I'm nerdy, but I don't think I'm nerdy enough to "get" the transformers.

I didn't think you guys were putting me down or any other fan, I was just trying to explain why I like the Transformers formula and hopefully thereby explaining why others like it as well.

The premise was always a vehicle for toys, so it has to be looked at with a grain of salt (this isnt high-minded Arthur C Clark sci-fi, this is bullshit sci-fi slapped together to sell toys 20 years ago).

A big pert of the interest was that in the cartoon, and much more in the marvel ccomic series, the robots had complex personalities and entertaining interactions. they werent just vehicles that turned into robots, there were decently developed characters, all with unique personalities, and they at least attempted to inject some real personality rather than just making them all 2 dimensional stereotypes.

the original animated movie had a great deal of more dramtic parts, and wasnt just a bunch of robots killing each other (but there was actual killing, it was pg rather than G likemost movie spinoffs of afternoon cartoon series)

Plus, the more futuristic episodes, after the movie became much more philosophical and they focused on individual characters much more than just hammeringout as many new characters as possible to fill the toy line.

That being said, it is just a big-budget "Adult" movie to make money off of the nostalgia of 30-somethings. Based on that and the current popularity of the CGI series, i bet it will do decent enough to make at least a small profit.


My theoryu about WHY it is being made: Video games and comics are gold for summer blockbusters, even though 98% of all of them suck, but all the fanboys rush out evbery time for opening weekend HOPING that they are going to get what many of us thought Silent Hill was, a pretty good and fairly faithful big screen version of a familiar story.

The film company is no doubt bankling on nostalgia for this one. And, we can thank M Night Shymalan's earlier movies for taking fantasy and grounding it into something more "real". (Unbreakable, Sixth Sense.... Signs sure tried....)


I'm honestly waiting for the live action GI Joe, based on the old 80s cartoons... Probably with Cobra Commander in his helmet costume.

Agreed.
I'm not a big GI Joe fan though.

Transformers and GM Form Power Partnership
Source: Paramount Pictures February 21, 2007


Four new movie stars – "Bumblebee™," "Autobot Jazz®," "Autobot Ratchet®" and "Ironhide®" (see new photos below) – from DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures', in association with Hasbro's, forthcoming July 4th action-adventure release, Transformers, were introduced this evening by General Motors Corp. as it hosted its sixth annual "ten" pre-Oscar fashion event at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.

"Bumblebee" changes from the classic Chevrolet Camaro, and is a central character in the saga of aliens who take mechanical forms when on Earth. "Autobot Jazz" converts from a Pontiac Solstice in a hardtop format. A Hummer H2, modified as a rescue vehicle, changes into "Autobot Ratchet" and "Ironhide" changes from a GMC TopKick medium-duty truck.

Buzz about the roles that these vehicles play in the movie has been spreading since a quick glimpse of the new Camaro was spotted in Paramount's newest Transformers trailer, which began appearing in theaters on Dec. 20, 2006. This clip, which is currently the most-viewed movie trailer on Yahoo!, also contains images of the Solstice, H2 and TopKick for fans who were quick enough to have freeze-framed it.

"'Transformers' is a compelling project and offers us a global platform for marketing GM products and building our brands," said Mike Jackson, GM North America vice president, marketing and advertising. "It represents the perfect intersection of entertainment, marketing and design."

"The first time I saw the new Camaro, while touring the GM Design Center, I knew immediately that it would be the perfect 'Bumblebee,'" said Michael Bay, the film's director. He continued, "It's got beautiful lines and a classic, timeless look. There were no other cars that came even close. I have had a great working relationship with GM for many years and am psyched to be working with them on 'Transformers.'"

Gerry Rich, President of Worldwide Marketing at Paramount Pictures, added, "We are thrilled to be working with GM on this incredible and action-packed film. Having integrated the cars as characters in the film is truly an innovative concept that will help eventize this exciting 4th of July tentpole film."

GM will roll out a fully integrated marketing and promotional effort around the film in the near future, including a major Chevrolet promotion, according to Jackson.

Heck, I'll see it. It looks like fun crap to watch.

I was a fan of the transformers comic books as a kid,so i will see this but i am not optimistic.

me and vince watched the 1986 movie the other day....wow i nearly forgot how mush i love transformers.....and ill see it obviously.....i hate michael "runied tcm" bay...but the writers are producers from xena and alias....but they might be awesome producers and terible writers....plus im getting vibes off trailers that its about the humans and not about the transformers....which is wrong........just wrong

Well this is my opinion, I've watched some of the blogs on the offical web site I think its the writers on there and they sound like they are true fans who know the series, they even made a good point about how most of the transformers don't look like they did in the cartoon but the personalities and relationships with each other are there.
Second, I wouldn't be too surpirsed if there is a lot of focus on the humans, that is mostly b/c its all about money and a movie that completely ignors any major human interaction will not be well recieved by the general audience. Granted the only people that matter are the fans like us, but like I said its about the money and especially with as big of a budget as this movie probably has it will need to do what it can to make money.
So try not to judge this movie too harshly, I did at first but then I realized that I should be happy b/c this is a big fan-boy wet dream come true. And really when it comes down to it, all we really want to see is Prime vs. Megatron right?

Just read issue #1 of the Prequal comic book to the movie and it has my attetnion so far.


Spoiler




Based on the story in the comic, the movie is not going to follow the original G1 cartoon completely, Megatron is looking for something called the Allspark. And it sounds like this thing gets sent to Earth and the transforerms go after it. Also the more I looked at the designes of the tranformers, the more accepting I became of their new forms. I got to thinking that had the transformers looked exactly as they did in the cartoon it would have looked too cartoonish I think. The box-like designes of the original transformers worked alright in the 80's cartoon but with the direction technology is today I think that in order to make the robots look beleiveable they would need an updated look. Besides, if I want to see their original designes I'll watch the cartoon.