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zombie84

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21-Nov-2005
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12-Jan-2024
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Post
#294648
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294648/action/topic#294648
Time
Originally posted by: Fang Zei
DVD's have sorta been ruined for me ever since I found out about how NTSC transfers run a 24 frame per second movie at 23.976 frames per second. Yes, I know it's next to nothing, but now that I know it's there it'll bother me.


And regular 30 FPS is really just 29.97! And 60i is really 59.98! OMG!

Actually, Fang, those decimal numbers don't really mean anything. They are just pull-down issues from video fields. Its complicated but 23.98 is effectively 24 frames running by your eye per second.

As for HD-DVD, although there are many releases that have both formats, at the end of the day Blu-Ray has the support of seven out of eight of the big studios, and it's titles outsell HD-DVD by something like a 3-1 margin which is growing at an astronomical rate--that's 75% of the market and growing; so although the Matrix box set is available in both formats thats decieving--based on those stats, that would be a comparable 250,000 sales of the HD-DVD version of the film versus 750,000 sales of the Blu-Ray version of the film. To top it off a number of retailers, notably Blockbuster Video, the largest rental chain, have stopped carrying HD-DVD. The only thing HD-DVD really has going for it is that its players are cheap--but in fact its players are so cheap because Toshiba was so desperate that every time someone buys one they lose money--they are below cost! And because of this no third-party manufacturer can produce any. The only thing keeping HD-DVD afloat is that Microsoft, with its bottomless pit of money, keeps pumping funds into the format to cover the enormous losses it is taking. The goal was flood the market with players at a great fiscal loss in the hopes that it would reciprocate in software sales, but the software sales are doing terrible, and even the player sales are not very good. There's just so many factors that don't just indicate that Blu-Ray might win, but are actually showing that not only is it already winning but that the gap will continue to widen with the astounding speed that it has been since its release. Digitalbits posted a reall good editorial on the matter a month or two ago that really cuts to the heart of the issue but even this is a bit out of date now since Target and Blockbuster have stopped carrying HD-DVD and Blu Ray sales have increased even more.
Post
#294433
Topic
Rest In Peace, Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294433/action/topic#294433
Time
Originally posted by: TheCassidy
Originally posted by: sean wookie
Originally posted by: TheCassidy
Originally posted by: sean wookie
This is the guy who did The Seventh Seal right? Even though I've never seen a movie of his RIP.


You wouldn't like it.


How do you know?


Because you've already made up your mind about God.


I don't think this has anything to do with the ability to enjoy a Bergman film. Atheist or Christian, his films are still powerful and I doubt they would persuade one's beliefs one way or another.
Post
#294360
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294360/action/topic#294360
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: Tiptup
I hope that's true. Neither format truly excites me, but if I'm going to be stuck with one, Blu-ray is technically better and I'd rather have that dominate. It may come with more copy-protection crap, but that will still be bypassed quickly (I'm sure) and homemade content will be nicer on Blu-ray.


Meh. The only thing technically better about Blu-Ray is that it can hold more. Other than that, they both use the same video/audio encoding and everything else. And since it looks like (at least some) the players are backward compatible with existing DVD titles, I guess it doesn't much matter which format "wins". Still, there's a reason why neither format has really "taken off" the way they should and that's because of the competing formats. My gut tells me that until HD-DVD makes an announcement that they've really lost, your average consumer will continue to hold off. I personally have been telling people to hold off and wait for the format war to end. I can't, in good conscience, tell someone "oh just go get one of these" on the off chance that whatever one they decide to buy ends up being nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

The sooner an official announcement comes, the better.


See, I don't agree with this. Companies won't conceed defeat until the latest possible time because even though they have effectively lost the war, if they downsize and concentrate just on software they can probably sell disks for quite a while because by 2008 there will still be a decent base of HD-DVD player owners that want their investment to pay off and will still buy the small trickle of releases. Take a look at Beta--like HD-DVD it came out before VHS and initially held 100% of the format war. As soon as VHS came out VHS became more popular, and after a year or two of landslide victories had claimed roughly 75% of the market, much like Blu-Ray has done. As the mid-80's approached, the Beta market was only five or six percent. Beta was pretty much dead by 1984 but the plug was not pulled until the end of the decade really. But it would be stupid not to recommend to people by the early to mid-80's to go with VHS because it was the clear victor, and consumers were becoming more aware of it; Beta was unpopular. And thats the way its going now. Consumers are aware of whats going on--I mean they are the ones responsible for the landslide Blu-Ray sales! And while this is on early-adopters, the dissappearance of HD-DVD from stores pretty much would seal the deal to anyone looking into the matter--when you see Blu-Ray everywhere, and HD-DVD only in a few stores with this little tiny pathetic section its not like thats going to make you question your decision. Word on the street is basically "so this Blu-Ray is the new thing now, huh?"

Looking at the stats, there's really no way that HD-DVD can bounce back. One theory states that the format war was actually instigated by Microsoft for the very reason of creating confusion. It's not that they want Blu-Ray to die or HD-DVD to win, they are more interested in crippling the market so that people will resist HD disk content and move directly to digital downloads. A lot of industry insiders believed that the whole format war was a sort of investment scheme engineered by Microsoft in order to strengthen their own target marketplace. Their statements and flagrantly illogical business practices certainly suggest so.
Post
#294302
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294302/action/topic#294302
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: zombie84
Fox went Blu-Ray but since Fox is the distributer of Star Wars that means Star Wars is Blu Ray. But the way things have gone there won't be an HD format war by this time next year anyway so its ultimately irrelevant.


No, that doesn't mean anything. It means that if Blu-Ray does ultimately win out, Star Wars is Blu-Ray. According to McCallum, Star Wars is nothing until the format war ends.

I hope the war ends this Christmas as well. This will most likely be the Christmas that decides who will win. And if there is no clear winner, be ready for lots and lots of multi-format players to start coming out next year.


Well, that depends on when you define the war "over". If its the actual ceasing of production of HD-DVD products then it could be as late as early 2009. But in a practicaly sense it will be early 2008. Most stores don't even stock them anymore. Target doesn't, and Walmart is phasing out HD-DVD too IIRC. Blockbuster cancelled HD-DVD and now carries Blu Ray only. Hardware and software of Blu-Ray outsells its competitor by a 3-1 margin. All the studio's but one are behind Blu-Ray, while HD-DVD i believe only has one exclusive (and multiple studios that outright refuse to support it). Hardware price cuts have resulted in no third-party manufacturers. And Microsoft admitted that it wanted disk-based home video to die. Eek. And this is not only well before this holiday season but before many of the studios supporting Blu-Ray have begun releasing their gigantic classics catalog (The Searchers is the only one so far I believe)--when the software floodgates open this shopping season it will be Blu-Ray fever. So, in a practical sense, HD-DVD will be obsolete by the new year, but I would suspect that there will still be a faint trickle of releases up until the end of next year before the plug is officially pulled.

Post
#294202
Topic
Rest In Peace, Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294202/action/topic#294202
Time
Yup, was truely sad to hear of this. One of the greatest artists of the cinema and one of my favourite directors. He was a real poet. Antonioni passed away today as well. Devastating. Goddard is really the only one left from that seminal period of international groundbreakers, but Bergman was always one of my favourites. For a man who spent the cinema exploring his inner troubles I hope he has finally found peace.
Post
#294181
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294181/action/topic#294181
Time
Well thats kind of a different situation in that there was no such thing as home video before that period. A lot of movies didn't see video release until the same time. A better indicator is DVD--the format was released in 1997, by 1999 it was clear that it was going to be a new format in a short while and in 2001 the first Star Wars film was released (the OT was held off until later not due to market reasons but because it was felt that it should only be released once the saga was complete--but these plans dried up when VHS went the way of the dodo around 2003). So based on that 1997>2001=4 years, which translates to 2006>2010, but given how different the home video market has changed since 2001 and given that all six films are already available in HD on television, I wouldn't be surprised if it came out a year or two earlier. But this would be the SE of course. Given the previous discussion here of the saga boxset being simul-released in HD that times out pretty good--although I am suspicious of 2008, given that its "The Year of Indiana Jones."
Post
#294148
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294148/action/topic#294148
Time
Originally posted by: Mielr
I'll NEVER buy the Special Editions of the OT ever again, in ANY format- even HD. It's the 77/80/83 versions or nothing.


I think I honestly agree with you. Since the GOUT was released, I've never once watched the SE, nor have I had any inclination to. It might be fun to see the film in any form in HD, but I don't think I will ever pay money for a non-OOT release ever again.
Post
#293783
Topic
I say forget the OOT on DVD, lets target HD-DVD/Blue Ray Now
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293783/action/topic#293783
Time
Yup--but I would also think pretty much any release is a DVD/HD simul-release now. But an HD release really would be a practically archival version that would suit all of home viewing needs for the rest of our lives--provided of course that its a quality transfer which actually makes use of HD res and not another GOUT debacle.

Perhaps now that this saga boxset is a no-go it will be simultaneously released on Blu-Ray next Christmas--and you know what I've always said, they would have to include a new OOT to make the DVD sell so it would logical that if the OOT is part of it and there is an HD simul-release that it would be included in the HD package as well.
Post
#293649
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293649/action/topic#293649
Time
Originally posted by: KurtFF8
Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Originally posted by: KurtFF8

He doesn't simply change his films to meet the fans desires, but as he has stated, they are his films and his vision to make how he wants.


I'm almost positive I heard/read somewhere that George Lucas put Boba Fett into ANH SE to "please the fans".

I'm sure there are other examples.


I believe you heard wrong, as that scene in ANH:SE was shot when ANH was shot (in the 70s). Also he wanted to do some type of CG but didn't have good enough technology, so he decided to wait to reinsert the scene for when he was to go back and make the SEs.


Boba Fett was digitally inserted into that scene as he was not part of the original shoot, having been developed by Joe Johnston in 1978; he was filmed in 1996 and played by an ILM employee IIRC. And yes, he was put there for fan-related reasons.
Post
#293648
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293648/action/topic#293648
Time
Fans are good at fucking themselves over with rumors.

My feeling is that there is legitimacy to the original post but that its just some Australia re-package--maybe it'll be a worldwide re-package who knows. They do that type of thing for Christmas. Lord of the Rings for instance created a fancy box last year around November, but it was just a holiday thing. This is probably a similar deal, although the number of disks--16--seems a bit odd; inaccuracy seems more likely at this point. Really if there was something big underway we would have heard rumblings--i mean we know they were planning stuff last year and early this year but thats different. On the other hand, if it just archival material (ie deleted scenes, new documentary footage) and not requriing any newly filmed interviews or anything it could be assembled with a good degree of silence. I think the biggest strike against it is that there is a publicity machine to respect--when the 2004 set came out in November it was hyped up since Januray or February of that year, and the September 2006 release was announced in May. Holiday releases are intended for a October/November release and you really need a solid six months; it would be a stupid business move and if Lucasfilm is anything it's a business. It doesn't rule it out completely I suppose but it goes against all marketing practice. Additionally, the Digitalbits only said that there might be a LUCASFILM dvd presentation, which to me naturally indicates the forthcoming Young Indy package which we know has been in production for three whole years and is a pretty big deal, and Indy IV is all over that convention.
Post
#293579
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293579/action/topic#293579
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: zombie84
I'm sure the people that run the home video department of Lucasfilm are very much aware of everything thats going on and would love to have another release to sell to us but I just don't think its something that Lucas has really even considered. His ego is just too big. Thats why he wore a Han shot first T-shirt--he thinks he's being funny. So far removed from the reality of the travesty he has undertaken he actually thinks that being ironic about it is funny. I think that shows just where his head is--somewhere lost in space.


Or he just grabbed a random shirt and threw it on that day.

Oh, I forgot. This is OT.com. Everything Lucas does is a slight against the fans here.


Uh, do you really think that its just completely random? That Lucas just happens to have a Han Shot First T-shirt that he just threw on? Get a freaking clue dude. He was trying to be clever but it just shows how removed from reality he is.
Post
#293551
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293551/action/topic#293551
Time
Do you really think Lucas is even aware that Blade Runner and Close Encounters are being released in their original versions? I would doubt that even Spielberg is. Furthermore, I doubt Lucas would even care had anyone bothered to tell him. To him its a non-issue: "oh yeah, Close Encounters in its original version, thats nice. When's lunch?" I'm sure the people that run the home video department of Lucasfilm are very much aware of everything thats going on and would love to have another release to sell to us but I just don't think its something that Lucas has really even considered. His ego is just too big. Thats why he wore a Han shot first T-shirt--he thinks he's being funny. So far removed from the reality of the travesty he has undertaken he actually thinks that being ironic about it is funny. I think that shows just where his head is--somewhere lost in space.
Post
#293490
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293490/action/topic#293490
Time
Well, its worth noting that this is Australia too--because earlier this year there was a 12-disk boxset of Star Wars available to order for R4/australia (IIRC--I also believe it was legit and not a bootleg). It was all six films in two disk editions (special features disk for PT, GOUT disk for the OT), without the 2004 OT bonus disk. So maybe this australian DVD conference is just in reference to this thing.
Post
#293485
Topic
2007 Star Wars DVD Collection Release
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293485/action/topic#293485
Time
I assume that the comic-con thing is the massive Young Indy DVD set due this christmas. They announced it last month but haven't really promoted it yet, so this would seem to be the big "Lucasfilm DVD presentation" at comic-con. I would like to believe that its Star Wars but it just seems really unlikely at this point, unless its just a literal collection of all the pre-existing releases into a new box. I know LFL got flack for not releasing the "saga" thing but if they had really done something special the way the Blade Runner release is then they would not have cancelled such a large undertaking, and if its a spontaneous response to all the "wheres the boxset" flack it is likely on another repackage (which is exactly what we dont want). I guess we'll see but all Digitalbits said is that its a Lucasfilm DVD conference, which as i said is almost assuredly the big Young Indy multi-volume release this year.
Post
#293178
Topic
Michael Moore's Sicko
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293178/action/topic#293178
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: sean wookie
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: sean wookie
Have you seen it? If you didn't you have no right to judge it.


Bullshit. It's a Michael Moore film. It's political propaganda and nothing more. As such it's full of lies and deceit. Sure, I could waste 2 hours of my life watching it (I probably will at some point) or I could do something more productive. I chose the later.


You have hostility issues.


And you have stupidity issues. I am hostile toward stupid people that freak out and act like "OMG! THE SKY IS FALLING!" on every little thing Bush does. You're one of them Sean. Your uneducated knee jerk reaction to every headline is pathetic. Try actually reading the articles you post about and do a little more research. Then again, I guess that falls outside your "Bush is always wrong" mentality. You praise Michael Moore's pathetic excuse for a documentary while spitting on every thing Bush does.

Get a clue you retard.


what a perfect way to refute someone saying "you have hostility issues."

Post
#293177
Topic
7/20/69
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293177/action/topic#293177
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi

are you that much of an ass? There were scientific and exploratory reasons. If there weren't, we would've just kept sending unmanned vehicles. Yeah, the primary reason to get a man to the moon was to show that we could do it. .[The Soviets had the same reason, they were just a lot unsafer about it.


That's all I was saying. That's why we've scarcely gone back, why support for it pettered out to the point where we couldn't afford it after we had showed the Russians and planted the flag, and why there's not any further serious interest in the matter. Of course there is scientific matters before and since--NASA is not a US propaganda agency--but the primary motivation for "the space race" and thus the lunar landing was Cold War related (thats why it was a space race--you have to have an opponent); it took national and presidential backing, and it had very little to do with the exploration itself of simply going to the moon for the sake of it, the push that led to the support needed to actually accomplish the feat was entirely Cold War related. No need to get your panties in a wad for pointing out accepted historic fact.

Post
#293154
Topic
7/20/69
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/293154/action/topic#293154
Time
I'm listening to the unedited, unaired broadcast--"I am walking on the fucking moon...jesus christ in a chicken basket!"

In the end I guess the whole "we must go to the moon" thing reveals itself as the mere piece of Cold War propoganda that we all hoped it WOULDN'T be. We went there as a symbol of superior power to the communists, and were it not for the Russian space race there would be no incentive to do so. Sad, but all the optimism about it being to do with scientific and exploratory new frontiers I guess is BS in the end. Lets hope the terrorists vow to make a trip to mars--its the only way we'll get there!
Post
#292916
Topic
A New Direction For The Petition
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/292916/action/topic#292916
Time
Well, since Fox is the distributor of Star Wars and have sided with Blu Ray I'd say that issue's moot; I guess what that means is they want to see if the Fox-back Blu Ray stays around or if there's some other format that will eventually become dominant. Since there isn't any in the planning stages and since Blu Ray not only has ALREADY pretty much ended the format war but also cemented itself as the HD format of choice for consumers of the near future I have to say that Lucasfilm isn't really up to speed on the industry. But then this is a company who only released Star Wars on DVD just a few short years before HD disks were hitting the market--and only because of bootleg and fan pressure. Lucasfilm was once known as a leader of technology in the 80's and 90's but that image is so far gone by now.
Post
#292715
Topic
A New Direction For The Petition
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/292715/action/topic#292715
Time
Originally posted by: Knightmessenger
I think at this point it would actually help to have George Lucas make more changes to the films. That way, at least the color will have to be fixed and many people who fell in love with the first special edition will get upset at seeing the versions they grew up with discarded. I hope he adds even more stupid stuff to the films and alienates even more fans.
By the way what else has Lowry Digital worked on? I thought they did a great job with Cinderella (Disney) but I've seen comparisons (at dvd beaver) for the new Bond dvd's and I'm not that impressed. Even the ones that weren't foolishly cropped. It just looks like Lowry loves to add a blue tint to every film and when it has a lot of noise, just add an advanced blur to remove all grain and any sense of film texture as well.


Their first film was Citizen Kane. Their software was primitive and it was a learning experience, as they not only got the film looking pristine, it looked TOO pristine--they erased the grain, making it almost like video in some instances. They also did the Indiana Jones trilogy and the THX directors cut, both of which look fantastic, before doing Star Wars. Not sure about colouring issues--I don't believe Lowry has anything to do with the colouring, that is the job of the telecine colourist, Lowry just does the image clean-up. In the case of Star Wars the fucked up colouring definitly was a Lucasfilm thing.
Post
#292614
Topic
A New Direction For The Petition
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/292614/action/topic#292614
Time
CO, in all fairness the channels thing is more about quality than quantity--true, not all channels are HD but all the MAJOR ones are, and thats huge. Its similar to the way that it doesn't really matter that much if Lions Gate and Anchor Bay go Blu Ray so much as Paramount, Fox, Columbia, Warner and MGM do.

But with regards to TV's, theres still tons of 4x3 CRT SD televisions out there, they are by far the majority, and maybe people in the LA area are more up to date with technology but elsewhere things are not quite advanced--but they are getting there. Flat-screen displays have already taken over and 16x9 displays are on the verge of taking over as well. Most people can't yet afford a plasma display of any kind, but the lower-quality ancestors of LCD displays are pretty much within the grasp of most people by now. HD displays are still too expensive for most, especially considering that even fewer have the capability of displaying HD content (which would require satalite/digital cable and/or Blu-Ray players, which are far too expensive for your average home right now) but thats changing with startling speed that has really surprised me. Soon all of these advancements will merge--by 2010 you will probably be able to buy a 30 inch flatscreen LCD HD display for well under a grande, and thats when it will really penetrate the middle-class market and then slowly spread into the lower-income households as prices continue to go down with the mass-adoption.

But as for a new transfer--the problems on the 2004 disk are inherant in the telecine itself, the actual film. It was made in HD, which is why the HD broadcasts are the same crappy 2004 image with crushed blacks, super-saturation and weird colourings--i hate to say it but theres a good chance this is what we'll see on Blu-Ray. The only thing that would change this is if Lucas went and did more changes--a reasonable thing--but then this would likely push back the release date as well.
Post
#292604
Topic
A New Direction For The Petition
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/292604/action/topic#292604
Time
Yes, it does depend on mainstream acceptance--or does it? It is true that only a small percentage of people own HD dispays right now but I am amazed at how that is changing. It's like flat-screen displays--six years ago they were home theater specialty items but now you can't even buy a regualr non-flat CRT television, they simply don't manufacture them anymore, and LCD is quickly replacing CRT as well. HD displays have boomed simply enormously in the last two years or so, and over the next five they will increase even more. Remember HD displays don't mean huge, 50 inch screens, most of them are in the 30 inch zone, which is about standard for middle-class homes these days. My feeling is that by 2010 or 2012, even though SD displays will still outnumber them, HD displays will be common and not a highly-priced specialty item.

As it relates to Star Wars, many people point out that the DVD release was absolutely ridiculously late, and only occured once VHS tapes ceased being manufactured. But I maintain that this bungled and criticized course of action might not necessarily be repeated. Why? Because all six films have already been released in HD! I talk about the much larger percentage of people watching HD by five years from now--but how many people were watching HD broadcasts a year ago? Much, much less, and yet Lucasfilm still allowed all six films to be distributed onto HD broadcast. So, with that in mind, a Blu-ray release, while still farther away than anyone would like, I defintily don't think will follow the DVD timetable. IMO, after HD-DVD is put out of manufacturing in 2008 and Blu-Ray becomes the HD standard, we could have some kind of release by 2010, which would be a nice TV show tie-in if thats when the live-action series commences. Wishful thinking perhaps, but not too unrealistic.
Post
#292086
Topic
Transformers: The Movie
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/292086/action/topic#292086
Time
Saw it. Huge G1 fan but I recognized that this would be a good opportunity to "reinvent" the story while also sticking to certain key aspects, so i basically had let go of any sort of nostalgia and decided to just accept this as its own thing. As far as faithfulness goes it was more or less good, with most of the original series bots in there which was surprising to me, and with Optimus and his original voice it was great. But as far as the movie goes it was a bit of a stinker. I was very surprised that the best scenes were the ones with Shia Le-whatshisname; when the characters were involved and when the film actually took a minute to actually explore them it was terrific. Case in point, the scene where the kid is trying to hide the robots and a girl from his parents is not only hilarious and entertaining but brimming with the wonderful character eccentricities that make the robots endearing to us (while also presenting the absurd spectacle of giant robots roaming suburbia). They are NOT just toys, they have personality and feelings. But too often the film treated them as toys, as weapons, as spectacle, and there was way too many completely empty action scenes. Lots of explosions, lots of machine gun fire, and I found it very hard to tell what the hell was happening in any of the (many) action scenes.

Personally, I think Bay ruined what could have been a great film if they spent more time on the characters. Yeah, the robots should have had a bit more screentime, but if its just more scenes of them being shot at and smashing things then it doesn't really matter. I think its dissapointing because at times the film concentrated just on character relationships (whether human or robot) and in those moments the film really picked up, which only made the rest of the moments all the more uninspired. I also found it very hard to enjoy the action scenes on a purely superficial level because of Bay's absolutely wretched directing--i like a lot of his films and his style, but here he framed the action so closely and incoherantly that there was no communication to the audience as to what was actually happening onscreen. The robots also all looked the same--i could always tell who Optimus was because he was distinctly coloured but the robot fighting scenes, which should have been the highlighted spectacle, were just a mess beacuse it was just parts and gears flying around without any sense of what was happening. I STILL don't know how it ended--I mean i watched it but it was just shot so incoherantly that I really have no idea what happened. Bay's style is also very stale--Armageddon and Bad Boys, for example, are shot similarly, but here its just the same old things; the same music, the same sequences, the same shots, the same pomposity, the same overstated emotion; it just feels like Michael Bay on autopilot, almost like someone imitating Bay.

But I'm also glad I saw it. As pure spectacle, the notion of giant fighting robots is cool no matter the context, genre or competance of execution, and as a die hard Transformers fan it was always nice to see the references and to finally after all these years see these guys renedered in live action. I think the sequel will be much better since all the set-up stuff is done now. The original series was more science fiction while this film is more like Fast and the Furious with robots, but I like the way the ending set up a scenario that was more reminiscent of the situation depicted in the original cartoon. I went into this film expecting a dumb action blockbuster but I was secretly hoping that I would find that it was actually much more--unfortunately it was just as i expected. Okay to watch, captivating at moments where characters take center stage and not the explosions, but unfortunate that its not really worth a repeat viewing. 1986's Tranformers The Movie still stands as a million times better than this.