Transformers 3: The Dark of the Moon

[Defectron]

So yeah saw this movie today, it wa sbetter then transformers 2, but then again most things are better then transformers 2.

The good:

1: A bunch of robots wrecked up the place
2. Micheal bays camera work has improved

The Bad:
1. All the human characters are irritating as usual, thankfully no one as bad as the gimpy hacker dude from the second movie.
2. What happened to all those other transformers? a lot of the autobots from the second movie vanihsed with no explanation, though in the case of the twins, that is a good thing.
3. The whole american propaganda angle seemed even more heavy handed then usual.
4, that scene with the toppled sckyscraper was bullshit, that things structural integegrity shouldn't have been able to hold up to that much punishment without crumbling.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

For any critic wannabe that says that people would rather prefer good story telling and junk over high octane action and effects I present to you this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

For those that are innumerate, bottom line Transformers 3 is a mere 18 million dollars away from becoming the tenth movie in history to achieve 1 billion dollars at the box office. The trilogy is also in ninth place for most money gained from a movie series. Even if people stop going to it starting tomorrow it will still be in the top ten highest grossing movies of all time and the closest a movie has gotten to the 1 billion dollar bulls-eye.

I guess it is true what they say, people go to the movies for entertainment and escapism.

[Gendo'sPapa]

Can't we let this terrible movie die? I mean it came out a month ago. In today's world of ADD retards that's like HISTORY.

Besides- with inflation box office records don't matter much. It's the quality of the film that decides a movies staying power. Not it's BO. Avatar may be the highest grossing film of all time (eh) but it sure hasn't stayed strong in today's social consciousness.

Transformers 3 may be a huge box office success now but in less than a year it will be knocked off the top 10. Considering three of the top ten box office sellers are still in theaters & the rest of the list is made up of movies released in the past decade says little about HOW many people are paying to see a film.

Transformers 3 is a hit because it exists & ticket prices are so high. Does that make it a good film? Not really. Is it okay for people to enjoy the film? More than okay. Taste is subjective.

But Transformers 3 is no box office juggernaut. I'd almost argue that True Blockbusters- Movies that play to ALL AUDIENCES & not just the 12-30 male demographic that keeps paying to see this shit- are a thing of the past.

Here's the BoxofficeMojo list for Highest Grossing Films of All-Time:
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

DAMN. Seems like the film industry is doing better than ever! More people now than ever before are now paying to see movies! I mean, how else can you account for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 being the SIXTH highest film of all time! Wow!

Here's the BoxofficeMojo list for Highest Grossing Films of All-Time with Inflation Taken into Account:
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Odd.... the newest movie on the list is AVATAR and it's resting at 14th place? Mmm... so if The Exorcist was released today and sold the exact same amount it sold in 1973 it would have made $881 million in the U.S. alone?

Ticket prices are higher & all this talk about box office success is a waste of time & effort. It's awarding success for less effort than it actually deserved. Or like awarding a runner for doing a 5 second 100 meter dash when he really only had to run 30 yards. It's stupid & exactly what the true moneymakers in Hollywood (Studio & Ad Execs) want you to believe.

Go back to the top 10 in two years and I promise the 10 top list will be almost COMPLETELY different. Throw in The Hobbit Parts 1 & 2, The Dark Knight Rises, probably an animated film, & why the hell not BATTLESHIP- all of which have the high likelihood of breaking the $1 billion mark.

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

Can't we let this terrible movie die? I mean it came out a month ago.

unfortunately, too many people had extremely low expectations going into it, it was the last of Bay's turns in raping and pillaging the Transformers brand name, and thus some people think it is very much worth talking about

I'd almost argue that True Blockbusters- Movies that play to ALL AUDIENCES & not just the 12-30 male demographic that keeps paying to see this shit- are a thing of the past.

not quite

Pixar still has broad appeal despite the very rare Cars 2 misstep, and Tintin may be Spielberg's return to Jurassic Park or E.T.-style blockbuster glory if it is actually good and the competition looks as bad as I think it does

however, I have to agree that box office numbers are pretty meaningless without being adjusted for inflation

I would argue that the real measure of box office success is tickets sold, though perhaps even this should be adjusted to account for home video sales (and I hear that Avatar allegedly may soon have that title)

track down all the numbers for tickets sold for films in theaters over the years and you will see that film as a popular medium has been dying since the dawn of television and a little-known Court case despite short-lived revivals with the help of Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Cameron, etc.

of course, appealing to popularity is a fallacious way to measure what's "best" obviously

IMO, the only reason Titanic made such bacon at the BO is because the Leonardo DiCaprio fangirls kept watching that overrated and wasteful shlock over and over and over again, and I would go as far to argue that similar phenonmena happened with Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music, and Doctor Zhivago

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

It's official, Transformers 3 beats Batman (poor comicbook movies):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

The morale of the story is that people want to be entertained.

[Shogo-Kun]

We humans are strange creatures... strange creatures indeed...

[Xard]

The morale of the story is that people want have low standards and are sheep when it comes to following marketing and base urges

fix'd

[Bagheera]

The moral of the story is that people are bored out of their skulls and will settle for whatever crap Hollywood cares to dish out even if they want better.

Re-fixed.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

fix'd

No, you butchered it, people want entertainment and will show it.

[Xard]

Re-fixed.

I think we both are right to extent

No, you butchered it, people want entertainment and will show it.

People's ideas of what is entertaining are largerly dictated by their cultural context and marketing. People want entertainment without doubt but poor saps settle for Transformers shitfests because they have no knowledge of better, no refinery of soul and to boot are sheep to marketers and business elite and trends they dictate

[Bagheera]

People's ideas of what is entertaining are largerly dictated by their cultural context and marketing. People want entertainment without doubt but poor saps settle for Transformers shitfests because they have no knowledge of better, no refinery of soul and to boot are sheep to marketers and business elite and trends they dictate

It's more than that. I can't speak for everyone, but the bulk of what I see in movies is absolute crap. Bad movie? Crap badly done. Good movie? The same crap, done well. It's all crap. I know, full well, that my chances of getting something I genuinely like, and that I consider good, are close to nil. So I content myself with wading through crap and enjoying things for what they are.

Transformers 3 was crap. I expected it to be crap going in. But Leonard Nimoy is fun to watch, and it's always fun to see Peter Cullen do his thing, and the action sequences were coherent enough to be tolerable. I've learned that I can't really expect more from a summer blockbuster, so I don't sweat it. But it's still crap.

A lot of people really are sheep. They can't be bothered to think for themselves, or to even begin to wonder whether or not a movie really is good. But the rest of us know full well what we're getting into and are just resigned about the whole affair. Do we want better? Fuck yeah, of course. Will we get it? Nope. So we make due with what we have and get on with our lives.

[Merridian]

^You could just avoid those kinds of movies. That's sort of what I've done. I haven't seen many advertisements for current films that have thrilled me enough to justify theatre ticket prices; as a result, I barely see a single film on the big screen per year. And I consider myself fairly easy to please.

[Bagheera]

^You could just avoid those kinds of movies. That's sort of what I've done. I haven't seen many advertisements for current films that have thrilled me enough to justify theatre ticket prices; as a result, I barely see a single film on the big screen per year. And I consider myself fairly easy to please.

Well, that's the thing; if you avoid those sorts of movies you largely don't see movies. And if I applied that sort of fussiness to everything I do I wouldn't do anything for fun at all -- Sturgeon's law applies to most everything, after all.

I'm not defending anything here. Just noting that there's more to it than just going with the masses.

[Merridian]

Well, that's the thing; if you avoid those sorts of movies you largely don't see movies. And if I applied that sort of fussiness to everything I do I wouldn't do anything for fun at all -- Sturgeon's law applies to most everything, after all.

I guess. There are enough other movies out there that I don't mind ignoring the current Hollywood whatever, and if I get enough people saying "man you TOTALLY need to see this movie," then chances are that I will get around to it eventually. I'm just stingy enough with my money that the thought of spending $10+ on one ticket for a film that isn't even going to be in my system the next day strikes me as a waste.

[Bagheera]

I guess. There are enough other movies out there that I don't mind ignoring the current Hollywood whatever, and if I get enough people saying "man you TOTALLY need to see this movie," then chances are that I will get around to it eventually. I'm just stingy enough with my money that the thought of spending $10+ on one ticket for a film that isn't even going to be in my system the next day strikes me as a waste.

Heh. That's how most everything strikes me. I'm actually more interested in getting out and doing something on a Sunday afternoon than anything else, and a movie's a good excuse to do that. If it weren't for the theater experience I doubt I'd bother.

[Mr. Tines]

if you avoid those sorts of movies you largely don't see movies

Not seeing the problem here.

[Bagheera]

Not seeing the problem here.

But like I said, if you apply that same rigor to all of your pursuits you don't wind up doing much of anything. You gotta unclench at some point or you just don't have any fun.

[Xard]

It's more than that. I can't speak for everyone, but the bulk of what I see in movies is absolute crap. Bad movie? Crap badly done. Good movie? The same crap, done well. It's all crap. I know, full well, that my chances of getting something I genuinely like, and that I consider good, are close to nil. So I content myself with wading through crap and enjoying things for what they are.

I can exercise this kind of mentality to *some extent* with tv anime (it's only 25min sacrifice per week after all) but film? Guhh, no way.

It's little wonder I don't visit theatre often. Only times this year I've been in one was those four times in Japan I saw Sayonara, and THAT was money more than well spent...

A lot of people really are sheep. They can't be bothered to think for themselves, or to even begin to wonder whether or not a movie really is good. But the rest of us know full well what we're getting into and are just resigned about the whole affair. Do we want better? Fuck yeah, of course. Will we get it? Nope. So we make due with what we have and get on with our lives.

well yes, but I don't think many people approach these films with your (higher) standards. Of course my blunt summary could not possibly cover for everyone and I didn't mean it as such.

[Shogo-Kun]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with you guys on this. We as a species always want better, but we're too lazy or apathetic to reach for it. So we just settle for what's in front of us and deal with it. And let's be honest with ourselves, the pool of creativity when it comes to movies, TV, games, and anime is dying and has been slowly dying since the start of the 2000s.

[Bagheera]

I can exercise this kind of mentality to *some extent* with tv anime (it's only 25min sacrifice per week after all) but film? Guhh, no way.

Oh, come now. A film each month is no worse than a month of episodes from a crappy anime. It's the same time wasted either way.

well yes, but I don't think many people approach these films with your (higher) standards. Of course my blunt summary could not possibly cover for everyone and I didn't mean it as such.

It's true that I often give the public more credit than they probably deserve. But then again things are often more complicated than they appear so...

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with you guys on this. We as a species always want better, but we're too lazy or apathetic to reach for it. So we just settle for what's in front of us and deal with it. And let's be honest with ourselves, the pool of creativity when it comes to movies, TV, games, and anime is dying and has been slowly dying since the start of the 2000s.

Nah, that's not true. It's still there, it's just tapped and applied in different ways. Superhero movies are doing quite well now, for example, and I can think of some damn fine anime titles in the past few years (some currently airing, in fact).