Though Michael Bay didn't exactly go out of his way to placate the TransFans during the production of the first TRANSFORMERS, he did make one very wise concession: he brought back the inimitable Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime. Regardless of what Bay and his team did to the design of the character (I had no qualms with any of their alterations), it would've been wrong to hear anything but Cullen's baritone rumbling forth from the leader of the Autobots.
ScoreKeeper is extremely busy with ScoreKeeper stuff, so we thought we'd drop in a mention about a score CD that was relased yesterday.
It's Steve Jablonsky's score for TRANSFORMERS. To be clear, this is NOT the rock compilation album that came out before the movie hit. This is the film's orchestral score.
This morning, Variety confirms reports that've been circulating for a few days now.
Looks like TRANSFORMERS 2 is finally in motion, with a June 26, 2009 release date being eyed. Bay is expected back; Spielberg is expected to reprise his involvement as well.
Although...
...the high-profile project isn't guaranteed total immunity from the ongoing battle of wills between DreamWorks' David Geffen and Steven Spielberg and leadership at Paramount conglom Viacom.
Three words for you about TRANSFORMERS: Ho. Lee. Shit. Not as in "Holy shit, I was blown away, it was a blast as well as AWESOME!" but as in "Holy shit, society really is on the brink of collapse."
Usually if a movie is already playing in theaters I don't send my review here, I just use it at my geocities.com/outlawvern sight, but jesus, SOMEBODY had to say something. I can't believe how many positive reviews I have read of this. I think Harry's was the only negative I saw, but he was polite about it. I read Moriarty's review before the screening and I thought wow, what if I actually like this movie? Like me, Moriarty hates Michael Bay's movies from head to toe, style and content, and me and him agree on all kinds of stuff. I don't remember too many cases where I thought he was being too easy on a movie, at least not a big one like this (only one that comes to mind is the much smaller DAREDEVIL). I never thought I would like this movie until I read his review. He had me about 80% convinced that it would surprise me and win me over, like LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD did. And I might have to seek counseling after enjoying those two movies in a row, but that's life.
Hey folks, Harry here... For the past few days, Yoko and I have been playing host to a lovely lass from Vancouver with reel cool dreams, by the alias Midol Girl. She decided she wanted to write about TRANSFORMERS and I figured... ya know, we can't have enough female writers to set us boys straight, instead of all the male ass-slapping in our jingoistic locker rooms here at AICN...
Ain’t It Cool News: Tuesday, July 3rd 2007
Michael “Cocky” Bay, My Little Ponies & Why Bumble Bee is Better off as a Camaro
By: Midol Girl
Transformers the toys were too armed with more nerdy nostalgia for 20- something year old males then I could comfortably begin to even pretend to wrap my head around. I myself was a huge gigantic “My Little Ponies” fan around the same time my brothers were adding the Autobots and Decepticons to their Christmas wish lists, correction- to their Christmas, birthday and their just because “I’ve been so good” wish lists!
Hey folks, Harry here… I’m not quite sure what to think of Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS. I mean that.
Yesterday, was an amazing event. Robosaurus was amazing. He was cheesy perfection! He ate cars, shot flames and had the most hilarious announcer ever. The rain made it feel epic – and in the end… it just was magic.
That said – I really do see Robosaurus and TRANSFORMERS as two different things. Robosaurus is a blissfully retarded idea that delivers 100% right before your eyes.
Bay’s TRANSFORMERS puts so much moving stuff on-screen that it literally wore my eyes out. On a single viewing, I was utterly exhausted. The images of Robot carnage and destruction are just awesome. ILM moved a shitload of pretty pixels in the making of this thing.
Deep down inside, I feel that not enough has been written about Transformers or how much everybody hates its director, Michael Bay. Saying you hate Michael Bay is about as original as saying Michael Jackson is slightly weird. But the truth about Bay's films is that they are nearly impossible to take your eyes off of, not always for the right reasons. But you watch them with a sense of "Well, I've never seen that before." TRANSFORMERS is the perfect fit for Bay's brand of ultra-slick action film, where character development doesn't just take a back seat to the special effects and rapid-fire editing; it's actually dragged along behind the movie like a dead carcass. But unlike Bay's previous films (THE ROCK; ARMAGEDDON; PEARL HARBOR; THE ISLAND and the BAD BOYS films) where a little more investment in the characters might have actually made a difference, TRANSFORMERS doesn't require such depths. These alien robots were introduced as toys and a cartoon series, so to pile on motivation and anything beyond a surface-level mythology would be foolish and unnecessary.
Spectacle. The word you'll be looking for is spectacle. Love it or hate it, this movie is pure, unabashed extravaganza, a jaw dropping assimilation of practical special effects, CG and traditional filmmaking blended together in such a way that it will completely redraw the lines of what we believe can be achieved on the screen. Like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Independence Day and The Matrix before it, this movie will change forever what we think can and cannot be done within the medium. And on the whole it is going to go down in history as one of those movies. It is going to make insane money, sell an unbelievable amount of DVD's and be loved by the masses.
We can dispense with the clever tapdancing up front, all the hyperbole, and just cut right to it: TRANSFORMERS is a fun, slick summer movie. It’s very entertaining, and it might as well say “Starring ILM As The Coolest Goddamn Robots You Ever Saw” in the opening credits, because that’s what is going to make the film whatever size hit it is.
It’s good. And that’s not saying “there are good parts in it,” either. I think as a movie, it knows exactly what it’s doing, it does it well, and it manages to avoid the mistakes that a lot of similar recent movies have made. This is not INDEPENDENCE DAY. This is not GODZILLA. I think this movie can only be a good thing for the world of TRANSFORMERS. I think this movie makes it a much larger cultural icon than it’s ever been before. This is not a toy commercial... and don’t get me wrong... it’s not a film, either. It’s a movie. A really, really fun movie.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a chat I had with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of this summer’s TRANSFORMERS, 1408 and STARDUST. This is an interview five years ago I would have put money on never appearing on this website. When di Bonaventura was an exec at Warner Bros he was kind of Harry’s arch-enemy. Harry demanded his resignation on almost a weekly basis, it seemed.
But he dropped out of the suit world and dropped into the producer world and the water is long under the bridge. di Bonaventura has been attaching himself to some good and interesting projects.
I’ll have my own review of TRANSFORMERS up later today, but for now, I’m just going to suggest you wave the white flag and prepare yourself, because resistance is futile.
I know, I know... you don’t believe me. I understand. After all, you guys have been ranting in talkbacks for months now about everything they’ve gotten wrong and there’s no way the film works... right?
Well, let’s check in with Messi, one of the most vocal of the talkback detractors, and the first of them to see the film:
All of the noise and controversy over TRANSFORMERS is going to reach a peak in the next week and a half, and I still haven’t had a chance to see it. But every single person I know who has seen it seems to agree on one thing: the spectacle is genuinely worth seeing.
Now, I’ve talked to people who didn’t care much for the film overall. But I also talked to one guy tonight who just lost his mind for it, saying he’ll see it another five times in the theater. And we continue to get reviews in our inbox, and we’re hearing a fair sampling of reactions there as well. Some have seen it at international premieres, and others at trade or junket screenings.
Get ready, because I think the dam’s about to break on this one, and we’re going to see a ton of TRANSFORMERS reviews in the next few weeks. There are screenings in LA this weekend, and then that big public premiere in a few weeks. It’s going to be interesting to see what people who aren’t deeply attached to the original cartoon make of this one. Everyone I’ve talked to who has seen it so far has been pretty excited by what they’ve seen, fans and non-fans alike. So we’ll see...
I got a chance to see a screening of Transformers this week and it was much better than I was expecting.
Guys, I know how much some of you are invested in hating this one, and who knows how it plays as a film? I know that people are starting to lay eyes on it this weekend, and I’m itching to see it myself. Especially when we see a trailer like this one, which several of you forwarded to me tonight.
I don’t know nothin’ from nothin’ about the source material, but there are images we’re starting to see now that are going to create all-new fans, and if the whole movie delivers that type of mayhem, then count me in.
Hey folks, Harry here... My nephew has gone TRANSFORMERS nuts, even though we're seeing FANTASTIC FOUR 2 tonight. He's fascinated by Bumblebee and Optimus - but I can't wait for him to see the real scenes that are going to kick ass, I hope. But to give you an idea of how tough this movie is for our heroes - here's a new One-Sheet that hopefully is going to be enticing audiences around the world into the movie. Click on the poster below for a higher res version. This just says, "My Movie Kicks More Ass Than Your Movie, Bitch!" Right? I think so... Oh - and this came - compliments of this strange site
Hey folks, Harry here with an early peek at TRANSFORMERS - and daaaaamn I can't wait to see this. Picked up an Optimus voice changing helmet... fantastic for webcam sex chats! Anyways - here ya go... beware of tiny spoilers and some encouraging enthusiasm. Here ya go...
Hi Harry,
You dont know me, but I know you. Ive previously submitted a review for The Host (under the mock-goth pseudonym Womb2Doom which I dont like anymore, fuck you very much) but you greedily kept it to yourself. Whatever
I attended the world premiere (in Sydney, Australia the exclusive owners of the McOz burger) of Transformers last night with Michael Do You Have It In Flames Bay in attendance. He explained that hed just finished the movie 19 minutes ago and that we were the first audience to see the final film.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Out of all the cool things I’ve been able to arrange in regards to TRANSFORMERS there’s something really special about this one. This is the first time I’ve been able to bridge the gap between the big sci-fi movie Michael Bay is making and the original TRANSFORMERS I recognized from my childhood.
I really wish I could have done this interview in person. Maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t able to geek out in front of Peter Cullen, but I would have loved to have been able to put a face to the voice. I’m sure there are pictures out there, but it’s not the same as hearing traces of Optimus Prime come from the lips of a man of flesh and bone.
Escaping from the highly secured coffers of Sector 7 comes this little ditty: a full song, evidently associated with Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS movie. It's a riff on the "Transformers - more than meets the eye" theme.
I can't seem to locate a damn track listing for the artists contributing to the movie's soundtrack, so I'm not sure who this is. Sounds a bit like Linkin Park, maybe? Maybe not. Correct me, confirm me, etc. in the Talkback below.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. This bit just hit the inbox. Looks like Michael Bay has put up about 20 seconds of robot fighting on his personal website.
You can't really get a feel for anything besides the spectacle of the movie. And there's no doubt the spectacle will be amazing. It's just a question of the stuff in-between. Enjoy!
Filmcoyote sent in a look at TRANSFORMERS. He says a lot here, so I won't bore you with an unnecessary preamble - except to remind you that Filmcoyote did not see a final cut of the film. I.e. changes / adjustments may be made to the movie between the version he saw & the final release.
With that...
Here's Filmcoyote!
Hi all, the filmcoyote here again.
Anyway, mentioned having seen Transformers in the 'trailer that shows a lot' Talkback and a couple of Talkbackers said elaborate. It's a slow afternoon so what the hell.
Hey folks, Harry here... in bed... hating on machines as at least 2 lawnmowers and a weedwhacker are going outside my window at the positively indecent hour of 9am. Fuckers! Well, it did cause me to wake up and begin scouring the net looking for cool shit for you... and sure enough there's a new TRANSFORMERS commercial that shows several new cool scenes and a bit of BUMBLEBEE's voice.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Once again SectorSeven.org has a nifty bit of TRANSFORMERS goodness. Right now, they have tons of stuff... click the above link, password: codeblack... my favorites are if you double-click on the red harddrive icon on the left and watch the videos. Some of you might have seen a big to do about this section a couple weeks back because you get a glimpse of a dinobot in one of the videos. The rest are equally fun.
Anyway, the news is some dudes over at Buzznet dug up the International poster. Check below to get a look!
Hey folks, Harry here... The more I think about this - the more excited I get. We get ROBOSAURUS at the Alamo South for our advance screening of TRANSFORMERS.
Now I get it. It's awfully redneck. Well, not really. You see - at those truck rallies and car shows - Robosaurus is out in the middle of a field that a race track goes around. As an audience member - you can only stare at a distance. BUT - at the Alamo Drafthouse South... you'll feel the heat... smell the burning cars... feel the ground tremble beneath the awesome might of Robosaurus.
And the crowd... this isn't a bunch of baseball cap wearing redneck types - it's TRANSFORMER geeks. We got this transforming, car-eating, flame spouting, flashy light Robosaurus to get us in the mood... to fellate our Robot craving mind noodles into a drooling gob of action hungering geek zombies! That's what our Robosaurus event is about. This time, we claim Robosaurus for our own!
Hey folks, Harry here... if you get the above headline - and the posters below and actually laugh - CONGRATS - cuz it's me having fun with Robot faces. Below we have 3 International Posters for Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS. I really prefer these straight on shots to the profiles of the domestic release posters. And I hear there is one more International Poster that is kinda STAR WARS-y that's yet to debut. Dagnabbit! Also - if you catch the MTV MOVIE AWARDS - you're gonna see a new scene from the film.
Meanwhile - for those of you, like me, that are dying for the ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE's Mega-Uber-Supreme Advance Screening of TRANSFORMERS with ROBOSAURUS eating cars and spewing out 60 ft of flame into the sky... well look no further than the Alamo Drafthouse's Own Page about it! It's going to rock like you won't believe! Now - here are these posters!
