I still really like the Transformers movies

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > I still really like the Transformers movies

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Lord Krangdar posted:

Remember, they're Transformers. They transform their appearances and personalities based on Earth culture. Again, that's not even subtext its just the basic premise. The progression you point out between films just means the second film made the not-even-subtext even more blatant, but people still didn't get it.

It's exactly that. Remember, Barricade observed American law enforcement and then disguised himself as a police car with the slogan, "To punish and enslave" on the side.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 06:21

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 01:17

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Considering that the Autobots learned our language by reading the internet, the twins were pretty tame really.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 01:40

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Sprecherscrow posted:

In the theater I found Transformers 2 headache inducing, particularly the final segment in the desert. I felt like the kid in The Men Who Stare At Goats that Spacey doses and assaults with strobes. (Yes I'm aware The Men Who Stare At Goats came out afterwards, I'm just making a point.) It was sensory bombardment.

I think one of the more unfortunate things about these movies is that in the first film there's that little montage of the Autobots coming to Earth and assuming various forms based on quick scans of the internet. Pretty much the entire cultural context of the characters across all the films stem from this idea, but it whizzes by so fast it doesn't seem particularly important at the time. Two years later it probably isn't going to come to mind and Transformers 2 doesn't do much to reinforce it.

The scans weren't always quick. Bumblebee can't speak because he saw the goatse side of the internet. Ratchet can't fix it because he doesn't know what caused it. How could you truly describe that to someone? If Bumblebee could vocalize his thoughts, it would be a blood curdling scream

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 21:50

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Sprecherscrow posted:

He knew enough of both the English language and American popular culture to construct sentences out of audio samples. That alone doesn't make you incorrect, but he couldn't have only seen the "goatse side" because he had a grasp of various films, tv shows, and songs. Regardless, it's only a minute or two of the run time and doesn't seem as important in context as it actually is. Doesn't make it bad, just makes it a difficult reading to see at first glance.

Oh I don't think that his first look at the internet was the worst of the worst, but he had been on Earth for a number of years searching for the allspark. At some point he went down that rabbit hole. It's interesting that Bumblebee's "voice" is made up of stuff that has been or is being broadcast and thus (mostly) censored, yet he's incredibly violent and also urinates on people.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 02:28

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Ever since I heard the title of the movie, I've wondered if it's referring to the Cybertronian race.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 01:40

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Complete humantian and has spent the last X years providing aid to war-torn countries.

I'm imagining Galvatron helping build houses with Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity in Africa or wherever.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 00:55

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

MisterBibs posted:

Because Megatron needed it to wage war on the galaxy, enslave the universe, etc.

Now you're just making things up.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 05:59

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Daryl Surat posted:

There is a simple solution to this, though, and it's the solution that was originally proposed for this movie but couldn't be implemented due to scheduling conflicts: bring in The Rock next time.

Transformers 5: Pain and Gain 2. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

You suggest bringing The Rock into the next Transformers movie and don't make it a G.I. JOE crossover? For shame.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 16:30

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Daryl Surat posted:

Although that's the most likely scenario by which it'd happen, I deliberately omitted that on the grounds that Cobra in the GI Joe movies is far more effectual and killed far, far more people than the Decepticons have.

Fair enough, though the Decepticons could also be pulling their punches.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 18:55

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

MisterBibs posted:

Even the worst stereotype of the Muslim people doesn't hold a candle to the horribleness that is told-by-trustworthy-sources/depicted on the screen in the four Transformers film by Decepticons.

You're making the mistake of sympathizing with the humans* in the Transformers movies. They brought Megatron's wrath down upon them by imprisoning him for decades for no reason at all.

*Actually it's just America, but the movies pretty much equate humanity with America.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 21:59

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

MisterBibs posted:

He came here to find the power that allowed him to restart a war of galactic control and domination. Said war only delayed because of the actions of the protagonists, the Autobots.

Sympathy for Megatron and the Decepticons? /

Megatron wanted the AllSpark to save his race from extinction. Only Optimus Prime claimed that Megatron wanted to use the AllSpark to turn Earth's machines into an army. Megatron crashed on Earth thousands of years before humans invented machines and he's immediately frozen and out of contact with everyone until he's freed from human imprisonment. Optimus cannot possibly know what Megatron's intentions are so he lied to get Sam (and other humans) on his side.

3 posted:

You mean to find the power to save the Cybertronian race from extinction, right? This isn't even subtext, this is literally text that the film outright yells at you in TF1: the Allspark is the genesis of all Transformer life. Optimus Prime shot it into space, Megatron went to go find it.

The films never explicitly state that Optimus was the one who shot the AllSpark into space, but it sure is implied with his "it was 'lost'" line and his insistence that it be destroyed rather than be captured by Megatron.

Ash1138 fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jun 30, 2014

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 23:29

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

3 posted:

Even beyond just the metatextual discussion going on here, even people who like the franchise as a whole have consistently been shocked/appalled by Optimus Prime and the Autobots' behavior in the films. "GIVE ME YOUR FACE" is not something a heroic, noble entity shouts in the heat of battle, regardless of how bad the supposed villain is.

To crib on what K. Waste was saying, I think it might be exactly that. Optimus has been described here as a "warrior king" and the movies have identified him as both a "knight" and a member of the ruling caste of an empire. So by medieval sensibilities, he'd be quite the heroic noble, at least to those who look to him for protection. This does not automatically make him good nor virtuous; he is a liar and murders the helpless.

PBCrunch posted:

The man-made Transformers were quite disappointing. For some reason Galvatron was a complete badass but all the synthetic robots were incredibly weak. The stream-of-particles transformations were terrible, but it was much worse that these characters did not take advantage of this ability in battle at all. The first time I saw this ability, I expected to see robots that could effectively teleport away from attacks.

Well all of them except Galvatron and Stinger were noted as "civilian" models, so they probably weren't as good as the two military prototypes.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 05:07

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

This looks bonkers and I cannot wait.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 15:39

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

You ever seen a planet get its face ripped off? You're about to.

Should be the tagline of the movie

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 19:12

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

YggiDee posted:

I can't tell if I enjoy these movies or if I just enjoy the weird alternate narrative this thread conceived around them.

I was certainly thinking of this thread when Optimus Prime bellowed "WE'RE GIVING YOU FREEDOM!" while punching Grimlock in the head.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 22:57

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I mean the narrative of this thread for these movies focused on faces and then the trailer for the 4th came out and Lockown's face literally turns into a gun. It was pretty loving obvious we're on the right track.

Turned into a gun and shot Optimus Prime, no less. I'm so glad that actually happened in the movie and wasn't just out of context editing for the trailer.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

"Honor to the end" immediately after stabbing Lockdown in the back and cutting his face in half

YES

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 23:39

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Milky Moor posted:

I have nothing against Marvel, but I absolutely prefer the sheer balls-to-the-wall energy of the Transformers films. The plots are as bizarre as they are exciting, an excuse for wicked imagery and cool sequences, and characters just die en-masse with the world changing irrevocably in every film. Compare that to Marvel's cinematic universe where, outside of on-the-nose call backs, the world feels slow and stagnant and you know that, even if Tony Stark and Captain American come to blows, things will be okay by the time they take on Thanos (whom you know is coming up, because every Marvel film feels like an exercise in what's coming next - what's the next after-credits, what's the next movie, etc.)

That's probably what's got me most excited for this movie, though I'm unsure of how far they'll go with it.

Milky Moor posted:

It's like how, increasingly, Megatron is depicted as an idealistic but violent revolutionary who wanted to overthrow Cybertron's corrupt elite and their brutal caste system and Optimus is the guy who, despite his talk of freedom, is basically the boot stomping him down. It's not as if the Bay films are the only ones maybe pointing out the tension in the setting.

Optimus described pre-civil Cybertronian civilization to Sam and Mikela as a "peaceful empire" which is a really curious phrase to use when advocating freedom for all. Didn't he yammer something at some point about self-determination before blowing up an "illegal middle east nuclear site (probably in Carbombya)" in a later film?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 18:57

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

The MSJ posted:

Yes.

mbisonyes.gif

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 16:36

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 01:17

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

mashed_penguin posted:

Onslaught. And the 6 mini devilbots that prime wastes in one swipe. I can't remember what that characters name is dante or infernicus or something.

Thanks, for all the poo poo bayformers takes they are fun to work on for cg nerds.

prime yelled �did you forget who i am?!� right before decapitating those guys lmao

# ¿ Dec 22, 2018 02:45

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > I still really like the Transformers movies