The Energon Pub

[jeb865]

Interview from EW.com Michael Bay talks about TF2 and working with Spielberg. He also talks about the 86 movie and some other stuff. Most of it we already know but I thought I would share it anyway.

How are you sitting with the idea of directing another Transformers movie?

"Let's see how this one does. I've got a lot of ideas for the next one. There's a lot of really cool, big robot stuff that I had in my head that we didn't do. I just want to see how this works. You might not grow as much as a director [to do a sequel]. But it's kind of like you have your baby and you don't want someone else to take it."

So, hypothetically, if you were to take on a Transformers sequel, would it be your next film?

"I don't know if it would be ready. It just takes so long to do a script. A couple things are on the horizon, but [maybe] I'll do my little movie that I can knock out, because we all think we're going to have a strike"


Read the whole thing at

http://michaelbay.com/blog/index.html

[Buttz]

ah crap. I hope he goes and does one of the "couple things... on the horizon" and they hire someone- ANYONE - else for the sequel.

[Robinson]

ah crap. I hope he goes and does one of the "couple things... on the horizon" and they hire someone- ANYONE - else for the sequel.

I don't, he did a good job. He needs to do the next one to keep the flow.

[Buttz]

I don't, he did a good job. He needs to do the next one to keep the flow.

But there was no flow, it was just an overly-long and jarring mess of poorly developed characters, cheap yucks, and formulaic filmmaking.

[Robinson]

I don't, he did a good job. He needs to do the next one to keep the flow.

But there was no flow, it was just an overly-long and jarring mess of poorly developed characters, cheap yucks, and formulaic filmmaking.

Just like the cartoon.

Btw To me it flowed fine, the was a beginning a middle and an end with talking in the meantime.

[Buttz]

Just like the cartoon.

Yeah but the cartoon was a cartoon. This was a chance to elevate it to something more than that, and it was completely missed. I guess that's what upsets me the most.

[Shadowman]

Just like the cartoon.

Yeah but the cartoon was a cartoon. This was a chance to elevate it to something more than that, and it was completely missed. I guess that's what upsets me the most.

No, no it was not. To think anyone would ever take such a ridiculous concept such as this seriously, is madness.

That said, this movie kicked ass. I hope Bay is signed on for the sequel, he did a great job. And get Roberto and Alex on this as well.

[Robinson]

Just like the cartoon.

Yeah but the cartoon was a cartoon. This was a chance to elevate it to something more than that, and it was completely missed. I guess that's what upsets me the most.

I dont feel that way at all. They took 20 years worth of things, blended them as best they could to make the best movie t appeal to the widest audience and and estimated 76 million in less than 2.5 days suggest that they accomplished what they set out to do. Some people need to not look at this from a fanboy perspective and look at it from an average joe that vaguely remembers playing with optimus prime and bumblebee.

[Buttz]

No, no it was not. To think anyone would ever take such a ridiculous concept such as this seriously, is madness.

No sorry, but i completely disagree. Just because you have giant robots in your movie does not give you license to completely neglect everything else in it. Batman Begins is about a guy in a bat costume who fights a bunch of ninjas. It would've been easy to be content with mediocrity and just rely on the special effects to prop up the movie, but that's not what Christopher Nolan did. A competent director could've had giant robots AND a well-developed plot AND interesting characters.

[Robinson]

No, no it was not. To think anyone would ever take such a ridiculous concept such as this seriously, is madness.

No sorry, but i completely disagree. Just because you have giant robots in your movie does not give you license to completely neglect everything else in it. Batman Begins is about a guy in a bat costume who fights a bunch of ninjas. It would've been easy to be content with mediocrity and just rely on the special effects to prop up the movie, but that's not what Christopher Nolan did. A competent director could've had giant robots AND a well-developed plot AND interesting characters.

And thats why you have whats called an opinion, you dont have to agree with our point of view. And your idea of interesting characters and a well developed plot can be 2 separate things compared to me and shadow. Hell I thought bill and ted's excellent adventure had "well delveloped characters"

[SoundWav]

there were 6 starwars movies? and think about it this way maybe it has to be 5-6 or something to get the whole g1 story out? would you rather see a bad ass couple of films or it turn into a crappy real-life tv show shindig and die out? i personally think maybe they should redo the 1986 movie over again xD that would be awesome !!! lets face it some movies these days were complete cgi with actors matrix was kinda like that i think idk i didnt fallow that.

[Warthog]

ANd Batman movies suck


Because no matter how good, you remember George Cloony. And then get sick.

[Robinson]

there were 6 starwars movies? and think about it this way maybe it has to be 5-6 or something to get the whole g1 story out? would you rather see a bad ass couple of films or it turn into a crappy real-life tv show shindig and die out? i personally think maybe they should redo the 1986 movie over again xD that would be awesome !!! lets face it some movies these days were complete cgi with actors matrix was kinda like that i think idk i didnt fallow that.

Stay as far away from the 86 movie as possible

[First Gen]

The movie had amazing entertainment value and the transformations were friggin awesome. The fight scenes were more than I could have hoped for and Shia did and excellent job as Spike.

Sure the story could have been better. Sure Agent Simmons could have been the bad ass the prequel comics made him to be and how the original PRIME DIRECTIVE had him. Sure Megan Fox could have worn less clothing. But all in all, a good flick.

I just hate that Prime gets his ass kicked. For goodness sake, put up a damn fight, jeez. Even Jazz did that, poor bastard.

And whats up with that? "Jazz is gone. Oh well".

Still better than a Johnny Woo film though.

[ravare]

For those that are saying that the movie had to have more depth. You are asking alot for an intro movie for Transformers.

Was there things lacking or altered from the original cartoon? Yes there was. But in order to give the depth of the story, character background, character personalities and relationships and the such, this would be like a 5 hour movie.

I think for the length of the movie, Michael Bay did the best he could with giving us as much depth as he could, while giving us the action that we all screamed for.

And mind you, there were alot of scenes cut from the movie release. Were they not important scenes? No, they will most likely give more clarity to some of the scenes in the movie release, but for length reasons, they had to be cut and hopefully will be in the DVD release.

I love transformers but I watched the movie from a regular person perspective and not from my "I remember how this and that happened in the cartoon" perspective.

[Bottom Out]

bay didnt write the script, bay has nothing to do with the underdevelopment of characters

[Darth Bombshell]

FPn'C'ed.

[Counterpunch]

ah crap. I hope he goes and does one of the "couple things... on the horizon" and they hire someone- ANYONE - else for the sequel.

Your opinion is wrong.

The movie kicked ass.

Thousands of Transformers fans at BotCon and around the world are in support of my statement (See above).

Millions of dollars have been made in like, oh, two days, which also goes a long way to saying your opinion is wrong.

Credit where credit is due.

Bay made an excellent movie and did the Transformers modern day justice.

[Robinson]

ah crap. I hope he goes and does one of the "couple things... on the horizon" and they hire someone- ANYONE - else for the sequel.

Your opinion is wrong.

The movie kicked ass.

Thousands of Transformers fans at BotCon and around the world are in support of my statement (See above).

Millions of dollars have been made in like, oh, two days, which also goes a long way to saying your opinion is wrong.

Credit where credit is due.

Bay made an excellent movie and did the Transformers modern day justice.

Yeah!! (Puffs up chest)

[Blitzwing the warrior]

Baaaawwwww?

[Rodimus_Prime13]

Ok, completely from someone studying scriptwriting and filmaking's perspective, throwing out that I loved Transformers.

One of my favorite writers in TV/Movies today is the guy who did the recent Battlestar Galactica. They recently had a kind of convention for people studying to be screenwriters and movie makers. They had a panel of successful directors, writers etc. The writer of BSG was one of them.

For being someone that I wanted to hear a lot from. He actually had very little to say at all. (brace yourself, some might consider this mildly offensive.)

"Don't be a whore."

That is all he said. He then passed the microphone on to someone else.

It took me a while to think about what he meant. But in situations like this, the "whores" of the movie industry as far as Director's and script writers are guilty of a major sin that should not be tolerated from any quality movie.

1. The first thing to hit the cutting room floor, is character development. They excuse this basically by saying that they want to sell it to your average shallow person.

2. They spend more time and effort on speacial effects then quality of acting. This was very true with the recent Star Wars Prequels. Episode 1 was fairly solid. The actors began to get lazy as the series progressed. In comparision to the intensity of the previous three movies, the characters where only important because they where "Anakin Skywalker" not because they had any real depth. And any depth that they did have, we had to bring to the theatre with us.

3. The plot as it develops is not clearly defined. It does not move smoothly from one part to another. This sort of thing generally passes by unoticed to that "Shallow Person" who is often targeted for their money. But to an intelligient person, it is pretty clear.

Now, all of these things do lead to initially successful movies. And that is why the "whore" mentality is so prominent. They want the pay off that comes from the first three years after release. They want instant gratification, and money NOW.

The Star Wars Trilogy did not get to be the phenomenon that it is by doing this. Nor did the original Batman movie. (It is also what the Batman sequels completely lacked, that Batman Begins recaptured) The Batman sequels basically based their hope for success entirely on the Batman name, and the fact that the first one was such a Hollywood sensation. (I feel this is also true about Episode 2 and 3 in the Star wars Series.)

The new Transformers movie has hope. And they can make up for it in the sequels. They are teetering on the edge. If Bay makes the right decisions in the sequels, this line can be saved. If he goes the other route and takes the easy and initially profitable path, Transformers will fade back to the cult following that it was before this movie.

[1337W422102]

If he wants to direct, fine. Just cut the goddamn shakycam already! What the hell's the point of having such detailed characters if you can't even see them fighting clearly?

Hire a good writer. A GOOD ONE. Like Bob Forward, or at least someone who understands the concept of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. There's more to a film than special effects and "XTREEEEM A-SPLOZIONS!!eleveteen" And for Christ's sake, enough with the freakin US patriotism/propaganda and product placement, already!

And don't give me that 'uh but teh crat00nz is N07 teh lyk dis lulz' crap. This ISN'T a cartoon, it's a major motion picture event. Do it right!

[Robinson]

The Star Wars Trilogy did not get to be the phenomenon that it is by doing this. Nor did the original Batman movie. (It is also what the Batman sequels completely lacked, that Batman Begins recaptured) The Batman sequels basically based their hope for success entirely on the Batman name, and the fact that the first one was such a Hollywood sensation. (I feel this is also true about Episode 2 and 3 in the Star wars Series.)

You mean this batman movie?

[Buttz]

ah crap. I hope he goes and does one of the "couple things... on the horizon" and they hire someone- ANYONE - else for the sequel.

Your opinion is wrong.

The movie kicked ass.

Thousands of Transformers fans at BotCon and around the world are in support of my statement (See above).

Millions of dollars have been made in like, oh, two days, which also goes a long way to saying your opinion is wrong.

Credit where credit is due.

Bay made an excellent movie and did the Transformers modern day justice.

The same could be said of Episode 1 when it came out. But now that time has passed and reality has sunk in, not even the most die-hard fan can justify Jar Jar.

[Rodimus_Prime13]

I realized after showing that post to someone, that I forgot to mention the things to do right.

You should care about the characters. They should be real to you. This is the contrast.

Jazz in the cartoon was a hero. He had a definite personality.

The movie version of Jazz dies, people barely notice.

Irohide dying was a huge blow to any transformers fan.

If the Ironhide of this movie died, I don't think anyone would of noticed. People like us who care about transformers would. For the same reason that it was compelling to watch "Obi-Wan vs Anakin" in Episode 3. That's Anakin Skywalker! Darth Vader!

Even though Aiden Christenson's rendition of Anakin made you want to pimp slap him. He came off as a total crybaby. Even with him being a Jedi and having a lightsaber, he is about as intimidating as a 2 year hold having a temper tantrum. Nobody would of ever entertained the notion of pimp slapping Darth Vader.

Optimus Prime is the major light of this movie. He is the only character that was at least a shadow of himself.