What needs to be done to improve TF3?

[Sparky Prime]

Entertainment involves being satisfied, something which ROTF does not deliver. I cannot speak for AHM.

Which goes back to the point I was actually making about entertainment... Ultimately it's just a matter of personal opinions. And personally, I did find the movie to be entertaining, as apparently did many other movie goers and obviously there were those that didn't as well.

[Shockwave]

I was entertained by both ROTF and AHM. I certainly think AHM is the far better story (I mean, we actually see Thundercracker's "cool to the cause" aspect developed in a functional context!) I think to explain my entertainment of the movies, it goes like this: There was so much buildup prior to the first one with the producers saying that it was going to be so G1 and then we got dashed when we saw the designs and script. At that point, for me the bar was set pretty low. Seriously, imagine if Michael Bay had exploded a hole straight to the bottom of hell. Whatever's below that is where the bar was set for me with the first movie. At that point I was in it just to see how they would visually represent them in the film and hope for a few TF referrences thrown in. It was literally impossible for it to not at least meet my expectations. For ROTF, I really just wanted to see Ravage, Soundwave and the Devastator merge sequence, but didn't expect any improvements in the plot (I'd given up on that since I heard mention of the name Fallen). AHM on the other hand, took a concept that I'd always wanted to see ("What if Megatron won?") and really did something impressive with it. I particularly like Starscream asking Megatron "Now what?". It's also managed to really flesh out some characters that were previously unexplored (Like Thundercracker's afformentioned internal conflict). Personally I think to improve TF3, they could actually just make a two hour movie explaining all of the plot holes from the first two.

[BWprowl]

Personally I think to improve TF3, they could actually just make a two hour movie explaining all of the plot holes from the first two.

Heh, Dom actually wanted a comic series to do that after the first one, IIRC. Crisis on Infinite Cy-Bay-Trons!

Y'know Trekkie, you brought up a good point. I don't know why I ever went in with the pretense that this movie would be very good, it has The Fallen in it.

[Shockwave]

Yeah, soon as I heard that, I just shook my head and sighed "God dammit". Robot Ant-Christ is the one thing TF did not need.

[BWprowl]

Robot Ant-Christ

[donosaur]

Over and over again it seems like we're confusing expectations and actual quality. Sparky, you were entertained by the film, many of us were not. Maybe you were entertained because you're expectations were low, whereas even with my low expectations I was not entertained. I was occupied for the time I sat in that theater, sure, but not fully entertained. I find entertainment from being satisfied by the narrative, which really isn't asking that much. ROTF could have been so much more satisfying if somebody had just been paying attention.

[donosaur]

Robot Ant-Christ

What, like Antagony?

[Shockwave]

Over and over again it seems like we're confusing expectations and actual quality. Sparky, you were entertained by the film, many of us were not. Maybe you were entertained because you're expectations were low, whereas even with my low expectations I was not entertained. I was occupied for the time I sat in that theater, sure, but not fully entertained. I find entertainment from being satisfied by the narrative, which really isn't asking that much. ROTF could have been so much more satisfying if somebody had just been paying attention.

I'm not. At no point did I say ROTF was a quality movie (again, I gave up on that after the words "the Fallen"). But that doesn't mean I wasn't entertained by it. You may require a good narrative to be entertained. I don't. Besides, your statement could honestly apply to half of the TF fiction in existence.

Also, Prowl, that pic is hilarious!

[Sparky Prime]

Over and over again it seems like we're confusing expectations and actual quality. Sparky, you were entertained by the film, many of us were not. Maybe you were entertained because you're expectations were low, whereas even with my low expectations I was not entertained. I was occupied for the time I sat in that theater, sure, but not fully entertained. I find entertainment from being satisfied by the narrative, which really isn't asking that much. ROTF could have been so much more satisfying if somebody had just been paying attention.

On the contrary, my expectations were quite high, and admittedly, the movie wasn't as good as I'd hope it would be (seriously, I've said this several times). But I still found it fully entertaining. And I've seen plenty of others say they fully enjoyed it as well. Again, when it comes to what people enjoy, it's all a matter of personal opinion.

[Shockwave]

I suddenly remember what I was going to add to my last post. I worked at a Blockbuster for 4 1/2 years. In that time I've seen the best movies on the planet and I've seen the worst movies on the planet. And let's face it, these movies were never going to win a ton of oscars. Compared to the entire rest of cinematic achievement these films are crap. But that doesn't mean they don't have their entertainment value and they're also far from being the worst movies ever.