Transformers (UA Edit)

gh

Pretty awesome rearranging done in this edit, but this is the one transformers movie that I liked, and IMO too much was removed. More often than not the changes made in this one are pretty great, and maybe there is really no way to edit a movie with so much fluff in it, but it just seemed a little flat to me. With even less substance than the original, Megan Fox isn't an actress but her character serves even less purpose in this edit. Some things just happened with no build up or resolution at all. For example in this edit we're left wondering what happened to the Secretary of Defense, the two hackers, and the Sector 7 leader? Last time we saw them they were trying to get the radio to work.

I will say on the technical side, it was seamless.

Overall good things here, I'm just not sure what else could be done with this one.

Review by gugliemo — July 12, 2011 @ 2:45 am

From the very first viewing, I never likes Transformers. I didn’t know how it was possible to take the concept and *not* make an entertaining film, but Michael Bay’s horrible, messy, bigoted, superficial and insultingly stupid film removed any sense of joy from the experience. (On a side note, I am perhaps the only person in the world who thought the sequel was a considerable improvement, but that’s another story)

Uncanny Antman’s edit is a massive improvement. The new opening is excellent, and the entire first act was a very enjoyable film. The film now has a central focus on the setting up of events (similar to disaster movies like Armageddon or Deep Impact), we follow the Decepticons as they begin to infiltrate Earth, the pentagon’s response and the Analysts who try and stop them. Cleverly, the soldiers and Sam Witwicky become smaller subplots who will become the main focus of the second half (once the pentagon and analysts’ roles have become redundant). Uncanny Antman has managed to take one of the aspects of the film I found particularly irritating (the blonde supermodel “analyst” subplot) and actually make it interesting.

Towards the second half, things become a bit shakier. To be fair, Uncanny Antman is limited by the material and he had already gone massively beyond any reasonable expectations. The analyst suplot leads to a dead end once she makes a copy for her friend. Some kind of conclusion would be nice, the interogation scene is now pointless as neither character plays a further role in the film.

Megan Fox’s character was attocious in the original, but her complete eradication leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Who is she, why has she followed Sam. It is clear they’re still getting to know each other and flirting, yet the film also suggests they’re pre-established friends. While I prefer no-Fox to too-much-Fox, it does sadly highlight the fact that we’re watching an edit.

Antman has done improved the film’s climax a hundred fold. The original is one of the dumbest endings I have ever seen, it mostly revolves around a teenager, who’s friends are 30 foot racing cars, running *on foot* to get to a helicopter which he will use to escape from evil *supersonic jetplanes*, and is concluded by the bad guy who wants the magic box being given the magic box, which then kills him (as established about an hour earlier in the film). I really don’t think a person could write the ending any more retarded.

While the “put the allspark in my chest” conclusion cannot be avoided, Antman’s re-ordering of the entire climax turns it into an exciting and(mostly) logical brawl.

This review cannot do justice to the wonders that Uncanny Antman has done. He has taken out 90% of the stupidity, chauvenism, cheese, and unfunny remedial humour, and made Transformers one of the best films it can be given the material.

I do think it could have done more though. In my opinion, the scene with the Transformers in the garden and with Sam’s parents is just terrible. The scene is perhaps made even worse because it follows what Antman has designed to be a tense and exciting set-up: the Earth is being infiltrated by an incredibly powerful and unknown enemy, however, our saviours have arrived (the scene of the Autobots arriving has been snipped into being particularly cool now)… and yet the first 15 minutes we spend in their company is played for (unfunny) laughs. Maybe Antman just likes the scene, but I think the film and pacing would improve considerably if the whole thing was taken out: Sam looks for/finds his glasses, Sector 7 turn up and arrest him, Autobots intersept the convoy.

I would give the original theatrical cut of Transformers a 3/10 (without exageration). It does have some impressive special effects, but these are so badly handled and the rest of the film is such a loud, offensive mess that I find it painful to even try and watch it.

Judging Uncanny Antman’s edit purely as a film in its own rights, I would give it a 6 or 7/10. On the whole, its an enjoyable experience, and parts of the film are easily 9/10 quality. I don’t know if there’s much more you can do with the film, but I do think a bit of extra cutting might help (which contrasts the opinions above which suggest too much has been cut. The thing with a shit sandwisanwich though, is less will always be more). I look forward to watching the other fanedits of the first Transformers and seeing what their take on the film was. But for now I thank Uncanny for actually making Transformers into a watchable experience and allowing me the pleasure of watching Robots beat the crap out of each other.

December 16, 2009 @ 9:45 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

November 19, 2009 @ 1:47 pm

I wasn’t sure which version of this film to go for, as there are several cuts out there – Reaves – which after reading some of the reviews doesn’t seem to go far enough, JasonNs and Uncanny Antmans. I noted UC had cut a good 40 mins out, so given I enjoy Bay humour as much as Emmerich humour :roll: , I opted for UC.

Only watched Transformers once and was never a Transformers fan. I did however get a friend to watch who was a TF fan and had watched the original a good few weeks back.

From the word go, it’s obvious we’re dealing with a much more serious film. 95% of comedy and silly little redundant subplots are all gone. My friend was picking up all over the place where dialogue was missing and/or scenes. The start of the film is much more enjoyable from this perspective. Some rather slick custom titles are used as well.

Audio and Visual are top notch, as well as the editing as well. No flaws whatsoever that we could detect. 10/10.

Now the film itself, with so much material removed comes across as rather cold and devoid of any sort of character development, which is of course is the price you pay for editing a Bay film to be more serious. Same thing happened to me with my Godzilla : Zilla edit. You’re left with a film almost devoid of any emotion and entirely action. Whilst left with a serious film, you’re also left with a film that’s not quite as much fun as the original. Now I use ‘fun’ a little loosely, as the whole point is to remove Bay’s fun and make it a bit more digestible. But has it gone too far? Horses for courses, some people will love this edit, others will miss the funnier elements – my friend certainly did.

Two things we noted seemed a little odd. The early chase with Bumblebee and Barricade seem twice to get into a position where they’re right in near proximity to each other, we cut to another scene, come back and now they’re miles apart again. So, was there some fighting cut out? When Barricade is interrogating Sam, what happened to Bumblebee? When they both screech into a Warehouse, the next time we see – Bumblebee is exiting and way ahead again…..?

My most hated scene in the film is the Autobots hiding around the parents house. We think you chopped this down and I justified the necessity of it – Mikhaela meets the parents?

Anyway, so I’m a little torn on this. I don’t like the original, but this version feels a little too bare bones for me. On the entertainment level, I’m giving this 7/10.

So averaging out – 10 Audio, 10 Video, 10 Editing and 7 for entertainment – you’ll find the average is still a healthy 9/10. :-)

November 14, 2009 @ 10:26 am

The Edit is fantastic, I really like how you’ve arranged it, and changed the music in some scenes. But as a whole I think I’d still leave out more of certain dialogue and visuals (“What’s stressing, bitches?”, or whatever it is he says, Bumblebee dancing, Fat hacker Boy freaking out in the interview room, and Captain Obvious stuff like “It’s a robot”, “The ice is cracking!”, and “It’s going after the files!”.) What I also hate is annoying ignorant stuff like “Bring The Rain!” – no military professional would talk like that on a radio – and the fat hacker boy being able to see an embedded message within an audio file and be able to decode it in five seconds, complete with pretty visuals. Michael Bay lives in a dream world! (It’s not your fault it was written by a 12-year old). I’d just like to see an attempt to make it a bit more “grown up”.

SO, the Technical – 10/10, and for the movie itself 6/10. But with improvement the movie as a whole could be an 8 or 9. The original I was WOWED with at the cinema but I must’ve been wearing rose-tinted glasses, and still found myself embarrassed at certain scenes (plus I was with my 8-yr old nephew at the time), so in hindsight having seen the movie after it came out on DVD I was terribly disappointed. I haven’t even bothered to see ROTF.

Still a recommended download, thank you for putting the time and effort into this.