The first one is good only for the phenomenal CGI of the robots. It's truly amazing. Other than that, the movie is too focused on the humans. LeBeouf's character is ultimately the hero, in a way that makes no sense. They create some thing called the "Lifespark" that can turn any machine (such as a radio or Coke dispenser) into a sentient Transformer. There's no mention of the Matrix of Leadership. All the cars are GMs because the studio struck a deal, which rankled me. Ebay is referenced a bazillion times (another financial deal). The Autobots are curiously relegated to support characters, making the humans too central. At the end of the movie, Optimus says "you humans are truly more than meets the eye", singing *humanity's* praises even though that catch phrase should apply to *his* people. It was weakly written, changed canon unnecessarily, and had a juvenile tone overall. It is only redeemed by the CGI and some of the fight scenes. Oh--and the "black" robot (the one that was a "ghetto blaster" in canon) is punked like you wouldn't believe.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxt...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 6:50:35 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] LaBeouf Says Third "Transformers" Movie Will Be Better Keith, I haven't seen the first one. This isn't much in the way of inspiration to invest. LaBoeuf is a good actor. He's gotta be getting better offers than this. I HOPE. On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Interesting. I still haven't seen the second one. The bloated action trailers, the long snippets I've seen on TVs at electronic stores, those stereotyped ghetto robots--all kept me away from the sequel. Didn't help I wasn't too impressed with the first flick past the FX. The way the Transformers were minimized in favor of the stupid humans didn't appeal to me, nor did the change to lore (the "Lifespark"? Megatron the source for most of our tech? Blah!) If LeBeouf himself is saying the second one was worse? I may never see it... ********************* LaBeouf promises better 'Transformers' next time By DAVID GERMAIN The Associated Press CANNES, France — Shia LaBeouf says the second "Transformers" movie got too big for its own good — but the third one brings the heart back to the franchise. LaBeouf, who starts work on the next "Transformers" sequel Tuesday, said the third installment will be the best one yet. The new script restores a human element that got lost in the second movie, LaBeouf said. "When I saw the second movie, I wasn't impressed with what we did," LaBeouf said in an interview Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, where his finance drama "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is premiering. "There were some really wild stunts in it, but the heart was gone." "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was a runaway commercial success but was drubbed by critics. Michael Bay returns for the third time as director of the science-fiction franchise, which centers on dueling races of giant robots that bring their war to Earth. The next movie will have what the last one lacked — a sense of human consequences, LaBeouf said. On the second movie, "we got lost. We tried to get bigger. It's what happens to sequels. It's like, how do you top the first one? You've got to go bigger," LaBeouf said. "Mike went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie. ... You lost a bit of the relationships. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn't matter. Then it's just a bunch of robots fighting each other." With "Transformers 3," the toll of the robot war will be grave for our planet, LaBeouf said. "There's going to be a lot of death, human death. This time, they're targeting humans," LaBeouf said. "It's going to be the craziest action movie ever made, or we failed." -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
