Special Edition Podcast: Transformers

Show Notes

“At the Movies with iFanboy” returns! And Josh actually made it to this one!

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Running Time: 00:28:54

Click through to discuss the movie…
Autobots, roll out!

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Comments

  1. Whenever a sci-fi or fantasy movie takes itself so seriously that they feel like they need to explain themselves it kind of ruins the world. I never heard an explanation which really improved the story. It happens alot in anime. Like in Naruto where they need to feel like they need to explain their magic, which kind of ruins the fantasy of it.

  2. Thanks for giving us another show this week. Awesome!

  3. Ok, I’m with you Josh.

    I wanted to like it, I enjoyed it, but it is still, not a good movie. Michael Bay can’t make a “good movie”. I enjoyed some of it, but in the end, there is no excuse for “lazy” film-making. Yes, summer action, fun movies can be good and this wasn’t that good.

    When I left the movie theater I thought I liked it but then again, I can’t forgive millions of dollars in awesome effects and great looking film (which it was) but then, skimping on a decent (not superb, but at least with some craft to it) script or story-line.

    How much better would this be if they would just allow Bendis or Vaughn (or any decent comic writer; or even you Josh!) to review the script, to nip tuck the story a bit and add some decent human connections. Summer films CAN be good! X1 and X2, Batman Begins, etc., we all threw out our reality and went full heartedly into the films and had a really good time and felt emotions with those films. It can be done. Put any good director and he would have delivered a great movie. Michael Bay is a lazy film-maker. Look at the “behind the scenes” thing on cable, he shoots, says great, goes on to the next action sequence, etc. He is looking for the “great looking shot” and not the sequential story. The editing staff must have been pulling hairs on how to make a story out of all those shots. Betcha some of those “cutters” are probably great wannabe filmakers too and would even done a better job directing!

    I respect art and “artists” too much to not call it out. Great writers should not be replaced by mediocre ones. That’s why we like Bendis so much yet still call him out when he misses a bit. We applaud Morrison when he hits it, yet call him out when he fails (its ok to applaud the attempts at greatness thou). At least they try to hit it. Michael Bay is lazy, runs on cruise control, drinks his own Kool-Aid, or just plain has little talent.

    Give it some time Conor and Ron, you will see. I want Batman to be great too! Thank goodness for Nolan and Singer (and others).

    Sorry for the rant. I’m just a fan of fun stuff but also of hard working “artists” so I feel compelled to write. Its ok to disagree and certainly hope I don’t take any of your enjoyment!

  4. Josh watch The Totally Rad Show for someone who agrees with you!

  5. Give it some time Conor and Ron, you will see.

    See what?

  6. Ugh. Just got back from watching this, and of course parts of it were great, but I forgot that Michael Bay was directing, and as soon as I saw that the feeling of dread started to creep in. The effects, great. But can we please have some decent dialog and a pace and flow to scenes instead of a bunch of shots slapped together?

    The big crime? I didn’t feel for any of the characters. I didn’t care that much about the humans or the robots, not even Optimus Prime. Very flat personalities. Except Shia la Boof. He was really great. Do you think they got a different writer for his parts? because for the most part they were actually enjoyable.

    I look forward to hearing the ifanbiy take on this…

  7. Sorry…

    That it is a forgetable movie, not well made as say… Batman Begins. I’m certain you, I and many fans would be horrified if Bay directed a dear to us project as Batman. He would leave such a bad taste in our mouths! Would we be as forgiving to his faults as a bad movie maker if he “cruised” his way thru making a Batman movie? I would even write some hate mail, me thinks!

    All in all, I enjoyed watching Transformers but wish it would have been better. I guess is the thought of what could have been a great movie, instead, just a mere “enjoyable” one.

    As I said, I left thinking I liked it and that it was good, but after a few thoughts on it, determined that it was not that good at all. Maybe you will have a change of heart, maybe you won’t, and that’s ok.

    Still, you guys rock and I enjoy having peers that help me better enjoy my new comic reading hobby. Thanks!

  8. I really liked the movie. Hilarious podcast. The whole time Conor and Josh were going point for point at the end of it was great.

  9. I’m right there with you Josh. I can’t say it any better than you already have.

    Funny side note. When Conor said he has a long history with Optimus Prime, I swear I had the mental image of the two of them as college roommates.

  10. Josh made it to this podcast but missed the big one! Wow Ifanboy you guys are like the masters of irony ( or is that ironing?)

    Josh it seems that you are not alone in thinking that movie was bad, when people ask me about it i say “it wasn’t a good movie, but it was a whole lot of fun” and to me with certain directors that is ok. “Invaders from Planet #9” is in the same vein as is the more recent “the Core” you just kinda have to assume that if ed wood or Micheal bay is directing a movie that it isn’t going to be good, and then just hope you have a good time.

    by the way whatever happened to that evil pop machine and his friends who started tearing up the city near the end?

    RIP jazz we hardly knew you. no really you were in two scenes before you died. his death was as his life, short and in ebonics.

    I want a beast wars movie.

  11. I had just as much fun listening to that podcast as I did watching the movie. You guys are nuts.

    Was Ratchet really yellow? I saw green, but my friends insist he was yellow. I need to get my eyes checked out.

    I am a little bitter (not really) that Jazz was one of the only original Transformers to live through the animated movie, but he is the only Autobot to die in the live action movie.

  12. Oh great, now I am going to be singing “The Touch” all day. Thanks a lot.

  13. Ratchet was green. Light green, but green nonetheless. But his Burger King toy IS yellow for some weird reason.

    As for the movie, I liked it the first time and FREAKING LOVED IT the second time. The issues with telling who’s who in the fights are gone with a second viewing.

  14. I still haven’t seen it, but I thought this link was riotously funny anyway (and LOVED the Simon Furman reference).

    http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2007/7/9weaver.html

  15. This was the most fun i’ve had at a movie in a long time. It was way better than spider man and pirates. Prime sounded great.

  16. This movie was just plain bad. What makes it worse is that it’s got to be hard to ruin subject matter like the Transformers. Same Bay formula…take subject matter that should be gold (like the attack on Pearl Harbor) and then turn away from that, making it 20% of the movie. Same thing here…take what should be 80% of the movie (Transformers, their backgrounds, their personalities, etc.) and ignore it in favor of Shia LaBouf (granted, he was good), his girlfriend, his parents, some silly “Sector 7” sub-plot, etc.

    They had some killer action sequences like Starscream’s attack against the other F-22’s. Can I get more of that stuff? More flashback sequences of Transformers before they came to earth? No…instead I get a 10 min sequence of the Autobots destroying someone’s back yard.

    Just like someone edited Star Wars Episode 1 to remove all the Jar Jar scenes, someone needs to edit out all the crap here and MAYBE there’d be a decent movie left. Granted, it would be 35 minutes long, but at least it would be better this. It’s a shame that this will be the biggest movie of this summer.

    Plus, what’s up with the new Transformer power of being able to turn into ANYTHING. So Prime could scan a moped and turn into that? I don’t get it…why wouldn’t all the Transformers just turn into assault vehicles?

    I think this is the movie that has pushed me to never spend another dime on another Michael Bay movie again.

  17. There were things I really liked and things I really hated. I left the theatre with a “ehhh”. I really think that they let Jonh Turtorro and Shia lebouf ignore the script and improv all their lines. I think they let Anthony Anderson do that as well but I don’t thing that was a good thing. This is also probably why the movie was over 2 hours long.

    I enjoyed the humor but at times felt it was much. With that whole masturbation scene I felt like I was watching Transformers: American Pie or something.
    Ratatoiulle is still the best film this year so far.

  18. I was pretty much with Conor and Ron on this. Enjoyed the crap out of it, and my 8 and 5 year-old loved it. The adult jokes went right over their heads.

    Josh, by the way, the Abrams tank can go 75 mph, so I think a Decepticon version of the same could almost keep up with Starscream;)–who didn’t have nearly enough lines. We needed to see him betray Megatron.

  19. So you’re saying you would have liked a story ABOUT the Transformers? Who’d have thought.

    Can the Abrams tank do 75 through traffic and over cars? What about that airport utility vehicle? How fast does that go?

    Honestly, that doesn’t really bother me. It’s just fun to snark about.

    Like I said, if I was 8, I would think this was the greatest thing ever.

  20. Yes, the movie would have been a ton better if it had been more transformers and less people. I agreed with some of your critiques as well. I was just busting on you withe whole Abrams thing (though it can do 75 and is so heavy that during the first Iraq War the big problem moving them around was that they are so heavy that when placed upon a truck, the weight would cause the wheel to cut through the lugs–so that could house a superawesome Decepticon).

    What weirded me out was Sam making out on top of Bumblebee. Because if he is a ‘sentient being’–a person–it is kind of weird to lay on his hood and mack on your lady. I wouldn’t make out with my wife while laying on top of one of my best friends.

    That’s weird, but that ran through my head and ruined the final scene.

    This was one of your best podcasts yet.

  21. I totally thought the same thing about that final scene. Plus, right over to the side, the other TF’ers were just standing there, supposedly watching. Creepy.

  22. I asked my friends if that scene qualified as a M

  23. I thought it wasw a tremendously fun and surprising time at the movies! How come the guys didn’t rave about how hot Megan Fox was?!! She was a friggin’ goddess!

  24. She’s very pretty, yes, but that’s not really the tone of our thing we’ve got going here.

  25. It’s like we’re the mob.

    “our thing”

  26. I seriously am over the top appreciative that ‘your thing’ or ‘our thing’ is not what you’ve got going there.

    And yes, Optimus Prime and the others off to the side just hanging out (while Optimus sends out the space email to all remaining Autobots) was even weirder.

    At some point, the other ‘sentient beings’ are going to be like “get a room”.

  27. Megan Fox may be hot but she does not look like a high-school student unless something is not clicking in her brain…then again when do any actors that are playing a high-school student actually look their age.

  28. It may not be the tone, but I don’t think it is a bad thing to acknowlege it. It doesn’t take away from the tone or spirit of being a fanboy; in fact, it is all part of it. I certainly don’t advocate being a perv or anything like that … far from it. However, Bay isn’t a dope. He knows that hot chicks accentuate his films, right or wrong. I think it added to the story because it helped make the comedy with Sam richer. It was more believable that he would get tongue tied and fall all over himself.

  29. I just saw Transformers and listened to the podcast, can anyone tell me if the closing music is from Transformers: The Movie?

  30. Yes, that music is from the 1986 animated movie.

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