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Transformers The Movie: Resparked (Released)

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MARCH 9th, 2008 UPDATE:

This is finished and available now! Overall I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and can’t wait to do the next cut.

Original post:

I’ve begun the initial stages of an fan edit I’ve been waiting to do for 2 years now.

I kind of assumed that Transformers would be a great film overall, but with a little bad dialogue, some unnecessary plot lines, some cheesy kid crap, and that it would just kind of need to be tidied up to make it a better film. Well, I was right. While the movie was highly enjoyable, and exceeded my expectations in many ways, it definitely could use the touch of a Transformers obsessed fan. I’ve begun a list of cuts that I’m going to make, and I’m toying with some audio ideas to improve some of the cheese in the film. I would like to ask anyone who has any interest in this, and who has seen the film, to offer any suggestions on edits. I will be posting my ideas shortly, when I get more time. I’m getting ready to move to a new house, at which point I will begin in earnest my attempt at a fan edit.

Of course I’ll have to wait for the DVD release to actually execute this project, but I want to get as ready as possible in the meantime, so that I can get the edit done ASAP, and then kick back and enjoy a near perfect Transformers Movie Experience!

FE<3OT

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Basic ideas:

Adding a somewhat altered, mostly muted, original G1 transformation sound to almost all transformations.
A few cheesy lines cut.
Altering Starscream's voice to be a little higher pitched.
Cutting some of the bot "jive talkin"
Cutting some Frenzy/altering voice to be less Taz/Jar-Jar
Removing some redundant background dialogue.

FE<3OT

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Hi, I rarely post here, but seeing as how I saw this movie a mere 45 minutes ago, I thought I would chime in. However, here is my disclaimer: I am in no way a hard-core Transformers fan. I read a kids book at my Grandma's house once, and was like, "whatever," nothing special. So I guess I am kind of unbiased in a way, I dunno. I just went with my friends to see a movie.

When you say: "a little bad dialogue, some unnecessary plot lines, some cheesy kid crap, and that it would just kind of need to be tidied up" I know EXACTLY what you mean. As it is now, the movie wasn't bad at all, but with those above changes, I think it could really become great. As it is now, I feel that underneath the surface there IS a great movie there. The good news is that in my opinion, it is almost right there at the surface, it isn't buried deep down like some other movies (I am trying to think of a good example, but nothing is coming, maybe like the two newest Pirates movies...bleh). I don't know if you understand what I am saying, but whatever the case, I had the exact same feelings as you. Dammit, the movie is already fading from my memory, but I'll try to type what I can remember. Let's see...

Over all, they seemed to start several unnecessary plot type things that were half or even quarter-assed. Let me remember:
    The whole soldier and his wife thing. What the hell? It never went anywhere.

    The one girl, Mikeala or something and her dad and their criminal past. Why even bring it up? It seemed as if Sam didn't really seem to care and didn't brood about it and forgot about it right away. I dunno, seemed half-baked.

    Optimus and Megatron with that brothers line. Were they really brothers? I was confused, and again, Optimus didn't seem to show very much sadness or remorse.

    The whole entire girl programmer thing really bugged me. They introduce these two characters, and they don't do much, except eat a plate of donuts. They just solve the code, and that's it. Wow. Yippie ki-yay motherf*&%$#. Big deal. They almost seemed like dead weight to the movie.

    Ah, just remembered another one. I don't know what fan editor's can do, but I'll just throw it out: The Score. First off, let me say, that like the movie, it was in no way bad per se, but it could have been better and could have made the movie better. Again, I don't know if you can do anything, but I seriously thought that it could have carried the movie a lot farther. There was one particular scene I can't remember and a couple of others too where the music was building up, and I was waiting for something good, and then it just kind of petered out. The same feeling overtook me during the HP5 movie. It seems(ed) to me that in both cases, the composers were too tentative, and then did not want the music to overtake the scene, when it could/should have. Again, it wasn't bad, but could have been better.

    Lastly, I am forgetting all my ideas, but it almost seemed to me like the producer or directors or whoever were trying to portray the Autobots as thinking, highly sentient and sensitive beings. I got that feeling, but again it never really seemed fleshed out. I don't know if that was what they were trying to do or what, but just throwing it out there.

    Ooh, remembered another one. That little silver bad robot and his high pitched annoying as hell voice, if you can call it that. WTH? That just really annoyed me.


Well that's enough typing for now, if I remember more I'll try and remember to type them up. And just keep in my mind, that I am not particularly a Transformers fan, but just liked the movie. Good luck with your fan-edit, it maybe one of the select few that actually grab my attention and I follow.

May the Force be with you.

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Originally posted by: reave
Cutting some of the bot "jive talkin"


Did you ever watch the cartoons? - It was perfect and should be kept JAZZ was the closest to the toons and he even break dances!

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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I definitely watched and still watch the cartoons. I was very much into the Transformers since the beginning, and I'm still obsessed to this day. I wasn't referring to Jazz so much as some of the other bots (mainly stuff like the optimus "my bad" line and some others that I can't remember). I might shave just a hair of Jazz breakdancing though. It's OK to a point, but it is a little over the top. I'll just have to watch it a few more times to see how it feels.

FE<3OT

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Hello there. I just saw the movie about an hour ago and I was thinking just about the same thing the whole way through. Fan edit fan edit fan edit! I too am by no means a longtime fan, heck, I didn't even really know what transformers were five hours ago. But, for the most part I liked the movie too. There were really only a few things that bothered me as well. The first thing that bothered me was that our hero and main character seemed like a bit of a shallow asshole (to me). I mean come on, selling family heirlooms to get some wheels, so that he then can wrangle himself a nice f%$*ing sexy lady and never have to resort to piles porn for his entertainment, at least when he's got a real living breathing sex toy!? It's kinda developing him as a bad character with almost no redeeming qualities except maybe innocence and inexperience with women (that a young viewer could relate too?) and a potential for doing future good deeds. The way they make him appear is probably my biggest annoyance. That, and the thing with his parents "were you masturbating", please get rid of as much of that scene as possible (I really do think it was terrible, they tried for a bit too much comic relief if you ask me). Other things that I feel need changing have mostly been mentioned. Things like the soldier having a wife and a child, please take it out, it really goes nowhere and I feel that the dialogue with him speaking over the web cam was very bad and slowed down the pacing of the film.

The one girl, Mikeala or something and her dad and their criminal past. Why even bring it up? It seemed as if Sam didn't really seem to care and didn't brood about it and forgot about it right away. I dunno, seemed half-baked.
I really agree with this, it doesn't belong.

The whole entire girl programmer thing really bugged me. They introduce these two characters, and they don't do much, except eat a plate of donuts. They just solve the code, and that's it. Wow. Yippie ki-yay motherf*&%$#. Big deal. They almost seemed like dead weight to the movie.

I also really agree with this, anything with little miss "I need eyeshadow and a sexy hairdo to work for the government" that can go should go. Especially her little line about "think quantum mechanics", the way she says it you just want to tell her "bitch, you don't even know what that means!"

About the score, some of it I thought was pretty good, but I could do with almost no electric guitar, but thats only what I think. If it's the sort of thing that was part of previous Transformers incarnations I'd keep it (for nostalgia's sake?), but if not I'd let it go.

Also the bit with the soldiers being non-accepting douche bags when they make an issue about the Spanish soldier speaking his native language, the scene very early in the film. I feel it could go.

One last thing (and without it I think the movie would be just great). The bit with the cell phone charge and finding the credit card in the desert fight. I know it got a few laughs in the theater (even a giggle out of me), but it was so not fitting for the scene, it slowed down the pacing so much in a place that could have been near perfect action-wise.

Anyway, I hope some of my thoughts are helpful. I'm definitely interested in seeing how this turns out. Until the next post, I hope your move goes well.
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How about adding some of the 1986 movie soundtrack? During the titles, an edited version of Lion's Transformers theme can play, and maybe You've Got the Touch during the final battles. Another song from the soundtrack can possible play thru Bumblebee's radio, if something would fit in there. These changes can also be on an alternate audio track only.

What about replacing Megatron's voice with the voice from the game or old cartoons? Also maybe doing this throughout the movie for the characters that don't speak much?

Can we have Sam and Ron at least once, called Spike and Sparkplug?
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I agree. I was thinking of using portions of "The Touch" during the Prime/Megatron fight scene and kind of phasing it back into the orchestral score after the first few minutes when one side gets the advantage.

What should go is the subtitles addressing Brawl as Devastator too. Bay preferred him as that, but Hasbro did'nt, it's sheer unprofessionlaism to screw with their consumer interests like that.

It was like Bay thought this entire movie was for the fans only given how many references and dialouge choices went over younger audience's heads. I'd like to cut down that adolescent tone and make it a more universal movie, not as ballsy, yet not very timid either, keep it at a level the first movie had (which also had at least one profanity).

Bush's remake of "Ground Zero", "'Til All Are One" and Blacklab's TF theme would make ideal end credit themes.
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Maybe it because I didn't watch the series, but I thought Frenzy was perfect. His personality is of a person who is so smart that they are dangerous. Most extremely smart people have no common sense. Look at how dies. He is trying to accomplish his mission and does something without thinking about the consequences showing his lack of common sense. He shoots one of his blades at the humans attempting to kill them, but doesn't think about what the consequences are for himself, and it results in his own injury. Also, he is such a major part of the humor of the film. The audience I was with laughed the most at him.


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I thought Frenzy was fine. He was'nt that major a player in the original series, so this gave him a chance to nail a character of his own
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not saying that it was needed, but the criminal father and daughter part was to show that there was more to her than meets the eye.
Hammond
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I agree that was completly not needed in any way, shape or form.
Hammond
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One thing I think you should consider would be to replace some (if not all) of the dialogue in the film with the voice acting from the original cartoon series. Particularly all the Decepticons.
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Definitely cutting the "pissing" scene. And I'm going to make John Turtorro less cheesy/creepy ("she's a criminal, criminals are HOT!").

I've thought about changing some of the dialogue to the original character voices, but I'll probably do that in a seperate edit. I'll most likely end up making a G1 cartoon style edit, and a serious, intelligent action movie edit.

I'd like to cut the rock music out of the score all together, but it may prove to be too difficult for me.

FE<3OT

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I just remembered something else to mention. The two scenes (or more) with his grandfather discovering Megatron were neat, but I thought it might be better if they were edited into one "discovery" sequence. And also, try to remove the whole ebay "laidiesman217" thing. Maybe the decepticons would know about him because they sensed the glasses, or something like that? Or maybe no explanation at all? Anyway.

I would also be very interested in two edits, one serious and one Tranformer-ish. That would be just great.
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Yeah, I've been toying with the idea of removing most of the Ebay advertisement/plot line all together. Not a big fan of blatant advertisements, though I think I'll leave the Mountain Dew bot in at this point.

FE<3OT

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Current status:

So I think that I'm going to remove the Australian girl/hacker subplot out entirely. The characters are very thin, and ultimately their arc goes nowhere. I'll probably leave a couple of the their scenes in, but they'll be more minor characters/extras than anything.

As far as frenzy goes, I'm just going to tighten his character up a bit, leaving most of the insanity, but less of the slapstick (jar-jar anyone?).

I'm making some small trims to the soldiers footage, just enough to pick up the overall pace of the movie (less humans, more bots!).

Any thoughts on the police station scene? I think it's kind of funny, but entirely uncecessary, and is another pace-killer. I'll mess around with it and see.

Trimming the credit card/indian operator scene. Just needs some tightening up, to make it a little more believable.

Trimming some sector 7 cheese.

Tightening the Bumblebee/Mikaela/Towtruck scene (I'll drive, you shoot ), hopefully changing/eliminating the music (any help on removing music would be appreciated)

Can't wait to purchase the DVD, so I can finish my edit, and screen it for my friends on my new 720p Projector!

FE<3OT

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From what I'm seeing, you're making some nice changes. Personally, I hate the cartoon. I was born in '85, so I caught the tail end of that era of action figure advertisements as cartoons. Just...horrible writing, horrible animation, just blah. But I like the movie.

Cutting the cheese is a great move. I know this goes against the beliefs of many, but please rein in Jazz a bit. The goofiness of it really, really set my teeth on edge. I'm cool with him being kind of rebellious, but it was so over the top. Just felt really awkward.

But for the love of god, don't start slapping the '86 soundtrack all over the movie. It just, doesn't, fit. The cartoon movie is a product of the 80s, so the 80s music is fine. But trying to turn the live-action movie into anything resembling a modern-day version of the cartoon series or film just seems like a bad idea. A mixture of parts that just shouldn't go together.

I wouldn't be totally averse to fiddling around with Megatron's voice, as it felt kinda odd to me. But a lot of the characters were voiced by the original actors, with a couple exceptions due to death and disagreements. But don't go overboard. Fix the movie, don't try and turn it into a cartoon.

But those're just my thoughts. I'm just a heathen Transformers cartoon hater.
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I am going to pull jazz, in just a little. If they wouldn't have said that he learned how to talk from the internet, I would nix all of his jive talk. But I'm going to leave a little of it in, because it's in his character.

There is not a chance in hell of me putting any of the 80's transformers songs in this edit (I may make a Cartoon edit later, but that's if, and only if I get this one to my satisfaction). It would not fit the theme, and it would detract from the "reality" in the movie. I might however, try to sneak a couple of the old, minor background themes in there, if I can get them to not sound old. I may experiment with some Cakewalk/Sonar stuff, to see if I can make it work, without pulling the movie back to the 80's (then again I may save that for the Cartoon edit).

I'm fine with the voices. If I can add a little bit of synth/noise/robot-ness to some of the vocals, I might try.

I appreciate your feedback. I love the cartoon, but only to an extent. I was (well, still am ) big into the toys, but we couldn't get the cartoon where I was, so I could only see it at my friends house once in a great while, so I watch them now to make up for lost time. Overall they're pretty cheesy, but fun.

FE<3OT

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Finally someone's doing this. A few humble suggestions:

Bay did a great directing job. Where the movie needed help was in the writing department. the lines suck. period. Hardly worthy of the name transformers. Beast wars had better writing than this.

The glasses stuff, garbage.

Allspark and its magical abilities, garbage. It's straight out of the 80s though, but come on...

Sector 7. snnnnnnnnnnnnnore

Am I shallow? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -_- What is this, the OC?

Honestly who cares about boring details like that that had nothing to do with the cartoon? Can't we just have it be as simple as the show in which the transformers crash land on earth and continue their war there? good grief.

I'd cut out the batman begins music from megatron's awakening. It's just too distracting.

All the pointless humor has to go. Mojo, Bernie Mac and Cheese, Mama's Alligators, my bad etc...


If the movie took itself more seriously like spielberg tends to do, it'd have been a billion times better.

As for the writing, this'll be a huge challenge... since it can't be re-written. I have a big problem with the throw-away "ebay" line. Not only is it blatant advertising, but it's just too ridiculous. We don't get much else to explain why the autobots and decepticons are there in the first place besides that? lame. I believe we need to perhaps have sam discover bumblebee by chance, not by bumblebee's decision to be bought by sam for no reason. That takes care of the ebay nonsense. But how do the autobots learn about sam's glasses... Oh of course.... make it so that sam's name is connected through his great grandfather, but not necessarily because of some glasses. It's just info available in cyberspace. Optimus' comment about learning through the web will take care of the rest...

that should work.
He big in nothing important in good elephant.

"Miss you, I will, Original Trilogy..."

"Your midichlorians are weak, Old man." -Darth Vader 2007 super deluxe extra special dipped in chocolate sauce edition.

http://prequelsstink.ytmnd.com/
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Umm, Wesyeed, something to keep in mind regarding how much is cut out. You've gotta pick and choose a bit, only cutting the worst stuff. If you cut every single thing that annoys you, the already somewhat sketchy plot completely disintegrates into a total mess. You need a framework that holds it together, even if you don't like all of it. The glasses and the allspark were goofy, I agree. But you cut that out, you lose all the motivation for any interaction between the people and the Transformers. Allying with people is a WEAKNESS for the Transformers, as they require protection and sacrifice in order to keep them alive. The glasses and the Allspark provide at least some motivation for doing so. The cartoon was retarded in the sense that there was no freakin point for the robots to work with people, yet they did so. This motivation was never a problem because the cartoon was targeted at 7 year olds. But, motivations must be dealt with in the movie. They way they were handled was stupid, but they need to stay.

And while the eBay stuff was certainly intentional name-dropping, it's at least plausible. It's integral to the plot. It allows the robots to find the person of interest, and that leads to the motivation for people and robots to work together.

Otherwise, its just a random case of robots crashing on earth, the good robots ally with a couple of teenagers and in so doing, further imperil their standing in a several thousand year old war, good robots conquer bad robots, the end. It's even more immature and screwed up than it is WITH the problematic elements.
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Here's an opportunity for you to do something interesting with the eBay scene: instead of having his seller name being "ladiesman917" or whatever, why not have it be "spike917"? The point of having it be "ladiesman" is to portray his character as a bit pathetic, but there are enough instances of that. Changing it to "Spike" softens that edge a bit AND gives a nice shout out to the 80's fans without going down the cheese road. Just matte the new text on the screen when you see the eBay listing, and then find some clip from the 80's of Cullen saying "Spike" (that can't be THAT hard), pitch shift it a little and drop it over "ladies man" and you've got it! The Optimus lip movements are so crappy, I don't think anyone will notice the sync issues...

And just a general action scene request...I had no idea what was going on in most of the fights. Whatever you can do to help make these make more sense would be greatly appreciated. What a mess!
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Here's an opportunity for you to do something interesting with the eBay scene: instead of having his seller name being "ladiesman917" or whatever, why not have it be "spike917"? The point of having it be "ladiesman" is to portray his character as a bit pathetic, but there are enough instances of that. Changing it to "Spike" softens that edge a bit AND gives a nice shout out to the 80's fans without going down the cheese road. Just matte the new text on the screen when you see the eBay listing, and then find some clip from the 80's of Cullen saying "Spike" (that can't be THAT hard), pitch shift it a little and drop it over "ladies man" and you've got it! The Optimus lip movements are so crappy, I don't think anyone will notice the sync issues...

Spike917 would be interesting, but I would have to figure out how to get Barricade to say it. That might be an idea for a later date, when I have time to mess with some more complicated editing.

And just a general action scene request...I had no idea what was going on in most of the fights. Whatever you can do to help make these make more sense would be greatly appreciated. What a mess!


Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming at points, but I think that any attempts to slow down the fights, would degrade the picture quality so much, that it wouldn't be worth it. Might mess around with it if I can figure out a good way to do it, but probably not. Maybe you just need a 100" screen, and some speed (Reave Inc. does not support or endorse the use of illegal narcotics)!

FE<3OT