Alright I understand what you guys were saying. I thought you meant that the IMAX portions looked terrible, but you meant that the rest of the film looked terrible, right? I mean, it was one of only maybe 5 films I've watched on Blu, on a 720p 32" Samsung, no less, but I still didn't think it was bad. I'm obviously not an expert however.

^ the IMAX portions looked fantastic.

Yeah, the IMAX portions were great. The only blemish in two of the IMAX scenes was the very noticeable shimmering during the establishing shot (this is much less and the IMAX footage is actually better in the prologue featured in the Batman Begins BD release) and all the ringing in the shot of Bruce Wayne standing atop the building in Honk Kong just before he puts on his mask and begins to fire the sticky bombs.

It's the 35mm scenes that looked poor. They were DNRed and EEd, had shimmering, and looked rather murky.

Not only is Walmart going to have an exclusive version with the Imax cut, but their "2-Disc Big Screen Edition" is probably also going to be the cheapest price in town: only $19.96!
This is listed in their latest ad flyer that made the rounds this week, right there on page 5...you can go to walmart.com and look at the local ad to see what the cover will look like...it is different from the regular release, with a close up of Optimus on a black background....it actually fits in more with the art used for the first film's BD release....

Here it is from their ad:

nice

Walmart Edition = Sold!

I hope this has all the special features of the regular edition and that the 2nd disc isnt just a DVD or Digitial Copy

It does, no worries....

I'm actually confused and surprised that Paramount went to the trouble (and money) to create two separate HD transfers for the film. I get that they already exist, but then to go through all of the troubling for putting both of them on Blu-ray and DVD for a store to have an exclusive release boggles my mind.

So, what does that basically mean? The whole movie will be 1.85:1 to include more of the IMAX image and fill my TV screen instead of 2.35:1?

^Only like <10 minutes was filmed with IMAX, so it'd be like The Dark Knight where the majority of the movie is 2.35:1 but certain scenes will be closer to filling up the entire screen (1.78 ish)... at least, that's what I'd assume it would be like.

the IMAX scenes may have looked amazing, but how they were edited with 35mm shots - within the same scene, notable during the forest battle - were shoddy and badly edited. How and why the opening robot battle and specifically Decepticon rolling down the highway WASN'T shot in IMAX was a very... very bad decision. How Bay could fuck up a movie that featured scenes shot with IMAX cameras is beyond me - but he did.

well looks like i will be making a trip to walmart to pick this up on the 20th, if they are the only place to get the imax version.

Looks like Target has a Blu exclusive edition like their DVD exclusive last time around:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3520

FWIW, the Imax version is worthless:

It has 1 min 30 of extra fighting footage

I wouldn't say nobody gave a shit. I'm thinking the IMAX decision was a last, last minute decision and once they actually began using the cameras, considering Bay, he abandoned it pretty quickly....

This is not something that had planned all the way out during pre-production.

At least this time the case is for the Blu Ray edition.

That quote makes it seems the only scenes in IMAX are quick jump cuts. There were a few notable scenes in IMAX like Devastator forming and Optimus' battle in the forest.

It will be available for both formats.

There are always detractors.

just listened to the commentary and Bay provides another good one. I love his tracks. He starts off saying this is his eigth commentary....

Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Island Transformers 1 & 2. That means he must have recorded one for Bad Boys 2, that Columbia never released.


This looks fantastic on Blu, though I didn't watch the shifting aspect ratio version.

I thought that Bay said that he recorded one for Bad Boys 2, but he thought it was bad because he had nothing to say about the movie.

Ha, maybe that's why he got those no talent writers to fill in the gaps of this track. I wasn't paying attention but they draw parallels from the Transformer series to Altman's films.

Who blames who during the commentary?

Has he done commentaries on films he's only produced?