Age of Extinction Transformers 4 USER REVIEW THREAD

Hardly, I mostly just didn't want to further the IM vs TF debate as no doubt would happen if I pulled up scenes for us to debate on. Had it not been for the Mod's request, you'd probably be looking at one of my overlong posts on the marvel films and I'm personally not about to test Hunter in such an outright way.
Further, I clearly stated that if I were to, it would no doubt been seen as unequal for it's pretty clear people see the tf scenes in a hyperbolic fasion and out of context to a fault whereas these same people are full of all kinds of apologetic rhetoric for the IM scenes. The double standard I stated initially which brought all this about would and has surely run amok on such an attempt. Thus, I see no point.

I haven't changed the subject once, it's always and still about the double standard and even if I have to dredge up every film made since 1958 that hasn't been met with this level of outrage but could have easily been, then it will still be on the same subject. The subject of selective outrage(in case you haven't been following).

WTH to this bolded part here, it actually did make me double take.
Sorry friend but you have it pretty wrong and backwards. I don't have a problem with the so called sexism or whatever buzz word it's being called now, in the TF films. I think it's par for the course and fully acceptable by my standards, plus it has it's various purposes to story and aesthetics. It's everyone that walks around and in here wearing the self righteous cap claiming they have an issue with the sexism and exploitation present in these TF films. They are the ones asserting the positive. I say, if YOU have this problem with the TF films, then where pray tell is this same or any such outrage for the same or similar elements in all these other movies produced in hollywood, marvel or the sandlot or anything? Ergo the burden is on YOU to explain YOUR double standard. I don't have anything to explain. In bringing up these other films, I'm helping YOU see the parallels and asking you to....I digress.
You are claiming I said that I hate sexism and I'm now giving it a pass in a film I like? At this point I'm sure you see the irony here, for it's very much the reverse. You are claiming you hate sexisim and yet you give it a pass at every opportunity. I'm not the one that walks around marvel(or any film) sections claiming the treatment of women is unbearable or what not. I'm actually pretty consistent in my tolerance.

Not sure if you read my post properly(or perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could have been) but when I referenced Wolf of Wall Street it was specifically because that film was exploitative in ways Bay detractors could on dream. Thus I asked the poster if he found these TF films 'that much worse' or as bad. I wanted to point out the grave difference between what he thinks he's accusing Bay of doing vs a film that actually does it. Does anyone here find the TF films offend them to the levels Wolf does(or is supposed to)? Because I certainly do not. I'm pretty bloody curious, cause I'm hearing alot of people pull out the usual type of Bay hyperbole. Now that we have that straight, it only proves what exactly?

As for that last part, the story point of her changing into the white dress was a recurring character point in that she was clearly insecure with her boyfriend leaving her behind for college and impress him with something he didn't expect(among other things). Sometimes girls/guys have a difficult transition into long distance relationships especially on the issue of college and particularly when it boils down to being left behind. Those fears were played up and seemingly confirmed when she arrived. That's the purpose of the scene. As for the underwear you spotted. Stop the presses, a frame of underwear made it to final cut, it seemed like a candid costume change to me. Seeing as it was the same colour as her dress, I didn't even notice the underwear till it was pointed out. Bay pointing out that the scene ALSO serves as eye candy, given fox was pretty much topping the maxim lists at that point I can see where that comes from, still it doesn't debunk one's ability to analyze a story point. This would be like Justin Lin explaining in a DVD commentary no less, that the shot in the similarly PG13 rated Fast Five in which Gal Godot struts around in slow motion and less clothing than any of bay's lead/supporting females(not in Pain&Gain) have ever had the pleasure of strutting around in; as what it is, Eye candy for the young/old male driven audience(cause that's hollywood) without delving into the obvious story point it serves as well. This is my trying to avoid the fast furious series cause well...not sure. Bring me to the next point:
Now could bay have shot that differently, sure, I don't see her riding her bike in a dress but perhaps a costume change off camera? But wait a minute, in the spirit of sticking to the subject; Did he actually do anything outside the hollywood norm? Well I suppose that begs the question of if Black Widow changing in the back of car, her underwear showing(for more than a frame) explicitly along with cleavage, whilst under a maze gaze(played up by the fact that he almost crashed) in IM2 is the norm? You tell me. Was that a story point or eye candy? Cause it certainly was the same thing if not worse.
-This ^ is precisely the point. What's the point of me even attempting to bring up a comparison when you show your bias on your own in this very scenario. Either the bay stuff is seen in a hyperbolic way, or the corresponding stuff is simply ignored. Underwear, who'd have thunk.

As I discussed earlier Megan fox left the series cause she was fired by her Jewish producer(s) after messing up and directly offending them, if not the entire industry(hitler was real and far worse than any working director). She made that mistake cause she doesn't like how totalitarian bay is on his sets, I don't remember two words about exploitation or sexploitation. Read her quote, read it twice and it all remains the same. Considering the types of roles she's done since then, from Jenifer's body in which she played a ****(non virgin sacrifice trope) with flesh coloured sticky's on her nipples with nothing else, and was in that 'This is 40' film, in which she played a 'slow' clothing retail clerk(too slow for even that job) that mostly got oogled and stripped down and had her boobs fondled.....I doubt it was bay asking her to do pg13 stuff that really had her walk off.
Shia's sentiments on the matter had nothing to do with why fox left but rather why the set was alot more charitable and calm when a professional like Rosie showed up. That is, she was far more comfortable with her sexuality given her profession and experience.....Still, I suppose we can all spin that stuff any way we please.

Who said anything about anyone falling in line like Anniston? I have to say, your entire post has been me correcting you in this manner and I have to imagine it's not deliberate... I said the scene in TF3 with Rosie shows far less and for far less time, than the stuff we've been seeing from Anniston(a women who had a pretty clean image). Again my meaning wasn't to condone or even rationalize one over the other. It was to provide perspective. One scene goes this far, another scene far further and maybe when this difference is pointed out(thrown in one's face) they can look back at the former scene with correct/better perspective. I do think it funny that bay is known around here as some great womanizer yet he's not making films in which his stars do strip teases(even ones that serve character like True Lies). It's like if he was making an R rated comedy than he could do whatever he wants and everyone would simply cheer? I'd find that particularly disingenuous to a fault.

Lastly, You can hold Bay accountable all you want(in spite of arguments against such a thing). Just make sure your outrage and accountability are consistent. Otherwise you will be deemed a hypocrite....by me. If like me, you are going to give bay a pass, then like me, feel free to give a pass to the rest of hollywood when you write up your reviews. That's the crux here. Consistency(me) vs Selective outrage(the ilk).

1. You continued to compare to IM anyway. Mine as well spend that time backing up your claims. If not it's wasted time.

2. You are clearly assuming things here. I, more anyone else for that matter, claimed that wolf of Wall Street got a free pass. You just assume the people who dislike how bay handles woman characters are ok with how that movie played out. Since you brought it up however, I will tell you my personal opinion and comparison. Obviously the wolf of Wall Street went further than tf. It's rated R. Even though some of that movie I found enjoyable I can honestly say I will never watch the movie again, and primarily because of how over sexualised it is and how little it I handed the story. Transformers, while those scenes pointed out do annoy me, I can still watch with friends as back ground noise.

3. It's find if you interpreted a story point out of the bike scene. However bay never mentioned it was intended as a story point. You are imagining that quote. He said the 14 year old boys who watched the first one would be expecting and wanting that kind of eye candy, so he decided to include a scene early on in the movie that would give them exactly what he felt they wanted. You can even see him direct fox to lift up her dress a little. Look it up.

4. Megan Fox's filmography is due to her being type cast from her role in transformers. She rose to fame as a sex symbol and that's where she is stuck, and has failed to escape. Bringing up her career actually helps validate my point.

5. The specific quote I mentioned was made by Shia. (I believe her boyfriend at the time) looking up quotes from her (which I am already aware of) doesn't actually contradict anything he said.

6. I don't watch Jennifer Anniston movies, so your comparisons, while they may apply to SPECIFIC people, do not apply to me. At all.

7. Your scenerios don't really apply to anyone on this thread. It's clear you are either assuming they do without reason (or possibly your arguments are based on comments people outside these boards have made) or you're making up your points as you go. Either way, they don't carry much weight.

8. Everyone has a line. Some people tolerate more than others. You clearly are one of the people who tolerate how Hollywood sexualises women more than the some of the other posters on this thread. For other people, Michael bay crosses a line that has to do with personal taste. I have yet to see one person on this thread who claims the way Michael bay displays women poorly praise another director or film that has a similar aproach to women. Other people with different standards may tolerate things worse than what bay does, but you are lumping a lot of people together wether you realize it or not.

9. (Going along with my last point) If one person has views that differ from another persons views neither individual a hypocrite. In the same way when a group of people have different individual standards there is no hypocrocy at large. You are missing the forest for the trees.
 
Marvin,
I stopped reading your post when you began to defend the shots of Megan Fox changing into the white dress. The director himself said that was intended for 14 year old boys to gawk at; how could you seriously try and pull a story point out of that? What more do you need, how much clearer does it have to be?
And the IM2 scene could be comparable, but the film isn't littered with shots like that. If it was, then maybe you'd have a case.
Your logic is that when a woman is shown in just a bra, it's automatically the equivalent of when Bay does a long slow pan up a woman's leg and makes juvenile jokes about an underage girl being good at hand jobs.
As we've been saying: nothing is comparable to Bay's film.
 
You know what, I liked it a lot.

However, I honestly feel like it was more of a 3.5 situation than a true 4. I notice a lot of themes of Dark of the Moon were present (evil humans, distrust in the Autobots, not so subtle comparisons to the Bush administration and the War on Terror). Bay only had two years to throw Dark of the Moon together, compared to the three he had for this. I almost feel like he came back to fully realize his vision and in that regard, I really think he succeeded and it turned out well. It was the best one since the first. It may not be high art, but it is at least a complete film and a hell of a lot of fun (unlike ROTF and DOTM).

I think the new cast is a welcome addition. While I would like an explanation on what became of Sam, Simmons, etc, Wahlberg is the most relatable and likable protagonist of the series. Grammer chews the scenery. I have long said that Patrick Dempsy was the best part of Dark of the Moon. Well everything that Dempsy did right, Grammer perfected.

Plus Dinobots! While they were criminally underused, their action sequences led to some of the best in the series. Bring on a Beast Wars prequel (which this sets up for perfectly)!

My only complaint is the runtime. It goes about 35 minutes too long. I would've cut out the stuff with Megatron and reworked it so Grammer's character was controlling Galvatron (at least seemingly) during the action sequences. Then it could've revealed him to be Megatron as a post-credit or end of the movie tease. It would've cut out about a half an hour and not taken focus off of Lockdown who was an awesome villain (best Decepticon of the series outside of Megatron).

All in all though, it was the best since the original. Was it high art? Nope. Anyone who expects a Transformers movie to be is crazy. It was everything it should be though, balls to the wall, Bayhem. Honestly, I really hope he keeps directing these. I don't want him to leave the franchise. No one else in Hollywood can pull off the scale he does and these movies need big action on a big scale.
 
So, legal pedophilia, half the dialogue being usless filling, half the characters being useless filling, boring action sequences, imbecile edition, ADHD plots spasming uncontrollably...

But the nonononononononono kid is gone!!!!!
 
Pedophelia is stating it strongly. :whatever:
 
Yes, I'm exagerating, but it was just weird to put that in the movie.
what was the purpose?
 
Yes, I'm exagerating, but it was just weird to put that in the movie.
what was the purpose?

They had to somehow find a way to shoehorn an experienced rally car driver into the movie for the sole purpose of the scene where they jump off a building 5 stories up onto a ramp. It supposedly upped the level of kickassery , which is what these films are all about.
 
saw it today, very disappointing, still better than rotf
it felt a bit bloated, there was some good ideas/moments but it felt like they were trying to juggle too many storyarcs
 
You know what, I liked it a lot.

I think the new cast is a welcome addition. While I would like an explanation on what became of Sam, Simmons, etc, Wahlberg is the most relatable and likable protagonist of the series.

And no explaination about sideswipe Dino Topspin and Roadbuster.
 
I think the new cast is a welcome addition. While I would like an explanation on what became of Sam, Simmons, etc

I can picture Lennox & co simply quitting the military. After the Government starting hunting down the Autobots. Because they did consider them friends & would definitely want no part of that
 
Yes, I'm exagerating, but it was just weird to put that in the movie.
what was the purpose?

To appeal to the "dudebros" who will watch that scene who will then laugh and call her a ****e. Creepy misogynistic *****ebags, in other words.

Can't believe Wolf of Wall Street has been brought into the conversation. Wolf of Wall Street doesn't glamorize anything. It makes it pretty clear than Belfort and his pals are scum of the earth.

The scene where it has the woman shaving her hair for 5 grand for a boob job says it all. The camera lingers on her awkward and disgusted face for a reason...

Bay glamorizes everything. That's what he does. He tries to make everything cool. Even death and destruction and jokes about 17 year olds ******* off 20 year olds. There is no weight or tension to the action scenes. They just look really, really coooooool, bro.
 
A simple keyword search of DOFP in your posts shows that you have spent the majority of your time calling it "overrated" and picking apart all it's problems. Which would be understandable, nothing wrong with critiquing a film you enjoyed, if not for the fact that nearly every single one of your posts about the film is negative.
You say you enjoyed it, but most people who liked a film don't spend most of their time making posts like these:

So I think my point remains. Feel free to look for yourself.
You're assuming that my critiquing of the movie implies I didn't enjoy it. Your assumption is incorrect. It demonstrates a flaw in your thinking, you can't conceive of somebody praising a movie they don't like or critiquing a movie that they do like.

We've already discussed the first one, you yourself even said it was debatable. It's a three second shot that shows her back after her and Tony spent a night together. If these movies were anywhere near as bad as you say they are, they would have displayed her fully and let the camera hang but instead we get a quick shot that shows her sitting down in a chair and turning and looking at the camera, which, as you even said, makes sense given the story.
So no, that absolutely does not count as gratuitous t&a. There is nothing gratuitous about that.
And as for the one scene with Pepper (out of 4 films she has one scene you all find problematic, I think that says everything) she was literally just experimented on, as the Endless said. Also it's a sports bra, which is designed to be sexy and not practical. The camera never hangs on her breasts, it never goes overboard in displaying her body. She's wearing a sports bra, and kicking ass. That's it.
And that is exactly the point, which you are missing so spectacularly; no one is saying that women never show skin in these films. No one is saying that female sexuality is completely absent from these movies, or that women are all puritanical and dressed to be as modest as possible. What we are saying, and pay attention here, is that the way the film makers portray women in these movies is nowhere near comparable to Bay and his films.
If they were you'd have a lot more examples to bring into this discussion. But you don't.
I'll bring more examples once you can acknowledge these two, I'm a man of my word.

It also took me a moment to figure out what you meant by 4 films. I then realised that you were giving Marvel credit for not haven gratuitous shots of Paltrow in the Avengers -- that's absolutely ridiculous. She only cameos in that movie.

If you want to see a gratuitous shot in the avengers look at the theatrical poster.

With that said, the poster is Marvel's fault, not Whedon's fault.
 
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So, legal pedophilia, half the dialogue being usless filling, half the characters being useless filling, boring action sequences, imbecile edition, ADHD plots spasming uncontrollably...

But the nonononononononono kid is gone!!!!!

17 year olds having sex with 20 year olds is not pedophilia.

The way you guys complain about that demonstrates how a lot of the outrage over this film is phoney. I wonder if Bay put it in there just to embarrass the haters.
 
Can't believe Wolf of Wall Street has been brought into the conversation. Wolf of Wall Street doesn't glamorize anything. It makes it pretty clear than Belfort and his pals are scum of the earth.

The scene where it has the woman shaving her hair for 5 grand for a boob job says it all. The camera lingers on her awkward and disgusted face for a reason...
Huh?
So this is you suggesting that Wolf has no excessive exploitation of women and that all such scenes are like the one you are describing above(about a women that will sell her soul for money) fully in service to the best of story telling intentions? Sure. The film was brought into the conversation to put into perspective just what things look like when a film is 3 hours full of female exploitation, a perspective much needed for similar is being said of TF4 if I'm not mistaken. It's about Perspective, not merely, 'did the woman shaving her head have a message'.

Bay glamorizes everything. That's what he does. He tries to make everything cool. Even death and destruction...
Never seen that before. Not in anything...
If he wanted to glamorize a '17 year old waking off a 20 year old man, he choose an pretty odd way of going about glamorizing it, I mean he could have made it soo much 'cooler and awesome and lingering shots of half naked...etc' such restraint, maybe he's learning?

There is no weight or tension to the action scenes.
I suppose that explains why his action films have alot of continued success. No weight or anything that makes a good action scene(according to the rules). Maybe his action scenes just suck and it's the story and characters shaky camera that attract the audience..
'cool bro' -nice touch.
 
Marvin,
I stopped reading your post when you began to defend the shots of Megan Fox changing into the white dress. The director himself said that was intended for 14 year old boys to gawk at; how could you seriously try and pull a story point out of that? What more do you need, how much clearer does it have to be?
And the IM2 scene could be comparable, but the film isn't littered with shots like that. If it was, then maybe you'd have a case.
Your logic is that when a woman is shown in just a bra, it's automatically the equivalent of when Bay does a long slow pan up a woman's leg and makes juvenile jokes about an underage girl being good at hand jobs.
As we've been saying: nothing is comparable to Bay's film.

But this forum is about TF4, not TF1, TF2, or TF3. The gratuitous camera angles are heavily and undeniably toned down in this movie relative to the previous entries, to the point where the movie lies within the distribution of Hollywood blockbusters.

You can still be frustrated and angered by them, but then you'd also need to be consistent.
 
So, legal pedophilia..

Yes, I'm exagerating, but it was just weird to put that in the movie.
what was the purpose?
Exaggeration is new around here. :yay:
To answer your question, the purpose of it might have something to do with the characterization of Wahlberg as an involved/uninvolved and protective father..it also plays a role in infusing the discourse that will later result from the insinuated revelation. That is, maybe Cade won't be to eager to accept this new boyfriend plot development, and maybe his daughters betrayal will run deeper than just that she dates boys...this is a particular talking point for the film for it's presented the thematic and literal idea that this very daughter is product of unresponsible and perhaps juvenile sex her self.
Just a thought.

Then again, I suppose it adds nothing save for the "..dudebros who will watch that scene who will then laugh and call her a ****e. Creepy misogynistic *****ebags.." as stated by the other guy. I find it all pretty ironic and meta how all this stuff ends up being in it's perception actually. Says things about who we are as an audience.

As for legal pedophilia, that's interesting. The implication being; just because something is legal doesn't make it right. Our common laws suggest that an individual need be over 17 before consummating with another individual who is over that same age. An arbitrary number, for the mental and physical maturity between 17 and 18 is often negligible by en mass. But that's what the common laws dictate to be legal. For if a 12 year old and a 28 year old were to do this, however legal the circumstance one could provide, it would be a pretty hard pill to swallow. And making it legal does nothing to combat that. However this situation in which the girl is(no bout 18 that year given her pending prom) is all the more deplorable because well... it's just legal pedophilia after all. An older man doing the dirty on a girl prior to turning some arbitrary legal number doesn't change the truth of the matter, that it's far and away wrong and disgusting.
:whatever:

This is no doubt why the common use of the term generally and often pertains to the minor being of the 13year of younger variety, children if you will. What's more it actually pertains to sexual activity and arousal and not simply the acts themselves...which of course(and as is the trend here) brings about the question of where all this 'selective outrage' was when the 300 year old vampires do no less to the highschool girls in these various movies and tv shows(one of which coming from whedon himself). Unless this is the part where I'm told there is something simply more egregious and numerous about the way bay does it. And comparisons to other films won't suffice.
 
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So, there are people who liked the movie?

How on earth???

This is Nuts, I say, Nuts!
 
So, there are people who liked the movie?

How on earth???

This is Nuts, I say, Nuts!
Cinema score among other things already suggest as much...
As to how, the simplest answer is often and probably the correct one.
 
Why can't people think the way I want them to think?
Some day... Some day...
 
I thought it was fun. I just didn't care for Nicola Peltz, Darcy's character was unnessecary, the fight before the Dinobots show up lasts way too long, and the Dinobots get no explanation. Also, if KSI took data from dead Decepticon heads to make their products, why don't Starscream or Soundwave show up in updated forms? I mean, there are random Shockwave clones, why not the former as well?
 
And no explaination about sideswipe Dino Topspin and Roadbuster.

I felt like any missing Autobots were explained. It is pretty clear that Kelsey Grammer and Lockdown went on an autobot genocide. It wasn't explicitly stated, but its not like it needed to be. It was clear that the government was hunting the Autobots and the ones in the film were the remaining ones. Its not like we needed a scene where they listed off every Autobot in the series and said, "Killed him, killed him, still out there, killed him, out there," etc.

I can picture Lennox & co simply quitting the military. After the Government starting hunting down the Autobots. Because they did consider them friends & would definitely want no part of that

You don't exactly quit the military. :funny: I feel like Lennox is the easiest to explain away. He is probably just stationed elsewhere and not part of the black ops team hunting the Autobots. But Sam's presence is a bit harder to just brush away, since he was BFFs with the Autobots and everything. I feel like there should've at least been a line. Hell, say he was collateral damage in the CIA's hunt for the Autobots. Talk about upping the stakes.

So, there are people who liked the movie?

How on earth???

This is Nuts, I say, Nuts!

I'm more surprised there are people who dislike the movie. Mostly because I have a sneaking suspicion that those who do, disliked DOTM, ROTF and the original. I'm not sure what people expected going in. The trailers are honest. Fairly shallow characters and a paper thin plot combined with nonstop action consisting of giant robots kicking each others asses and explosions. That is all that these movies have ever been. That is all they ever will be and frankly all they ever should be (the source material is cars that turn into giant robots...Shakespeare it isn't, so I'm not sure what folks are expecting). If by the fourth movie in the franchise, you are still getting angry about this, I gotta ask...why see it?
 
I thought it was fun. I just didn't care for Nicola Peltz, Darcy's character was unnessecary, the fight before the Dinobots show up lasts way too long, and the Dinobots get no explanation. Also, if KSI took data from dead Decepticon heads to make their products, why don't Starscream or Soundwave show up in updated forms? I mean, there are random Shockwave clones, why not the former as well?

Didn't they both die in Dark of the Moon? As for the Dinobots, there was an explanation. The creators used transformium on Earth during the Jurassic period to create transformers. Obviously cars were not around during that time, so they took the form of dinosaurs (which the transformium seemed to absorb in the opening scene). The dinobots were captured by Lockdown and freed by Prime.
 
Didn't they both die in Dark of the Moon? As for the Dinobots, there was an explanation. The creators used transformium on Earth during the Jurassic period to create transformers. Obviously cars were not around during that time, so they took the form of dinosaurs (which the transformium seemed to absorb in the opening scene). The dinobots were captured by Lockdown and freed by Prime.
Didn't Megatron die in Dark of the Moon? And now that I think of it, the part about the Dinobots I mean, does make sense.
 
But Sam's presence is a bit harder to just brush away, since he was BFFs with the Autobots and everything. I feel like there should've at least been a line. Hell, say he was collateral damage in the CIA's hunt for the Autobots. Talk about upping the stakes.
I had that same theory after watching the film. Much like Ratchet, Sam was probably asked about Another Transformer's whereabouts, probably Bumblebee, and declined to give away his position so Cemetary Wind put a bullet in his brain.
 
I felt like any missing Autobots were explained. It is pretty clear that Kelsey Grammer and Lockdown went on an autobot genocide. It wasn't explicitly stated, but its not like it needed to be. It was clear that the government was hunting the Autobots and the ones in the film were the remaining ones. Its not like we needed a scene where they listed off every Autobot in the series and said, "Killed him, killed him, still out there, killed him, out there," etc.

Yes we can suggest that the others autobots including Sidewy wreckers etc are all dead. Othewise Bay never explains absences of his characters. (Michaela, Jolt, Twins in DOTM..) Maybe in prequel comics
 

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