Wow, the robots look weird:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-smVRGKvZk

But ZOMG the story might make sense now!

After seeing some of the concept work at conceptart.org, I could honestly care no less about this movie. Wait till you see Megatron...

You mean this?  http://www.seibertron.com/news/view.php?id=8253  I'm assuming this is his Cybertronian form and not whatever his Earth form will be---probably a tank.

For other images, here's Optimus' robot form on the cover of some magazine:  http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=118347

And some more pics:  http://www.jalopnik.com/photogallery/transformers/

I don't know.  I'm already prepared for this movie to suck since I saw the teaser back in July, however I can't not be curious.

I like how the Wikipedia article already hints at sequels---I wonder what they are going to do to Soundwave.

My thoughts exactly! The Transformers the Movie (the cartoon) will almost certainly be far superior to this live-action flick.  If you look at Michael Bay's movies:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/

they're all crap!  Admittedly I did not see Pearl Harbor (which seems to be the one exception to his otherwise ultra-dull resume), so I can't comment on that.  But all his other films are just Hollywood updates of traditional horror flicks.  Take all the money they invested in this film, give it to a few Transformers fans, and I bet they could do a much better job.

cheers,

-avatar!

update: fixed typo

I saw Pearl Harbor; it wasn't good.  Thanks for bringing his filmography to my attention.  I admit that I haven't thought of looking at it before now.  Oh, poor Transformers...

The only Michael Bay movie I've been able to sit through was "The Island" and I still actually recommend it if you're into heavy action flicks with silly stories. That said, it's just a safe-as-in-Hollywood take on Brave New World that kinda falls apart as time goes on.

But back on topic (or almost, anyway), it simply seems like the people working on the new Transformers really don't "get it" when it comes to their approach. The designs aren't appealing. They look like they were built to fall apart. It's like they stacked car motors and open PC towers on top of each other in strange, gravity-defying configurations until the pile of crap kinda sorta started looking like an old character in a very Rorschach-test kinda way. At this point, I'd even prefer streamlined redesigns just so I could tell what I'm looking at half the time.

The only thing the movie might have going for it (as far as I'm concerned) is decent over-the-top robot-on-robot action.

I began losing hope of a semi-faithful live-action Transformers movie once Michael Bay was announced as director, and lost it entirely once robot designs for the movie began leaking out a couple months ago.

That said, they do look better in motion than as stills.  I'll see it no matter what, but instead of expecting a Transformers adaptation am gonna try to force myself to look at it purely as a summer popcorn movie with giant robots and directed by Michael Bay - which means lots of action but dumb, dumb, dumb.

I've decided to accept the different look of the robots. X-Men fans had to do a similar thing. Basically, I no longer get angry about movies being so different from their cartoon counterparts. It makes other people think you're a weirdo for complaining and these movies are made for the purpose of generating money - not pleasing fans.

I plan to see Transformers on launch day and I think Michael Bay is an excellent director. I liked The Island, The Rock, Bad Boys I & II, but I didn't care for Armageddon. The Island was one of the best movies I've ever seen (although few people enjoyed it). I haven't seen Pearl Harbor, so I can't comment.

I liked The Island so much because it reminded me of Logan's Run.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/

Right there with you on "The Island" - I watched it a second time recently, and it was done really well...

Best line of the movie "I KNOW Jesus loves you!"

Here's my .02 on Bay...Bay is good a "action" oriented movies, sans computer animation.  Look at some of the car chases in his earlier movies, and you'll see what I'm talking about.  Now with the addition of computer effects, I'm expecting live action effects when needed, and computer animation when necessary. 

Looking forward to this for sure..

They got Peter Cullen to again play Optimus Prime.  So who do you expect for them to get to play Megatron?  If you say Hugo Weaving (from V For Vendetta) then you might be on to something:  http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=127366  Frank Welker, the original Megatron, should be their choice, if they went with Cullen.  Otherwise, the duo that played Optimus Primal (Gary Chalk) and Megatron (David Kaye) from the Beast Wars should've been sought.  Kaye's Megatron is a pretty good one... that's why in the upcoming cartoon he's cast to be Optimus Prime, according to Wikipedia.

Although, I'm more interested in who they get to play Starscream.  After all, they decided that the Tom Kenny, the guy from Spongebob, should be Starscream in the upcoming cartoon:  http://seibertron.com/news/view.php?id=9568

Does anyone watch Spongebob?  Can you imagine that guy as Starscream?

Hoo boy!  So who's seen the final theatrical trailer?  It's been a while since I've seen a film trailer that impressed me but the final 30 seconds of this thing had me tripping out!  There's still some skepticism lingering but this is now my most anticipated movie of the summer.

Here's the link:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/transformers.html

I saw the trailer just two hours ago during the screening of Shrek The Third.  Gotta say, I've had very little interest in seeing the movie, but after seeing this badboy, now I know I will. 

Dunno if it's the sound mixing of the trailer or the sound system of my particular theater, but the sonic aspect just blew me away.  I'm hoping it'll be that good in the final film.

Well, the special effects will be grandiose, and maybe that's good enough for most people, but I personally think it looks pretty lame. In fact, it looks and sounds like any Michael Bay movie (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon...etc) only now you have big robots causing big explosions instead of people or big meteorites. And of course lots of bombastic music and cute diaologue ("super advanced robot, must be Japanese"). Still, there's a chance it will be decent, but I REALLY don't think you should get your hopes up. Unless of course all you want is lots of explosions and special effects, in which case you're set, but I believe many of us will have to enjoy Transformers the only way it can truly be enjoyed, via DVD and nostalgia (and possibly a video game, if ever a good one is made

cheers,

-avatar!

ps Expect the same treatment from Bay in the upcoming Prince of Persia... and apparently he's doing a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"...!!?!! Good Lord, does Hollywood have no pity on viewers??

I really can't deal with the robot mode designs.  Most look like naked Terminator models.  The robot designs don't look like they are "transformable."  The movie will appeal to the mainstream looking for that sci-fi action flick, a la Independence Day, but I'm not sold on this.

Okay Avatar you complain about the new Transformers movie being about action and robots blowing stuff up despite apparently being a fan of the original series, which was about... action and robots blowing stuff up.

I'm not exactly a Michael Bay fan either but I don't feel the need to express that same opinion in multiple posts in multiple threads.

Was there something impracticable about the original Starscream robot mode that made them want to forsake it for this very not-cool design?  It's great that they showed him off twice in the trailer, and at least the original transformation noise made it in (during Optimus' transformation)... I'm still worried about the Starscream voice actor.  It's a shame I've only just recently began nailing the Starscream/Cobra Commander voice...  Starscream's voice, for me, is more important than Optimus' or Megatron's (they could've used the Beast Wars voice actors for them and I'd have been fine).

Did I mention my ultimate solution for destroying these Transformers? I could stop this invasion force myself - just me and a digger. Yep. Now that I think about it, I could probably use it for Terminators too. Here's my secret weapon -

Sand.

Yep, plain old sand. Just look how many moving parts these guys have? How many little bits there are. Just dump some sand on one of those guys and, within minutes, their parts will be ground up so bad they'll be totally out of action. The damage done will be so widespread, they'd never get it fixed.

I wonder if anyone in the movie thinks of using sand? It does show how utterly impractical these new thousand-tiny-pieces designs are.

There's a desert scene in the trailers... I guess they didn't.

Looks cool...The only thing that irks me is the background story on the people in the movie...I'd rather it be all about the transformers, and it should take place in the future...this looks like present day...Also, we haven't heard any of the transformer's talk.  That's going to be interesting and may be the pinnacle point where some people can 'buy into it', and enjoy it, or rule it out as a waste of film (fan and regular movie goer both)