The Energon Pub

[RaYdeX]

Hi all, I'm fairly new, and rarely post... But when I just won a preview screening of the first 22 minutes of the new Transformers movie.. I had to come and tell you/brag...

Paramount were running a special promotion, on another forum I frequent (nothing to do with transformers ironically enough) and I entered.. then won !

So yeah ! Tomorrow night, I get to see the first 22 minutes of the movie ! Plus another movie I've never heard of... Meh...

They were very adamant that no recording devices e.g., phones & cameras were to be taken in.. But I'll be sure to post back and let you know what its like !

[Neko]

Wow. Congrads.

What forum was it?

[Decepticon Spike]

Why only the first 22 minutes?

[TheMuffin]

You sure it's not the 22 minutes that Ryan and other big timers got to see about a month ago? That'd be more impressive to say the least.

[RaYdeX]

Heres the thread from the forum with the information.
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp? ... 104384&p=0

I'm in Australia, so its an Australian site, but I think there is still a Melbourne showing coming up.

And upon re-reading it, it looks like it is just "22 minutes" not necessarily the "first" 22 minutes, Dunno where I got that idea from ?!?!

So I'm not really sure what to expect, but I'm heading up to Sydney this afternoon from Canberra (about a 3 hour drive).

And I guess this would be the same footage that was shown to others already... Still, I'm damn excited

[TheMuffin]

Well congrats to you. And be sure to give us a little report.

[RaYdeX]

O.k !So a week late.. I finally get around to posting again... So busy... But anyway.

Awesome ! I've been cautiously optimistic about the movie so far... I accepted long ago, that it was never going to be my original G1 love, and that it was definitely going to be "hollywood".

I think its important to accept this, to enjoy the movie for what it is.

Now, with that in mind, I'll give you a quick run down on the 4 full scenes that I got to see !

1. Blackout. We got to see the full scene with Blackout flying into and landing at the American military base.

It started with some soldiers joking around, flying back in from a mission, landing, and running out to relax, with Captain Lennox talking to his wife and baby child, that he's never met in real life via webcam.
While this is happening, we get to see the military base responding to an unknown object coming in fast. The military send a couple of fighter jets out to make contact. When they see its an american chopper, they run its registration numbers through the computer... turns out a chopper with these numbers went down 4 months ago...
The chopper isn't responding to any radio communications, but it allows itself to be steered into land at the base.
The chopper is then surrounded by vehicles with guns... at which point it starts transforming (It had the sound!). It sends out a large EM pulse and starts to blow the **** out of everything (which we've seen bits of in the trailers). We did get to see a full up close transformation.
apparently Blackout was going for the military base computer, which it picks up and starts scanning for information, until an officer puts an axe through the power.

2. Bumblebee. We get to see a cute scene with Bumblebee in his old and busted car form. Sam Witwicky pull up with a friend, both in Bumlebee (i'm pretty sure that throughout this scene, that Sam doesn't really suspect anything about Bumblbee). Its a Jock party at a lake, or creek somewhere, with Mikaela (the love interest) as well.

Sam and his friend make a bumbling at being cool, trying to impress the girl, and be little the jock with words. Mikaela has her own argument with the jock as Sam and friend walk back to their car.

Sam notices Mikaela walking off, and then the radio in Bumblebee scans by itself to a channel playing a song with lyrics containing "I'm gonna drive you home" (you'll know the song when you hear it). So Sam kicks his friend out, and rives after the girl, offering her a ride.
He makes a fool of himself again, and decides to just drive her home until Bumblebee "breaks down" and stops on a nice lookout, at sunset, and changes the radio again, this time to a sexual song, something like "sexual healing".
Mikaela proffesses a knowledge of cars and engines, and decides to have a look under the hood, Bumblebee has a very clean and fancy looking motor, that Mikaela makes impressed comments about, but ultimately she walks off on her own anyway.

3. Skorponok. Here we get to see a small Military squad (the group from the first scene I'm pretty sure) running away from the base, and being chased by Skorponok.
Its lots of gun fire, without much effect, a "funny" interlude with Captain Lennox trying to get through an Indian call centre agent to the military, while running around and shooting at Skorponok.
Skorponok spends alot of time burrowing underneath the group to his targets, and springs up attacking, and diving again.
The Americans finally call in some air support which guns down skorponok and succeeds in deterring him, and shooting off the tip of his tail.

4. Autobots. Here we got to see Sam pull up in a new cool looking Bumblebee, followed closely by Optimus Prime and Ratchet (I think they were the only three, but I have a snaeking suspicion that Ironhide was here too, vry minor if he was).
Sam tries to leave them in an alleyway behind his house while he goes in to look for "The Glasses". (We never found out why he wanted the glasses or what was so special about them). This scene comprised of alot of sam going through his room with Mikaela, and the Autobots walking around in Sams backyard. Trying, but not succeeding in being quiet and hidden.

Sam (I keep typing Spike!) comes down and tries to get the Autobots to be quiet, because he doesn't want his parents to find out that their are huge fricking robots in their backyard... We get to see a fair bit of the robots faces up close, and hear Peter Cullen as Optimus do some talking.

At the end of the scene we see a heap of Sector 7 agents turn up outside sams house, they come in with a geiger counter.. measuring around for "Alien" contact, they measure sam and exclaim that he could have had direct contact, and attempt to drag him off.



So theres a basic break down of the scenes, I've got a few more details to add, but they are mixed with opinions, so I'll go over them now !

Scene 1, Wasn't to bad, I think it was obviously trying to build a real human element with Captain Lennox talking to his wife, and baby. the dialogue was pretty good, it felt pretty natural, and was light hearted. It also showed Captain Lennox being very nice and normal to a middle eastern boy, which was nice.

Scene 2, This scene was again, very much about the Human story, It was funny... in a Teen comedy kind of way that makes you groan as the nerd is trying to pick up the hot chick etc...

Scene 3, This was all action, guns, and excitement. The Indian call centre bit in the middle was funny... But very out of place i.e., "Boom, bang, Arggggh" *Musak playing* "Hello, how can i be assisting you sir", "I need to get through to the american military", "Sir I am sory, but I cannot be hearing you, it is very noisy, can ou go somewhere more quiet please" etc etc... I can see the humour, but felt it was unnecessary.

Scene 4, Both my favourite, and least favourite scene at the same time. Seeing Optimus prime in relation to a house etc, not to mention the other autobots, was extremely cool. but... heres the clinker... Optimus steps into the backyard, with Sam telling them all to shut up, Optimus steps back and crushes a statue, and exclaims "Oh, My Bad". *shudder* They had relegated Optimus, hero of the **** universe to comedy relief...
Ratchet pulls out all his guns and attempts to "Exterminate the vermin infestation" as Sams little chiuaua dog as it peed on Ratchets foot.
Ratchet trips trying to get out of the backyard, onto a powerline, and cuts power to street, while rolling around trying to get free...
We do get a couple of up close shots on Optimus' face though, and it is extremely expressive, and very detailed.

So there you go, i think I've given you a run down on every detail of worth there was... Ask questions if you want clarification on anything, Its a bit of a mind dump.

But in short. Overall, it looks like it will be a better movie overall than I was expecting.
they have bastardised the transformers we all know and love, but then again... Some of the Transformers cartoons floating around these days are far, far more pathetic than this movie.

So, If you want to go and see big robots that transform, with a fair smattering of fan service to the original G1 cartoon, with a fair amount of light hearted humour, and lots of action. Go and enjoy this movie.

If you want it to be a remake of the original.. Well... don't see this movie..

[Burn]

Was this the MySpace comp that had the preview before Disturbia?

[chrisguyver]

well can you tell us anything about the voices of the transformers whos playing them. also does primes voice sound the same as G1 or does he have a lower pitch to it thanks.

[Shinobi Rendar]

That "my Bad" line sounds so un-prime it worries me.

I still wonder where jazz is when thee autobots are at sam's house. (btw if anyone knows i don't really wanna be spoiled lol)

[Wheeljack35]

I got lucky a few years ago I knew a dude who owned a comic store and he hooked me up with tickets to see Spawn
It was a radio station promotion

[RaYdeX]

There were alot of Myspace people there, but I didn't win it through Myspace.

As for the voices, I don't recall hearing Bumblebee speak at all.

Primes voice was much lower and grumbly, It was Prime, but aged. It had a metallic effect to it, but it wasn't the Prime from the G1 movie... I wouldn't say it was "worse" though. It was definitely Peter Cullen.

We heard ratchet go on about exterminating the Vermin Infestation, in regards to the little dog, and he had a very robotic, gravelly voice. I couldn't pick who the voice actor was at all.

And yeah, The "My Bad" line was the worst bit of the preview we got...

Personally, I think alot of my issues will stem from the fact that while this movie is called Transformers, Its really a human story with big robots in the background... Kind of like fast and the furious ? The Robots will be cool to look at, and do alot of action, but ultimately, I beleive Bay is making it human centric...

Then again, I have seen just under a quater of the whole movie, so I'll wait and see

[chrisguyver]

There were alot of Myspace people there, but I didn't win it through Myspace.

As for the voices, I don't recall hearing Bumblebee speak at all.

Primes voice was much lower and grumbly, It was Prime, but aged. It had a metallic effect to it, but it wasn't the Prime from the G1 movie... I wouldn't say it was "worse" though. It was definitely Peter Cullen.

We heard ratchet go on about exterminating the Vermin Infestation, in regards to the little dog, and he had a very robotic, gravelly voice. I couldn't pick who the voice actor was at all.

And yeah, The "My Bad" line was the worst bit of the preview we got...

Personally, I think alot of my issues will stem from the fact that while this movie is called Transformers, Its really a human story with big robots in the background... Kind of like fast and the furious ? The Robots will be cool to look at, and do alot of action, but ultimately, I beleive Bay is making it human centric...

Then again, I have seen just under a quater of the whole movie, so I'll wait and see

cool thanks for the repley

[Leonardo]

"My bad"? Uh-oh....

Sounds interesting. The U.S. military actually shoot Scorponok's tail off? So human weapons are effective against TF's? Wow, either the Tf's aren't as resilient as I thought, or the U.S. military just outguns everyone in the known universe.

[Neko]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

[Leonardo]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!

[Neko]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!

Have you read the leaked script? Did you compare it to his descriptions? The scenes are nearly exactly alike. The onyl scene I hope they get rid of from the script involves Sector Seven, Bumblebee, and Oil. I'll say no more.

[Spoon]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!

Have you read the leaked script? Did you compare it to his descriptions? The scenes are nearly exactly alike. The onyl scene I hope they get rid of from the script involves Sector Seven, Bumblebee, and Oil. I'll say no more.

Did you read his post?
He didn't say "It strayed far from the leaked script!" he said "Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!"
Leo wasn't exactly contradicting you

[Neko]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!

Have you read the leaked script? Did you compare it to his descriptions? The scenes are nearly exactly alike. The onyl scene I hope they get rid of from the script involves Sector Seven, Bumblebee, and Oil. I'll say no more.

Did you read his post?
He didn't say "It strayed far from the leaked script!" he said "Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!"
Leo wasn't exactly contradicting you

I wasn't implying he was though now that I reread it my post does sound that way....

[Leonardo]

From your descriptions of the scene you saw this movie has stayed very close to the leaked script. Which IMHO is a good thing. I liked the script, ESP the scene w/ the bots in the backyard.

Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!

Have you read the leaked script? Did you compare it to his descriptions? The scenes are nearly exactly alike. The onyl scene I hope they get rid of from the script involves Sector Seven, Bumblebee, and Oil. I'll say no more.

Did you read his post?
He didn't say "It strayed far from the leaked script!" he said "Really? I was truly hoping it would stray far from the leaked script!"
Leo wasn't exactly contradicting you

I wasn't implying he was though now that I reread it my post does sound that way....

In the grand scheme of things it really isn't important. What matters is this film and whether it's any good!

O, and to say congratulations again to RaYdeX for getting to see this preview!

[RaYdeX]

Heh

I haven't read any script... I've tried to steer clear of it, just so I can go in and enjoy whats shown to me, then think about it... Rather than go in with already preconceived notions

But I'm glad that at least you got a real script and not a fake one !

Also, in regards to the US Military shooting of Skorponoks tail... The scene made it feel very minor.

We see Blackout taking insane amounts of fire at the military base... The only thing making him even appear to falter was a bazooka rocket at close range to the chest.

The tip of Skorponoks tail only came off after ALOT of gunfire, and finally some very heavy air-support.

The Transformers definitely didn't look as tough as their G1 counterparts, but they haven't made them fragile by any means.

[Leonardo]

The Transformers definitely didn't look as tough as their G1 counterparts, but they haven't made them fragile by any means.

So, no loose joints, die cast weighing down limbs or cheap KO plastic? Excellent.

[Emperor Primacron the 1st]

"My bad"? Uh-oh....

Sounds interesting. The U.S. military actually shoot Scorponok's tail off? So human weapons are effective against TF's? Wow, either the Tf's aren't as resilient as I thought, or the U.S. military just outguns everyone in the known universe.

If it's a Bay movie, you already know there's gonna be 2 commen denominators:

1: An over indulgence of explosions.
2: Large emphasis on the American millitary.