Milky Moor posted:

So, here are my TRANSFORMERS 5 thoughts.

This film is somehow both the most generic of the Transformers films and the most bizarre. I do not think it bodes well for the "cinematic universe" Hasbro wants to create and I feel like this film is flawed because of Hasbro trying to set up a wider cinematic universe. For what it's worth my partner, who hated the previous films and almost refused to see this one, thinks this one was great. As she puts it, this is Bay with the edges filed down to a safe, pleasant line.

The robot-on-robot combat is bizarrely perfunctory. I'm not sure there are any robot-on-robot fights that last more than thirty seconds. For a lot of them, it is almost everything you've seen in the trailers. To me, this is a massive disappointment. It feels like they had to cut down every single scene in this film to get the run time to what it is, and the robot fights were basically cut down to "fight starts, fight ending money shot". There is nothing in it like the forest fight in TF2, Prime carving up Shockwave in TF3 or Prime fighting Lockdown in TF4. What makes this more obvious is that Drift and Crosshairs vanish from the last twenty minutes of the film. One of the spoilers I read earlier was that they were killed by Megatron. Otherwise, not a single Autobot dies or really suffers. Comparing this to the previous films is strange.

And yet this is also the film that by far spends the most time on the robots. The new Decepticons get this strangely in-depth intro sequence -- but half of them are killed in maybe thirty seconds in single shots in their first fight and the other half do nothing of consequence and Barricade, again, vanishes from the film during the halfway point. That last point, however, might be intentional.

The action is strange, too. There's nothing in it like the highway chase scene in TF3 where the kinetic motion and the pounding soundtrack just takes you in and obliterates your senses. Everything feels safe and generic.

The film obviously suffers from being three scripts combined. It sashays between Michael Bay Presents: Monty Python's Holy Grail, Michael Bay Presents: The Da Vinci Code, Michael Bay Presents: Transformers In Time, and Michael Bay Presents: Transformers 5. There is obviously so much stuff cut out. Every single scene feels like it was cut down to the bone, and a lot of the cool stuff got nicked in the process. That's not to say there aren't nice things in the film. Anthony Hopkins just steals the show despite him just delivering So Much Exposition. Wahlberg is fun. Cogman is a neat character. The film delivers on total insanity with the whole thing with Earth and Cybertron and Unicron and all of that. If anyone had expected how the film was going to end, and some of the events that took place, well, congratulations on writing the script. In that sense, it is decidedly like the previous films: the events cannot be walked backwards, the status quo is forever changed.

And yet it is so unlike the previous films.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but... Michael Bay has let me down. If this is the sort of thing he'd be making going forward, I'm not surprised he's apparently serious about this being the last. This is Michael Bay who has been asked to tone it down and it feels like it. This is Michael Bay being told to make it more like Marvel.

I can live with a lot of things in a Transformers film. All I really want is a great Jablonsky soundtrack while Bay blows my senses away with fighting robots. I didn't really get that. I cannot get over how short and perfunctory the robot-on-robot scenes were. The showdown with Prime and Megatron is literally Megatron pins Prime down, Prime cuts off his arm and kicks him away in the space of maybe twenty seconds.

TF2 was a glorious trainwreck. TF5 just... exists.


Yeah. "That submarine is a Transformer!" says someone.

It never transforms. It never speaks or is given a name. It is never mentioned again. The Bay films aren't usually this sloppy.

Goddamn, the movie even has a Marvel-esque 'You better come to the next movie to find out what this means!' mid-credits scene.

I'm an addict who wanted the good poo poo and I've had it cut with flour. It's so clean and safe! gently caress.

Birdstrike posted:

here's the paragraphs you need:

DancingShade posted:

The best transformers already exists anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1_6D9QS9Y

Bogan King posted:

Bogan King posted:

AgentF posted:

If he does then he's charging the taxpayer for things that have nothing to do with his job or being in government. The LNP appear to be so comfortable with ripping off the taxpaying that it happens at both high-level and low-.

Whitlam posted:

Oh sure I agree, but if the alternative is that he's buying them for himself to read...

Solemn Sloth posted:

Better that than ayn rand or Andrew bolt

Don Dongington posted:

Also is anyone else kinda disgusted that Larissa Waters breastfeeding in the senate chamber is considered anything other than business as usual in this backwards cousinfuck of a country? I mean I get it she's from Queensland where it's probably illegal but still.

Bogan King posted:

It would be Bundy in that bottle and we all know it.

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

Quick google search says at least in NSW state parliament they can drink on the job and do.

Zenithe posted:

Can you drink in parliament? I assume not or everyone would.

starkebn posted:

Bogan King posted:

https://twitter.com/CEOSleepout/status/877812107168763904

Anidav posted:

Okay schools need more funding because most public schools haven't had a makeover since the early 2000s-

Zenithe posted:

Can you drink in parliament? I assume not or everyone would.

GoldStandardConure posted:

When the drug testing for welfare recipients plan first came out, Scott Ludlam was talking about how many senators just get completely shitfaced during late night senate sessions or estimate hearings.

Bogan King posted:

Check out the new citizenship questions

quote:

NATHAN BIRCH IS SELLING HIS PROPERTIES?



For a long time now, I’ve been collecting properties like kids collect action figurines in a happy meal. I never like to see one go.



But recently, the finance environment has changed…

It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a buy and hold investor – but I need to optimize to suite the times we are in by letting go.

Just to be perfectly clear this doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped buying! Far from it, last year alone I did $10 M in new property purchases. This year I am looking at spending $6 – 7 M on new properties.

However, I see this stage in my investment journey as graduating from my ‘foundation’ portfolio into a development phase.

Personally, I am interested in buying anything that I can develop into a bigger property in the future.




WHY AM I SELLING MY PROPERTIES?

Now, I’m not selling up because my grand plan has failed, vindicating the ‘negative Norman’s’ out there.

Not at all! I can sit on this portfolio and ride these finance changes out without breaking a sweat, but that doesn’t sit well with me. I want more!

I want to keep moving in a market where almost every investor is stuck in quick sand – even if that means selling.

For years now I have been channeling equity into deposits for new properties, but it’s no secret that equity is very hard to release these days – even if you have millions of dollars of it!

The reason behind this is serviceability restrictions. Anytime you withdraw equity, you need to show income to service that new loan. Sadly, the banks don’t value rental income as highly as they once did.

The fail-safe way to access equity today for anyone with a large portfolio is plain old-fashioned selling.

The cash can be used to buy up new properties better suited to the current market. For me that’s anything I can develop and flip for a chunky cash profit.