posts: 389 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Regarding the original Transformers movie: don't forget the scene where anonymous bad-guy robots are dropped into a vat of acid and scream as they are dissolved on-screen. That made me a little uncomfortable when I watched the movie for the first time a few months ago, and I'm 20 and never saw the original series. It's a good movie, as far as cartoons about robots that turn into things go, but not for sensitive young children.
Edit: and don't forget the part right at the start where a whole planet populated by man, woman, and child-robots is destroyed right at the start. The execution of the last survivor of that robot species is shown later in the movie.
-------------------- Fools! You've over-estimated me! Posts: 3745 | From: New York City | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Macheath: Since, to my recollection, not a single Transformers character had been killed in the television series (hero or villain), so the film slaughtering off a half dozen characters in the first couple of scenes was fairly shocking.
If a G.I. Joe film had been made where an equivalent number of characters bit the dust that early, I'm sure it would have inspired similar outbursts.
Mack da "and don't get me started on the movie version of 'Dick Tracy'" Knife
quote:The biggest point of controversy surrounds Duke's circumventing death following a critical chest injury. In the film, Duke, laying bloodied in the embrace of the distraught Falcon, gasps a frail "Yo...Joe..." with his final breath before slumping motionless. Scarlett is then heard (in off-camera dialogue) despairing that Duke has "gone into a coma", to which General Hawk later assures they'll do everything possible to save him. By the end of the film, another line of overpasted dialogue assures that Duke is recovering in time for the closing credits... In the original script, however, Duke was meant to die, and according to series writer Buzz Dixon, if the scene is viewed without dialogue, judged merely on the expiring movements of Duke and the tearful reactions of the Joes, it plays fairly obviously as a death scene. Fans have also pointed out that Serpentor's snake javelin struck Duke roughly where his heart would be, and in real life it is generally impossible to survive such a gory impaling — not to mention that a comatose state rather corresponds to brain injury.
Duke was scheduled to die for a number of reasons:
1) Duke was being phased out of the toyline by Hasbro and they did not want the TV show to waste time advertising a character whose action figure had been discontinued. (It should be noted, however, that a new Duke action figure was released in late 1988 and almost every year thereafter, guaranteeing his continued presence.)
2) The series promoters decided they were tired of enduring criticisms for their depiction of "sanitized violence", especially when compared to rival militant series Robotech. The decision was made to kill off one of the series' main characters, and Duke was selected, having been the central hero in the "Mass Device" animated premiere (1983 mini-series) and regarded by fans as the poster-child for G.I. Joe. This scripted sacrifice to save his half-brother would serve as the plot catalyst inspiring Falcon to become a responsible Joe. However, the demise of Optimus Prime (which, ironically, was due in part to the scripted death of Duke) in the Transformers movie was met with scorn from parents who complained that the death scene had upset their children. The producers decided they did not want a similar protest with G.I. Joe, so Duke's cinematic death was mitigated to a coma in last-minute audio alterations. Some fans have speculated that if the G.I. Joe movie had been released first with Duke's death left intact as planned, perhaps Optimus Prime would have later been spared instead. (The public backlash ultimately resulted in Optimus Prime being resurrected in the Transformers TV series and comics.) Although Duke's character had been slated for elimination in the film depiction, his death would not have carried over to the G.I. Joe comic book universe.
posted
BAH!!! After reading some script boilers and getting a better sense of how Michael Bay has BUTCHERED my favorite childhood escapist mythos, I have NO desire to see this movie. This movie is dead to me... The '86 animated movie is the ONLY movie, in my book.
-------------------- High on the wind, the Highland drums begin to roll, and something from the past just comes and stares into my soul... --Mark Knopfler Posts: 3402 | From: New Bern, NC | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I'm with Desert Rat. All the focus seems to be on the people - Transformers is about giant transforming robots, FFS!
-------------------- "The United States Government: significantly less cruel and sadistic than the Taliban." - Dara Posts: 1289 | From: Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, UK | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
On the other hand, this is a trailer for a effects ladden movie 7 months away. It may be that we just saw all the 'finished' shots of the Transformers.
posted
There have been criticisms from very early on that the screenplay for the film focuses too much on the human characters (I've not read it, so I have no idea if the criticisms have any foundation). If this were a stand alone film with no mythos behind it, I could understand that decision. It's easier to get an audience to connect with another human than a robot, unless you're Brad Bird.
However, this is clearly not the case with The Transformers. You have several animated series, several toy lines, and an animated movie that have established a mythos and history for these characters (though there are multiple contradictions, of course). There is little reason to focus on the human characters, and I'm going to bet the humans are the least interesting characters in the film (at least, they should be . . . if the transformers have been written poorly then the humans might be the only good thing about the film).
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