I just got home...(Transformers: 2) - SPOILERS

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#61

I see your point, and in one sense I agree with you. This follows the theater industry’s business model. You’re not actually buying a ticket to see a movie, you’re renting a seat in theater where a movie is being played. By this standard, if you get your seat, you’ve gotten what you’ve exchanged for.

What I’m saying though, is that this business model doesn’t match the paradigm that the consumer expects when he wants to see a movie. If I pay for a service, I expect it to meet my expectations. Normally in our society, we exchange for something (a product or service) based on our valuation of it – We want gas in our car more than the $25.00 we have. If we don’t value the gas more than the $25.00, we won’t buy it.

When we watch a movie preview, we have a certain expectation about the movie - That it will be enjoyable, or that we will find that the movie was indeed more valuable than the $9 we spent on it. But that’s not the case. We don’t get to make the decision about how valuable the movie was to us, because we have to pay before we get the product. If someone buys a blender with the impression it would crush ice, and it won’t even cut bananas, they’re likely going to want to return it and get back their money. Likewise, the movie did not provide what the preview suggested. This is why you’re renting a seat, rather than paying to watch a movie…

I would love it if the industry changed - to something of a “pay what you think it was worth”, but I think people are too focused on getting and keeping money to pay for what they value when they can lie and not pay… sadly.
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#62

Saw it on Sunday in a tiny, old theater with a calm crowd. :frowning:

I liked it. I laughed. I LOVED mom at college, told both my boys to expect me to behave that way when I drop them off at college. (Thinking I’ll need to be numbed so I don’t cry my eyes out.)

Anyway- it wasn’t perfect, but it was fun and that’s what I wanted more than anything else. But what happened to Mikela’s little robot dude? I have no memories of him after the leg hump, which I thought was great- talk about sentient beings!

#63

Yes, it absolutely does happen & when it happens it’s because the dog is trying to exert it’s dominance over you. In effect the people who have a humping dog have a major alpha problem.

#64

I haven’t seen it yet, but I have seen this. I think I get the main jist… :wink:

#65

I know I am going to take alot of heat for this But I was not all that impressed with Transformers 2 I loved the first Transformers, I loved Iron Man, I love fun super hero films. But the thing was that, to me, this movie was not really that fun. I did not find the action scenes really interesting. I did not find the jokes funny, the twin robots and the little robot bug guy was just annoying. I just did not get it

Maybe it was the fact that the story made no since. Its a popcorn summer movie, but it still needs a story I can follow. If I took a quiz after seeing this movie, I would fail it, because nothing in the plot makes any since Its too complex for its own good

in the end, I felt really emotionally disconnected from the film Most of the robots besides Bumblebee and Prime went unamed and kept having rediculus conversations. The actors are so over the top I don’t have any feeling for any of them. The action scenes in the desert are too confusing to know what is happening And what was up with all the Primes in Sam’s vision?

#66

I think more of us than you expect agree with you actually. I very much wanted to like this movie, but I just can’t.

#67

I’ve seen a lot of that, Ebert, the reviewer from CHUD, etc. all liked the first one, but really didn’t like this one.

I wasn’t a fan of the first one, but The GF and I did a rewatch and we liked it better the second time around (still not a fan, but it bumped up a star.) I’ll probably see this one just to (a) see it for myself and judge whether it’s truely bad or another misunderstood Speed Racer, and (b) fuel the fire that is Michael Bay, who entertains me more by inspiring vitriolic reviews than by what ends up on the screen.

#68

I did too. Especially since I really enjoyed the first one. And its not that this film was horrid, its just it wasnt as good as the first one and that was a major disappointment for someone who, after listening to the primer, watching the 86 film, was totally and completely jazzed about it. It could have been so much better than it was.

Transformers wasn’t alone though. With the exception of Star Trek, I have found most of the other big summer movies really disappointing.

#69

Bad Is Bad. And How.

#70

A voice of sanity…

I saw the movie last night, and I went in with exactly this expectation.

And you know what? I didn’t hate it. It was escapism for just over 2 hours.

Which is just what I expected, and just what I got.

All is well in gaf’s world.

#71

As I said on Twitter:

Have decided that TF2 is a meta-blockbuster that deconstructs the Summer Movie genre by taking its tropes to their absurd extremes.

I’m not even kidding.

[ul]
[li]The plot was completely random.
[/li][li]Bay-Splosions every ten minutes.
[/li][li]Lowbrow humor (THREE humping jokes, at least as many testicle jokes.)
[/li][li]Slo-mo/Boobage
[/li][li]Every female is a potential porn star
[/li][li]Military porn (I guess the Coast Guard got left out b/c they’re DHS)
[/li][li]Self-sacrifice… Psych!
[/li][/ul]

What I can’t decide is if it’s all the writer’s doing, or if Bay was (knowingly) complicit in it. I suspect the former.

I will say that by the end I was completely enjoying it as an absurdist spectacle.

#72

But you don’t say whether you thought it was a good movie or not…

#73

I still haven’t decided.

#74

I went to see it again after the last podcast, i got a little excited about all the stuff i missed before, and the three most highs excitement… and i still didn’t enjoy it… oh well each to there own i guess.

#75

New genre of film, yay.

In that regard, as a new genre, it performed well.

Definition of absurdist spectacle genre: A film tailor-made with 'splosions, pop-culture references, rehashed storylines /set pieces/ gags. Turn off your brain, sit back, and enjoy the pretty pictures and non sequitur rhetoric.