Transformers 2

[rockymtnhigh]

My son informed me the other day that we were going to the movies on Thursday, as Transformers 2 is starting. I chuckled, as the kid, who is quite adept with the DVR, and never watches commercials, knew exactly when this film was starting.

So are people planning on seeing it? I am looking forward to it; I liked the first one much more than I ever expected (full disclosure, I grew up one generation prior to transformers, so it never meant anything to me), but the film was remarkably enjoyable (on HD DVD) and in fact to this day, has one of the best Pictures I have ever seen in High Definition.

Curious if people are going, and once its out, what the reaction is. Will this be the film to bring the movie industry out of its 3 week summer doldrums?

 

[LER]

The crew from my office is going to see it tomorrow (6/24) at 11:05am at the local Alamo Drafthouse. I'm going just because the company is paying for it .

Looking forward to a couple of hours of escapism.

 

[JamesJ]

yep, monday night when we do our anniversary getaway

 

[tigerprowler]

We are taking our 3 yr old colby, because he LOVES Transformers. We aren't going til Saturday, cuz that's when HiFi is off, but we are so excited. This will be his first movie at the theater, so I hope he is well behaved and not scared. I'm pretty sure he will like it though because everytime he sees the previews, he asks when we are going.

 

[dkellumw]

The wife talked about taking me tomorrow to the IMAX showing for my birthday.

 

[KAB]

Reviews are not good. Only 22% on RottenTomatoes.

 

[Rey]

i plan on seeing it. liked the 1st one very much.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Reviews are not good. Only 22% on RottenTomatoes.

Reviews mean nothing to me, but that based on what I read yesterday, it doesn't surprise me. Roger Ebert was pretty harsh on it.

But since my kid has suffered through 4 days of basketball camp during this hot week, I figured he earned a trip to see it.

 

[JamesJ]

Reviews are not good. Only 22% on RottenTomatoes.

yeah i think the first one bombed out as well.

 

[KAB]

yeah i think the first one bombed out as well.

Actually, the first one got 57%, the new one, 22%.

 

[grydlok]

The movie story if It was a story was weak.
It was action all over.
All I can say was This Optimus Prime was Man's man, and not the weak one in the 1st movie.

 

[HCI]

Yay more movies about stuff blowing up. Just what we need.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Yay more movies about stuff blowing up. Just what we need.

Well, its Transformers, you wouldn't go if you didn't want to see that, or didn't expect it.

Heading out to see it in 45 minutes.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Wow, if that wasn't the longest 2 1/2 hours I spent in a theater, I do not know what was....

Spoiler

Movie was long, long, long, and quite disappointing. As a sequel goes, it was typical. Nowhere near the story consistency that the first one had. I was sitting there hoping it would end. While Megan Fox was pleasant to look at on the screen, after 2 hours I was ready to be done with it; it ended up taking 2 1/2 hours. So many transformers fighting each other I could not tell who were to good ones and who were the bad ones.

Rotten tomatoes got that one right. My son disagrees, but he is 11; although even he said that it was nowhere as good as the first one. Although even said "well at least Megan Fox was hot."

And for the moronic scene to end all moronic scenes...

Spoiler

AND talk about the stupidest scene ever -- they are in the new National Air and Space Museum at Dulles. Well the SR-71 is an old, and I mean OLD transformer from 1000s of years ago. He comes to life. And blows a whole out the wall of the hanger. At which point they are all of a sudden at the airforce graveyard in TUSCON, ARIZONA, surrounded by old airforce planes AND lots of mountains.... hmmm... last time I was at dulles, there were no mountains to be had. Moron producers/directors; must think we are even more stupid than we are - for shelling out $24 to see that film (2 tickets, popcorn, and pop).

 

[HIFI]

i plan on seeing it. liked the 1st one very much.

second that

 

[rockymtnhigh]

One more comment... unlike Star Trek and Terminator, both of which I saw on OPENING night as well, this theater was jammed packed for the film. Barely a seat to be had.

 

[HDRoberts]

And for the moronic scene to end all moronic scenes...

Spoiler

AND talk about the stupidest scene ever -- they are in the new National Air and Space Museum at Dulles. Well the SR-71 is an old, and I mean OLD transformer from 1000s of years ago. He comes to life. And blows a whole out the wall of the hanger. At which point they are all of a sudden at the airforce graveyard in TUSCON, ARIZONA, surrounded by old airforce planes AND lots of mountains.... hmmm... last time I was at dulles, there were no mountains to be had. Moron producers/directors; must think we are even more stupid than we are - for shelling out $24 to see that film (2 tickets, popcorn, and pop).

I noticed that as well. To be fair, the scene did not take place in the Downtown museum, but at the Udvar-Hazy Center museum annex out at Dulles. There is a fair amount of open space right outside the door. It just they should have digitally removed half the planes and the mountains so it was less obvious they shot it in Arizona.

I'll just repost what I had to say about this movie in the pub:

It was a bit disappointing. I saw it midnight as well. Worst is the 2 blatantly racist twin Autobots and their stupid cracks. And Major Lennox, and the rest of the millitary, see no character development.

Too many plot holes/unexplained elements:

Spoiler

Why can only a Prime beat The Fallen? This is the biggest thing I don't get.
Why, if a shard from the All Spark can resurrect Megatron, can't Sam's shard resurrect Optimus Prime?
A human form Decepticon shows up, and no one questions where it came from of if there could be more?
So, Transformers can teleport across the planet instantaneously (as Jetfire does), yet the rest feel compeled to ride around in C-17s for hours?
And was Jetfire an "old man" 40 years ago when he became an SR-71, even though the rest seem to have lived much longer?

The action was also too frenetic. There was no way to know what robot was doing what.

Still, so long as I get to here Peter Cullen voice Optimus Prime, I'll enjoy the movie. but it could have been much better.

 

[StevenD]

We are taking our 3 yr old colby, because he LOVES Transformers. We aren't going til Saturday, cuz that's when HiFi is off, but we are so excited. This will be his first movie at the theater, so I hope he is well behaved and not scared. I'm pretty sure he will like it though because everytime he sees the previews, he asks when we are going.

This movie is NOT for kids. There is a lot of language that would be questionable for small children. Thats why its rated PG-13.

That being said, its not really for anyone...it rather sucked.

 

[mike123abc]

I like the first one, mostly the human robot interaction. In this one the robots had their movie and the humans had a different one. They barely interacted except to watch human run to avoid being killed by robots.

This film had a huge budget. It was not like they could not afford good writers to come up with a decent movie. This one seemed driven by the special effects people saying look we could have a robot do this, transform in this way, etc. with no reguard to what was needed in the story. Seems like they came up with a list of cool things for robots to do, made the scenes and tried then to stitch it together with some sort of story.

Spoiler

The opening sequence was interesting since it was a complete city rendered in CGI, but they really appeared to mess up the human insertion. It looked like a bad blue screen effect. I guess they have a ways to go to integrate the live action with the CGI.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

This movie is NOT for kids. There is a lot of language that would be questionable for small children. Thats why its rated PG-13.

That being said, its not really for anyone...it rather sucked.

Yeah, and there was a lot of innuendo, which I wasn't happy about. It was not necessary.