But I added 1939

After watching the movie, several colleagues of mine upped their prediction to 4m+ tix in Germany...

WAR OF THE WORLDS audience plus teen crowd thanks to love story...

It's not fair for Transformers grouping it with the likes of War of the Worlds, this movie was so much better.

Did they say specifically what they liked about the movie, or didn't they like it?

They were pleasantly surprised...
And don't spit on WOTW, my favorite movie of 2005!

They were pleasantly surprised...
And don't spit on WOTW, my favorite movie of 2005!

No more history please.

Did they come in there with low expectations or something, were they not fans or they don't like this type of movie?

Boy, you're sure excited about TF... We didn't go into details, but I'm sure they were expecting a Michael Bay movie, which in many cineastic circles means commercial eye candy with no sense for story, editing and logic...

Oh you figured, I haven't been excited about a movie on this level for quite some time. I wished you guys could see it soon, that way you know where i'm coming from and we can discuss freely.

Armageddon is actually one of my favourite movies, i know the political side of it was crass (TF has it as well but not as cheesy), so you can say that I don't have such a resentment towards Bay as some other people.

This movie is definately eye candy, but it'll give your chest some pains as well....it's so much fun and you'll end up laughing your butt off

If you like WOTWs, i'm sure this one would be right up your ally no?

A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I was already looking forward to see TF in January when I saw about 15 minutes of rough footage at a movie theater convention...

Thanks Tyranny,

I wanted to stop them, but was afraid they may bomb me instead of staying on topic

Glad you loved it.

Welcome! They wouldn't bomb you... Their both great kids.

Your predictions were off, i thought it was better than the score you predicted earlier

Archangel's Transformers Review

No Spoilers of course, i don't do spoilers

Saw the movie this afternoon with a small group of friends, I've been waiting anxiously for this day for the past week and have been awaiting for something like this for over 10 years now.

Words cannot describe how happy I am and probably the majority of the viewers at the session. It received the loudest applause i've heard since the LOTRs days, and that's saying a lot. It was louder than the reception Pirates 3 got and everything that came after ROTK which i've seen. It definately delivered for those in its target audience (the majority of the viewers were teenagers or school kids).

Could it be the fact that all the blockbusters so far have dissapointed or didn't match their hype? Well Transformers delivers on so many levels, the first of which is the fact that this is not a sequel, it's something totally new and refreshing. I haven't seen this much laughter and energy in a cinema for quite some time, definately not in a non-comedy movie. The crowd was truly enjoying what they saw. There were lots of "wows" "sick" "wooos" (some of them from me ). Trust me, you'll enjoy this.

Story/Character.Action:

I was profoundly surprised by this. I knew it wasn't going to be like the cartoons, but I was surprised by how much they referenced or at least acknowledge Transformers focklore. There was definately a nice balance between character, story and action in this movie. In fact, when I asked my friend what he thought, the first thing he said was it had the "right balance"....i totally agree, the buildup wasn't as slow as something like King Kong, the action starts right from the start then you have some character development. By the end, it's all out action. That's what everyone wants, and Bay delivered on this regard.

Within these are alot of jokes, and I mean alot. There are so many scenes where you just burst out laughing or root for them. Thankfully, none of the jokes backfire, you definately won't be seeing a Spiderman 3 style blunder in this movie. This is truly clean stuff (or dirtty, depending on which scenes ).

In terms of actors or character, I think Shia, Megan and the supporting cast did as best of a job as we can expect in this type of movie. I personally quite like Sam's character even though you can definately see quite a contrast from Sam and Spike in the cartoons. Sam is more of a modern teenage boy...while Spike was a more reserved chap. Megan took a while to burn up for me (looks aside), her momment is towards the end when she starts to take charge and get in with the action. Their are definately glimpses of Carla from the cartoons (the extremely smart blond girl who would then become Spike's wife)....though you'll be surprised at her background. Of course there are several characters I didn't like, most of them have far too much screen time, especially one of the cops from Sector7 (you'll know who). And there's something about the stereotypical portrayal of the black community that bothers me. No i'm not a racist, but why do movies ALWAYS have to portray the "rude side", "mother yelling" and same shallow stuff which we have seen in almost every single black movie. Again, it's fine if your in the States, but for those outside, this stuff is pretty lame-o.

The ending was good, I wouldn't say it's totally mind blowing.....but it kinda ties everything up nicely. It was slightly abrupt, but not so much that you feel cheated or feel that they could've done so much more (queu Pirates 3).


Transformers and SFX

Love the direction they took with the designs. I'm not fan of GM, but the fact that all the cars were GM didn't bother me in the movie. That's because u look beyond their outer designs and really marvel at the transformers. Though it's a no-brainer that the Camaro gets the most buzz from the audience. There's a good scene with it.

Bublewee is easily the most likeable character, we definately feel for him and grow to love him the most. He has the most screentime out of all the Transformers. Prime is just, well, prime. Very statesman, very honorably and is everyone's father Though his impatience in one of the scenes kinda goes against my idea of what Prime represents....but that's hardly a biggie. The Decepticons take up most of the scenes at the beginning, though it gets evened out nicely towards the end. Though I was quite surprised by how little screentime Starscream got. Also, I was expecting more of a bickering between him and Megatron after viewing the preview with the screen writers. There's really only one scene where Megatron expresses his dissapointment in Starscream, not much more. Starscream is definately the most underused character in this movie.

The transformations were awesome, static and moving, the crowd loved it. Prime of course has the best transformation...most lengthy too, though some of Megatron's transformations weren't that far off. For me, this is definately the best SFX this year. Nothing Pirates or Spiderman offered could match up to the spectacle and coolness of Transformers. There's money shots galore, and 1000billion times more than anything WOTWs offers. I would definately rank this up there with LOTRs, King Kong and Pirates. I think we have our SFX Oscar winner here folks (fingers crossed).


Other Stuff:

In terms of music, the good news is that the crappy theme is nowhere to be found, mind you I didn't stay for the rest of the credits...but at least it wasn't the first song that was played after the movied ended. The score was the usual symphony fanfare which you get in these sorts of movies. Though i was kinda dissapointed that there wasn't any real tune or piece of score which really captures you to the extent of say Terminator, Spiderman or even King Kong. It's all brass, trumpets...doesn't have the same level of togetherness which seperates a medicore score from a good one or an excellent one.

There's a nice scene where one of the extras makes a joke about one of Michael Bay's previous movie, i'm not going to spoil it for you but it's quite funny (it's fast so do listen carefully towards the end ).

Overall:

You know the answer to this already All i'm thinking of now is the next movie (there will definately be a next one considering the buzz and reviews so far) and the endless possibilities they could take with this franchise. There's definately some loose ends which can tie this movie with the next. Bring on the Dinobots and the Constructicons.

A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(I would put this on the same level as King Kong and Phantom of the Opera, those of you who know me knows that these movies are second only to the LOTRs Trilogy)

Okay, was it like a typical MB film?

They are of course, we need to suck up to them or else there will be no more insights into the German or Polish BO for the rest of us

Sort of, though i think it's above his usual action fair....could be Spielberg's doing who knows....