Yep.

I'm still trying to figure out why they brought the cube (and thus, the battle) to the middle of a city. (Other than "because it looks cool".)

Its an action movie though....look at James Bond films, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Alot of nonsense things happen in those too. Its the nature of action/adventure movies. Its not real life.

To complain about those things just seems like you were expecting it to be something else.

I think the point he's trying to make is that the story and plot were bad, even for a "turn your brain off" movie.

It's kind of an intangible. You're absolutely right that crazy, implausible things happen in these movies all the time. I mean, look at Die Hard 4 - the whole fighter jet thing was over the top. Yet somehow, I enjoyed Die Hard 4 way more than Transformers in the theater.

At 143 minutes, Transformers is easily 30 minutes too long. I am really hoping they learned from this movie and will have more ROBOTS and less STUPID HUMANS in the second one.

I was expecting for it to be cool and it turned out to be stupid. I mean, it's one thing to take the logic stretch that is the very premise of the transformers, but it's another to apply the same logical stretches to the rest of the events in the movie.

Maybe it was my high hopes for the movie, but any momentum it had for me was ruined in that Sam's House scene. Holy smokes what bad writing / acting / performing from human and machine alike.

Just watched this movie earlier today having no interest in seeing it in theaters. I did decide to pick it up yesterday, however, at Best Buy as one of my free movies to go along with my 360 HD Player. I figured that I could pick up titles that I wanted more, like Hot Fuzz, for cheaper online and I also passed on the Ultimate Matrix Collection because despite the fact that I could have gotten free, I just really never enjoyed the films and couldn't see myself actually watching them again. So I took a calculated risk and picked up Transformers because it's been awhile since I've seen a mindless action summer blockbuster and I had read that it really did shine on HD.

I had no expectations to enjoy this movie. It really just isn't my type. I haven't seen Superman Returns or Batman Begins, personally didn't enjoy any of the X-Men movies, liked Spiderman but not enough to watch 2 or 3, found Pirates 1 to be way too long so I haven't bothered with 2 or 3...the list goes on. I have nothing personal against films like this and the truth is that I probably would enjoy some of them if I had time to watch them. They just aren't films that I put in high priority to watch. Although I read comics occasionally as a child, I've never felt so connected to a character or a "universe" that I must go watch the according movie(s). I remember having a few Transformers to play with as a child but I really had remember nothing of the cartoon or the characters other than knowing who Optimus Prime and Megatron are. The A/V performance aside, I really didn't expect to like this movie.

Yet I did. I realize that I may be bias because this was the first film (not counting an episode of Planet Earth) that I enjoyed using my HD player and my decent yet cheaply priced surround sound system. With my setup I could not take advantage of lossless audio even if Transformers had it, but my untrained ears were wowed at the quality - I was immersed by it. The picture also looked amazing to me.

Maybe I enjoyed this film because I haven't seen many Bay films, knew little about the Transformers universe...but I think there may be more than that. I liked it because I felt like I was watching the biggest budget exploitation film of all time. It had corny lines, over-the-top acting (although I've liked Shia and his acting since watching many Even Stevens with my little sister), crazy plot holes and stereotypical characters, especially all of the black characters. Yes, the action scenes were too close and some may say too long, but what else would expect in an exploitation film? They substituted gore for robot action, they substituted nudity for robot action, they substituted drug-induced dream sequences for robot action, they substituted a boring Armed Forces "I'll Be Home Soon -Hoo-Rah" plot line for....no, wait, they kept that one. I didn't take it seriously and for the most part, it never asked me to take it seriously. Was it perfect? No. There were way too many secondary characters and, as mentioned before, the action scenes suffered sometimes for trying to show us too much, too close as fast as possible. Just like I would expect an exploitation film disguised as a tentpole blockbuster to do.

Maybe I need to try and watch more films like this...Daredevil, Catwoman, The Hulk...Nah.


Oh, and by the way, am I the only one who actually bought the "package" at Best Buy with intentions on not selling it? Oh, well, what's good for the gander...

I do agree that it was about 20-30m too long. I also didnt like the Turturo character at all. Other than that, I enjoyed it very much.

He's one of my biggest dislikes of the film. Which is a shame because I like him in just about everything I've seen him in. I hope he got a nice paycheck!

Yeah, I like him too.....that character was just poorly written.

Yes, but those movies have well-rounded lead characters that the audience cares about. That's the big difference. In James Bond, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc., you're invested in the character(s), so the action sequences are intense because you have an interest in the outcome. In Transformers, there's no one the audience (or most of it, anyway) really cares about, so the action is, at best, just eye candy.

There's a thin line between "mindless" and "mindless fun" and while the film crosses and re-crosses the line, for the most part it concetrates on the latter.

Everyone has a right to their opinion on every movie, but I think it's important to realize before you sit down and watch this movie that it's based on a kids' cartoon and not a Shakespearean play. I'm not sure how realistic it was in the original show that Megatron transformed down to a pistol, but the show was still great.

i thought the vehicles hiding in the yard was darn cute... Of course, the constant nagging of Prime's "hurry up with the glasses" was annoying... I was like "can you just scan for it?" The whole masturbation thing was funny, but sigh, made the movie even longer!

anyhow, i enjoyed the movie and will not sell it... I didn't get the idea of bring the cube to the city either, but i know they have to leave the dam, because Megatron is waking up... Perhaps the solider guy thinks the city is "safer" (i.e. it will take Megatron a while to find the cube? or perhaps to find the Autobots?)

I don't have problems with the action sequence, since i have watched countless movies with impossible situations.

I found Bernie Mac funny as hell too... Trying to sell the classic yellow Bumblebee, very cute!

Section Seven was a bit too late in the movie, it gave you a feeling that the movie was dragging on...

I was a bit disappointed that Jazz was killed at the end (how?) i must have miss it... Anyhow, most of Prime's famous lines were in the film, which was pretty neat. Except that "more than meet the eyes" were used twice, one by Sam and one by Prime. One time too much...

I thought it was fantastically stupid and it seemed like everyone from the cast to the director knew that it was going to be that way and had a great deal of fun with it.

that's actually a really good point. These are advanced beings, yet they can't scan for an old pair of glasses? I enjoyed it quite a bit and liked it even more on HD DVD. I seemed to be able to follow the action more at home than on the big screen. I'm just glad this was a mega hit, which means we'll be treated to more fun in 2009. GIVE ME SHOCKWAVE!

Mr. Cinema: I too found the HD DVD easier to follow. I think Bay even used the same bit of CGI debris twice in a row in an early action scene. I think this tends to come with the fact that I've seen the movie several times so I can start looking at other smaller details.

Phil

oh thanks Phil... how did i miss that? come to think of it, someone did ask me a question during the city battle... well, i guess i'll watch that part again

^ When Megatron first shows up in the city fight and one of the Autobots (Ratchet?) freaks out, he's able to get away but Jazz gets knocked down.

Looks like Transformers won in sales for the second week in a row. I haven't seen the breakdown for second week HD sales. If anyone has that, can they post?

Sorry, but can someone please explain to me exactly how to do this? Do you somehow do it while playing the movie, or somewhere within the Xbox 360 set up? Thanks!

Hmmm, the other day the movie freeze the add-on... i have to eject the disc and restart the movie. It was near the end of the movie...