Transformers: Dark of the Moon *spoilers*

[Darkshadow14]

Thanks Razor, I was wondering if I should add it to another topic, or just start my own.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

Wow. Intense conversations with this film.

I had the privilege of watching it in 3D with Garry (Primal) on Wednesday night. That is all.

...

I enjoyed the movie for the most part. Loved the special effects; everything always looks so real. I still got lost in some parts when the fighting scenes were drawn out. I sat there thinking, "What are the humans trying to do again...? And where the heck is Optimus? Late as usual to the fight." And where do all of these bots come from? I don't even know half of the new characters' names and which is which. Nemoy was great as Sentinel, and I liked what they did with that character and his relationship with Optimus. I also liked having John Malcovich in there. I disliked how weak Megatron had gotten. It doesn't feel like he has been able to do much in these films. Either he's always frozen or being controlled by someone else. And there was a lot of yelling throughout the movie. A LOT of yelling.

[Alak]

Wow. Intense conversations with this film.

I had the privilege of watching it in 3D with Garry (Primal) on Wednesday night. That is all.

lol that's awesome! What did he say about the film?

[Beastbot]

I had the privilege of keeping close tabs on DotM during its development and reading (or playing, in the case of the game) all the prequel stuff, so I'll help clear some stuff up for you folks:

2. Megatron was not fully healed, he was still injured from the second movie. I would have thought they had interneal repair, or something... Or would think they would have built something to help heal them...?

From stuff like that plus Bumblebee's voice never getting better, it doesn't appear the movieverse ever developed technology like CR chambers or internal repair. Good thing Ratchet's there!

3. Seems like the Decepticons were almost more animal like, which is kinda cool. With the nascar scene where they were battling on the road; you saw a few of the D-cons actually go on all four, instead of running on two legs.

I know, I love that aspect of their designs. Anyways, those Decepticons with the "hair" are called the Dreads (as in, dreadlocks, lol). Two of them are called Crankcase and Crowbar. The one on all fours all the time is called Hatchet, he looks particularly awesome.

4. Wasn't this movie supposed to be called; Rise Of the Unicron? Or something similar? As well as, well, have Unicron in it?

That was one of many unsubstantiated rumors-- never true.

11. Really wish more BW refernces/characters were in it.

If it helps, the movie toyline is giving us two BW homages. The first one, a minor one, is that on a rally-like repaint of Sideswipe, one of the sponsors on his side is "Axalon Rattraps-- safe and humane (yeah right)". The more substantial one is an upcoming deluxe-class toy called Dark Iron, a remold of Sideswipe with a new head and weapon. It's a definite homage to BW Quickstrike, both with the new head and the color scheme. Plus his weapon looks like a cobra head. (Can't show you a picture, unfortunately-- it was shown at Botcon at a no-pictures panel.)

I still got lost in some parts when the fighting scenes were drawn out. I sat there thinking, "What are the humans trying to do again...? And where the heck is Optimus? Late as usual to the fight." And where do all of these bots come from? I don't even know half of the new characters' names and which is which.

Yeah, it really does help a lot (perhaps a bit too much) if you know all the characters and whatnot going in.
Here's a list of the new Autobots in the movie:
- red Ferrari with an Italian accent-- called Dino in the movie, Mirage in every other piece of movie fiction.
- blue Aston Martin, looks like Einstein in robot mode-- called Q in the movie, Wheeljack in every other piece of movie fiction.
- little guy with uneven eyes and hair-- called Brains. Was a malfunctioning Decepticon brain unit and joined the Autobots courtesy of Wheelie in the prequel comics.
- red NASCAR car w/ weapons-- called Leadfoot, leader of the trio called the Wreckers. Chief engineers/weapon specialists. Has a Scottish accent and a "potbelly".
- green/white NASCAR car w/ weapons-- called Roadbuster, another Wrecker. Engineer, has an Irish? accent (I forget, he had like two lines)
- blue NASCAR car w/ weapons-- called Topspin, the last Wrecker. Engineer, I don't recall him ever speaking in the movie.

It appeared from the movie that they all came on the Xantium (itself a IDW comic homage in name), the big shuttle that eventually gets destroyed in the movie.

EDIT: Hey, here's something really cool-- check out all of Josh Nizzi's concept art for TF3 here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39430830@N ... 098211286/
(Pay no attention to the names on the pictures-- most of the new TF designs were given code names for production. "Breakdown" is obviously Soundwave, for example.)

My favorite? Here's a scrapped idea for the movie (that still made it to toy form)-- Steeljaw, Leadfoot's pet (he turned into Leadfoot's engine):

[Phoenix]

;We went to see this movie last night. Since I avoided reading this thread (did not want any spoilers before I got the chance to see the movie I had heard was better than the other two) before now, I did not read all three pages of replies. So I apologies if I bring up things that have already been covered.

Let me start out by saying I wasn't overly impressed with this movie. On a scale from 1-10, I would probably give it around a 6.5.

The bad..

Carly: Sorry, but I was honestly disappointed with this character. The entire movie she merely pranced around on her high heels, not getting a smudge on her outfit no matter how much she was running for her life or whatever else she was doing. Her sidekick (Sam) at least got dirty during the action scenes, but Carly was always flawless. Well, as far as appearance goes anyway. The acting skills of the model they hired to replace Megan Fox did not impress me at all. I found the character to be extremely shallow with very little personality. Sorry, but the only reason she was even in the movie was so the male fans would have someone to drool over. That really is all she contributed to the role.

Crazy Asian Guy: his antics ranked right up there with former Bay pearls like robots peeing on humans and dangling scrotums.

Dylan: If I was approached by hostile aliens who wanted to turn me, my loved ones, and the entire human race into slaves, I most certainly would not willingly work for them. I would fight back with all I had. It just does not seem likely anyone would just give up so easily, well knowing the Decepticons would likely destroy humanity and the Earth after they were done.


The Decepticons: As with the previous two movies, the Decepticons (for the most part) had personalities to match their paint jobs.. None. During the three movies barely any of the Decepticons had paint jobs that would make them stand out, so I was barely able to tell who got blown up/ripped to pieces/killed in some other fashion. They just looked too similar for me, which certainly was not helped by the fact that most of them had very limited personalities if any at all.

Starscream was supposed to be Megatron's right-hand-man, yet he was only portrayed as little more than a *** kisser.. Who was taken down by a single human in the end. Ugh.. Where was the scheming, back-stabbing, vain, show-off from G1?

Shockwave was far from his g1 counterpart as well. He certainly did not seem like much of a threat in this movie, with his pet worm wrecking much more havoc. I attribute his death late in the movie not to his intelligent decisions, but rather mere luck. Most of Shockwave's screen time made it into the movie trailer, so if you're a Shockwave fan.. just watch the trailer. :p

Megatron: Just.. wow.. How the mighty have fallen.. He got slapped around by Sentinel Prime until the most annoying human character persuaded him to stand up to Sentinel, despite the fact she shouldn't even know who Megatron was. And then he was killed off in one hit by Optimus. Yes, I realize he was injured but he was still strong enough to defeat Sentinel, who had just beaten Optimus. Weak. Good riddance, Bay Megs.

Optimus Prime was perhaps the one character who acted the least like himself. He pretended to take his bots away and faked being dead, allowing the Decepticons to maim and kill countless humans, merely to prove a point on how humanity needed the Autobots? That's cold, Prime. As was murdering Megatron and Sentinel in cold blood. It was a very non-Prime thing to do.

The Good:

Laserbeak was actually kicking butt in this movie. Looked cool as well as acted tougher than than the others combined. My only complaint is that LB had the ability to transform into whatever he wanted.

Sentinel Prime also turned out to be a positive surprise. Believing he was acting in the best interest of his kind and his beloved home world, Sentinel lost track of certain of the Autobot goals (which apparently Optimus did also this movie). Yet I found this character to have the depth I found to be missing in a lot of other characters, and he turned out to be a formidable foe to our heroes. Nemoy also did an excellent job on the voice. Without Sentinel I fear I would have given this movie a much worse grade than I did.

Ironhide: An honorable death scene that reminded me of Dinobot.

CGI: Visually this movie was a treat to the eyes, with awesome robotic fighting scenes and the usual Bay explosions.

To be honest, I will be glad if the rumors of the next movie being a reboot with no affiliation to Michael Bay, turn out to be true. After seeing this movie, I feel the story he was trying to tell has been concluded, and I'd much rather see someone else running the show for future movies.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

lol that's awesome! What did he say about the film?

I don't think he's a huge fan of Bay's TFs movies; perhaps because of the way Don Murphy treated him before the first film. We agreed that it was a typical Bay movie; endless explosions, in-your-face camera work, silly jokes, and so forth. But it was entertaining. I'm not sure if he really wanted to see it, but I figured he would sooner or later like the previous two and just thought it would be fun to see it with him while I'm in Vancouver. It was cute because I'm sitting with this guy who did such incredible voice work for his Primal role in Beast Wars and we're both TFs fans, and he'd make comments during the film like, "Hm. Cybertron," and, "Oh, that's Leonard Nemoy," and, "What a fruit," (to the photo of Sam accepting his medal from the President ) or "Loser," and, "Uh oh. Decepticons." I loved his booming laugh at the jokes he did find funny. We had to sit in the front row, though, so it kind of bothered our necks. The theater was packed! I don't think anyone recognized him, though. Fools!

Here's a funny photo I took of us in the theater with our totally awesome and stylish 3D glasses :
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fb ... =1&theater

Thank you so much for the breakdown, Beastbot! Q was Wheeljack? Wow... Okay, then... Dino was Mirage? See? I had no idea. Why didn't they just use those names that we're all familiar with? (Sorry if you've already answered this question. ) Good lord, I didn't know any of the Wreckers names, just that they were Wreckers! I suck. I also had no idea that that was Soundwave threatening to kill Bumblebee near the end. I was so lost.

Oh! Next to Malkovich, I also enjoyed Alan Tudyk and Ken Jeong's appearances in the movie. Hilarious.

[Beastbot]

Thank you so much for the breakdown, Beastbot! Q was Wheeljack? Wow... Okay, then... Dino was Mirage? See? I had no idea. Why didn't they just use those names that we're all familiar with? (Sorry if you've already answered this question. )

It hasn't been discussed publically by either Paramount or Hasbro, but there's two theories I've seen: A. Paramount has more pull in the movie than Hasbro (which they do), and liked the names Dino and Q and insisted on keeping them. B. This one is more complicated and has to do with their alt modes-- a Ferrari and Aston Martin, respectively. MATTEL has the license to do toys of those two vehicles, not Hasbro. So to please Mattel, the Ferrari and Aston Martin car companies decided not to give those characters well-known, Hasbro-copyrighted names. (As for Hasbro, they could get around this restriction for toys by doing what they did with Sideways-- the Audi R8 in Revenge of the Fallen-- and change the alt modes on their toys just enough so they aren't licensed cars, they just kinda look like their respective cars.)

I also had no idea that that was that was Soundwave threatening to kill Bumblebee near the end. I was so lost.

Judging from the concept art from Josh Nizzi I linked to above, it looks like at at least one stage of the writing, it would have shown many of the new characters landing in protoform-meteor mode and taking on their new alt modes, which probably would have lessened the confusion. I imagine this was cut for time/money considerations.

Also, according to the game prequel, the reason Soundwave went to Earth and got that Mercedes-Benz alt mode was because the Autobots had implanted a virus which laid out his location to them. He was forced to land and take on a new mode to keep in hiding.

[Darkshadow14]

From stuff like that plus Bumblebee's voice never getting better, it doesn't appear the movieverse ever developed technology like CR chambers or internal repair. Good thing Ratchet's there!

Oh yes, true. Because He's the medic of the Autobots.

I know, I love that aspect of their designs. Anyways, those Decepticons with the "hair" are called the Dreads (as in, dreadlocks, lol). Two of them are called Crankcase and Crowbar. The one on all fours all the time is called Hatchet, he looks particularly awesome.

Yes I liked that the look of them as well! I tyhink I liked Hachet the best, he was a beast!

That was one of many unsubstantiated rumors-- never true.

Okay, thought I heard it from somewhere.

If it helps, the movie toyline is giving us two BW homages. The first one, a minor one, is that on a rally-like repaint of Sideswipe, one of the sponsors on his side is "Axalon Rattraps-- safe and humane (yeah right)". The more substantial one is an upcoming deluxe-class toy called Dark Iron, a remold of Sideswipe with a new head and weapon. It's a definite homage to BW Quickstrike, both with the new head and the color scheme. Plus his weapon looks like a cobra head. (Can't show you a picture, unfortunately-- it was shown at Botcon at a no-pictures panel.)

Well that kinda helps, I guess :p

I also had no idea that that was that was Soundwave threatening to kill Bumblebee near the end. I was so lost.

Oh, that wasn't Soundwave? Hah, I thought the same exact thing!

[Venatrix]

I also had no idea that that was that was Soundwave threatening to kill Bumblebee near the end. I was so lost.

Oh, that wasn't Soundwave? Hah, I thought the same exact thing!

It was Soundwave actually.

[Blazemane]

Ironhide: I didn't see this coming until two seconds after he was shot... and I read spoilers, so really how sad was that? But what was the whole rusting-turning to dust thing that happened. Did his mech fluid rust his armor?

I think since Sentinel was a brilliant scientist, he had designed that gun to degrade the armor of whoever he shot. Over in the pictures Beastbot linked too, there's a design for a "cosmic rust gun" which looks like it belongs to Sentinel. I think that's the gun he shot Ironhide with.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

I did say that it was Soundwave. Someone misunderstood my post.

Well, I watched it again today; in 2D this time. My mom wanted to see it and had actually watched the first two movies of my DVD's a couple days ago. Surprised the heck out of me. I haven't even watched RotF since I saw it in theaters. She really liked DotM, but probably mostly because of Nemoy since she's a Trekkie. I was able to follow it a lot easier this time. Paying more attention to fight scenes and the camera angles and whatnot, I really enjoyed the battles with the TFs duking it out.

Thank you again, Beastbot! That definitely helps me understand it a lot more.

Ironhide: An honorable death scene that reminded me of Dinobot.

Agreed. Although I was shocked to see him die. Made me sad.

[Night-Hunter]

Saw TF3 on the 4th of July. I freaking loved it!

I have a few problems with it one of them being SHockwave, he didn't do SHite! He said like, idk a few words and one of them being "Optimus!" and the only time he was bad a** was when he first made his enterance out of his pet, that was awesome. It said he was the main villan, I say Bull Shite, Sentinel was the main Villan!

I also have a problem with Megs but I'll forgive him, seeing how he had half brain blown away in the second movie. He also needs bug spray for his head, hey am I the only one who noticed the creppy doctor from the second, he was working on Megs head during the Africa scene.

It still ticked me off when Ironhide died, my mouth was hanging open for about five minutes and Starscream's death was funny but I think they could have done better with it.

As for the things I liked pretty much all of it.

I like Carly, I highly doubt Mikaela would have the stones to walk up to Megatron and call him Sentinels bitch and much less live to tell about it.

Soundwave and Laser Beak were totally awesome. Q/Wheejack was pretty cool, shame they had to kill him off.

I actually winced when Optimus had his arm torn off, MEgatron's death was pretty cool, it was kind of predator style instead of pulling out the base of the spine along with the head, Optimus pulled his head off along with his spine. It's so worth seeing again, which I'm totally gonna do.

Oh, and leave it to Michael Bay to destroy an entire city. I must say that DOTM is one of those movies where I can watch it a thosusand times and not get bored of it.

This one by far is the best one, it beats the second one like an unwanted step child. (That's my dad's saying)

[Beastbot]

I have a few problems with it one of them being SHockwave, he didn't do SHite! He said like, idk a few words and one of them being "Optimus!" and the only time he was bad a** was when he first made his enterance out of his pet, that was awesome. It said he was the main villan, I say Bull Shite, Sentinel was the main Villan!
beats the second one like an unwanted step child. (That's my dad's saying)

Popular theory seems to be that Shockwave was promoted as a "red herring" main villain, so that Sentinel's betrayal would've been a surprise.

[Night-Hunter]

Shockwave was promoted as a "red herring" main villain

ALright. But if you're going to have Shockwave be the red herring then at least make him do shite other then just stand and look cool then have his throat ripped out by a very p.o'd Optimus.

Does any one know what happened to Laser Beak? Did he die while I went to the bathroom for the third time to empty my tiny bladder?

[Venatrix]

Sam and Bumblebee killed him.
When he attacked Sam, the boy held his head in front of the ship's canon, and Bee pulled the trigger and "bam!" Headless turkey.