The Energon Pub

Earlier tonight a few of us went over to a buddy's house to watch the season premiers of The Simpsons & Family Guy, and low & behold, he had Transformers playing on his crazy ass huge widescreen TV in full surround sound glory when I walked in. And not just a handycam download - a rip of the official widescreen DVD, complete with the startup menu & all. I'm guessing this is what the regular single disc edition and Disc 1 of the double disc edition looks like since it's pretty basic - chapter selection, audio setup, etc.

The menu consists of an opening shot of the robot eye from all the posters with all sorts of gears & gizmos moving inside it, then transitioning into a rotating pan shot of Prime's forearm and hand holding the Allspark with various moving images of the movie fading in & out around it, backed by the symphonic score of the movie. When you click any of the menu selections, the Allspark starts to shift & transform before displaying the next set of options.

But here's the biggest surprise for me: while the movie obviously looks & sounds great blah blah blah, they DID NOT change Devastator's name back to Brawl. I was positive that the error would have been fixed for the DVD, but evidentially not. Considering the writers, Hasbro and even Bay all acknowledged that it was indeed an oversight mistake, I'm pretty surprised to still see it in the DVD, especially since it's just subtitle text - something that is, I presumed, relatively easy to change. It should be interesting to find out why they left it as-is.

Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased that I have the movie in hand, but am still looking forward to buying the 2-disc edition in a couple of weeks for all the bonus feature stuff and metal tin box (Future Shop version). Just thought I would offer a bit of a limited advance review of what to (and not to) expect from the DVD for anyone anxious to know.

Ah, the thing is, how did the pirates manage to rip the Official DVD before it's even out?

I doubt that that's the Official one. After all, there are some pirated copies that are extremely clear, audio and visually.

I saw it too. It's a dvd, dvd quality w/ surround sound. And yeah it still said Devastator.

Nemesis Optronix wrote:Ah, the thing is, how did the pirates manage to rip the Official DVD before it's even out?

DVD's are just like virtually everything else sold on a mass market level like CD's, toys, etc. They are fully manufactured a minimum of 1-2 months before they hit the streets and are eventually sold to the public. This way the companies who make them have time to compensate for possible defects, send out promo copies, load stock with distributors so they get to stores on time, etc.

It's no different than how leaked copies of new CD albums surface months before their official street dates, or in our case, how so many toys are available via eBay months before they ever hit stores shelves. Someone at the manufacturing plants and/or distributors obviously steal copies and put them online.

I doubt that that's the Official one. After all, there are some pirated copies that are extremely clear, audio and visually.

True enough, but they don't have fully functional menus with audio & visual display options, bonus features such as trailers (this one has the new Iron Man trailer on it), so on & so forth. At best you'll get a pirated version with chapter selection, but that's it.

Trust me, when you buy the DVD in a few more weeks, it will be exactly as I described it.

cellshock wrote:True enough, but they don't have fully functional menus with audio & visual display options, bonus features such as trailers (this one has the new Iron Man trailer on it), so on & so forth. At best you'll get a pirated version with chapter selection, but that's it.

I once saw a Star Wars Ep3 one that even had 3 trailers, subtitle selections, director commentary, audio selection.
And it surfaced just 1 week after SW3 started screening.

Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

Robinson wrote:Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

I do not recall ever seeing this. Can you eleblorate?

Neko wrote:

Robinson wrote:Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

I do not recall ever seeing this. Can you eleblorate?

Basically Bay said "I like this name better" and left it at that.

Robinson wrote:

Neko wrote:

Robinson wrote:Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

I do not recall ever seeing this. Can you eleblorate?

Basically Bay said "I like this name better" and left it at that.

I thats the only reason then I hope TF2 fails JUST so Bay can get kicked out of the picture.

Robinson wrote:

Neko wrote:

Robinson wrote:Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

I do not recall ever seeing this. Can you eleblorate?

Basically Bay said "I like this name better" and left it at that.

Okaaay.... I don't remember hearing that one at all.

I do remember just before the Australian Premier (like 30 minutes before it aired) Bay said that he had literally "just finished the final edit", and it still contained the mistake. Thats as close as I can remember anything like what you've suggested happening.

i_amtrunks wrote:

Robinson wrote:

Neko wrote:

Robinson wrote:Bay acknowledged that Devastator was in fact the final name.

I do not recall ever seeing this. Can you eleblorate?

Basically Bay said "I like this name better" and left it at that.

Okaaay.... I don't remember hearing that one at all.

I do remember just before the Australian Premier (like 30 minutes before it aired) Bay said that he had literally "just finished the final edit", and it still contained the mistake. Thats as close as I can remember anything like what you've suggested happening.

Basically the "austrailian mistake" was just lip service because according to Orci he was told that it needed to be changed and maybe it slipped his mind and he forgot to change it but then it became "Official"

I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble believing that. I'm not doubting Bay could have said it, I certainly wouldn't put it past him.


Hasbro made and marketed the toy as Brawl. It seems more plausable that the whole whole Devastator name mis-match was a mistake on the editor's part (ot whoever does the subtitles) for useing the code name instead of the real name, more then it is that Bay was lip servicing us. He could just be lazy and not want to admit fault in something too.But where does Hasbro naming the toy 'Brawl' come into the 'lip servicing' argument?

Neko wrote:I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble believing that. I'm not doubting Bay could have said it, I certainly wouldn't put it past him.


Hasbro made and marketed the toy as Brawl. It seems more plausable that the whole whole Devastator name mis-match was a mistake on the editor's part (ot whoever does the subtitles) for useing the code name instead of the real name, more then it is that Bay was lip servicing us. He could just be lazy and not want to admit fault in something too.But where does Hasbro naming the toy 'Brawl' come into the 'lip servicing' argument?

For all intents and purposes Brawl was set in stone and then Bay decided to change it. There is a post from Orci that they told Bay twice in the editing room about the subtitle and it still went to the final print. So it could be a mistake that Bay played up, or it could've been intentional from the start.

I meant Bay was givung us lip service by saying that it was a mistake in australia when it could've been planned all along.

Maybe Brawl has delusions of grandeur and likes calling himself Devastator?

Robinson wrote:

Neko wrote:I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble believing that. I'm not doubting Bay could have said it, I certainly wouldn't put it past him.


Hasbro made and marketed the toy as Brawl. It seems more plausable that the whole whole Devastator name mis-match was a mistake on the editor's part (ot whoever does the subtitles) for useing the code name instead of the real name, more then it is that Bay was lip servicing us. He could just be lazy and not want to admit fault in something too.But where does Hasbro naming the toy 'Brawl' come into the 'lip servicing' argument?

For all intents and purposes Brawl was set in stone and then Bay decided to change it. There is a post from Orci that they told Bay twice in the editing room about the subtitle and it still went to the final print. So it could be a mistake that Bay played up, or it could've been intentional from the start.

I meant Bay was givung us lip service by saying that it was a mistake in australia when it could've been planned all along.

Ah, well that I can believe.