Transformers 2007 Review

Starscream here, and I am the lord and master

of the Geekcast radio network. Don't tell Megatron.

Yes. What is it? It's a robot. But like a different,

you know, like a super advanced robot. It's probably

Japanese. Yeah, it's definitely Japanese. What

are you doing? I don't think it wants to hurt

us. We've done that already. Really? Well do

you speak robot? Because they just had like a

giant toy death match. I think it wants something

from me. What? Hello and welcome to All Things

Transformers this August. All Things Transformers

will celebrate 15 years of being online, and

now our full film reviews of the Transformers

live -action films continue. This time around,

we start at the film that started the series,

Transformers 2007. I'm your host Steve Megatron,

and joining me in this adventure in the winter

of Bayham is TFG1 Mike. Hello, hello. I am here,

I think. I don't know. Don't know anymore. I

need to look at the runtime for all these films

because I feel like this was the shortest one

It felt that way Yeah, like it didn't it feel

like no time at all has I mean, yes 16 years

have passed since this movie came out but like

nothing just Nothing. Yeah, the the runtime was

a hundred and forty three minutes So it was just

over two nights, almost that three hours, but

it doesn't feel like that at all, even all these

years later. Nope. So what were your memories

of when this came out in 2007? Well, I remember

being ecstatic. I went to the Sector 7 bus at

my local theater. That's right. They had the

bus out there They had the sector 7 bus the guys

were dressed in the black suits and sunglasses

and you know They had s7 you know stuff hanging

around and they let you watch the teaser trailer

in the In the bus and they kind of dragged you

in there in groups And I mean you waited you

waited an hour to go into this like just because

it was part of the experience Yep, before you

and this was kind of while you were waiting to

get into the movie. Yeah And I remember I took

my wife and I went and I think I want to say

she saw it with me, but I can't fully remember.

But we went and saw the movie and I remember

getting the poster from the sector seven guys

like the Optimus Prime and the Megatron posters.

And you had to be like, I don't know, so many

from the beginning. And I got pictures, you know,

they had some of the Autobot Decepticon vehicles

there in the parking lot. You can kind of get

pictures next to them and at least where I was.

And I was able to write this full blown review

and I headed on PredaconEmpire .com at one point,

which I'm sure if I dug it back up, I could repurpose

it and put it back on the website here on GeekCastRadio.

I'd have to go to archive .org or check. It may

still be on a backup somewhere, but but either

way I was just I Was ecstatic because I mean

one they got Peter Cullen back and then two it

was just you know Transformers in live -action

So yeah, I was I was super geeked and then you

know You know anytime prime spoke pretty much

in this movie. I was just Like grinning ear to

ear like a flippin moron. Yep Which I'm sure

most transformers fans were doing that too Yeah,

absolutely And the thing that is is we've been

waiting for what? 30 something years 2006 2007

so 30 something years at that point or so because

we're well 2016 was the 30th so 20 years you

know or yeah 20 years at that point like and

You know what folks? Say what you will about

Michael Bay and his style and the way he is and

all that and whatever else, but Honestly, he's

probably the only person that could have pulled

this off at the time sad but true And so last

time around we watched when we did bumblebee

we recorded that of course as of this That hasn't

been released yet, but it will soon And now we're

doing 2007 and what I remember is I remember

seeing it in theaters and I remember really enjoying

it but the only parts I enjoyed were the robots

and the military. Pretty much. And I have not

watched this movie since I want to say 2009 right

before Revenge of the Fallen hit theaters. So

it's been 15 years or so, or 14 years or so.

But yeah, when I watched this today, right before

we started this recording, it felt like no time

had passed. From the first time I saw it to now,

every single scene, with the character of Sam

Witwicky, I'm just like, get him off the screen.

He's the worst character in the movie. And he's

supposed to be the one that we, I don't know.

I don't want to say look up to, but, you know,

identify with and no. I wish they would have

gone for more serious, like the original. Yeah,

like like G1. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's why

you kind of have the military there. That's the

serious side of the whole thing. And I mean,

Sam gets a little better later in the film, but

that whole introductory scene with him trying

to hawk his crap on eBay to his class. Oh, God.

I do love that scene, though, because it has

the teacher in it. I don't remember off top of

my head who was who played the teacher, but he

has a sign. on his desk is basically like a stop

sign says quiet please holds the sign every time

the class laughs I thought that was great I thought

that was funny and I still remember what it was

like watching this for the first time and watching

blackout show up and it was like oh my god they

are in for so much shit so yeah overall the plot

of it is is good I mean you know it's It's standard

at this point. I think there's nothing I Don't

know. What did you think rewatching this? I Really

enjoyed it overall Didn't care for the Bathroom

jokes. Yeah. No, that was a little much. I don't

like I don't like Sam's parents in the movie.

I Like Kevin done in other things the father.

I like him in other things. Yeah He was the dad,

it's the same similar kind of dad, but he was

the dad in Small Soldiers with the toy store.

But yeah, his mom is, and I know I've seen her

in other things, so. Yeah, but I don't, I don't,

yeah, I don't generally care for. The parent

angle and they get more annoying progressively

as the films go. Mm -hmm I'm really surprised

that they continually Show up in the film. It's

really I've I know I've seen her the actresses

Julie White who plays his mom and I know I've

seen her in other things I'm just trying to figure

out I just can't place it. Yeah I'm looking under

for yeah, I'm looking at her photography and

other than the Transformers movies. Nothing is

Mean I the things that she's been in I've seen

I don't remember those things because of her

like inside out. She was in that She was in our

idiot brother, which I don't think I've ever

seen she was in monsters versus aliens She was

in the nanny diaries, which I know I've never

seen that. Oh She's more a TV actress than a

film actress. Okay I've seen her in half the

things that she's listed. Yep, yep, yep. OK.

Who was your what was your favorite part with

the robots? Aside from Prime rolling up? Yeah.

I mean, I like the end of the movie battle. That

was probably one of my favorite moments until

Sam ceremoniously came to save the day. Like,

no, Prime can't be defeated like that. Well,

apparently, you know. And I do love that they

did use the AllSpark to basically kill Megatron,

like Prime kept saying, just throw it into my

chest, throw it into my chest. Yes, it's great

that you're self -sacrificing, Optimus, and I

know that'll change once you start telling people

to give them your face, or give you their face,

whatever, you know what I mean. You get a face

and you get a face. I never understand, like,

okay, yes, he has... See, that's the problem.

So the AllSpark and the Matrix of Leadership

are two very different things. And they don't

introduce the Matrix until I think, what is it?

Revenge of the Fallen. Okay, it's in Revenge,

okay. Yeah, because they make it out of space

dust in the desert. Yeah, I remember that now.

Oh, God, that's coming up. I'm currently doing

a watch through of that. Filmed as well. I'm

you. Well, yes, we're gonna do that episode next

week probably but I'm dreading rewatching that

movie absolutely dreading it and So my whole

point is the matrix and the all spark are two

different things but the way that prime says

it is basically You know put it into the you

know, basically combine it with my own spark

So thanks to Beast Wars the live -action transformers

have sparks So he does not have because again

in this universe that like we just said the matrix

is separate they Whatever but like wouldn't it

have been much better written if he already had

the damn matrix and somehow they had to, you

know, refill it with the wisdom. Oh, wait. No,

sorry. I'm repeating something from 40 years

ago. I mean, it was written better. You got to

remember, too, this was done by Orsi and Kurtzman,

and Kurtzman is the one currently botching the

Trek franchise. So they still have Trek. Oh,

yeah. He's he's the main showrunner. It's like,

yeah, I don't know. The guy like the guy that

took over from Roddenberry, he He did it for

years like until Enterprise ended and then his

time was done and then Kurtzman got it Mm -hmm.

I wish they would have given it to Seth McFarland.

He gets it. He made he made a knockoff track

Yeah, that's better track than than track very

true. Oh They did the Turtles film to these yeah

these days and I wasn't thrilled with that either

So yeah, but the Turtles we can cover that at

some point. I want those are terrible The second

one wasn't horrible. The first one was horrible.

Yeah, I'll agree with you there. Yeah, the second

one was okay. Is this all right? Wasn't it? And

that's funny because the first Turtles film was

horrible. The second one was tolerable. Whereas

this film, this first film was like I said, it

has its moments. It has its things of cringe

for me. Like The whole time he's ogling her.

Oh, God. And I am sorry. But for real, if you're

that age, you know you would be doing it, too.

Well, probably. But just. Maybe it isn't Sam

and Michaela that's the problem, it's everybody

else and Michaela that's the problem because

some of the other actors, specifically Simmons,

look I love John Turturro, but I cannot stand

the Simmons role. I didn't mind him in this actually.

Really? Yeah, I actually didn't mind him. And

I didn't mind him in the rest of the franchise

either. Interesting because he was less annoying

than the parents Like he was he was tolerable

and he had a plot significance the parents were

just kind of there for comedy relief Yep, they

served no purpose because like Michaela did fine

without having her her parents there Her dad's

in jail for stealing cars. I mean until the second

movie and then he's barely there. Yeah Maybe

he jumped over to join the fast crew Maybe that's

why he's in jail some hot rods in there and you

know Then I mean maybe he was in bad boys to

since that poster was in revenge of the fallen.

I Love Again it's a Michael Bay movie folks that

like you just mentioned bad boys to in the second

in this and written when the film will talk about

next time but The guy who was running around

with the camera. This is so much better than

Armageddon and I'm like Okay, whatever. I love

that movie, but now I, you know, re -watching

this, the only time, yeah, I enjoyed it. I thought

it was great. The effects, man, oh boy. Like,

I know it was 2007, but these effects, to me,

really stand up. I mean, they're probably not

as great as what they can do today, obviously,

but. I think this movie looks really, really

good for the age that it is. Yeah, I mean, it's

still watchable, it's still pretty entertaining

to go through and it's... It's not something

that looks terrible like a lot of CGI that I've

seen recently And it seems like it's gotten worse.

Oh it has like CGI has gotten progressively worse.

I think we hit a peak in like 2016 and then it

kind of hit down it's been going downhill Yeah,

and looking through oh, yeah looking through

the other at least for At least up to Age of

Extinction. I haven't looked at the last night

yet I'm actually cringe between Revenge of the

Fallen and the last night Those are the two that

I'm cringing the most at right now But Revenge

of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction,

they are all longer than this film. You know

what I don't understand? Why is he supposed to

be like this super advanced robot? Does he transform

back into this piece of crap? Come here. See?

Great, now... See? Fantastic. Now you pissed

him off. That car is sensitive. I mean, $4 ,000

just drove off. And I gotta say, man, the music,

Steve Jablonski, this is the first time I had

heard his scores, and he did a pretty damn good

job. I actually have a whole playlist on Spotify

of all of the scores that are available to stream

online, and it's... really good music. It hits

it. When you're watching this movie and you see

the Autobots and you hear that main theme, it's

not necessarily the touch, but it has that similar

kind of like, oh, this is the hero moment kind

of thing. And yeah, he's an excellent composer.

He's worked on a bunch of other things too. So

very, very awesome. So going into this, I know...

Obviously, this Winter of Baham thing was my

idea and my plan for us to get these things covered

and have it be the definitive coverage on the

network and all that stuff, but I wasn't really

cringing at this one. I mean, other than Sam,

but like everything else in this, Bumblebee peeing

on Simmons, I thought that was funny. I mean...

Hope it doesn't happen much in the future But

I thought that was that was a little funny because

I noticed something now that I never noticed

X number of years ago when I saw it in theaters

He has to pull the gas cap off like Because I

had it playing through my headphones and I'm

watching this movie and I'm like He just oh wow

like literally you you hear the gas kit you hear

and see the gas cap or whatever it is You know,

and you get so many great voice actors in this.

So many, even just actors too, but like the voices,

obviously Peter Cullen. Look, say what you will

about these movies and this, this whatever, but

this movie and having Peter Cullen back is often

like, I cried, then I cried now almost every

time he spoke kind of thing. I don't know if

you can considerably, you know, credit Mark Ryan

as Bumblebee because he only had one line later

in the film. Darius McCrary as Jazz. Now, most

people, if you've even heard of Darius McCrary's

name, you'll remember him as Eddie from Family

Matters, the older brother. Robert Foxworth as

Ratchet. Jess Harnell as Ironhide and Barricade.

He got to be an Autobot and a Decepticon in the

same damn thing. That's amazing. And we have

Mr. Smith, Hugo Weaving as Megatron, because

this was way before his Red Skull days in the

Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then Charlie Adler's

Starscream. I find this funny. Thank God he turned

it down. Reno Wilson was the voice of Frenzy,

the Decepticon hacker and barricades minion who

transforms into a PGX boombox and later a Nokia

8800. Howard Stern was offered the role but turned

it down when his agent talked him out of it.

I can't imagine Howard Stern being the voice

of Frenzy. That would just be crazy. No, no,

just no. Yep, absolutely. I love the way that

they handled characters for the non -speaking

ones because they're just so, like Blackout is

so imposing as that helicopter. He's just so

imposing. And then you got Brawl, who was actually

referred to as Devastator in the captions, who

was the Decepticon demolition specialist, and

then Scorponok, who is the Scorpion -like Decepticon

and Blackout's minion. I love how all the big

guys have little minions now, not just, you know,

Soundwave. Oh, man. Yeah, I definitely was not

a fan of all the little critters in the show.

Yeah. You know what? I'll take frenzy over some

critters we'll talk about later. I'm sorry. Cars

we'll talk about later. Ice cream trucks we'll

talk about later. At least frenzy was, you know,

comical. And I know it's not the best comedy.

It's, you know. Whatever, but the comedy just

gets worse as these films go and these are these

should not have Comic like if you want comedy,

that's what Anthony Anderson is there for that's

what you know Shia la bitch is there for I Didn't

like how he ate all the doughnuts and then he

was like Yeah, you know later in the film and

he says they want you to do that He says and

then and then when he gets in there, he's like

she did it. She did it Yeah, like just rat her

out and it's like okay, dude Yeah, I do like

the Rachel Taylor who plays Maggie Madsen, the

data analyst. I like her, I like that character.

I like Epson Lennox, because before this, where

I knew Josh Duhamel was at, or Josh Duhamel as,

whatever. I knew him as Leo Laporte on All My

Children. Yes, folks, I used to watch soap operas.

So, up until, you know, seeing this film, that's

all I had seen him in before. And, I mean, Tyrese

Gibson is Tyrese Gibson. Also sir, have you heard

about a premium plus world service gold package?

No, I don't want a premium package! That's Pentagon!

Any favorite lines from you in this movie? Not

really. I mean, I just kind of enjoyed the whole

thing on a whole. I didn't have like a specific

set of lines that I enjoyed. Right. Yeah, I I

mean Obviously the the go -to answer is pretty

much anything any anything optimus says but I

Kind of liked EPS is bring the rain. I love that.

They kept using that I thought that was kind

of cool when they really really needed to To

do all that stuff and everything else What would

you rate this zero to five I'd probably give

it a Four Four out of five. Yeah, I'm probably

gonna give it a three and a half out of five

Just you know between the parents and between

some of Sam's stuff it was you know Whatever

and of course, you know, we I haven't seen much

with obviously he passed away years ago now,

but Think this is the only thing besides his

own show that I had seen Bernie Mac in back at

the back in the day. I Okay, I saw him as Bosley

in the Charlie's Angels movies, but Or at least

in the second one, but Yeah, watching this again

and watching that first scene with the car dealership

and all that it's like hmm That's that's interesting

and every piece of car man might want or need

same bad This one's got racing stripes. Yeah,

it got racing. Yeah, what the heck is this? I

don't know nothing about this car. Man, hey!

What? What is this? This car. Check it out. I

don't know, boss. I've never seen it. That's

loco. Don't go Ricky Ricardo on me. Man, he find

out. Feels good. How much? Well, considering

the semi -classic nature of the vehicle, With

the slick wheels and the custom paint job. Yeah,

but the paint's faded. Yeah, but it's custom.

It's custom -faded? What is your first car? I

wouldn't expect you to understand. Five grand.

No, not paint over four. Sorry. Here, come on,

get out the car. No, no, no. You said cars pick

their drivers. Well, sometimes they pick a driver

with a cheap ad font. Out the car. I love Bumblebee's

little attitude when he basically destroys all

the cars and then basically dents the VW bug

by, you know, swinging his door open into it.

That was pretty funny. Yeah, it was. So this

film, yeah, four for you, three and a half for

me. Not bad. I'm sure it all goes downhill from

here. Like I said before, with the time length

and all of that, the pacing felt good. The only

time the pacing felt off is with the human characters.

It was like, okay, get... Let's fast forward

this and get back to the robots because I don't

know. I just don't know. So 2007, did you have

any of the movie toys back then? I think I bought

Bumblebee and then I quickly got rid of it. They

were too hard to transform and I really didn't

like them. Yeah, I did not have any of the movie

toys at all. except as I mentioned before, I

had 2009 Revenge of the Fallen Ravage because

I thought he was so cool. I was not into the

movie Twine Line. It's kind of like how our good

buddy Brad Mull, who was so worried about us

complaining about how the robots look. What I'm

going to complain about in the future is the

transformation sequence because damn, it gets

worse. But yeah, I I don't like toys with the

outsides on the outs the insides on the outside

But that's the toys though for the film though

I love this and I love how they use that that

the old transform sound at the beginning of almost

every transformation they they use it and as

As the films go further. We we lose that consistently

But watching this again I can safely say I enjoyed

myself watching it. It brings back all the memories

of 2007, all the memories of the lead up to it

online and everything else and getting to see

it in theaters. I'm pretty sure our theater didn't

have the S7 bus like yours did, but that's okay.

I just wanted to see Transformers on the big

screen for the first time and it was cool. I

think I mentioned I might have mentioned in the

bumblebee episode. I'll mention it here and I'll

probably mention it further there is a YouTube

channel out there that basically Has isolated

the sound effects from these films? I think it's

just one video that he has but I'll have to link

it the show notes But just watching this with

the sound effects only. Oh, it's so Interesting

what they did with sound in this movie, but you

Barely hear a lot of it because of you know,

the crashing buildings or the giant robots stepping

on stuff or the soundtrack which Wow 2007 New

device. Yeah. Yeah new divide by Lincoln Park

Christ the lead singer Lincoln Park's been dead

for a while now that sucks Mm -hmm. Oh boy So

what were your memories folks? Let us know in

the comments and all that good stuff. Is there

anything else you would like to say about 2007?

Is there anything we missed? No, I mean, I really

enjoyed it overall. I liked the music. I wish

that Stan Bush had gotten a song on instead of

Linkin Park. Yeah, it is just for the inaugural

film. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, don't

get me wrong. I didn't dislike Linkin Park, but

I also didn't love the fact that they were the

soundtrack. I mean, it's like the like the J

.J. Abrams, you know, a staple of using like

like 90s rock artists to attach to a film like

the Star Trek reboots had. It was like the Beastie

Boys or something and, you know, sabotage and

some other ones. And it was like, OK, like, Like

I could have done without that And that's kind

of how I felt with it in here like I don't mind

the the soundtrack II, you know background music,

but I don't Yeah, I yeah, you don't mind the

score. You like the score. You just like the

score I just didn't like the soundtrack stuff.

Yeah, I will say this problem this movie Probably

has the best pacing on the actual soundtrack

as far as where the songs come up I don't know

if I'm gonna have to listen to the score again

for this, but I don't remember if it was part

of the score or if it was part of a song from

the soundtrack. The start of the barricade bumblebee

chase in the junkyard, they start out like you

hear Steve Jablonski's regular score in the background

and then once the chase starts, they start up

this really awesome. instrumental rock music.

And I'm not sure if it's part of the score or

part of the soundtrack stuff, because it wasn't

a part of one of the songs. It wasn't part of

the soundtrack. So I assume that's part of the

score. So I'm going to want to hear that outside

of the actual film. So I'm going to go back to

the original score and see which one that was,

because I love like I was pumped when that chase

scene happened between Bumblebee and Barricade.

So an optimist be optimist as always. I understand

why they are doing mouth movements, but I just

wish they wouldn't. For Optimus, like, he'd...

There's nothing wrong with a faceplate and hearing

the voice come out of it. You don't need to see

the robot's lips move. Agreed. You don't need

to see the robot's lips doing anything when they

are in live action. When they're actually supposed

to be Robots who aren't human look like they

tried to humanize them way too much. Who do you

think you are? I robot you think you are sunny

for my robot. I don't think so All right, anything

else you want to bring up I know I think that's

it Alright, we're on the road to the Rise of

the Beasts as this is the winter of Baham and

Rise of the Beasts is coming out in June of this

year. Wow, it's so close. We're... four months

away from it now? Yeah. Wow, we are four months

away from Rise of the Beasts. Holy crap. Was

there any news things or anything that you saw

that you wanted to bring up? the new jazz from

like the Cybertron build. Yep. Yeah, we got the

February Transformers Brand Team Roundtable,

which is interesting. So there's that. And yes,

you're right. They got the new jazz, had a whole

bunch of people asking questions and all that

good stuff. Rodimus Primal was on it. I believe

Anthony Bricali from TFU .info was on the. on

the team or on the questions as well. And what

I thought was funny is they're going to have,

they're going to complete the cassette bots and

somebody brought up having the dual cassette

chest things. Yeah, so my guess is they won't,

they'll just finish the cassettes. And then they

ask questions about the similarities with the

studio series areas or kingdom transformation.

And then, you know, asking which comes first,

the toys of the concept or the, you know, and

then the Volvo Optimus. And somebody asked if

that was the original Amazon Prime. But yeah,

they they were like, no, I can't comment on that.

But, you know, it's, you know, part of the partnership

there. And then it says two years is any way

to, you know, fast track changes, two years solid

to change, fix something. So like the yellowing

plastic or the shrinking or, you know, things

of that, that nature. So yeah, that's good to

hear that they're working on that. And then when

they asked what universes do you want to tap

into that you haven't, they said Energon, Machine

Wars, and nothing is off the table. I'm more

excited about Machine Wars out of this group.

funny is they've basically kind of given us a

confirmation of it. Yeah. And I say that because

they gave us Skyquake from Transformers Prime.

But isn't he also from other things? He's an

homage to other things, too, isn't he? Uh -huh.

Yeah. Well, the funny thing about him is, I mean,

they said that he's Skyquake from the Prime universe.

It's a very, very, very, very similar build to,

and if you look at the top, they've basically

given us this. This is a straight shot of Skyquake

from the, technically the G2 line in Europe of

Skyquake, but he's also repainted in America

as Machine War Starscream. So my guess is because

the chest panel lines up the same, the backpack

lines up the same, the head sculpt is very similar,

the bullets are very similar. When it's in transformed,

the way that the cockpits look, the way that

the part of the wings look, they've got these

like twisty things on the original that would

drop bombs out of it. So it very, very much reminds

me of that figure. So I don't doubt that they

will end up reusing this figure for that at some

point in the future. And then my guess is the

Needlenose figure, my guess is they'll repurpose

that as Skywarp and Thundercracker because it

can combine on top of Skyquake. So that's my...

my spitballing here that I think is going to

happen. It's not necessarily correct, but I think

that that's the general direction I think we're

going to go in for these bots. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

And yeah, we'll be doing more news as the winter

of Bayhem rolls along here, folks, as it comes

if there's specific things we need to address

I just man it just feels like so much is coming

like so fast like we're now in February February

is the shortest month and whatever else and I

don't know 2023 just started I feel like we're

almost at the end of it again doesn't make any

damn sense we're getting there we're getting

there yep Alright, thank you for joining us here

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Join us next time when Steve and I will be talking

about Revenge of the Fallen, a character who

hasn't really had a toy up until recently, which

is kind of interesting. So there's that, as we're

gonna be getting to the Winter of Baham Part

3. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with... Steve Megatron?

We hope you'll transform and transcend with us

as we make our way through the Baham. We are

here. We are waiting. Yes! I wish to speak to

my lawyer.