Episode 126

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Jenny and Mike roll out their thoughts on the live action Transformers movie. Did it have the touch, or was it a steaming pile in disguise? [ 1:23:58 || 38.4 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/theshow/episodes/e2ts_126.mp3

[Missy]

FYI: This one warranted an "explicit" tag. :angel:

[Malpractice]

Transformers was excellent. Y'all be trippin.

[James D.]

That episode ruled. I can't remember how many times I started laughing uncontrollably at the off-hand remarks from both Mike and Jenny. Good stuff. :laugh:

[Guest]

I didn't see the Transformers, nor do I want to.

Good to know I'm not missing anything.

[Malpractice]

I didn't see the Transformers, nor do I want to.

Good to know I'm not missing anything.

don't listen to them, it was a really fun movie.

[JackFetch]

If you can put away the 80s version you will like this one.

[Missy]

I didn't see the Transformers, nor do I want to.

Good to know I'm not missing anything.

don't listen to them, it was a really fun movie.

It was a half-decent action flick, but not a Transformers movie. As said during The Show, this could have been about any two warring alien races. That's how generic the plot was. The only Transformers element was the transforming robots. Nothing else gave this a Transformers vibe.

Worse than the lackluster plot is the fact that the Transformers were bland. They had absolutely zero character. "I'm Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Ironhide likes to blow stuff up. Ratchet can tell if you're horny. This is Jazz, the black guy. And you already know Bumblebee... he can't talk." That was it in terms of characterization.

[Dread]

They had absolutely zero character. "I'm Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Ironhide likes to blow stuff up. Ratchet can tell if you're horny. This is Jazz, the black guy. And you already know Bumblebee... he can't talk." That was it in terms of characterization.

So it's like every other Michael Bay film then? Imagine that!

[James D.]

By the way, Mike and Jen, John Tuturro has a very long acting resume. He's been in The Good Shepherd, Rounders, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Anger Management, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Mo' Better Blues, The Color of Money, and most recently, the ESPN original series, The Bronx is Burning, among literally dozens of other movies and series.

[Stavros]

I'm just correcting or mentioning stuff as I listen here, I don't blame anyone for not reading this.

Bumblebee was a Camero because General Motors had the contract to provide all the car forms and government vehicles.

The Allspark was a representation of the Matrix, not an Energon cube. Its a mix of the two really, but its much closer to the Matrix, hence dumping Energon. On top of that, it doesn't just create Deceticons, it creates mindlessly aggressive robots.

The humans in Transformers originally were Spike Witwhicky and his dad Sparkplug. Later on its Spike and his son Daniel. In the comic the young companion was originally Spikes' brother Buster.

It was Bernie Mac bacause thats better than just using a no-name guy. Whats the problem with that?

The Transformers were changed into different forms based on the analysis of the Ark's computor which gave them shapes to fit with their surroudings. In later versions like Transformers Cybertron they could assume different shapes on thier own, but originally they were stuck with the forms the Ark gave them.

Is Ebay really product placement or just the prevalent form of Internet sales? Ebay probably paid for it but at the same time I doubt the writers were asking "now which internet sales site should we use for this scene?" Y'know? Besides, the product placement was far worse in Casino Royale.

Jazz was black? You assume this because of his character?

On top off all that, this film was very good. It was funny, it had action, it was amazingly realised. The character design was too busy to be iconic and made the action hard to follow at some points, and a lot of the government stuff could have been dropped (like that sector 7 goof, and the soldiers could have been wiped out in the first attack), but otherwise I really liked this film. A lot of characters got little time but at the same time I really didn't want to waste time on expanding of lot of them. Only Starcream could have used more, and since we will see him again I'm guessing we'll get more.

[Missy]

Bumblebee was a Camero because General Motors had the contract to provide all the car forms and government vehicles.

In several places (including IMDB) I've read the "Volkswagen wanted no part of the movie" thing. Since I can't site a truly reliable source, take it for what it's worth.

The Allspark was a representation of the Matrix, not an Energon cube. Its a mix of the two really, but its much closer to the Matrix, hence dumping Energon. On top of that, it doesn't just create Deceticons, it creates mindlessly aggressive robots.

Then why not call it either of those? Why make up a new word? I understand not wanting to call it the Matrix because of the movie, but what's wrong with Energon?

It was Bernie Mac bacause thats better than just using a no-name guy. Whats the problem with that?

Because it's distracting. I didn't see the car dealer; I saw Mac chewing the scenery.

The Transformers were changed into different forms based on the analysis of the Ark's computor which gave them shapes to fit with their surroudings. In later versions like Transformers Cybertron they could assume different shapes on thier own, but originally they were stuck with the forms the Ark gave them.

Isn't that what I said?

Is Ebay really product placement or just the prevalent form of Internet sales? Ebay probably paid for it but at the same time I doubt the writers were asking "now which internet sales site should we use for this scene?" Y'know? Besides, the product placement was far worse in Casino Royale.

The eBay stuff was painfully useless. You're telling me these highly advanced robot beings could only find Sam by searching eBay listings?

As said during The Show, I don't mind product placement done right: a Coke machine in the background, someone casually eating a Snickers, a Miller sign hanging in a bar, kids playing a PS2. But here it was like, "You can buy my grandfather's trinkets on eBay. Did I forget to mention I'm username LadiesMan217 on eBay? Yup, right there on eBay you can buy this old stuff."

Jazz was black? You assume this because of his character?

He was voiced by Darius McCrary (Eddie Winslow), so that's a clue. Plus his mannerisms had African American traits.

Let's not forget that he was supposed to be black in the cartoon, too. I mean, he was voiced by Scatman Crothers.

On top off all that, this film was very good. It was funny, it had action, it was amazingly realised.

The action was okay. A little cluttered and hard to tell who was fighting who, but the film looked good.

The character design was too busy to be iconic and made the action hard to follow at some points, and a lot of the government stuff could have been dropped (like that sector 7 goof, and the soldiers could have been wiped out in the first attack), but otherwise I really liked this film.

So you liked half the film basically?

A lot of characters got little time but at the same time I really didn't want to waste time on expanding of lot of them. Only Starcream could have used more, and since we will see him again I'm guessing we'll get more.

Every character in this film could have been better developed; the humans were pathetic cardboard cutouts or bumbling fools, and the Transformers had no character at all. There wasn't a single character that I felt a connection with, and that's pretty bad for a movie that runs well over two hours.

[Dread]

I think it's kind of silly to expect rounded characters in a Michael Bay film. He goes through each script and if there's a character for whom an exploding truck or plummeting airplane doesn't revolve around he cuts them from the film.

He is the bane of film making and should have his career cut short by a blackball of logic. Whoa...sorry.

[Missy]

It's been a while, but I think I recall The Rock having some pretty good characters.

[JackFetch]

Bumblebee was a Camero because the company that did Herbie has a contract with VW. The GM contract came after.

Product placement is a part of real life, so it only makes sense to have real products in movies. It makes it more real to me.

They used the internet to find him, and he had an EBay account so that's how they found him. Why is that hard to believe?

The allspark was just a plot device. They had to be fighting over something. In the script, the spark was the thing that gave every transformer life, and Megatron took the spark from autobots that he killed.

Jazz was supposed to have adopted the urban hip hop culture.

[Missy]

Bumblebee was a Camero because the company that did Herbie has a contract with VW. The GM contract came after.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. (I've also heard that Bay didn't want to use a VW Bug because of Herbie, not because of a contract between Herbie and VW.)

Product placement is a part of real life, so it only makes sense to have real products in movies. It makes it more real to me.

Again, I like product placement when it's subtle: the Dell and Apple computers in 24, the "you're not getting a Porsche" scene in Transformers, cell phones and soda machines in various movies. That's okay. Hell, I want that because of the realism it brings to the fictional world. What I don't want is, "Mmmmh! This Coke is sooooo refreshing!" Crap like that is painfully blatant and yanks me out of the world they're building.

The whole eBay thing was exactly that: "Remember to check eBay! Don't forget... eBay! LadiesMan217 on eBay, that's me! These glasses are only fifty bucks on eBay." Terrible!

They used the internet to find him, and he had an EBay account so that's how they found him. Why is that hard to believe?

Because they're more advanced than that and because that entire plot point was written to serve the advertiser.

The allspark was just a plot device. They had to be fighting over something. In the script, the spark was the thing that gave every transformer life, and Megatron took the spark from autobots that he killed.

What was wrong with Energon? It gives Transformers power (RE: life) and is a word that's a huge part of the franchise, so why change it?

Jazz was supposed to have adopted the urban hip hop culture.

I'm not saying everybody who's invested in the scene is black, but they are the majority. Plus he was voiced by black actors in the cartoon and both the 1986 and 2007 movies. I don't see why this is an issue here. Why are we arguing this? All I said on The Show was that Jazz's death continued the sad tradition of black people dying in sci-fi movies. That's exactly what happened here: the black (or at the very least, hip-hop oriented) character was murdered.

[JackFetch]

I'm not saying everybody who's invested in the scene is black, but they are the majority. Plus he was voiced by black actors in the cartoon and both the 1986 and 2007 movies. I don't see why this is an issue here. Why are we arguing this? All I said on The Show was that Jazz's death continued the sad tradition of black people dying in sci-fi movies. That's exactly what happened here: the black (or at the very least, hip-hop oriented) character was murdered.

I agree with you, and think Ratchet should have died instead. I never argued the point about him being black or not. He obviously was supposed to bring that into our heads.

[Dread]

I'm not saying everybody who's invested in the scene is black, but they are the majority. Plus he was voiced by black actors in the cartoon and both the 1986 and 2007 movies. I don't see why this is an issue here. Why are we arguing this? All I said on The Show was that Jazz's death continued the sad tradition of black people dying in sci-fi movies. That's exactly what happened here: the black (or at the very least, hip-hop oriented) character was murdered.

I agree with you, and think Ratchet should have died instead. I never argued the point about him being black or not. He obviously was supposed to bring that into our heads.

Even on Cybertron they keep the black man down...

[Missy]

I never argued the point about him being black or not. He obviously was supposed to bring that into our heads.

Sorry. Guess I got defensive there.