Talk: Transformers (Movie)

High-res movie model renders[]

Are we allowed to use the ultra high-res renders of the actual movie CG models of Prime, Bumblebee and Megs that were released to the press a few days ago? Shrunken down so they're not huge files, obviously. I noticed enewsi.com was using them for their Making of the movie article. --FFN 18:31, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Movie nav[]

Is there any way to put it underneath the main picture? Its screwing up the formatting and makes the page look really haphazard. --FFN 08:19, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Do we want it under? It seems to... really not serve it's purpose if it's not on top. -Derik 08:29, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

If its purpose is to make the page look fucking terrible, then yeah, I don't want it to serve that purpose, because that's what it DOES. There has GOT to be someplace better to put that. --M Sipher 16:26, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that putting it somewhere other than top-left limits its usefulness. I've been using it to snap back and forth between pages, and it's really awfully handy. -Derik 17:50, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

The problem is the main picture should not have to cut into the main body of the article merely because of the nav. Regardless of screen real estate, it bunches up the text to one side. Plus, pictures are typically wider than the nav, so they should be above it. Or above the introductory text. --FFN 18:28, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, either the image goes, the nav thing goes, or we have to completely redo the navbar to work with pages and not fucking destroy them. Walky has spoken. --ItsWalky 18:47, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Proposed solution - a horizontal bar across the top. Smaller footprint. -Derik 01:29, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

That's still not layout-friendly, though it's better. Wikipedia seems to work fine with all its intra-series navigation at the bottom. Is that not a worthwhile solution here? --ItsWalky 01:58, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Got an example? (And yes, my proposed solution isn't layout friendly, merely low-impact.) -Derik 02:01, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Was changing the Movie nax box found to be unworkable? Because the vertical box we have really is like a big scar at the top of the page. --Rotty 07:33, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

No consensus was reached on a new design, so no changes were made. (I agree the current design is ugly... but we could just wait until July 8th when Paramount announces there's going to be a sequel, then we can banish the franchise navigation to a page for the movie series, and leave the pages for the individual movies clear.) -Derik 07:49, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it would be alright to put the navbox under the main image, personally. At least as a temporary fix. I agree that we need a more permanent solution, though, so that the nav can work with pages that have a main image in the first place. --Steve-o 14:30, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Officially released pictures[]

Now that Hasbro has put up some renders of Barricade, Bumblebee and Prime on their site, can we use those for the character articles? --FFN 04:02, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Does the picture of Prime and Megatron belong on this page already? -EricMarrs 01:40, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think we've seen any officially released pictures of Megatron. EDIT: Oh wait, the poster. Doh. --FFN 08:20, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

For the love of God[]

Can we PLEASE not have "argh the movie sucks and the designs blow and it's ruining my childhood" plastered all over these pages?

for the love of God, part 2[]

Can we also please wait until things are actually published to start throwing movie stuff in here and there? I imagine quite a few of us are avoiding reading spoiler-intensive reviews of issues that are due merely weeks later. --ItsWalky 21:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Characters?[]

I'm unsure as to whether I consider, say, new movie Bonecrusher to be the same character as G1 Bonecrusher in the sense that he should like to Bonecrusher (G1) and be written up in that entry like any other continuity. I kinda feel like he, and probably Scorponok and maybe Brawl, aren't "the same guy" in the sense that Megatron, Starscream, and the Autobots seem to be. On the other hand, it's probably impossible to really make a good judgement on that until the movie actually comes out. --Steve-o 04:46, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

That's the gist of the comment I put on my update, yes. --ItsWalky 05:21, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it may be a good idea to just set up a (Movie) category or sub-category unless something super G1-specific happens. ----MCRG 04:59, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Chances are, we'll end up having to do (Movie) pages for all of these characters anyway, so I wouldn't really worry about it until the movie's been released. - Dark T Zeratul 05:09, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

We'll have to worry about it sooner! The IDW prequel comic comes out next month. I had a discussion about this with Steve-o in person a while back, but I figger I should give my idea here.

I think everyone from the movie should be given their own page, under X (Movie) if they require the (Movie) tag for disambiguation purposes. This is not to say that they will be considered separate characters. For obvious carry-overs like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, they will simply have Movie sections on their G1 pages that have, for example, "See Bumblebee (Movie)" under the header, like Optimus Prime's toy section. (Stuff like this will especially come in handy on Prime's page, which is too long for more material already.)

My reasoning for doing this to all the characters? The Movie is a huge franchise, and something that will be THE most prominent and pervasive Transformers media, probably of all time, and so separating them will increase ease of use, especially for more casual browsers. This will also allow us to focus exclusively on these versions of characters in a better way, with concept design stages, once the Art of" books come out, maybe even have a "Differences between the movie version and previous versions of the characters" section, again which would be beneficial to more casual browsers. --ItsWalky 17:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That all makes good sense to me. I am wondering, though, about what the continuity notes for the Movie-character articles should say. Would the Movie and its related fiction be a labeled as a portion of G1, or would it be called a new continuity family of its own? --KilMichaelMcC 17:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That I'm not 100% sure on. Though if Bumblebee, Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and Jazz are considered versions of the G1 character, I would say that probably necessitates it being considered in the G1 continuity family based on that technicality. If it's its own continuity family, then it can't share any of another continuity family's characters without some dimension-hopping. --ItsWalky 17:39, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, this begs the question of what qualifies as "G1." From the sound of things, the movie has about as much in common with G1 as Armada did; in that it was definantly INSPIRED by G1 and definantly shapes a lot of things around what came in G1, but it also treads a lot of new ground and sort of does it's own thing. I mean, there's not a whole heaping lot fo different between Optimus in Armada and Optimus in G1. Likely there is going to be about the same ammount of difference for Optimus in the movie. I vote we give the movie it's own continuity family. Of course, that means we need to name it. Transformers (2007 Film) Continuity Family?--UndeadScottsman 17:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

"Dreamworks continuity"? --M Sipher 01:27, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, that hs a similar issue as calling it the Film continuity, as Dreamworks isn't responsible for all the content for it. Heh, if we wanted to be real smartasses, we could call it "Michael Bay Continuity Family." Honestly though, after looking at it, the most central thing to this new continuity is the movie, as much as I don't want to wind up with that one, I can't think of a better option. The others are probably right in that we should wait and see if a good tagline pops up. (Had Aaron Archer not come up with the Unicron Trilogy, I wonder if we'd stil be calling it A-E-C. :D) --UndeadScottsman 01:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

So, should we replace Bonecrusher by Wreckage?--GUIGUI 18:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Why? --M Sipher

GUIGUI, Wreckage is not Bonecrusher. Wreckage is a toyline-only character. --ItsWalky 19:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Say now, toyline-only characters. Should that be a category, since we've got *-only categories for pretty much everything else? --KilMichaelMcC 19:40, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Frenzy[]

When Movie Frenzy's picture goes up, I demand the quote be "They are all laser-guided and I get CRAZY if you touch them!" or similar Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future shenanigans.--MCRG 20:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I have it on good authority that Frenzy survived the quickening of the Dragonoids. - Chris McFeely 21:33, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Done Hunter-113 02:31, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Movie is not G1[]

My recommendation is that when the Michael Bay/Steven Spielberg movie is out, we should not treat it as being part of the G1 continuity family. G1 are characters from 1984-1992 and any continuity that spins out of or reboots either cartoon or comic.

It would be a mistake to label the Movie as part of this G1 tree. The writers themselves have said that they took inspiration from G1 but also from other storylines. It's the same with the X-Men movies: the Phoenix was really Ultimate Marvel though the cure plot was from Astonishing X-Men. And then Spider-Man 2 had stuff from the 50th issue where Spider-Man gives up being a superhero, but Doc Ock isn't in that issue, Kingpin is.

All I have to say is the movie is a new universe, something very new, a different interpretation of Transformers. It is like somebody just really liked the Autobots and Decepticons and made a movie of it. We may get nods here and there, and there are G1 characters there, but we shouldn't treat it the same.

I'm not sure it's appropriate to make a final decision either way at this time. We'll call it when we see it. --Andrusi 20:34, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

We already have a split:

The above argument is that it's confusing universes and continuity families. yes, clearly we now that Spider-man 2 isn't int he same UNIVERSe as the Spider-man comics...but tha characters in it are Spider-man, and Doc Ock, and Harry Osborn. They are the 'classic' Spider-man versions. They're not the Japanese Spider-man who is a reporter (I think) with a talking car, or the Danish one who throws canal-salt, or the Indian one who has Krishna-given powers. THOSE character, using this analogy, would be like the ARMADA versions of Optimus Prime.
We know there are like 20 or 30 versions of Gen 1 Optimus Prime that all represent the same character, but whose backstory and adventures do not occur in the same universe. They 'are' all G1 Prime. On the other hand, we have 2 or 3 Optimsu Primes we recognize to be 'Armada Prime,' whose backstory and adventure ae ALSO irreconcilable, but we also recognize to still 'be' the same guy, albeit fundamentally different from G1 Prime.
You are arguing about universes. We are talking about continuity families.

You may be right that Movie Prime should be spun off (I haven't seen any proof of it) but your argument is mis-framed. You're saying Earth 615 Captain America isn't Captain America. (10 points to whoever gets that one!) when you mean 'he isn't the same individual as Earth 616 Captain America.'

(I just assume that supplementary materials from the movie are goign to give Movie Optimus Prime so many shared life experiences and universe elements with regular G1 Prime, that we'll live to regret placing him in a separate category, and conclude he is the same character. It seems a safe bet, given how TF is written.) -Derik 22:50, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Of course, the fun part is that apparently Japan considers the movie as part of their mainstream G1 continuity happening in 2007. That should either be some fun dubbing or it's going to require some huge suspension of disbelief. --ItsWalky 00:13, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

It's probably no more difficult that shoehorning Cybertron into the Armada-Energon continuity.... Anyway, I would argue (as someone else did earlier) that Movie Prime will probably resemble (and differ from) G1 Prime about as much as Armada Prime did. I vote for new continuity family.--G.B. Blackrock 20:49, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Title[]

Shouldn't this be at either Transformers (film) (there's no other films by that name) or Transfomers (2007 film) (the current name implies that this is about Transformers in general in 2007)? Interrobang 00:34, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Or Transformers (live movie)--GUIGUI 00:26, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Keith David[]

YEsterday, Keith David was confirmed as Barricade's VA

SCARCASM![]

If this an alien concept to people?

Yes, I do indeed think the movie is going to rock out loud. I am foaming at the gash at the prospect of seeing it! The storyline section of the article is intended to POKE FUN AT THE PEOPLE who say that it is "Not Transformers" for various reason, by LISTING THE WAYS THAT IT IS. That'd be a completely shit story summary if it was supposed to be actually telling you anything about the movie, rather than just describing all the ways it's like G1.

AAAAAAAAA - Chris McFeely 22:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Personally I feel that this whole entire wikia is too full of sarcasm and smart-alecky-ness. Wikis are meant to report facts about a subject, not for nerds and fanboys (for that's what all of us here are) to act like wise-ass jerks about what we love. I'm new here, and I came here looking for information, which is what wikis are for. Instead, I get smart-aleck articles chopped full of sarcasm and pictures with annoying captions instead of saying WHAT the picture is of. I love Transformers, people, but this is a POORLY run wiki.--72.66.73.224 04:41, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

File:Megatrong1.jpgOn G1 Megatron's page, the caption to the right would be insultingly redundant. If a photo's subject does not need additional clarification, a straightforward caption is absolutely unneeded. If the captions that are there annoy you, then you can feel free to not read them! --ItsWalky 04:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Note: Official Star Wars people love our wiki's tone. Also, if humor and facts can coexist as they do here, why, exactly, shouldn't they? The information is all there regardless. --M Sipher 06:03, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

To add, I reject the idea that wikis are supposed to present information in a very set, certain way that is unified across all wikis. Because that's false. There are plenty of wikis that don't present information just like Wikipedia does. Count us one of them. (This discussion needs to be moved somewhere else. Probably under the 30 other identical discussions from the other anonymous hi-then-bye folks.) --ItsWalky 06:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok, all that aside, what about the original subject here, about using sarcasm in the plot desciption in order to poke fun at the haters of the film? Firstly, it's a twisted version of the truth, and wikis are about facts, secondly, since wikis are freely editiable, it's a vandalizing fight just waiting to happen. A hater will edit it in a way to bash the supporters, the supporters will edit back to bash the haters, and it'll go on and on. And quite frankly, ever since the announcement trailer last year, I have been sick and tired of all the fighting i've been seeing on the web.--72.66.73.224 20:56, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Frankly, that entire summary's going to be replaced once the film's officially out. It's just a placeholder. And until then, I think it's fine. --ItsWalky 21:02, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that's just what I was going to say myself. I wrote the thing, only intended for it to be a bit of snarky filler material until an ACTUAL summary can be added in. Indeed, a goodly portion of the wiki's snark tends to steadily be filtered out as articles are filled in more and more. But, really, I've got no problem with people not liking the film for reason x, or reason y - but "It's not Transformers" is twaddle. - Chris McFeely 21:07, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Dight, if Beast Machines is Transformers, thant his is Transformers. And I don't debate that BM is Transformers- it's just bad Transformers. Fortunately, its badness was subsequently eclipsed by the Unicron Trilogy, so we can now look back on Beast Machines fondly. -Derik 21:19, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Way to get totally butthurt over a wiki, dude. -hx 19:10, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Welker[]

Editor assumption?

GameSpot chats with Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron in the original animated series and upcoming Transformers game and movie. [1]

That, or my elaborate conspiracy theory is right and Hugo Weaving as Megs is a trick to suprise us with Megs actually being voiced by Welker. -- Hunter-113 00:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Voice Actors Revealed[]

Optimus - Peter Cullen

Megatron - Hugo Weaving

Bumblebee - Mark Ryan

Ironhide - Jess Harnell

Barricade - Jess Harnell

Ratchet - Robert Foxworth

Bonecrusher - Jimmie Wood

Jazz - Darius McCrary

Starscream - Charlie Adler

Frenzy - Reno Wilson

Source: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=137541

The post that this "news" originated from: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=137530. Note that while it's said this came from an Australian press conference, credit is given to an anonymous source. Seems rather dubious to me, given the lack of Keith David. --KilMichaelMcC 21:32, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I heard David's only doing Barricade in the game -- Hunter-113 21:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Except this doesn't match up with the voice actors we know for the game either (Welker, for instance). I doubt it'll be long before we have corroborated list, however.--MCRG 02:40, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

At this point, we need more than "heard," no offense. :) We need some solid info before we take any of this information to heart. --ItsWalky 21:46, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

The post in that link I posted above has been edited, and now cites a source. Looks like this may be legit, although I'm still wondering about Barricade/Keith David. --KilMichaelMcC 02:23, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

And taking a look at the now cited original source I'm thinking: Lists Jess Harnell twice + posted from an airport = possible mistake on who Barricade's VA is. --KilMichaelMcC 02:48, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

"news"? Was that tone really necessary? --FFN 05:04, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

In light of later developments that does seem harsh. When the original post was made at TFW, it said the info came from a press conference via an annoymous source. Combining that with the contradiction of Barricade's previously reported VA, it made the whole list seem highly dubious. --KilMichaelMcC 06:41, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Griffin adds some more info --FFN 06:50, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Seems like Keith David really may not be in the movie after all. Hard to imagine a press book with bios on all the VAs leaving him out. --KilMichaelMcC 07:06, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

A guy posted in the same thread stating that David had signed his Legends Barricade and said he was only playing the character in the game. Since there's no proof, its not really 'evidence', but it suggests that the press book is right. --FFN 07:54, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

David is confirmed for the game, but, according to the pople who saw the australian version, only Megaron and Starscream speak english. So I'm not sure if that va list is reliable

Other people who were at that same screening say otherwise, as seen in the "Griffin adds some more info" link above, in which the writer gives his best recollection as to how much each Decepticon says. Also, just because a character doesn't speak English doesn't mean he won't have a voice actor. If he speaks Cybertronian or makes grunts and groans and other noises, those may all have real voices behind them. --KilMichaelMcC 21:52, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Umm... Bonecrusher's not a bulldozer. I mean, sarcastic half truths are rad and all, but outright inaccuracies, when they don't add to the humor, don't seem like a good idea.

This is NOTHING like Transformers[]

I normally like the humour on this site, but this is pure bullshit. It purposely selectively picks the things that they have in common with G1, while ignoring the other vast differences, such as Ironhide, Ratchet, Megatron and Starscream looking nothing like any canonical version, Jazz being a cocky trendy "hip hop" guy instead of the blues musician type he was in the cartoon, the sheer human focus, the fact that the Decepticons are barely even CHARACTERS, the fact that Bumblebee doesn't speak, the fact that Optimus Prime has a hideous mouth. You can list as many differences as you can similiarities.

This sarcasm reminds me too much of Redsquadron and it pisses me off. It's not even funny in the least, it's obviously such ass launching yet another attack at people who are barely allowed have an opinion in theTF community.

The more vicious pro-movie crowd are the ones that need the mick taken out of them.

I was unaware that movie Ironhide, Ratchet, Megatron and Starscream are non-canon :-O

The fact that you got so infuriated over the fact some people here made fun of other people who got infuriated over the movie is circular and now I've gone all cross-eyed and need to lie down.

Without actually addresing the above: it is time for the sarcasm to be removed entirely from this article, and replaced with a straightforward summary. Especially with that big "Looking for information about the movie?" banner on the main page. --KilMichaelMcC 17:49, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, the body of the article does need to be desnarked now that the movie is actually out. But we shouldn't forget that the anonymous guy we're responding to is completely hilarious. --ItsWalky 18:15, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Fair thee well, my glorious, most-controversial snark! You... sure caused a lot of trouble! - Chris McFeely 19:52, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

"the anonymous guy we're responding to is completely hilarious."

Hah, so says Walky, the guy who almost always deals with people who wants but isn't quite capable of arguing with by mocking and snarking them, usually by means of a poor author surrogate getting angry at a strawman of a particular fan archetype he dislikes, with no real reasoning as to how the real life equivalent is improper behaviour.

But I expect you find this hilarious too - after all, if someone is hilarious or insane, you don't have to answer them. Of course I'm bloody "hilarious" to you, given your views on "Fanboys".

Nice to see the article was cleaned up, though.

Re: "I expect you find this hilarious too" -- yeah, more or less. --Steve-o 00:06, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Full summary[]

Okay, so who's up to the task of writing the full-ass scene-by-scene summary of the movie? --ItsWalky 18:46, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, I staked down a start there. If we want to go scene-by-scene, I can start pounding that out tonight. -Rotty 18:57, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Production staff[]

Is there a reason that "YAAAY!" for Spielberg and "BOOM!" for Bay got nixed? I didn't think those were too lighthearted for this article, given that we go so far as to reference a song most people didn't hear for the caption snark. -Rotty 18:59, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd rather we keep the jokes to the captions. Little commentaries behind the names on the cast and crew strike me as bleh. --ItsWalky 19:46, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

"Transformers are awesome./No, I DON"[]

My summary box was supposed to say "No, I DON'T feel like being useful right now. It's past my bed time." However, in the midst of my uselessness, I developed fat fingers and hit "enter" too early. I quickly hit Escape, hoping to cancel the edit before it posted, but it posted anyway. I intended to continue on, hoping what happened would be obvious by the two successive Recent Changes listings, but my second submission did not seem to actually submit at all. All in all, I've actually contributed nothing anyway, so I wish to publically apologize to you all for deciding not to refrain from being silly and stupid. --Sntint 09:48, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

You are a horrible person. --Steve-o 15:38, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Success and Failure[]

I changed Success to mention how much money this has made and added Failure to mention how the critics have panned it for not spending enough time with the Transformers. I got it from Wikipedia, though I added a little light hearted commentary. I hope no one minds. 67.186.34.123 23:31, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Depends on the critic, and 'panned' is abit harsh. Half of the american critics who definately panned the movie were more determined to score 'cred' points in personally attacking Michael Bay than the shortcomics of the movie. --FFN 02:53, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Time skipped[]

It seemed like they jumped through much of the 2nd day during the movie. Sam chases his car in the morning and then Bumblebee fights Barricade under the overpass. It is daylight outside then it's dark. I didn't see where they lost several hours of daylight. Maybe I missed a time lapse thing in there. Anybody else notice this? Thanks. -Fnlayson 21:06, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

There's a crapload of continuity errors in this movie. Notice the passage of time when Blackout arrives to his attack on the SOCCENT base. --FFN 02:53, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

True, it takes foreverrr for that H-53 to come in. -Fnlayson 03:01, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Devastator[]

It seems pretty ridiculous to me to have Devastator listed as Brawl on the page for the movie itself, in which he is never referred to as Brawl. The note about the name confusion seems perfectly adequate to explain why he's called Brawl elsewhere. -LV 07:52, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

quote[]

i just thought that maybe we could quote optimus when he tells bumblebee to stop "lubricating" that sector 7 guy 81.108.233.59 14:32, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Eh, its not really a good quote - the humour is from the visual, not what anybody else said, unfortunately. --FFN 14:50, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Reception additions[]

Do we really need to turn even more pages in this wiki into a personal bitchfest about other fans? I agree with some arguments about fan complaints on this wiki, but its getting ridiculous, and frankly, people who don't care either way about Fandom Drama are being turned off. You guys all have your own websites, blogs and forums to bitch about other people. --FFN 09:02, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

...that particular addition was, as I saw it, quite favorable to fans. Fans are pessimists, but even never-pleased fans admit they liked the movie, a sign of maturity.

The second part then upends the never-pleased stereotype by pretending a legitimate issue is in fact just fans whining.

I'm not a big fan of down on fans. It's fun in moderation only. I added this just because... doesn't the page need something about what people thought of the movie? The existing 'reception' section focused solely on ticket sales. -Derik 09:53, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I apologize if I misread your intent, then. I am wary of the reception section being a target for idiots and trolls or some kind of argument.

Though, as I said, I do agree with some arguments (and have certainly witnessed much of the behaviour described on our snarky pages), but I think it needs to be done in moderation. This wiki has a tendency to take what is funny (or what we believe to be funny) and go overboard with it, hitting people over the head with the point like a mallet rather than sharp stabbing satirical critism. But I do apologize for your using edit as an example of people going overboard, when I should have commented in Ruined Forever or something. --FFN 10:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

De nada. Heart int he right place, etc.

I'm of two minds, on the one hand, I made Ruined FREVER. OTOH, I also though the old Fandom article was too harsh. I guess the distinction was that I felt the former was playful, and the latter was mean. I also am not thrilled by excessive fandom-bashing. (I do like the new fandom article though- not because the funny is gone, but because it's actually presenting information that was being displaced by the previous snark.) -Derik 12:32, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

So, "This frivolous complaint highlights the fans' ridiculous need to find fault with everything, no matter how unimportant." is intended to read as sarcasm? I don't think that comes across very well at all. --KilMichaelMcC 14:46, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

...you don't think calling eampant racial stereotyping a frivolous complaint sounds sarcastic, or you don't think the phrasing sounds sarcastic? -Derik 16:15, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I can easily imagine people reading that sentence as legitimately calling the stereotyping issue a frivolous, unimportant complaint. Because, frankly, I'm sure that there are people who believe exactly that. I suggest removing the sarcasm for the sake of clarity. --KilMichaelMcC 16:26, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

twitch* I went and deleted the entire "Fan reception" section. It may be suprising to learn, but that wasn't funny, just offensive! It was one step up from vandalizing the page with "Hur hur darkie fans!" -Rotty 16:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Really, only one st-- ...You know, forget it. I'm gonna bother bringing my A-game against Rotty.

Epps aside, the movie's view of non-white people appears to be equal parts Huggy Bear, Kunta Kinte and Mantan Moreland. I don't feel a need to listen to Rotty tell me I'm a racist for thinking it's worth pointing out that made some people uncomfortable. -Derik 17:02, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Stop it, Derik. Stop it. You're not being funny by mentioning the heavy stereotyping of non-Epps black people in the movie and then calling it something trivial fans found to complain about. This is an article directly linked from the front page, and you're injecting unfunny racist humor into it. So stop. -Rotty 23:44, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Little pimple, humor is not my intent. The movie's racial politics are stuck in 1983. If mentioning that makes people uncomfortable causes you to label me a racist, the problem lies not with me. -Derik 02:15, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Hurry up and upload another picture of masturbation so we can have two weeks without your vandalism. -Rotty 06:14, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Rotty, stop being abrasive and read what Derik had already written here before you joined the conversation. He intended that statement to be read sarcastically. Whether it actually did read that way or not is beside the point -- he was not being racist, he was just not communicating clearly. If you can't interact with Derik without calling him names at the opening of every exchange, please just leave him to the rest of us to deal with. --Steve-o 03:45, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I did read what Derik had already written. That doesn't change the fact that his sarcasm wasn't the least bit funny. Not everyone who looks up articles on this Wiki is going to go to the talk page and read through it to find out "Oh, they're not really racist." The articles need to stand on their own as reference material, not require persual of the talk pages to make sense of Derik's unfunny jokes. -Rotty 21:57, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The New IMAX Cut[]

I saw it tonight, and I can confirm that the tank character is still named Devastator. A few extra scenes were added, but most were pretty forgettable. The type of thing where if it was in the original movie and cut out in a new release you really wouldn't notice most likely. The fate of Barricade is still left untouched as well. -Brand-X

Well that's... really lame. And pretty sad for Bay to brag about it not being on the DVDs given nobody would have cared. --FFN 15:47, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Errors[]

Derik asserts that the scene where Sam, Mikaela, Maggie and Glenn are transported via the same helicopter to Hoover Dam is a mistake because they come from opposite ends of the country. I don't know about you, but to my knowledge, there is unlikely to be any helicopter in the US inventory that has the range to fly from Washington to Nevada. So more likely, Sam and Mikaela were detained at a US air base in Nevada while they waited for Keller, Banachek and the others to arrive by plane, then were all transported to Hoover at the same time via the Blackhawks.

Should this still be listed as an error or a piece of trivia? --FFN 20:03, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Are they actually in the same helicopter? I've been trying to figure that one out for a while. They cut back and forth between them, but... --ItsWalky 20:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Well they're not ACTUALLY shown in the same camera shots but you can tell by their behavior and the way they're looking at each other thay they are in the same helicopter. --Detour 20:15, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

They are without question riding in the same helicopter. However, I agree with FFN that they might have met up elsewhere and been loaded onto that chopper off-camera. The movie is littered with storytelling moments like that which should have been included but weren't. I'd say its more of a narrative oversight than an "error" since it is so easily explained. --Steve-o 20:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Yep. I just watched one of the clips Paramount released to various enterainment websites as part of the movie publicity back in June - Sam is sitting awkwardly in his seat next to Mikaela and makes eye contact with Maggie, who smiles politely, prompting Sam to say 'So...' and then the small talk about his car turning out to be an alien robot proceeds. So should we remove it as an error and relist it as trivia, explaining what might have happened? --FFN 20:46, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Okay then, yet another question goes unanswered for no apparent reason. --FFN 13:30, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Sunset[]

Bwahahahaha :D --FFN 15:12, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Express lane[]

So... in the US, express lanes go onto the otherside of the road in the opposite direction of the normal flow of traffic on both sides? --FFN 05:16, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

When I lived in Chicago, they had a third part of the 1-90 expressway that could be directed either way depending on desired traffic flow. If you looked behind you, you could see all the signs for the opposite direction. Is that what you're asking? --ItsWalky 05:32, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I was wondering about the latest edit (which M Sipher has now reverted). --FFN 05:36, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, it IS extremely unlikely that there'd be an express lane along a section of highway out in the middle of the desert. --ItsWalky 05:45, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I've done a lot of interstate driving, on a lot of highways with express lanes. And I've NEVER seen one like what they're driving on in the movie. Aside from there being THREE lanes there, no, express lanes are typically either BETWEEN the two traffic flows, or, in those places where the exits are in the middle (which happens in some places, but clearly not here), you don't cross OVER the opposite flow of traffic to get to your express lane; you stay on the outside of your side of the damn highway. They're driving on the wrong side of the road. --M Sipher 05:45, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm still not sure why they did so, unless they weren't allowed to use the other side of the highway for some reason on that day. In any case, that bit only appeared for a few seconds at most, and then they're on the other side of the highway again.--FFN 12:32, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Titan and Target Comics names[]

Can we get a decision on what we are going to definatively call both the Titan movie comics and the Target exclusive comics? Because the Titan comics are listed under several different characters under different titles while that Target comics haven't even been acknowledged by this wiki as existing until I uploaded a couple of Sector Seven panels a month or more ago. A decision would be helpful so people know what to link images and fiction entries to in anticipation of creating actual articles on those comics, because right now we're winging it. --FFN 15:07, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

For the Target comics, I would probably go with "Transformers Movie Prequel (Target)." A case could also be made for "Transformers Movie Prequel limited edition," as that phrase also appears on the cover, non-capitalized, although it's not really part of the title. I think using (Target) provides more clarity. --KilMichaelMcC 20:57, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Just to point this out, whatever is used for the title, when it comes to numbering Target's website labels them Volume 1 and Volume 2. --KilMichaelMcC 02:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I also prefer Target, because 'limited edition' is a description of its alledged collector value, not a part of the book's title. Now, what shall we call the Titan UK comics? -FFN

The fine print on #a says it's 'Transformers Vol 1, #1.' It's put out by Titan Mazagines, can't we just call it Transformers Magazine? -Derik 07:53, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Date of Events?[]

Do we know when the events of the movie took place? I know we bounded it to 2007 by... something. (Oh, right, Sam's screenname is a reference to Bay's birthday, which he presumably shares.) Do we know when in 2007?

I mention because the prop for Maggie Madsen's ID badge lists her clearance as expiring on 9/31, which would seem to make September a likely date. (Sam needing an A seems more like end-of-school-year, but he also seemed ot be asking about just that assignment.) Do we know any better? -Derik 07:49, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I took the requirement imposed by Ron to mean that Sam score an A on three tests, not in three classes. --Sntint 11:14, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Transformers Screening in Malaysia[]

Hello, first time commenting on Teletraan 1 and on the topic of the Malaysian screening of the Transformers. 'Not sure about whether the Malaysian censorship board themselves wanted to omit 'Sam's happy time', but having watched the movie in Malaysia and the UK from start to finish, there were no abrupt cuts in the Malaysian screening, so the govt. left the TF movie intact (Malaysians missed nothing :D)

'Just wanted to mention this because there was speculation about any changes being made to the Malaysian screening and I confirmed it without logging in before, thank you. On a different note, one of the cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was generous enough to import what is presumed to be rare movie props *cough*commonmetalrubbish*cough* from the 2007 movie itself. *shrug*

DVD snafus fixed?[]

So, those who have the movie: can we get a confirmation on whether the Brawl/Devastator thing was rectified in the DVD release? Because that would put to paid a lot of nonsense.--Rosicrucian 17:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

It was not rectified. --Hooks

SUCCESS VS RANKINGS[]

Before adding anything close to this to the article, I thought I'd run this by you guys.

Domestically, TRANSFORMERS had a 212% return on its investment. SPIDER-MAN 3 had a 130% return, and SHREK 3 had a 200% return.

TRANSFORMERS only showed in 4,050 theaters in America. It made an average of $78,518 per theater. SPIDER-MAN 3, with 4,324 theaters, made an average of $77,705 per theater, and SHREK 3 did $76,844 for its 4,172 theaters. Had TRANSFORMERS been shown in as many theaters as SPIDER-MAN 3, it would have made over $3 million more than SPIDER-MAN 3 did.

The robots in disguise also had a longer running time, clocking in at 2 hours 23 minutes, compared to Spidey's 2 hours 20 minutes and Shrek's 1 hour 32 minutes.

So even though SPIDER-MAN 3 and SHREK 3 rank higher than TRANSFORMERS, they didn't perform as well as TRANSFORMERS did.

Thoughts? --Hooks 01:34, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I've nothing to add, but I guess the unspoken rule here is that if nobody says anything, then you're free to do it... until somebody FREAKS OUT. Unfortunately they tend to do this *alot*. Go for it, I say. --FFN 05:41, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I consider a lot of Hooks' analysis here to be cherry-picking. It's sort of like the way sports commentators will talk about statistics that are so narrow and specific that they are basically meaningless. For example, I don't think there is any reason at all to consider TF "more successful" than SM3 despite its lower gross merely because SM3 showed on slightly more screens. Yes, it had a higher per-screen gross, but... so what? Both of them were in thousands of theaters. It's not like people who wanted to see TF weren't able to because they could never find a screening that wasn't sold out. Everyone who wanted to go, went. Money per screen doesn't really mean much here. If TF only played on a few dozen screens, then yes, that would matter, but here... no. I feel similarly about the running time stuff. Put it in as some sort of trivia if you want, but, I don't support a gung-ho tone for that data. --Steve-o 19:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I would consider its competition being shown in more screens would be more indicative of the competition's success, rather than Transformers'. --ItsWalky 15:22, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

"Errors" vs. "Doesn't Make Sense"[]

Because I don't want to start down a slippery slope... where do we draw the line between a character taking a seemingly illogical action (Blackout flying away instead of killing Sam; Starscream just hanging around somewhere while Bumblebee drives off with the All Spark... I'm sure there's more), and an outright error? I'm sure you can make up some reason for just about everything in the movie that doesn't make sense if you try hard enough, though such reasons might not be apparent within the given context of the film. -- Repowers 06:41, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

I prefer to stick to production and film making errors because they're not quite as obvious and tend to draw less BAY BLOWS-type criticism. --FFN 09:27, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

I can definitely see the merits of that approach. Yet on the flip side, we don't let "A Prime Problem" get off without a dig at the "WE MUST HAVE A RACE!" absurdity... -- Repowers 15:09, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Of course, we still make fun of episodes in episode recaps, but for the movie, it gets too IMDB-like if you list every story oversight. --FFN 16:13, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

'Lap' scene[]

Is it just me, or when Mikaela starts climbing into Sam's lap, is she already in the front seat? CarrerCrytharis 23:52, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

She's squashed in the middle, IRC. Sam then asks her if she'd be more comfortable sitting in a real seat, but she thinks that's weird since Bumblebee's driving, and then Sam gets her to sit on his lap to share a seatbelt. --ItsWalky 00:10, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Right, I actually thought she was supposed to be sitting in the back. I guess that makes sense then. CarrerCrytharis 01:24, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

It really looked to me like she's behind the front seats, but sitting forward of the back seats. She's sitting forward from the back like kids do but aren't supposed to do. This would mean she squeezed between the seats to get up front, though, so maybe it's an error. Or I may just be mis-remembering. --Sntint 11:25, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Ironhide and Ratchet's disappearing act.[]

I'm pretty sure they were laying on the ground after Starscream tore them both a new gas valve, since Ironhide was pretty much falling over himself when he told Sam to get to the building.--Carrion 02:11, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

I also think that's what happened, then they reactivated and went to help Jazz. -- SFH 02:07, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Who it was pretty much too late for.--Carrion 02:11, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[shrug] I'll grant this is the likely explanation, though it's really not clear in the film. (I watched that bit several times to make sure I had the times right, and I never got the impression they were about to be incapacitated.) JW 02:54, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Y'know, it'd probably be worthwhile to break out a more detailed Battle of Mission City page for this whole sequence, similar to what we have for the Battle of Autobot City. There's a LOT of little details like this that are easily missed by the casual viewer, as well as various oddities, and it'd be nice to collect them all in one place. (like, AGAIN, why the hell didn't Blackout or Starscream grab Sam when he was right in front of them????) -- Repowers 03:01, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

I second that emotion. JW 02:59, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Probably fit as a section of the Mission City page, since the page pretty much recaps the battle anyway--Carrion 03:02, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Good idea. --M Sipher 03:27, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

TF Refs[]

During the fight between the humans and Frenzy in Hoover Dam's communication room, Reggie brandishes a flamethrower and yells "Buuuurrrnnn!" twice while using it, referencing the Beast Wars character Inferno. This sounds like a reeeeeal stretch to me. Unless we've heard from the production crew that this was the intention, it seems a bit too generic to be a true reference. -- Repowers 01:48, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Another thing about the refs. In Mission city Optimus says to Megatron "It's just you and me Megatron". Well, in The Unicorn Battles just before they fight, Galvatron says the same thing to Optimus.--Closetjedi 02:17, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

If it's a reference to anything, it's to More Than Meets the Eye, Part 3. -- Repowers 02:25, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

That's true. I had to rewatch it. Also, that reminded me that in the movie Megatron has fallen under the ice, like Skyfire in G1--Closetjedi 03:48, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

The latter is way too much of a stretch to be a reference. "Ancient thing frozen in ice gets thawed out and comes to life" is a fictional plot device as old as time. -- Repowers 04:13, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Digital data would stretch 3.11 miles?[]

One of the trivia points said the following:

The Autobot computer generated models consisted of 35,592 total pieces, 7,435,478 polygons, 95,247 rig nodes, and 20,258 texture maps. If laid end to end, the pieces would stretch 3.11 miles.

No source was given for the distance measurement. Without defining a means of conversion between the digital data and some form of defining it in real-world units, this statement is completely nonsensical. If we're talking about the individual objects when we say parts, we could potentially use the units used by the modeling program. (Likely Max or Maya) That's not exactly precise, however, as it is likely parts were scaled sometimes during the animation of the characters, and it only takes a few clicks to convert units from feet to miles. It may be based on the sizes as depicted in the movie, but even those may be subject to inconsistency. I've removed this bit of trivia until more details are provided. --Omnimmotus 00:30, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Autobots[]

after bumblebee alerts the other autobots where do they come from? They enter earths atmosphere but where were they based, I know the decepticons were on mars but I cant find a refrence to where Optimus and the otheres were based User:Captain-One

If the autobots left cybertron in the ark as it says in prequel material (i dont know, probably goy), then they left the ark to make the journey shorter (they probably cant travel that far in protoform in 1 day.--bumblebee prime 18:49, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Bumblebee's License Plates[]

Note: Moved from "Bumblebee's License Plates"

Ok Fellow Fans,

Forgive me, for being so naive, but I have something that at eating at me. Here goes:

In Tranformers 1 and Transformers 2, Bumblebee (as new Camaro) bears two license plates. The read, respectively"

4NZZ454

and

900STRA

Ive researched, and found that 4NZZ454 can signigy 2 things:

1.) Foreign (4n) ZZ454 (a Chevy engine) ---> hence, from Cybertron

2.) "Foreign Survivor" <---not sure how they got that one!

Can anyone help?

My email address: gangbuster9611@hotmail.com

Thanks In Advance!

Respectfully,

Ronnie H. Chavez, Denver, COLO