Transformers (2007)

Idiotic Format Wars

I am so cheesed off that I'll ave to wait this long to get Transformers, a very, very, very awesome movie on Blu-Ray, because of the idiotic and asinine format war that went on for so long. I've been a Transformers fan since the original cartoon and toys. I've had the original animated movie on DVD since the very first time it came out on DVD. And I was actually DREADING this movie. Michael Bay? The man who gave us such wretched CRAP as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor? Forgetting the scientific absurdities of Armageddon and the HORRIBLE historical inaccuracies of Pearl Harbor, the movies were just flat out AWFUL. So when I found out that Michael Bay would be directing a movie based on an iconic element of my childhood I was aghast and horrified, to say the least

But all I can say is Thank God for Stephen Spielberg. Watching the movie you can actually SEE points where Bay was trying to veer off into his mindless "blow stuff up who cares about plot?" usual directing style, but then you can almost see Spielberg's hand reach in and smack him like a puppy who's just pee'd on the carpet and take the movie back where it's supposed to be.

I loved this movie. And I'd spent a year or two gearing up to hate it. That's how good it is.

But now, on to the matter of it being released on HD DVD instead of Blu-Ray. Such an IDIOTIC, ASININE thing! If it had been nothing but a matter of which type of disk was simply BETTER, there would have been no contest at all. Blu-Ray has ALWAYS been better. I'll explain the differences below, but, unfortunately for us, a product being technically better than its competitors has never had much impact on the good old capitalism of our great country. Remember VCRs? Beta was MUCH better than VHS, but the company that made the VHS tapes and got paid royalties by everyone who used them had a better set of lawyers, marketers, and whatever other slimy creatures they needed to ensure that their inferior product came out on top in the vacuous wasteland that is American consumer culture.

And during the past 2 or 4 years or so we'd been going through the same type of thing again, everyone: another Format War, between HD DVD and Blu-Ray, the successors to DVD.


But we can thank God that THIS idiotic format war has finally ended, the respective megacorps having thrown all their support behind whichever pet project would have given them the most royalties, or made them the most bribes, and now that the dust has finally settled we have a winner and we can finally start getting Blu-Rays of all the movies we want, and the prices will start dropping as improvements in manufacturing techniques develop and the effect of economy of scale takes over. Remember when DVDs cost 50 dollars? The prices of Blu-Ray movies will now drop the same way, and before too long we'll be able to get 5 dollar discount bin blu-rays, too.

Yes, it still came down to one megacorp bribing, whining, and cajoling enough other megacorps to secure their own royalties for their own format, and then finally ramming it home down everyone's collective throat with a videogame machine with a built-in player that cost less than most stand alone players of the format by a good amount...

But this time we can be thankful that the format that won, Blu-Ray, is the one that is actually the BEST one. Remember VCRs? That time, the format that won the format war was the one that SUCKED. Betamax was VERY much better tan VHS, which is what everyone now remembers as VCR tapes.

But this time the best format won.

Just compare: current data capacity for Blu-Ray is 50 gigs, vs HD DVD's 30 gigs. Not much, you say? Almost twice as much, actually. And you have to consider that a DVD holds about 7 gigs. SEVEN. See how big a difference that is?

But then we wet to the maximum theoretical limits, which means how much the two different types will be able to hold in, say, about 5 years. And even after that they'll probably squeeze out a little bit more, just because we can do crazy things nowadays.

Blu-Ray will eventually get up to 200gigs.

HD DVD? 60 gigs.

That's a HUGE difference, people. HUGE. The hard drive on my laptop is only 120 gigs. So that means I could back up EVERYTHING on my computer on ONE Blu-Ray and have almost a third of the disk left over, but it would take 2 entire disks to do the same with an HD DVD.

So, the ultimate lesson we can learn from all of this is that the companies that sell us stuff don't give a flying fig about what is better for us, they only care about what is better for them, by which I mean whatever makes them more money. But we can be thankful that THIS time, in a fight between groups of millionaires and megacorporations, the consumers like us actually won something for a change. June 25, 2008

Great Movie!

I am not a big movie buff and I don't like comic book inspired movies! With that said-- this movie is AWESOME. I loved it from start to finish. June 24, 2008

An Action Movie The Way They Should Be

Michael Bay has made his name for making high octane, explosive action movies and this one is no exception to the Michael Bay rule. Transformers, when it was first announced it would be made into a live action movie the typical geeky fans went into uproar about it. They claimed it would destroy the series and they claimed it wouldn't stay true to the original cartoon characters, which is true but we were given something much better. This wasn't a film that stuck to the series or comics to the tee but it was something completely original in the movie world and was something very entertaining. The animation of the transformers is flawless and really blend well together when looking at the interaction between both man and machine. The action sequences as well are something brilliant when at times you are actually astounded at the scale of the whole thing, the Transformers when un-disguised are immensely huge and when entering into the main battle sequence there's so much going on you fail to believe what you're seeing. An honourable mention for great battle sequences goes to the army vs the scorpion decepticon in the Qatar desert, the sequence is just so intense and the addition of light comedy really makes it an enjoyable scene all round.

The story is something simple yet complicated, it's a combination of two main plots that blend into the one plot by the end of the movie. Plot 1 is the explanation as to why the transformers are on Earth, since the beginning of time there has been an object known as the cube which is a giver of life. We are told that some will use it for good and some will use it for evil, since the dawning of time there have been wars fought over this cube and after the destruction of the cybertron world the cube was left floating through space and wound up up Earth. The autobots were on a mission to find it but were too late as some evil forces got there first. This leads to a race against time as the decepticons try to locate something that we come to know as project Iceman and the autobots try to stop them before it destroys humanity. Plot 2 revolves around Sam Witwicky played by Shia Lebouf who unknowingly buys autobot Bumblebee as his first car, this is not, however, the only reason as to why he gets involved in the story. Sam's in the possession of the glasses of his explorer descendant Archibold Witwicky which have imprinted on them a map which would lead the decepticons to the cube. The Decepticons are after Sam to find the Cube but the Autobots must stop them from getting to it, Sam literally holds the key to the survival of the human race.

This is a very good movie that gives us a great combination of action, light hearted comedy and the element of danger. This is the way action movies should be and that's entertaining as hell. When it's released on Blu-Ray buy it I promise you wont be disappointed. June 23, 2008

Love this movie!!!

We love this movie!!! The special effects where awesome (even thought as many others have reviewed the transformations seemed to have been too fast...It still rocked.) Loved that they brought this back!!!! Story is great, actors are wonderful... would recommend everyone who are transformer fans or not to go out and get this action packed movie!!! June 22, 2008

Transformers is finally home =)

September 2nd is one of the most anticipated days to come for Blu-ray fans. This great film will be expertly transferred onto a 50GB disc to show off all of blu's glory. Maybe this will be the first to reak the 1 million sold mark for blu! June 20, 2008

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