The Shade

One thing I noticed while watching it: the film seemed to be grainy, ie the image wasn't as plain as what you would have seen in other movies. Was this done on purpose, or did my threatre just have really bad equipment?

Just saw it. It was bloody, it was gory, it was f'ing violent. It was a manly man's movie. This is the best film I've seen in theatres in a while. A lot of people in the threatre were almost cheering when the giant was fighting Leonidas (the giant was being played by a local actor), and while we knew he wasn't going to win, it was still great seeing him in the film kicking ass.

For a pretty good He-Man spoof, try this theme song: Then, catch this three parter: Warning, potential grossness; also, not safe for work.

I wouldn't mind downloading it, but the shear size of it all (also, I'm on Rogers high speed, bt is throttled ) probably means I'll never see it.

Nooooooo!!! ANN are reporting that HG are working on a sequel to SC. I wonder if this one will take another 20 years?

I actually Media Player Classic. No problems whatsoever.

Holy Crap!!! I can't believe what I just read. And the worst thing is M$ and the movie companies are going to get away with it.

Apparently better than English spelling, too.

I think I've finally figured out something that was bothering me regarding the RT.com forums. We had talked about how the RT:SC enthusiasts over there thought that the art & animation were blowing them away, while, over here, we thought it looked pretty bad. Now I know why. The last animated show these guys watched was RT. Therefore, they're comparing SC to the original RT animation. We, on the other hand, have been watching animation since then. We've seen it progress to the beautiful visuals we see today. So, these guys are just not aware of the huge strides animation has made since the early 80's. I guess, for them, ignorance is bliss.

So, any word on the changes Lucas will be doing on this set? You know he will be doing some. The TV series set to start in 2009? Wow, that thing just keeps getting pushed back all the time. I had read originally that they were planning a start date of 2007, then 2008. It always seems to be 2 years away.

Being a Tolkien fan (not a die hard though) what is this book going to be about?

Wow, I really am glad I have my Animeigo set.

Wow, this reminds of a year or two ago when Gundam Official's message board mysteriously disapeared after people started talking about how bad Gundam Seed Destiny was.

I was snooping over at the RT.com message boards to see what the reaction over there is. Ummm... The only thing I can really think of is the Star Wars Prequels apologists: as long as it carries the franchise's name, it's the greatest piece of work ever. Seriously, there are people over there saying this is really an awesome movie. Of course, there are some who are bashing it, but they're being drowned out by the "I'm loving it crowd". HG also put up a link to a review of SC, as you can expect, it's a positive one. This guy is a game reviewer, not a movie reviewer, so take it with a grain of salt. Gamerz-Edge Review

I was thinking the same thing. The only explanation I can think of is that Blaster is just not as popular as Prime or Soundwave for that type of marketing gimmick.

That pic at the end with multiple starcreams (G1, classic, Movie, Energon & Masterpiece) was a really good comparison shot. I think I would choose any of the others before the movie one.

Phew! That was one crushing review. I haven't really seen too many reviews that were down on an "anime" as what I saw on ANN. A lot of stuff that was reviewed was already talked about here: not so good cell animation; so-so CG; sub-par acting; and what looked like, at best, a so-so story. All in all, a terrible blow to HG, and music to a lot of our ears.

I know, I was just being sarcastic. And yep, the Beast Machine "I Am Transformed" was a bit over the top.

Oh, are you saying the transforming sound in the movie is really some sort of Cybertron language that means "I am transformed"?

Is it just me, or does Megs look like a pile of scrapmetal glued together?

One thing I don't get though: while the producers have decided to go with different mechanical designs for the movie than G1 designs, you would think that they would go with a bunch of A-list stars to provide the voices, yet they seem to be going out of their way to get the original VA's from G1 to reprise their roles. To me, that's no really letting go of G1.

I'm still not impressed. The acting still sounds really cheesy (like pre-2000 anime dub cheesy). The cell animation, while it looks ok, just isn't fluid enough.

And who knows, BD & HD-DVD might end up being nothing more than the 2000's equivalent of Laser Discs.

I looked at that trailer. I dunno. It didn't seem as if I was previewing anything extraordinary. The human characters had all the spotlight, there was even a hint of romance between the lead? male character and a female character; yeah, just what I want to see in a TF movie. The entire trailer seemed like it was nothing more than a build up for "something big". Unfortunately, we know what that something big will be: a big special fx laden fight scene at the end. Since it seems like this movie will probably last 2½ hours, let's hope it will be more than 2 hours of setup & humans gawking at the TFs with the final half hour nothing more than a fight scene. But, with Bay's track record, I think he will stick with the standard action movie formula, and stick in his trademark "very loud" soundtrack.