TF, if done as a live action version of the cartoon or comics from the 80′s would not have worked. Whether one believes the movie worked as it was made is a matter of choice, but I think Bay made a decent movie from lame source material – coulda / shoulda been better, but decent as it was.

It’s funny because wouldn’t that then mean that anyone who wasn’t a fan of the Watchmen source material, and didn’t know anythig about it, would end up hating the movie? Well place me in the “not in the know” camp and yet I LOVED the movie.

Go figure:)

I said the same thing about Watchmen. The execution as a film was poor.

In the case of TF, being a fan of the 80′s series doesn’t help opinions of the movie.

What are you talking about? The ONLY time we kick ANYONE off the site is for continually offensive comments or personal attacks against either the writers or other commenters.

Period.

Vic

If people are honestly concerned about the character development of fictional giant robots from another world, I would suggest they have more to worry about than the specifics of a movie sequel.

I agree, and I think most of us enjoy and value the opinion of you SR writers. Actually, there have been some Transformers posts that were very informative of source material that helped catch me up. So I think there is a good mix of both. And I enjoyed the first film, and I’m glad the runtime is approximately the same, HOPEFULLY giving the bots more screen time.

Bane

“No one watches this kind of film for robot character development.”

Actually, there was someone who got kicked off this site for being too vocal about wanting more character development of the robots. I’d say it’s safe to assume that there are others out there who, to varying degrees, feel the same way. They may not be the majority, but there do exist.

As Ross, said, this is an editorial movie news site. EVERY post has a “spin” (as you put it).

I run this site and I tell my writers not to write up a movie item UNLESS they have an opinion about it. And yes, overall we do have a bias against Transformers because most of us thought the first movie wasn’t very good.

We don’t make it a secret around here, either.

Vic

Then I think you’re on not on the correct site – if you want just plain facts and not opinion, then head to somewhere like ComingSoon.net or Empire.com, which give you what you’ve described. Screen Rant is news + opinion.

@Bane,

I can see what you’re saying but at the same time I think it’s good to get the opinion and the writing of someone who isn’t a baptised fan of the source material, as it is undoubtedly the true representation of the majority out there.

And thanks, bud, I try:-)

– Psst, it’s NOT ginormous!:P

Transformers DOES stand on its own, so any viewer can enjoy it without having any prior knowledge about it. But it wouldn’t hurt to educate the SR regulars who fit into that category.

But Ross does a great job! Outside of denying that Dragonball’s fan base is ginormous. =P

I like reading the daily SR updates but you can’t tell me you guys don’t put your own spin on the material. Human emotion is so tied to our love for films that it is impossible not to. Fanboy or not, you should try and stay more objective and less opinionated. We, the readers of SR, don’t want the administrator opinions. We want facts and the occasional image to back those facts up.

And Vic, yes……the largest segmented market for a film like this would be the individuals who grew up with it. That includes millions of 20 something males, which oddly enough, is probably the main demographic for your site.

don’t look for a good story and acting in a popcorn flick and you won’t be disappointed. “haters” shouldn’t be shocked when they already know it’s like that going into the movie.

Yes I can tell. Yes I have also watched Se7en, and have enjoyed it as well. Sorry it just came across (to me anyway) that the choice in movies people watch predominantly showed intellectual level, but ok I can see what you guys meant now. So its all good.

I’m not saying that watching those movies will make your IQ rise, maybe your movie IQ if there is such a thing. I’m just saying that you can’t deny that those are more mature and intellectual movies, that make you think and are wonderful classics. I know that after something like TDK everyone hopes blockbuster movies can be like that but they don’t need to be, nor would it even be possible as Christopher Nolan is just one man. For me, I’m just going to see this movie for the action, even if there isn’t as much as I hope, it will still be epic. If there is a decent story with decent acting and dialogue it won’t hurt it. But a great script along with some damn good acting can never hurt.

@ Ross

Yeah over that past year mostly I’ve watched a lot more movies and mostly older ones like the ones I’ve mentioned and I actually look for different things in a movie now. I don’t just look for action and hot girls like when I was 13, I mean, I still do, but I look for other stuff like a great story and great acting too.

Se7en was a fantastic movie, and one of the blueprints for serial killer thrillers. I do think it was more intelligent than other movies of the sort, and if you haven’t dabbled beyond blockbuster stuff before, I think Se7en would “make your IQ go up.”

American Psycho is also a very intelligent film – the director Mary Harron (you wouldn’t think looking at the film that it was directed by a woman…) perfectly captured the biting sattire of the original novel. It appears on the surface to be just about this “quote-worthy” dialogue, violent scenes and an iconic performance from Christian Bale, but it’s actually an intelligent sattire on the superficiality of people in that lifestyle.

Can you tell I’m a fan?:)

Don’t forget the DB Fanboys or there may be a riot on your hands if you forget them.

@Stephen

Se7en was good, didn’t see American Psycho, but I don’t think many people’s IQs went up from watching them or went down for not watching them.
——————————————————————-
This movie is going to be good.
——————————————————————-

@Ross Miller

Megatron has always been Paranoid that way.

But, in the last two years I have started to watch and favor more intellectual movies like Se7en and American Psycho. So, at least IMO, I think over the last two years I have gained a lot of knowledge and my opinion has changed a great deal on what I think makes a great movie. Now I still consider Transformers as good, but not nearly as good as I originally did. The humor wasn’t really funny, there was at least a little too much human involvement in the film, but it was still good thanks to the action. I am hoping this movie is more about the action and more about the robots, but even if it’s like the first movie, the action scenes will be so hardcore that I can’t help myself but get excited when I watch a trailer for this. I just think that the testosterone in my system won’t allow me to say it’s a bad movie. lol