Transformers: The Movie (2007)

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 2nd, 2007, 23:33

4 things, 1- Whut? There is another internet auction site? Really? I honestly did not know that, and thats not sarcasm its the gods honest. Suppose it's inevitable really, I just haven't looked.

2- Optimus prime was a flat nose, mac truck and was red cabbed, now he's a peterbilt long-nose with black and flames, but its OPTIMUS FUCKING PRIME! Suspension of belief happens long before cars become robots and visa-versa, It happens when you say space robot.

3- Most films contain fuck loads of advertising now, as do tv shows, fr'instance, watch a 24/lost/heroes and see dell, sony compaq, motorola, orange et al duke it out for a few seconds of screen time, It wont go away, so I've learnt to ignore it.

4- I think google is now embedded in our society to the extent that it is a generic thing, in the same way that we don't use a vacuum cleaner we use a hoover. But that kind of sub-conscious acceptance allows longevity to brands that would otherwise wane*, ebay, I'm not as sure of, a few more years perhaps.

*although the idea of google waning now strikes me as nigh on impossible.

Post by **FatherJack** » August 3rd, 2007, 0:15

I've no idea if there is another "online auction site", I just assumed there might be, when the BBC started using the phrase.

I thought google and ebay were practically verbs now, like hoover and to a lesser extent xerox. They are used that way - at least in common speech - however the copyright holders feel. It seems to me that this common usage is what advertisers dream of - imagine if one of the major phone retailers had coined a catchy phrase involving their company name for SMS messaging, before the verb text caught on - perhaps we'd all be HutchinsonMicrotel-ing each other, even on our Mercurys.
Hmm, μTell might've worked - even if it got bastardised to you-tell. Shame they instead changed their name to one which alienates a big chunk of Ireland.

I had no idea Optimus was originally a Mack, although I did notice he didn't always have a big nose. Bumblebee previously being a beetle didn't escape me either - the clue being somewhat in the name.

A lot of the transformation sequences, particularly near the end - with the slo-mo ones - were done in such close-up that you couldn't really see them properly - the thing that always fascinated me about the toys was seeing where all the car-looking bits ended up in their robot forms, sometimes more convincingly than in others.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 3rd, 2007, 0:23

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3006486.stm has a little moar info

Auntie wrote:It's all about protecting their brand, says Elizabeth Ward, a trade mark lawyer. "You have to see it in context of how much they spend on advertising. If you have a big, big brand such as Google you have to say what's that brand actually worth.

"Once it becomes just a word, it erodes the value of that brand."

For the likes of Google, Hoover's experience is a cautionary tale - it has essentially lost the exclusive right to its name.

The language police

"Its trade mark has not been removed," says Ms Ward, "but it seems that if Hoover were to contest its use as a generic then a court would remove it."

Post by **FatherJack** » August 3rd, 2007, 0:51

Hmm, never knew Rollerblade was a trade-name. Wonder if the Father Ted makers got grief with that one.

Still, you can't stop what people are using as common speech even if you have to put "I used Google™ to find it" instead of "I googled it" in official publications. Or at least, I hope you can't: the day I'm told to replace all instances of trademarked words with officially-recognised ones will be the same one the swear felcher changes them all to "cock-smuggling badger-felchers".
And not in a good way.

eion · Post by **eion** » August 3rd, 2007, 3:40

FatherJack wrote:Hmm, never knew Rollerblade was a trade-name. Wonder if the Father Ted makers got grief with that one.

Still, you can't stop what people are using as common speech even if you have to put "I used Google™ to find it" instead of "I googled it" in official publications. Or at least, I hope you can't: the day I'm told to replace all instances of trademarked words with officially-recognised ones will be the same one the swear felcher changes them all to "cock-smuggling badger-felchers".
And not in a good way.

You can't stop people from using the marks in everyday speech, but you can spend money on advertising to prevent your mark from becoming generic (in trade mark lawyer slang, "genericide"). That's why ads might say "Kleenex brand facial tissue" or "Xerox brand photocopiers".

Other marks that have become generic: aspirin and heroin (depending on country, and for a slightly interesting reason); escalator; zipper; frisbee; dry ice; granola; and petrol.

Post by **Joose** » August 3rd, 2007, 6:36

Actually, wierdly enough, they dont actually use google in the comic. Its clearly supposed to *be* google, with a similar font and near identical page layout, but its called "Spoogle" or something.

I think its probably like FJ said, most of the "product placement" passed me by entirely because Im not all that familiar with the products in question. Add that to the fact that ive been dulled to product placement by films/games that do it a *lot* worse (if you dont believe me, watch some of the FMV from Splinter Cell:Chaos theory. At one point the scene is almost entirely obscured by a massive packet of Wrigleys Chewing gum. No exaggeration at all, fisher and his boss are tiny, hard to see shapes stuck behind it), and it just didnt bother me.

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » August 3rd, 2007, 9:53

HereComesPete wrote: 2- Optimus prime was a flat nose, mac truck and was red cabbed, now he's a peterbilt long-nose with black and flames,

Small point of order, mr pete. Prime was ALWAYS a peterbilt truck. Mack didnt have a monopoly on flatnose trucks. Google for a peterbilt 352, and notice the narrower radiator grill

/ truck spotter

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » August 3rd, 2007, 9:54

Joose wrote:Actually, wierdly enough, they dont actually use google in the comic. Its clearly supposed to *be* google, with a similar font and near identical page layout, but its called "Spoogle" or something.

That's my search engine!

Slightly related; I read about this the other day: http://www.blackle.com/
The theory is that because it's black is saves energy on screen lighting. Only trouble is it's harder to read so I'm not using it.

Post by **tandino** » August 3rd, 2007, 11:21

spoodie wrote: That's my search engine!

Slightly related; I read about this the other day: http://www.blackle.com/
The theory is that because it's black is saves energy on screen lighting. Only trouble is it's harder to read so I'm not using it.

ZOMG racist! You're saying blacks aren't as bright as whites!

Post by **ProfHawking** » August 3rd, 2007, 11:26

on TFT screens that wont make any difference whatsoever, as nomatter whats on the screen the lighting behind the picture will be at the same brightness.
On CRTs the difference will be pathetically negligable anyway...

fuck the environment

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 3rd, 2007, 17:13

Anhamgrimmar wrote:Small point of order, mr pete. Prime was ALWAYS a peterbilt truck. Mack didnt have a monopoly on flatnose trucks. Google for a peterbilt 352, and notice the narrower radiator grill

/ truck spotter

The experimental 352 had a wider grill that made it look more like a mack, so maybe I saw peterbilt and thought mack but yes, it does look like he was in fact a peterbilt back then too. Also, The 379 ext has been discontinued, surely with it being in the movie, with it being OPTIMUS PRIME, it would have a resurgence in sales, even with the chrome-over and super expensive paint job I think people would want to 'buy a prime'.

Post by **Roman Totale** » August 3rd, 2007, 17:15

A thread about Transformers always had the potential of becoming a bit geeky (not that I'm bothered, love a bit of geeky robot action myself), but I don't think anyone saw it becoming geeky about truck types and makes.

You guys. Srsly.

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » August 3rd, 2007, 18:09

Its weird. My dad works for Arrviva (formerly whomever operated southport buses) and before that was a coachbuilder for a company called cockers (lol, i said cock) He's never really been 'into' buses, but ever since i was a kid, i wanted to work with lorries/trucks/buses. Especially Leland Atlantean/Olympus, and Volvo B10s/Plaxton Pointers.

My uncle having a fetish for the bedford TK hasnt helped my dark desires either......

Duke of Ted · Post by **Duke of Ted** » August 4th, 2007, 19:36

Just went to see this. Bloody good fun, was better than i expected.

Couldn't really give a fuck about product placement.
I pretty much agree with the Angry Video Game Nerd's review

"One shall stand, one shall fall!"

Post by **deject** » August 4th, 2007, 19:51

Duke of Ted wrote:Just went to see this. Bloody good fun, was better than i expected.

Couldn't really give a fuck about product placement.
I pretty much agree with the Angry Video Game Nerd's review

"One shall stand, one shall fall!"

"she's pretty nice" ??? he really is a video game nerd...

Post by **Joose** » August 4th, 2007, 20:11

Wait....Thundercats? They are doing a thundercats live action movie?

*Watches for legions of excited Furries to storm the cinemas*

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » August 5th, 2007, 12:03

Duke of Ted wrote:I pretty much agree with the Angry Video Game Nerd's review

Yeah, that's about the same for me.

All I'd add is that there seemed to be little character development for the robots and they were just treated like props. Prime didn't feel much like a good guy and Megatron certainly didn't feel like a threatening bad guy.

Bernie Mac's part was very funny.

Post by **Joose** » August 5th, 2007, 13:41

spoodie wrote: All I'd add is that there seemed to be little character development for the robots and they were just treated like props. Prime didn't feel much like a good guy and Megatron certainly didn't feel like a threatening bad guy.

Duke of Ted · Post by **Duke of Ted** » August 5th, 2007, 16:37

yeah, too many humans not enough robots. The original movie only had like 2 or 3 human characters.

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 5th, 2007, 16:44

Best thing is Shia LaBeouf's name, which means 'gift from god of beef', these hollywood types eh!