I’m interested that you could notice the difference, but not very surprised, because both of the multiplex IMAXes in your area are film systems, not digital, and this is a case where film is still definitely better than digital. Also, both of them have among the largest screens in any multiplex. (Did you go to the Kerasotes Showplace 16 or the Hamilton Towne Center 16 in Noblesville?)
In the IMAX digital theater I went to here in Columbia, MD, I had to pay very close attention to whether there was an extra foot or so of image at the top and bottom of the screen in order to tell which were the IMAX-shot scenes. It would have been very easy to miss, and I doubt whether one person in a hundred noticed in the difference in my theater.
If you plan to see it again, keep an eye on the schedule at the White River IMAX. It may start showing there in a couple of weeks. As you probably know, it has a much larger screen than the Kerasotes or Goodrich theaters: 63x84 feet, compared to 40x70 in the other two.
I’m going to see the movie again tonight at the IMAX theater in the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Museum, where some of it was shot. I expect a very good laugh when the cast walks out of the museum into the desert!
I saw it at the Hamilton 16. I know we have an IMAX at one of the museums downtown (I think the Indiana state, and that is on/near the White River, so I’m sure that’s what you’re talking about) and I know they play movies there, I think it would be interesting to see the movie on that, and see what the difference is.
Also, since I seem to be the only one in the world who LOVED this movie (yes, more than the first one) I will try this experiment.
Argh. Tell me about it. Arcee (the pink one) was a character from the original Transformers series (and has appeared in couple of different incarnations in later series’), had a visibly different “look” than most of the other robots in the movie, and they went to the trouble of getting a noted voice actress, Grey DeLisle, to play her…then blam. :eek: :smack:
What the hell—did she cost too much to render, or something? Was the three seconds of screen time the calculated minimum you need to qualify as a nod to the fans? Maybe it was some kind of halfassed play for sympathy/indignation from the audience? “Ooh, that bastard indistinct-gray-spikey-robot #6 killed Arcee! Now I really want to see him go down!”
On my patent-pending chart of Ways To Screw Up Killing Off a Character, that pegs at about a “2” (falls flat, because the audience had no reason to connect with the character in the first place), verging on a “3” (audience ends up hating the writer/director for the death, instead of the villain who pulled the trigger).
Okay, another thing that’s bugged me about these two movies: the voices of the Transformers. I’m not actually talking about casting, or accents, or dialogue. It’s that it has people talking to 40-foot tall robots, sometimes even in chaotic, battlefield conditions…and the robots always sound like they’re speaking at a human conversational volume.
You couldn’t…add in a little reverb, or turn up the volume for their lines, or something? It just bugs me.
In my post above, I had forgotten an extra piece of idiocy that I noticed on seeing the film a second time last night. [spoiler]After Sam finds the cube sliver and gives it to his girlfriend, but tells no one else about it, Optimus Prime comes to him and asks for his help, which Sam refuses.
Optimus tells Sam that the Decepticons have stolen the **only **piece of allspark on Earth from the secure facility the military set up.
Does Sam think to tell Optimus, “Well, ya know, I’ve got a piece, too.”?
No. He doesn’t. [/spoiler]There aren’t enough :rolleyes: in the world!
I haven’t seen the movie yet so I can’t tell you much about Arcee in it other than I know she dies. According to the Transformers Wiki, Arcee had sisters, so there were three or so of them.
And according to this io9 article, Bay didn’t like Arcee so that’s why she gets blowed up. Can’t do a line of coke off a robot’s breast, right?
I have to note that one of the Wikis claims that Arcee is a gestalt entity/“splitter”; the other one notes that the two other girl robots have their own names and personas (“Chromia” and “Moonracer.” Chromia’s the blue one), which is supported at least by toy bios. Tfwiki claims this is a result of conflicting lines of continuity (between toys, the movie, and I’d imagine tie-in comics and games)(!), and that the version in the movie is a gestalt.
Personally, I think there simply wasn’t enough information shown or mentioned in the film (the robot(s) in question couldn’t have been onscreen more than a minute, and had maybe two lines) to make this anything more than “ambiguous” at best—at least until a video release, which might have deleted scenes, and/or creator commentary.
…hey, a thousand years ago, people like me would probably be pouring over obscure interpretations and translations of scripture to figure out which people to kill. I’m a freakin’ step up for the world!
I haven’t seen it, so I can’t argue any specifics, but I don’t think the answer is that simple. After all, there is no lack of movies that are (nothing but) spectacles, showcase monsters, monster robots, explosions, big explosions, even bigger explosions, one or two nice looking leads and demand no brain activity whatsoever that could possibly disturb the fun – and most of these movies are far less successful or tank completely.
A well-known brand name, a well-known director name, a summer release, a sequel to a movie that honestly wasn’t all that bad as an action flick…it doesn’t take some kind of mass movement, just a few million people all deciding “Hey, sure, let’s catch a movie. This looks like fun.”
