What's your opinion on, Live action TF movies & movie toys.

[JediTricks]

The first movie had a good reason to have the human characters in it, and did a good job keeping all their roles in line. I didn't like any of the characters, and none of them felt particularly authentic, and the scenes near the end with Frenzy at the dam base's old communications room was entirely pointless, but they introduced a reason for the Autobots to be here and to be fighting the Decepticons in the way they did. Terrible movie, understandable reasons to have humans - even Avatar is told from the human perspective, even if the character is in his avatar nearly the whole time, he's human so as to give the audience a reason to invest into that world.

The second movie indeed had human characters tripping all over each other and pointlessly appearing all over the place, you could not have state that better TM, that shit was why I didn't see the 3rd movie. Well, that and the disgusting idiotic writing for the robots, the violence of the good guys, and just the bad solution to the ending.


As for the toys, I like some aspects of the movieverse toys. I like the complicated, revealed sculpts; the more realistic takes on how a robot would be formed from a vehicle of that type; and I like some of the more unique, clever, fresh transformations that were brought out of the movie line.

I don't however like the overly alien designs like chicken legs nor the idiotic anthropomorphising like mullets and beer bellies (those aren't the only ones, they're just the first to come to my mind); I don't like anything related to the alien vehicle modes, Megatron was junk in the first 2 movies and his toys were equally worthless as Transformers; I don't like the muted and repetitive color schemes; I don't like the grotesque alien faces of some of the bots.

I don't like anything about the Legion/Legends lines from the movie, cheap junk that gives the brand a bad name.

I don't like the woeful overreliance on Bumblebee, it's worse than Optimus even!

[138 Scourge]

I honestly don't mind the anthropomorphisizing that went on with some of the movie toys. Then again, I like the movie dudes with mustaches, so I wouldn't be that against a mullet or beer belly. I dunno, any touch that makes a character stand out. That said, I didn't buy Leadfoot, and think that Topspin' probably my DOTM toy, so maybe I disliked it more than I thought. Things like that in Animated didn't bother me, though.

The probably unnecessary alien-ness, well, again, it didn't bother me in concept. The worst offender was probably Sideswipe, and that's one of my favorite designs from the whole movie. Also, Demolishor. Never bought they toy, but seeing him in the previews got me really excited. Or Scalpel, the whole idea of that guy got my attention. Didn't care for the toy enough to keep it, though.

Sooo, I guess I want it both ways? I like the touches that make them look more like humans, while at the same time I don't see any reason they need to be humanoid.

[JediTricks]

I honestly don't mind the anthropomorphisizing that went on with some of the movie toys. Then again, I like the movie dudes with mustaches, so I wouldn't be that against a mullet or beer belly. I dunno, any touch that makes a character stand out. That said, I didn't buy Leadfoot, and think that Topspin' probably my DOTM toy, so maybe I disliked it more than I thought. Things like that in Animated didn't bother me, though.

The probably unnecessary alien-ness, well, again, it didn't bother me in concept. The worst offender was probably Sideswipe, and that's one of my favorite designs from the whole movie. Also, Demolishor. Never bought they toy, but seeing him in the previews got me really excited. Or Scalpel, the whole idea of that guy got my attention. Didn't care for the toy enough to keep it, though.

Sooo, I guess I want it both ways? I like the touches that make them look more like humans, while at the same time I don't see any reason they need to be humanoid.

You want it both ways but don't take it when offered?

Mustaches are a difficult sell for the movieverse IMO because I don't think they look like mustaches, just more overly complex visual business on the robot. I'm still not sure what was going on with Ratchet's face, apparently that's a big mustache; and Jetfire's weird beard didn't sell the concept to me. Que/Wheeljack though, that just looks AWFUL.

I didn't find Sideswipe terribly alien, aside from the dopey rollerblading wheelfeet - that is just illogical. Demolishor, that's a good call-out though, very alien - I didn't like that design at all though.

[138 Scourge]

I suppose that really, I'm easy to pleas with a design, but aa picky bitch in regards to it's plastic representation.

Also, I misspoke there, I meant that I like the robot mustaches from the G1 movie. Those guy's classy facial hair stood out.

[Shockwave]

I suppose that really, I'm easy to pleas with a design, but aa picky bitch in regards to it's plastic representation.

Also, I misspoke there, I meant that I like the robot mustaches from the G1 movie. Those guy's classy facial hair stood out.

*looks at av* You're right sir, that is one distinguished looking bot right there.

[Sparky Prime]

I agree with JediTricks that the first film had good reason for human characters. I'd have to say focusing on the human in that movie allowed them a good grounding for the story as well as introducing the Transformers to the general audience. But I was hoping that they would put more of a focus on the Transformers for the sequels. So many of them aren't characterized at all, they're just there, and the majority of Decepticons are literally nothing more than cannon fodder. It would be nice if we even had some more of the human characters focused on. Not that I mind Shia LaBeouf, I think he's a decent enough actor (his character acting macho in Indiana Jones wasn't his call btw, that's how the character was written in the first place) and his character I believe is supposed to somewhat represent the audience, but that doesn't mean he should be the only focus character. Like with Captain Lennox, he said in the first film all he wanted to do was go home to see his wife and new baby. Yet the sequels never even mentions his family. Really he gets no further characterization in the sequels, just like most of the Transformers. He's just there for action sequences and to rebel against the stuffy administrative type person of the film.

I'm also not a fan of the crude humor they force into these films. So much of it just isn't funny and is sometimes just painful to watch with how stupid it can be.

Design aesthetics of the Transformers... I really have no complaints about any of them personally, although I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more variety. I mean, how many of them have the "headlight boobs" or similarly laid out designs?

Toys--
I've never been a fan of the same character being released over and over again with slightly different gimmicks (which commonly plague super hero lines like Batman). I don't mind a few variations, but there is no reason for 12 Bumblebee's per movie while other characters from the movie get left out.

[Dominic]

"Sam represents the audience" is just insulting. In real life, Sam is the person you want to see get pushed in front of a train.

I do not mind human characters. I do, however, mind annoying characters that add nothing, as many of the human characters in the Bay movies were.

I'm also not a fan of the crude humor they force into these films. So much of it just isn't funny and is sometimes just painful to watch with how stupid it can be.

My taste in humour is quite crude, and I still agree with this.


Say what you will about there being 12 Bumblebees, but at least the damned things shipped. I passed through Target yesterday, and saw the same DOTM toys that have been warming shelves since May.


Dom
-seriously hoping that there is a line about Sam being dead in the fourth movie.

[Sparky Prime]

"Sam represents the audience" is just insulting. In real life, Sam is the person you want to see get pushed in front of a train.

How is that insulting? He's your "average joe" character of the films, albeit he's sometimes a bit unorthodox.

Say what you will about there being 12 Bumblebees, but at least the damned things shipped. I passed through Target yesterday, and saw the same DOTM toys that have been warming shelves since May.

That's the problem, they're among the shelfwarmers clogging things up.

[Dominic]

Sam is a bitch, especially in the second and third movies. He goes from being a slightly above average 16 year old in the first movie to being an insufferable brat in the second and third movies. Seriously, most people would push him in front of a bus and be done with him.

[Shockwave]

But Dom, that would damage a perfectly good bus.