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14 More TRANSFORMERS Films In Development

Started by Quincey, April 20, 2017, 11:02:08 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Hollow

Oh someone shoot the cunt...it's for the best.

hewantstolurkatad

They're for kids and the utterly tasteless Chinese market. Better having Michael Bay doing them than the same kind of case you get with Disney of bringing in people who could've been working on much more interesting projects instead only to give them fuck all creative freedom.

I believe relative to the budget and amount of marketing that the last transformers was a big failure in the US so I suspect no one other than kids are going to these anymore outside of asia.

Frazer

Quote from: Spiteface on June 17, 2017, 09:15:20 PM
Are any of these films going to have fucking Unicron in them?

No?

Fuck that, then.

Are any of these films going to have fucking Death's Head in them?

No?

Double fuck that, then.

FredNurke

Marvel-owned character, yes? But potentially available - if the money's good, right?

Mister Six

Death's Head totally spoke with a South African accent, yes?

Quote from: checkoutgirl on June 17, 2017, 09:44:30 PMAre Chinese people that easily entertained? Is this the only film that the communist Chinese government will allow to be shown or something? It's a bit mad.

You're underestimating five things:

1- The affection for Transformers, which - alongside Japanese kids' cartoon Doraemon - was the first experience many Chinese people of a certain generation had of foreign media.

2- How utterly fucking piss-awful most Mainland Chinese films (or at least those with the cash to be shown in actual cinemas) are. Your options I'd you're making a film on the Chinese mainland are: WWII-era film about how the Japanese are rapist cunts; a Crouching Tiger-style wuxia flick about feudal-era Chinese warriors floating about and featuring people with swords; an unfunny rom-com about a cute fashion journalist in Shanghai who falls in love with a rich Chinese dude; or the annual Monkey King/Journey to the West film. If you're lucky there might be two or three Monkey King films a year.

3- Herd culture. Conformity isn't as big a deal in China as, say, Korea, but if loads of people are doing something then it's easy to get a critical mass that just keeps drawing in more and more and more people.

4- The sheer number of people. There are most people living in the city of Shanghai than in the whole of Australia. That's only the legally acknowledged people too - include migrant workers (ie. those from other parts of China who are unable to get permission to work in the big cities because they lack the skillset, but go there anyway to work cash-in-hand) and it'll probably be 25-50 percent more. Obviously not all of them have the cash to go to the cinema, but the sheer size of crowds remains overwhelming.

5- The passivity with which so many Chinese approach art. Mao and his Cultural Revolution made having artistic ambition (beyond prodicing endless 'inspirational' paintings of pastoral workers) and emotional depth serious fucking liabikities. Like break-your-legs or leave-you-dead-in-a-ditch liabilities.

Couple that with unbelievable famine and general cultural pragmatism and the kibosh was put on art right up until the 1980s.

There was a brief chance for a renaissance in the late 80s but then Tiananmen Square happened and since then the government had worked hard to ensure that only the most bland, safe and apolitical "art" gets produced.

Couple that with rampant cronyist capitalism so focused on a safe return makes modern-day Hollywood look like an artists' commune, and a post-90s generation of increasingly wealthy but creatively malnourished population, and you have audiences content to passively absorb media pablum just so they have tick off a box then go back to their parebt-bought apartment and get back to worrying about having a child before they turn 30.

In that context Michael Bay's visual, narrative and emotional incoherence is at least mildly diverting, and there are lots of attractive white people to ogle.

checkoutgirl

So China is a cultural wasteland then? At least when it comes to film. That makes a lot of sense.

I'm intrigued by herd culture and would like to hear more. So people see loads of people doing a thing and are compelled to do it too? Fascinating. It would explain a lot of human behaviour that confuses me. Buying tickets for Phil Collins and suchlike.

momatt

Quote from: Spiteface on June 17, 2017, 09:15:20 PM
Are any of these films going to have fucking Unicron in them?
No?
Fuck that, then.

Fucking yes.  I'd love to see a live-action remake of the 1986 film.  As long as Michael Bay was killed before production started.

Mister Six

Quote from: checkoutgirl on June 18, 2017, 09:32:42 AM
So China is a cultural wasteland then? At least when it comes to film. That makes a lot of sense.

Mainstream film for sure. There's still good independent stuff being made but it only gets screened in foreign festivals or under the radar. The annual Beijing Independent Film Festival gets shut down by cops every year and is (or was a couple of years ago) just an exercise in bloodymindedness.

QuoteI'm intrigued by herd culture and would like to hear more. So people see loads of people doing a thing and are compelled to do it too?

To be fair that's true of people in general - like the old Candid Camera gag where a guy looks up at the sky in the middle of a busy street until a crowd of people, also looking up, has gathered around him. At which point he pulls out a tissue, dabs at his "bleeding" nose and walks off.

And obviously it's not everyone - I know many creative, funny, artistically engaged Chinese people too (like my wife!).

But there's definitely a reasonably large culture in Mainland China of passively absorbing media without critically or emotionally engaging with it (especially if you can whip out a phone and stream it on the WhatsApp equivalent).

My wife's sister (cousin, technically) and her husband came to New York and she took them to a Broadway musical and they seemed basically uninterested in the wild spectacle before them. They just ticked off a box and moved on.

But life in China is generally not one with a great deal of agency. Schools teach by rote learning and memorisation and teachers are regarded as unassailable authority figures. Bosses tell you what to do and you do it because answering back is unthinkable. Your parents basically control your life until you are financially independent - and even then they still have authority just by virtue of age.

Even when you're walking around, you're forcibly funneled and directed: In Beijing roads have huge fences up the middle of the lanes to discourage jaywalking. On the subway people with loudhailers hector lines of thousands of people down partitioned-off alleys.

Rules are followed because they are rules. Thinking about why the rules are that way just isn't done. I spent a year working in Chinese state media, and otherwise smart colleagues would open windows on smoggy days "to let fresh air in". These were the same people who wore masks on the way into the office.

Why? Because when you want to let in fresh air you open a window. Everyone knows that. But not everyone is encouraged to perform the lateral thinking necessary to figure out WHY fresh air comes in - or where that air comes from. At least, not without prompting.

(This is a relatively new thing I'm sure, and directly attributable to the increasingly strong grasp the government has on the minds of Chinese citizens in this post-Tiananmen Square Massacre world. Those who grew up in the 1980s seem a bit more free-spirited... Also my wife came across some post-feudal, pre-Communist kids' literature that was really beautiful and poetic, and about considering the feelings of others, questioning your teachers and taking aesthetic delight in the natural world - anathema to the modern government.)

One other thing, my wife says, is that many twentysomething Chinese people don't really care for going out in the same way that most Brits do. Most evenings are spent just watching TV with your partner, and occasionally going for a restaurant gathering and a bit of karaoke with friends. The idea of going to a pub just to talk bollocks isn't a thing... And so the cinema is just an extension of that passive act of watching tv, but in a different surrounding, rather than a fun night out to enjoy art (or "art").

Sebastian Cobb

It beggars belief that when you consider what utter beauty some directors could get out of 3 lights and some monochrome film, some people are content to spend tens-of-thousands per frame on cgi only for it to look like someone's vomited lego all over the floor.



Junglist

Its gonna be amazing, the Transformers films are my guilty pleasure.

TheWoodenSpoon


imitationleather


momatt

#44
And the vast amounts of money they make.

I will definitely see this film at some point, but unlikely to pay for it.  I hate the films, but love Transformers.  So it sort of balances out as an ok experience.

This one has an absolutely mental premise.  Not sure if that'll make it better or worse?

"In 484 AD, King Arthur leads his knights and men into a battle they can't hope to win. Having realized this, he enlists the help of the magician Merlin, who negotiates with a Cybertronian Knight. The Knight gives Merlin a staff wielding ultimate power; the twelve Cybertronian Knights combine to form Dragonstorm, who comes to Camelot's aid and wipes out their adversaries."

YOU WHAT MATE?

FredNurke

Just watch this - it's shorter and no stupider.

momatt

Bloody hell!  Forgot about that, but I was only dimly aware of that mad episode.

Of all the cool plots from the cartoons and comics, they picked that one. 



momatt

It is a good review.  In that the review itself is fairly amusing and entertaining.
Quite looking forward to this film now.  I'll probably enjoy it on the same mad nonsensical level of something like Kung Fury.


SavageHedgehog

Holy shit guys, this new one is crazy! I mean, I'm not going to recommend it per say to anyone else even as kitsch, because there were large sections where I was kind of bored and many moments where I was even actively irritated, but it's really something. A mass market film based on a Reaganite toyline far more weirder than any Jodorowsky film.

I'm going to just list a bunch of random memories from this film, but I'm not going to Spoiler them, partly because it would look ugly, partly because I doubt anyone here cares that much and partly because I think these will more likely encourage anyone who does. But if you do care beware



Here we go:
. Pretty terrible continuity with the previous films from what I remember. They spent half the last film showing Megatron become Galvatron. Now he's Megatron again with no explanation. They did this with the second one where Bumblebee's voice disappeared without explanation, which becomes a problem all over again here
. Anthony Hopkin's character has a sassy robot butler with a British accent. At one point he drives a car during one of the many car chases singing "move bitch, get out the way"
. This character also undercuts a dramatic flashback by revealing that, get this, he's the one playing the organ music in the scene! Then a minute later, get this, he's the operatic singer on the soundtrack! Hopkins tells him to cut this out! I don't think I've seen anything quite so jarring in its broadness and winking at the forth wall since the Batman's Bat-Credit-Card twenty years ago (although the audience seemed to enjoy it). Akiva Goldsmith is the link here.
. There's a scene where Megatron negotiates with the government for the release of Decepticons in exchange for something or other. It introduces all the Decepticons in a Guy Ritchie-style with onscreen captions.
. Turns out King Arthur, Shakespeare, Churchill and Shia La Beouf's character from the earlier films, among many, are all linked by some mystic link that has something to do with Transformers.
. We find out a watch Transformer killed Hitler. There's also a flashback to 1940s Bumblebee killing Nazis in an anonymous location. This is the scene which upset people by being filmed at Churchill's house, which was adorned with Nazi flags. I'm not 100% sure it was worth the fuss.
. The love interest (a step-up acting wise from the previous ones admittedly) takes Mark Whalberg back to the house of her saucy old Britsh aunts (including Rebecca Front!). They look for something or other, and they knock a bunch of books about, but the saucy British aunts, get this, think they're having the sex!
. Fellow Toy Commercial enthusiasts might be interested to know yes, Unicron is in this. Sort of. It turns out our planet (Earth) actually is Unicron! I think. This isn't explained very well. At any rate he's angry that there are separate continents rather than Pangaea. They do set up for more Unicron-is-part-of-earth-stuff in part 6.
. They also bring Hot Rod into this, but instead of an impulsive young Brat-Packer, he's a sleazy amorous Pepe-Le-Pew wannabe, complete with French accent. These are some of the most baffling examples of fan service I've ever seen.
. As you've seen from the trailers Optimus Prime turns evil. He starts calling himself "Nemesis Prime". How does he turn good again? He hears Bumblebee speak and suddenly snaps out of it. Nice homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2.
There's probably more I'm forgetting right now, but you get the idea.

It sure as hell isn't as creatively bankrupt a Part 5 as Pirates of the Caribbean (although Stanley Tucci's Merlin (oh yeah, he's in this, and got his powers from Transformers, I think) feels disturbingly modelled on Jack Sparrow).

Head Gardener


Glebe


Junglist

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on June 23, 2017, 07:50:44 PM
Holy shit guys, this new one is crazy! I mean, I'm not going to recommend it per say to anyone else even as kitsch, because there were large sections where I was kind of bored and many moments where I was even actively irritated, but it's really something. A mass market film based on a Reaganite toyline far more weirder than any Jodorowsky film.

I'm going to just list a bunch of random memories from this film, but I'm not going to Spoiler them, partly because it would look ugly, partly because I doubt anyone here cares that much and partly because I think these will more likely encourage anyone who does. But if you do care beware



Here we go:
. Pretty terrible continuity with the previous films from what I remember. They spent half the last film showing Megatron become Galvatron. Now he's Megatron again with no explanation. They did this with the second one where Bumblebee's voice disappeared without explanation, which becomes a problem all over again here
. Anthony Hopkin's character has a sassy robot butler with a British accent. At one point he drives a car during one of the many car chases singing "move bitch, get out the way"
. This character also undercuts a dramatic flashback by revealing that, get this, he's the one playing the organ music in the scene! Then a minute later, get this, he's the operatic singer on the soundtrack! Hopkins tells him to cut this out! I don't think I've seen anything quite so jarring in its broadness and winking at the forth wall since the Batman's Bat-Credit-Card twenty years ago (although the audience seemed to enjoy it). Akiva Goldsmith is the link here.
. There's a scene where Megatron negotiates with the government for the release of Decepticons in exchange for something or other. It introduces all the Decepticons in a Guy Ritchie-style with onscreen captions.
. Turns out King Arthur, Shakespeare, Churchill and Shia La Beouf's character from the earlier films, among many, are all linked by some mystic link that has something to do with Transformers.
. We find out a watch Transformer killed Hitler. There's also a flashback to 1940s Bumblebee killing Nazis in an anonymous location. This is the scene which upset people by being filmed at Churchill's house, which was adorned with Nazi flags. I'm not 100% sure it was worth the fuss.
. The love interest (a step-up acting wise from the previous ones admittedly) takes Mark Whalberg back to the house of her saucy old Britsh aunts (including Rebecca Front!). They look for something or other, and they knock a bunch of books about, but the saucy British aunts, get this, think they're having the sex!
. Fellow Toy Commercial enthusiasts might be interested to know yes, Unicron is in this. Sort of. It turns out our planet (Earth) actually is Unicron! I think. This isn't explained very well. At any rate he's angry that there are separate continents rather than Pangaea. They do set up for more Unicron-is-part-of-earth-stuff in part 6.
. They also bring Hot Rod into this, but instead of an impulsive young Brat-Packer, he's a sleazy amorous Pepe-Le-Pew wannabe, complete with French accent. These are some of the most baffling examples of fan service I've ever seen.
. As you've seen from the trailers Optimus Prime turns evil. He starts calling himself "Nemesis Prime". How does he turn good again? He hears Bumblebee speak and suddenly snaps out of it. Nice homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2.
There's probably more I'm forgetting right now, but you get the idea.

It sure as hell isn't as creatively bankrupt a Part 5 as Pirates of the Caribbean (although Stanley Tucci's Merlin (oh yeah, he's in this, and got his powers from Transformers, I think) feels disturbingly modelled on Jack Sparrow).

It sounds utterly magnificent.

AsparagusTrevor


Head Gardener


Head Gardener



tonight I will be checking out some racist robot torture and whatever that is 

Bad Ambassador

Good news: it's dying on its arse in the US, and underperforming everywhere else, with the inevitable exception of China. An opening gross of $265.3m from North America and 41 other markets, and only $141.9m if you don't count China. For a film that needs to make at least $500m just to break even, that's not good.

SavageHedgehog

It's a redundant series in a world where audiences know they'll get a Marvel movie (or Marvel-esque, e.g. Wonder Woman) next week which will have the same kind of action scenes tied to a better plot, acting, characterisation, character design, structure and acting (and I say that as a Marvel agnostic). Although Age of Extinction was two years after The Avengers I don't know if the MCU quite dominated the mainstream cultural landscape to the extent it does now. Only diehard fans of the previous films, and people like me who wondered how the hell they would shoehorn King Arthur and Nazis into it had any real reason to get excited about this.

The Ninja Turtles film last year also underperformed to plug-pulling levels, leaving our balls permanently blue over the teased prospect of Tyler Perry playing a mutant-fly scientist.

I'm calling 40th anniversary Transformers reboot film for 2024.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 25, 2017, 05:56:27 PM
Good news: it's dying on its arse in the US, and underperforming everywhere else, with the inevitable exception of China. An opening gross of $265.3m from North America and 41 other markets, and only $141.9m if you don't count China. For a film that needs to make at least $500m just to break even, that's not good.

For comparison, the last two films made $381.4m and $302.1m ($210.1m less Chinese gross) on their global openings, so this is a continued downward trend.