Transformers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Michael Bay has a lot to atone for. He's become the cinematic whipping boy of bad, over the top, explosion-filled movies, which are of course also his forte. But he could rectify most of that in one fell swoop, and it's by doing something that he's already considering: killing off Megan Fox. Okay, to be fair, we mean killing off her annoying character Mikaela in Transformers. It might not make us forgive everything, but it's huge step in the right direction.

There's no love lost between Bay and Fox. She called him "Hitler" and said you had to be a genius to understand Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (was she watching an unseen Criterion cut of the film?). He had his own words to say, and had several cast members rally to his defense in a letter-writing flurry that detailed how bitchy and hard to work with Ms. Fox was. Things have escalated to a level where he's reportedly considering killing her off in the next Transformers film. At this point we're surprised he'd be bringing her back at all, because a simple "Ever since Mikaela left for that mechanics study course in Germany" line and she's out of the film.

But the fact that he's considering killing her off is deliciously evil, because it means he wants to bring her back just to kill her off onscreen. Not since Paris Hilton got waxed in the House of Wax remake have people been anticipating the demise of a celebutart. We're ready to get Halloween rolling by including Michael Bay among our best villains and suggesting some creative ways he might take care of the problem. Read on after the break and find out how Megan Fox might bite it in Transformers 3.

Like Peter Cullen, the actor who provides the voice for his on screen adversary, Optimus Prime, Frank Welker is a bona fide icon of the voice recording world. Not just because he has more than four decades of work and 600 individual credits to his name. Not just because yes, he provided the voice for Megatron, one of the most famous villains in cartoon history. Rather, it's because people know and identify him just from his voice, which may run contrary to the idea of actors disappearing into their roles, but it demonstrates that what he does is so distinctive and special it transcends the limitations of the medium.

Sci Fi Squad recently caught up with Welker via email to discuss his illustrious history in voice recording, in conjunction with Shout! Factory's Sept. 15 DVD release of Transformers Season Two, Volume One. In addition to talking about bringing Megatron to life, he talks about the technical and creative challenges of voice work, and reflects on a few of the roles that linger in the memories of movie and TV fans long after the characters left the screen.

Sci Fi Squad: I'll start with the obvious first: How did you get into voice acting, and by the time you performed on Transformers, was your work as Megatron initially just another job or was the process of getting the role distinctive in your career?

We usually don't wiggle ourselves around in the dirty celeb gossip of Hollywood, but this back-and-forth between Michael Bay and Megan Fox has been so much more entertaining than both Transformers films combined. The two have been lobbing insults at one another ever since Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hit theaters, but when Fox recently compared working with Bay to working with Hitler, her words set off a firestorm that has now led to a ferocious, mean-spirited letter written by three Transformers crew members to magically appear on Michael Bay's own site.

The crew members, who wisely do not mention their names (though they give vague hints as to what their roles were on set) absolutely go off on Megan Fox, calling her (among other things) "dumb as a rock", "the grump of the set", "the queen of talking trailer trash and posing like a porn star" and "as about ungracious a person as you can ever fathom." Obviously Bay himself is aware of this letter since he actually allowed it to be posted on his own personal website, which pretty much cements the fact that neither of these two will ever work together again unless they're paid enough cash to ignore the feud. Does this mean Fox will be replaced in Transformers 3? And how will she respond to the accusations in this letter? I know it's lame of me to say, but I kinda can't wait to find out.

Check out the entire hilarious Transformers crew letter after the jump.

(Welcome to a brand new feature here on Cinematical, where members of our staff will write about films that, for one reason or another, they'll never watch. Which movies do you refuse to see? Here's Jessica with her reasons why she'll never watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.)

I've got an open mind when it comes to going to the movies. If I have a hankering to watch a movie, there's very little that a critic or fan can do to dissuade me from shelling out my hard earned dollars. But every once in a while there's a film that even I can't bring myself to watch, and Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is one of those movies. Now, usually when I avoid watching a film, it's because I'm just not that interested in the actual movie (you know, things like story, genre, stars, etc.). But my reluctance to watch Revenge of The Fallen went way beyond indifference and into a whole new realm of 'taking a stand'.

Just to be clear, I saw the first Transformers flick and it was forgettable, but it wasn't all bad. Cut to two years later, and the new trailers for Fallen had me thinking: "Well, this certainly looks better than the last time" and I had every intention of spending an afternoon with giant robots kicking the crap out of each other. But then I saw Bay's ShoWest footage, which consisted of a crying Bumblebee living in Sam's garage while Fox stripped for no reason whatsoever ... and that was only the beginning. By the time Fallen had hit theaters I knew there was no way in hell this movie was going to get my money or my time.

After the jump: the top three reasons I will never see Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen...

In an interview over on Collider, Frosty spoke with Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner at a G.I. Joe screening and he covered the movies that the company has in development. In many ways it mirrored what our own Jessica Barnes wrote about back in March. Hasbro clearly isn't content to sit back and dive into the coffers filled with money from the Transformers movies, which will likely swell even further when G.I. Joe is released this weekend. They aren't just licensing their toys for film development (Stretch Armstrong is slated to be a movie in 2011), it now looks like they'll be tossing their entire board game range into the mix.

You've probably heard that Ridley Scott is developing Monopoly into a movie, as hard as that is to believe, but according to Goldner that will be joined by Candy Land and Battleship. Battleship!? Really? A movie based around Battleship? As much as I strained my brain to try and figure out how Ridley Scott could make Monopoly into a compelling film, Battleship just makes my grey matter give up abandon ship. You might as well make Connect Four into a movie. Everyone would be on the edge of their seats waiting for the "Pretty sneaky, sis." line.

Imagine if The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and Transformers 2 were all mashed up into one ginormous science fiction blowout extravaganza. It would be a huge trainwreck full of twisted metal, explosions, and a storyline that would make even Thomas Pynchon's head explode. There would be nothing left, and humanity would be doomed.

However, the trailer for said film might be digestible. YouTuber user FYWBreborn has concocted a mashup of these films into something resembling Michael Bay's wet dream, and here it is for the masses to see. Take a look after the jump as he melds scene after scene together in what would be the most expensive film ever seen, and listen to the faint sounds of a million faboys crying out in terror and suddenly being silenced.

And when you're done with that, check out his Pineapple of Solace mashup trailer, which ain't bad either.

Us critics, we don't hate Michael Bay. Well, not all of us, and not all the time. I wasn't a fan of his Transformers, nor Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I haven't watched The Rock or Armageddon in their entirety in years, but I distinctly enjoyed 2005's The Island during its ill-fated theatrical run (gross: $35 million, cost: between three and four times that), and I still do as a decent sci-fi/action matinee outing.

But how?, I've been asked. It does after all bear every other trademark of a Michael Bay outing: explosions, rampant product placement, blatant racial stereotypes, explosions, perpetual dusk lighting, explosions, and a female lead constantly flattered by her wardrobe (yeah, a real woe-is-us scenario).

As a high-school graduation present to myself in 1993, I stayed up all night watching the original Star Wars trilogy on video. When the Extended Edition of The Return of the King arrived on DVD, I camped out on my couch and sat through all three Lord of the Rings films in their longest versions, one after the other. And for two separate retrospective assignments in anticipation of their recent big-screen rebirths, I endured all ten Star Trek movies and all eleven Friday the 13ths. But I can honestly say that as a film critic and lifelong cinephile, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may be the most movie I have ever experienced.

Michael Bay, condensing the cumulative total of the spectacle from all of his seven previous films into one unwieldy, gargantuan opus, has exceeded even the possibilities of sequel-driven "moreness," combining his own muscular, high-gloss sensibility with the conventions of blockbusters past, present, and probably future to create a monolithic action masterpiece that feels destined to be the biggest movie of all time.

To be completely honest with you, I kinda hit my viral campaign limit with The Dark Knight's amazing marketing blitz and haven't really rebounded since. Maybe it's because there hasn't been a campaign quite as genius as the one for that film or maybe it's just not that interesting to me anymore -- either way, I'd rather leave the extreme viral hunting (and reporting) to other sites and just mention the little bits of coolness I happen to come across while surfing the web.

Like these new viral ads for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which look to be a part of something larger and more complex, but I'll just settle for the "Hmm, that's kinda cool" factor. The viral ads (featured after the jump) are done with a Cloverfield-style, man-on-the-street vibe where normal citizens videotaping mundane activities find themselves capturing actual transforming robots in the shot. Some videos are more in your face (like the guy whose motorcycle literally transforms and runs away), and others you have to look hard to spot the transformer in the background. All these videos seem to be linked to this site and this site, for those who'd like to viral hunt around for awhile.

Check them out after the jump. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits theaters on June 24, and we'll be posting our advanced review real soon ... so stay tuned.

This summer we're getting two giant films based on toys we grew up with in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. But what about all those other toy movies in the works? What will they look like, and which directors will take on the tough task of adapting those properties that just don't lend themselves to big-budgeted feature films? Well, cartoonist Dan Meth, better known as the dude behind The Trilogy Meter and the Futuristic Timeline (which we just featured yesterday), has created another winner in this little animated short called Toy Movies from our good friends at Atom.com. Essentially, Meth imagines what some of the more famous old school toys would look like if they were adapted for the big screen by some of today's more interesting directors.

Featured in the video after the jump we have:

• Care Bears vs. My Little Pony: The Wreckoning
• John Lithgow in David Cronenberg's Cabbage Patch Kids
• Wes Anderson's Teddy Ruxpin
• Peter Jackson's The Smurfs
• David Lynch's Koosh Ball
• Ron Howard's Play-Doh Fun Factory
• John Carpenter's ALF

Check out the video after the jump and let us know which film you'd most like to see. Me? No question -- I'd watch John Carpenter's ALF in a heartbeat.