With Dragons emerging bloodstained and well fed as the victors of our Ultimate Showdown, Dave decided to find out who you guys think is the most popular dragon. Trogdor the Burninator came out on top, with a very well deserved second going to the gem-encrusted Smaug from The Hobbit. There seemed to be some contention over Fin Fang Foom’s casual use of alliteration, but it was promptly quelled by threats of being put “in his pants”.
Last Tuesday was a very good day as we had several friends over for a viewing of Transformers as it came out on DVD, and there was much discussion as to whether or not the movie stands up after 3-4 viewings. One major point of contention was if the theater experience and how great the special effects are causes it to be less enjoyable on a smaller tv screen. It was then that I realized I am not entirely sure what everyone even thinks of the movie! That’s why we’re asking you:
[poll=53]
I actually just found out yesterday that Dave is still somehow holding on to his geek/nerd/dork society membership card DESPITE having not seen the movie yet. His punishment is pending.
I watched it in theaters a few weeks after it came out, with low expectations lowered even more by hearing from friends that it was still fun to watch in spite of its hokeyness.
However, I still walked away sorely disappointed. For a movie that features gigantic robots beating the crap out of each other, I was surprised they couldn’t even focus on THAT. I mean I already knew the movie would require a wide suspension of disbelief to account for the Hollywood-action-movie shortcuts, but so many of the scenes were just ridiculous and completely took me out of the excitement this kind of movie promises.
I loved the Transformers’ designs and I loved Optimus Prime’s voice. But otherwise, the action was lacking (How often did the robots actually fight each other? Does anyone honestly watch Transformers to see more shots of generic military men firing guns? Why couldn’t Optimus use his totally awesome energy blade on Megatron?!), plus the movie makes you sit through embarrassingly bad scenarios to even get to those parts. There are other movies that embrace ridiculous plausibility while still feeling badass (Die Hard 4 and Shoot ‘Em Up, for example), so why couldn’t Transformers do that?
Saw it in theaters on July 4th, day of official release…’twas very crowded, ended up seeing a showing an hour later than I had planned, but that was no big deal…I saw that coming…and I saw it once more about a week ago over at the Cosford, which generally plays movies between theater and DVD…
It was generally nice to look at…but the product placement made it unbearable for me…the scene that stands out the most in my mind, is right in the middle of the big robo-brawl, a Mountain Dew vending machine, Xbox 360, and some brand of car (Chrysler, I think…several were advertised, so it’s tough to remember) are sidetracked to as they are brought to life…while it was nice to look at, it really made me forget what was going on…that whole scene became a blur…it just looked like a free for all, despite the fiercely divided transforces (it’s a stretch)…
Very intense action, but not enough of it, replaced instead by potty jokes and barely hidden commercials…it could’ve been better than it was, but it was too great, so it was bogged down by corporate america…
I could rant more, but my elbow is tired…
You say “found out yesterday” but in fact I’ve told you and your wife this several times 😛 Indeed, you offered to take me along to the IMAX version, but that never materialized. I do have it at home from Netflix so I’ll watch it this week. But the real nerd cred is from the original Transformers movie: Orson Welles, Leonard Nimory, and Eric Idle FTW!
I thought the movie was perfectly satisfying. Sure it was a summer popcorn flick, but the movie was based on Transformers… not exactly the holy grail of storytelling. The whole show was conceived as a very cool advertisement for toys. As a fan of Transformers, the movie lived up to its roots and produced more than I expected in terms of a robot romp. Plus, Shia Lebouf was good in it and the comic bits in the movie were actually… funny….
seeing it the first time in theaters I was like Ok this isnt bad, better then i was expecting… the next two times I saw it it kind of got drawn out.
I’m really disappointed at how much they focused on the human side of the transformers story. Humans, besides spike, never played a huge roll in the storyline.
And the decepticons were also meh, mostly due to a weak version of Starscream and Megatron.. come on two of the best characters and they screwed them up.
Roadblock and Bonecrusher really did a decent job though.
I suspect we may have Autobots v. Decepticons in the next Showdown…
‘Course that may make it difficult to even the odds in future fights…
Unless we were to somehow get a showdown with nothing but the most epic of epic combatants…maybe Justice League v. X-men…Link v. Ganondorf…Chuck Norris v. Clive Owen (for those of you that have seen Shoot ‘Em Up, you’ll know this is a fairly fair match up)…etc…
My apologies for the tangent…Calculus compells me…
You’re being oddly prescient about some of your picks, Rev. You’ll just have to wait and see…
Yea…I tend to do that…
After the final showdown of a campaign running 1-20 ending with us going epic, we were discussing what we might do next if we ever continued the campaign…considering the fact that we had just commandeered an airship, I yelled “Let’s be Sky Pirates!”…
Apparently on of the FF games ends this way…sadly, I’ve never played any…
This is on topic since Decepticons are essentially Sky Pirates…
I said the movie was good. My basis of comparison is only the other movies this year though (which for the most part have been total crap). In general I don’t like how action scenes are filmed anymore. I don’t want to have a close up of a fist for .5 seconds, then a close up of an eye for another .5 seconds, then a close up of a foot for another .5 seconds etc. Can’t they go back to showing us what’s going on in a fight?!
As said before, too much humans and too little robots.