The Energon Pub

Ultra Markus wrote:and another thing that article was an insult to every tf or sci-fi fan
"Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." If these fans embrace a project, as they did 300 and Heroes, they can kick-start a hit."

what a bunch of B.S.

How is it b.s.? Hard core fans are in fact a very small niche when compared to the general public. I think one thing that some people do is put a little too much stock in how big their "hobby" is and get upset when people calll them toys and things for kids because that is the reality and general concensus

At least the TF writers felt they were big enough geeks to ignore the entire TF canon. I guess they know better then 25 years of development...

Ack! Sorry this negativity is pointless. But it does seem everyone involved in this project got a little too big for their breeches.

Good article.

This movie is going to be great! Thanks to all the hard work that the crew put into it. I'm sorry that there are people out there that can not see beyond their own shallow expectations and do not understand that every incarnation of Transformers has been different than the one before it. Forgive those that have criticised your hard work all along. For they can do no better.

LuckytheWonderLlama wrote:Good article.

This movie is going to be great! Thanks to all the hard work that the crew put into it. I'm sorry that there are people out there that can not see beyond their own shallow expectations and do not understand that every incarnation of Transformers has been different than the one before it. Forgive those that have criticised your hard work all along. For they can do no better.

Exactly, what is the point of 25 years of canon if it is nothing but different universes and alternate timelines that rewrites itself as it see fit. Between the old marvel comic, the cartoon, the newer stuff there is no canon but merely origins and deaths that fit in with the current storyline at the time. People want to cry and whine because its different and the quote of "people fear change" is an ideal example of how a lot of the fandom is acting, a lot of people have had change of hearts and some are still adament but no matter who made the movie and who did the designs someone will always complain about something.


Edit: Theres a reason "they" are writing movies and "we" are on websites dissecting their every decision.

.....why do people think that to be a fan of something, you have to remain a virgin??

(For those that don't know, I'm married & have 2 kids, BTW)

Ultra Markus wrote:and another thing that article was an insult to every tf or sci-fi fan
"Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." If these fans embrace a project, as they did 300 and Heroes, they can kick-start a hit."

what a bunch of B.S.

Because Avi Arad obviously has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to these types of movies.

I guess it could be considered true that the fans had major input in the making of this film... if you completely ignore all the dedicated fanboards and only count Bay fans and the 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is totally underrated and your puerile namecalling is the pinnacle of high humor, Mr. Murphy' crowd that posts on his board as 'hardcore fans'.

1Big\"F\"ingRayOfSunshine wrote:
Exactly, what is the point of 25 years of canon if it is nothing but different universes and alternate timelines that rewrites itself as it see fit. Between the old marvel comic, the cartoon, the newer stuff there is no canon but merely origins and deaths that fit in with the current storyline at the time. People want to cry and whine because its different and the quote of "people fear change" is an ideal example of how a lot of the fandom is acting, a lot of people have had change of hearts and some are still adament but no matter who made the movie and who did the designs someone will always complain about something.


Edit: Theres a reason "they" are writing movies and "we" are on websites dissecting their every decision.

The canon of the G1 cartoon and various comics differed, true, but the overall premise and characters (including their general appearance) remained the same. Yes, the post Beast-Wars lines are all alternate universe but does anyone above the age of 13 really hold either the cartoon or the comic Armada/Energon/Cybertron series in as high regard as the G1 tie-ins? Is there even an Armada/Energon comic anymore?

It's like, if a Gundam movie initially declared to be UC is made and when it turns out to be a mix of Seed and G-Gundam, going "look, it's Gundam, it's constantly changed over the years with different canons and universes, get over it".


Also, Family Circus, Fusco Brothers, and Garfield still run in the paper every day in spite of the fact that Garfield hasn't been funny for at least as long as I've been alive and Family Circus and Fusco Brothers have never been. Is there a reason Bill Keane writes comic strips and I don't? Maybe, but either way Family Circus still sucks.

Ultra Markus wrote:and another thing that article was an insult to every tf or sci-fi fan
"Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." If these fans embrace a project, as they did 300 and Heroes, they can kick-start a hit."

what a bunch of B.S.

Actually it's no where near BS. This film, like most others are made for the general public. In this case, I'm actually kinda glad for certain changes. Yeah some of the designs suck, and the story isn't totally G1, but the movie if successful will make sure TF's are around even longer.

Let's look at Firefly. That was made totally for the fans, and it flopped. Now there's really nothing going on for it or the Serenity series. If TF went the same way, I'd hate to say it, that would kill the franchise. In truth, for this movie, we are a very small fraction of the audience, and if this fails you know Hasbro's would pull the plug on TF's all together. I guess I'm saying I'd rather deal with some change if it's gonna create longevity for the fanchise as whole.

D-340 wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:and another thing that article was an insult to every tf or sci-fi fan
"Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." If these fans embrace a project, as they did 300 and Heroes, they can kick-start a hit."

what a bunch of B.S.

Actually it's no where near BS. This film, like most others are made for the general public. In this case, I'm actually kinda glad for certain changes. Yeah some of the designs suck, and the story isn't totally G1, but the movie if successful will make sure TF's are around even longer.

Let's look at Firefly. That was made totally for the fans, and it flopped. Now there's really nothing going on for it or the Serenity series. If TF went the same way, I'd hate to say it, that would kill the franchise. In truth, for this movie, we are a very small fraction of the audience, and if this fails you know Hasbro's would pull the plug on TF's all together. I guess I'm saying I'd rather deal with some change if it's gonna create longevity for the fanchise as whole.

Serenity is probably a bad example as it was based on a television show with a small cult following that lasted less than a full season to begin with, whereas adaptations of comics are generally less accessible to the mainstream than a primetime t.v. show.

I agree that certain changes were necessary to making a successful film adaptation but it's a matter of what is changed. Removing the mass shifting was probably necessary but replacing energon with a magical relic... that's questionable. There's a fine line between organic web-shooters and turning King Koopa and his goombas into dino-men and by ignoring fan input that line is far too easy to tread over.

Salazaar wrote:

GetterDragun wrote:We got Cullen in Time Magazine. Mission accomplished.

Hugo Weaving playing a frozen metal vagina. Mission accomplished!

That's terribly crass. How does Megatron resemble a vagina?

Anyway, I find it hard to believe that the fans had a significant effect on the movie. That just isn't the way films work. However, if we have had some effect, that's a good thing. Maybe that even means the film could have been worse.

Perosnally, I'm glad we have new stuff. I'm glad there's a new continuity. I'm not keen on all of the designs but I like most of them.

I certainly don't see this film as being as far removed from its core as Super Mario Bros., though why they changed the simple energon idea into the Allspark cube is beyond me.

Hahaha you guys are too much sometimes. Thanks for the laugh though.

AbsumZer0 wrote:

D-340 wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:and another thing that article was an insult to every tf or sci-fi fan
"Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." If these fans embrace a project, as they did 300 and Heroes, they can kick-start a hit."

what a bunch of B.S.

Actually it's no where near BS. This film, like most others are made for the general public. In this case, I'm actually kinda glad for certain changes. Yeah some of the designs suck, and the story isn't totally G1, but the movie if successful will make sure TF's are around even longer.

Let's look at Firefly. That was made totally for the fans, and it flopped. Now there's really nothing going on for it or the Serenity series. If TF went the same way, I'd hate to say it, that would kill the franchise. In truth, for this movie, we are a very small fraction of the audience, and if this fails you know Hasbro's would pull the plug on TF's all together. I guess I'm saying I'd rather deal with some change if it's gonna create longevity for the fanchise as whole.

Serenity is probably a bad example as it was based on a television show with a small cult following that lasted less than a full season to begin with, whereas adaptations of comics are generally less accessible to the mainstream than a primetime t.v. show.

I agree that certain changes were necessary to making a successful film adaptation but it's a matter of what is changed. Removing the mass shifting was probably necessary but replacing energon with a magical relic... that's questionable. There's a fine line between organic web-shooters and turning King Koopa and his goombas into dino-men and by ignoring fan input that line is far too easy to tread over.

Oh, you're definately right about the Energon/Allspark deal. That's one of the things I don't like. ut I wounldn't go as far as to compare this to the Super Mario Bros. movie though. It's not that far removed from the source material as a whole(not just G1, but all the incarnations of TF).

Leonardo wrote:

Salazaar wrote:

GetterDragun wrote:We got Cullen in Time Magazine. Mission accomplished.

Hugo Weaving playing a frozen metal vagina. Mission accomplished!

That's terribly crass. How does Megatron resemble a vagina?

Anyway, I find it hard to believe that the fans had a significant effect on the movie. That just isn't the way films work. However, if we have had some effect, that's a good thing. Maybe that even means the film could have been worse.

Perosnally, I'm glad we have new stuff. I'm glad there's a new continuity. I'm not keen on all of the designs but I like most of them.

I certainly don't see this film as being as far removed from its core as Super Mario Bros., though why they changed the simple energon idea into the Allspark cube is beyond me.

It's because that was one of the few thing they listened to the fans about. Anybody that knows peanuts about TFs knows that energon is their food, so to speak, not their source of life. I believe at one point, they were even considering calling it the Matrix, but didn't want to confuse standard moviegoers into thinking that it had any relation to the movie trillogy of the same name (Why they couldn't call it the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, ot the Creation Matrix or something like that is beyond me), so instead they referenced something in the TF mythos that, IIRC was a source of life for TFs, which is essentially what they were going for storywise anyway.

....Would've been nice if they managed to figure this stuff out before they made the Allspark just a black cube.....

.....BTW, considering how much Bay has been trashing the older "blocky" designs of the previous TF designs, anybody else find it kind of funny that all these overly-complicated non-blocky Bayformers are searching for a simple cube....the very essence of "block"??

Nemesis Cyberplex wrote:

Leonardo wrote:

Salazaar wrote:

GetterDragun wrote:We got Cullen in Time Magazine. Mission accomplished.

Hugo Weaving playing a frozen metal vagina. Mission accomplished!

That's terribly crass. How does Megatron resemble a vagina?

Anyway, I find it hard to believe that the fans had a significant effect on the movie. That just isn't the way films work. However, if we have had some effect, that's a good thing. Maybe that even means the film could have been worse.

Perosnally, I'm glad we have new stuff. I'm glad there's a new continuity. I'm not keen on all of the designs but I like most of them.

I certainly don't see this film as being as far removed from its core as Super Mario Bros., though why they changed the simple energon idea into the Allspark cube is beyond me.

It's because that was one of the few thing they listened to the fans about. Anybody that knows peanuts about TFs knows that energon is their food, so to speak, not their source of life. I believe at one point, they were even considering calling it the Matrix, but didn't want to confuse standard moviegoers into thinking that it had any relation to the movie trillogy of the same name (Why they couldn't call it the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, ot the Creation Matrix or something like that is beyond me), so instead they referenced something in the TF mythos that, IIRC was a source of life for TFs, which is essentially what they were going for storywise anyway.

....Would've been nice if they managed to figure this stuff out before they made the Allspark just a black cube.....

.....BTW, considering how much Bay has been trashing the older "blocky" designs of the previous TF designs, anybody else find it kind of funny that all these overly-complicated non-blocky Bayformers are searching for a simple cube....the very essence of "block"??

I hadn't thought of that!

I am confused by what you say, though. At what point, with regards to the Allspark, did they listen to fans? Are you talking about how they changed the name from Energon Cube to Allspark?

Anyway, I don't see why the TFs had to be searching for their source of life. It seems pointlessly grand. Why not just have them searching for energon, that which keeps them alive?

not sure i buy that article but id like to think weve had a had in some for of the char development

Anybody else not a fan of the whole "Prime/Megs ruled Cybertron together"? Cos I'm not

decepticon_king wrote:Anybody else not a fan of the whole "Prime/Megs ruled Cybertron together"? Cos I'm not

Yeah, it doesn't quite make sense when you think about it. Maybe G1 Prime and Megs I could see (but not really), but could you even imagine 2 bots with those designs working together to rule a planet?

I've accepted it now, but it's just a bit hard to envision.

The fan involment of Transformers the Movie (2007) was little. The only thing that they barely keep the same was Prime. i can understand that Bumblebee alt mode is a camero instead of a VW Bug. I wish Bumblebee alt mode was a Mini Cooper. Starscream look like a Beast Wars reject from the anime Beast Wars series.

Ultra Convoy wrote:The fan involment of Transformers the Movie (2007) was little. The only thing that they barely keep the same was Prime. i can understand that Bumblebee alt mode is a camero instead of a VW Bug. I wish Bumblebee alt mode was a Mini Cooper. Starscream look like a Beast Wars reject from the anime Beast Wars series.

Seeing your post count allow me to be the first to welcome you here to Seibertron.com! Anyways, I don't know if you know but Bumblebee isn't a Volkswagon because Michael Bay thinks Volkswagon is too much "Herbie the Love Bug" thing. Now in my opinion I think anyone who knew hardly anything about Transformers would look at a Volkswagon and know it's Bumblebee.

On another hand when I wanted a new Transformer movie I specifically rather see recognizable characters than a bajillion of moving parts forming an ape-chicken-pig hybrid.

Fireblast wrote:

Ultra Convoy wrote:The fan involment of Transformers the Movie (2007) was little. The only thing that they barely keep the same was Prime. i can understand that Bumblebee alt mode is a camero instead of a VW Bug. I wish Bumblebee alt mode was a Mini Cooper. Starscream look like a Beast Wars reject from the anime Beast Wars series.

Seeing your post count allow me to be the first to welcome you here to Seibertron.com! Anyways, I don't know if you know but Bumblebee isn't a Volkswagon because Michael Bay thinks Volkswagon is too much "Herbie the Love Bug" thing. Now in my opinion I think anyone who knew hardly anything about Transformers would look at a Volkswagon and know it's Bumblebee.

On another hand when I wanted a new Transformer movie I specifically rather see recognizable characters than a bajillion of moving parts forming an ape-chicken-pig hybrid.

Two other things:

1) VW considers TFs to be "war mongers," meaning they don't want their product involved in such a project.

2) Bay has a good working relationship with GM, so the vehicles used reflect that.

In one word: hardly.

Volkwagen are silly ol fools.

A robot fighting for peace, is about 8 foot (don't quote me on that) in G1, and is friends with loadsa humans is a war-monger?

Silly Germans, hey?

As a fan , I agree that if we didn't support Transformers, there wouldn't have been a franchise from which to make a movie. That being said , I'm still looking forward to the movie this summer. I believe , that once new fans see the movie, there's a possibility that they'll become interested in the entire spectrum of Transformers. We may not have the influence we would have liked to have on the movie, but we can influence the future of any future Transfoormers movie.

Ok, I support this movie, and I'm glad, it's going to be a hit. Helps keep Transformers alive, but hopefully not these Bayformers for long. Still, with all my heart and soul, we didn't influence at all, to the story or designs of this movie, we influenced the money making dream machines. Sadly, I think it's going to be kinda lame when it all comes down, but thank goodness for explosions, or eye opening effects, and some what decent actors. Horray for another lame but cool summer flick. Which I hope, won't be lame at all, gosh... I hope not.

What influence?