This week I've watched both the Transformers and TMNT movies, and neither of them left me screaming bloody murder.

Now, TMNT I was expecting to enjoy. The trailer had showed they'd got the animation just right and who can't resist a silly plot that features 3,000 year old myths, monsters from another dimension and the end of the world as we know it?

After the initial pant-soiling excitement had died down, and reviews of the film started coming out, I didn't think I was going to enjoy Transformers so much. Everything was saying not enough huge robot battles, too much human sentimentally bits, but I think it all worked out quite well. In fact, I'd say the robot battles were maybe the worst bit of the film? They were all just lots of sparks and blurry movements; they could have been handled much better. Optimus Prime had a glowing sword coming out of his arm and we only got to see it for a couple of seconds. Glowing Arm Swords should be given way more attention. If the fight scenes had been done with steady cameras and awesome-fast fighting, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon style, the film would have been so much better.

So what did you guys think of these two films? Live up to your expectations? Let you down? Hurt you in the bad place?

I went to see Transformers on Tuesday with my boyfriend and three of his friends from work. Considering I didn't watch it as a kid and the only knowledge of the series I have comes from the toys my tomboy sister used to play with and what Robert's told me 'bout it I really enjoyed it a lot. Only downsides for me were Megan Fox's performance (I just think she seems a little vacant, no more so than most Hollywood actresses nowadays but meh) and the glares I got when I leaned over to ask my boyfriend which one was Optimus Prime again and the whole row heard me. I have never feared nerds so much before in my life - I almost got away with pretending I was one of them as well...

Hehe. Yeah, I just saw transformers a couple hours ago and I liked it, but I'm not very familiar with the Transformers cartoon/action figures. There was a lot of robot fighting, though. Sure, some of the sentimentality was cheesy and annoying, but for the most part I enjoyed it.

I saw Transformers a couple of weeks ago and thought that it was pretty good. I didn't know what to expect at first, but some of my friends thought it would be pretty bad because the word "Transformers" usually seems to be associated with an old cartoon and action figures, but I really enjoyed it. I thought the cg was amazing.
Although I agree with you Novander about there not being enough attention to a few major things.

Oi! The old cartoon was awesome.

I thought the Transformers movie was pretty good, considering how many opportunities there were to ruin it. Am I alone in being horribly amused by the one they made using the all spark, with the minigun crotch?

You need new friends :P

See I don't really have anything against the old cartoons per se it's the Transformers public service videos I can't stand. My boyfriend has Generation One in a big shiny box and it came with these horrors as a special feature so if I can be bothered I'll put some actual quotes from the ads up later but basically they're aimed at kids who pick their nose and lick 9 volt batteries all day. And they are SO moralistic I could puke, a waste of their inherent robot-y coolness, anyone else remember them?

Sozzy, I know the original would've been good but I just don't really know anythng much about the Transformers series and such.

I loved the Transformers movie, but everytime I saw OP, I kept remembering the Robot Chicken sketch where he found out he had prostatic cancer.

I think I vaguely recall something about Transformers moralising adverts, but I'm not sure they were a big campaign over here.

I saw the movie and... Well, I saw it. The big cool robots were always too blurred while they were moving for them to actually look very cool. They looked smudgey most of the time, which just doesn't have the same impact as seeing twenty thousand moving parts clashing in mid air. Instead we got lots of bluey-reddy blurs smashing into grey-ish blurs.

No they weren't that big a deal over here and considering the lack of TV in my childhood I probably never would have seen them except my sister was obsessed with Transformers (and TMNT as well) and they cropped up during the Saturday morning cartoons sometimes - at least she wasn't into He-Man - now those "and-the-moral-of-the-story-is..." bits were truly bad.

Speaking of TMNT has anyone else seen it and what do you think? I'm considering going with the boyfriend but again ... not a massive fan of 80s/90s cheesy kids programmes so not sure if it's worth subjecting myself to the ridicule of his friends when I don't know what the heck's going on

I didn't find the blurring quite so bad in most scenes of the film. In the scenes from the trailers it was pretty awful though.

I did get a bit of a feeling on ennui during the film: what's it all for? These guys seem to spend all their time beating the crap out of each other... So what's the point? Why do they go on?

The script was rubbish. It might be a kids film, but still, how many times did they have a moment where the kid had to summarise the plot, yet again, just in case people weren't following? It was definitely a few.

Also, who says 'I am Megatron' after being trapped in ice for thousands of years? You'd say 'By 'eck! I thought my nipples would drop off, I'm so cold!' or something like that.

I remember seeing that a long time ago, that show was sooo funny.

I watched the film on the ferry to Orkney. We had 6 hours to kill, and decided it would be a good idea to see it.
I wasn't ever expecting a fantastic script, nor fantastic acting. But I did find myself saying "F*** YEAH!" a lot of times- especially when they all crashed to Earth and it was all dramatic and.. yeah.
I love Transformers. Having an older brother (who still has his 80's silver and red Transformers curtains somewhere in the loft) influenced me a lot when I was younger and so I now have a love of TMNT, Transformers and Boglins, among other things. And when Optimus Prime transformed for the first time and looked almost exactly like the toy I used to play with as a child, I had to just say "F*** YEAH!" again.

^ yes! Older brothers are very good at that! We did an attic-cleaning the other day and found a whole box of my older Steve's transformers and spent a happy hour or so turning optimus prime into a truck and back again. Though I still think the bumblebee's transformation is too hard for small children, or large teenagers reliving their childhoods.

I saw TMNT with a friend and we got very excited because it was just like the cartoon--silly plot, gratuitous pizza-eating and fights! Haven't seen Transformers because I don't think I need to, but it does look like fun. Yay for a heavily extended childhood!