Monday, July 13, 2009

Ask Orci, Final Edition?

It has been a few months since checked the Don Murphy and TFW2005 Ask Orci (writer of Transformer films) and did a summary. Main reason is because he took a break for the Star Trek world tour. This could be the last edition but hopefully not, time will tell. Orci covers topics from the Twins language, why no vocoder for Soundwave, more Prime action, and more. My comments in brackets [].
Wankertron: Who's idea was it to include questionable language in the robot's dialogue? I refer to Wheelie calling people "bitch", and the twins coming out with "pussy". It's one thing for a kid to repeat bad language after watching, for instance, a Schwarzenegger movie. Because then one can say "Well, what were they doing watching that?", and the blame can be laid elsewhere. But In Transformers? A movie designed for kids? I felt it was inappropriate. What's your take?
Those examples were improvised or added by Michael. We actually arm wrestled about it. I think it's appropriate barely as you approach 13. If we had final cut, those lines would not be in the movie. But I'm not going to cry that Michael left them in, or condemn him. Can't argue with results, right? Certainly the first movie walked the line, and there's been no false advertising, or at least not MUCH!
[The Twins were specifically created and marketed for the kids and then preceeded to use frequent adult language. The PG-13 rating is Bay's excuse for bad behavior but at the end of the day he screwed up, plain and simple. If he wanted to use adult language, he shouldn't have created characters designed for kids. Its not rocket science.]

Master Fwiffo: what exactly was the intent with Arcee? Is she supposed to be one bot in three bodies, or three separate bots, or what?
Wrote her as one who made up of three. Bay kept them as individuals.
[On the bright side, even with one of the three dead, they were never named or directly implied to be seperate so the third film could go with the writer's orginial concept with ease.]

BRAWN1228: Can you tell us what scene it was that Bay put in the movie where he said "The fans are gonna love this."
He said that about a few things, I think. Certainly, Megs abusing Starscream.

butz: which fandom was crazier; the Transformers fans or the Star Trek fans?
too close to call

neospark1: ...not vocoding Soundwave's voice is an incredible injustice/mistake. How hard did you go to bat for this? Soundwave's "look," personality, and his voice are the three top iconics on him.
We hassled him about it many times, but we can't be there every second to make sure he behaves! We got day jobs!

Chris B: How did you come to decided the alien satellite alt. mode for Soundwave? What other alt. modes did you consider for Soundwave? Were there any particular Autobots and Decepticons that you had planned on including but were cut?
On Soundwave we recall that as a Boom Box, he was one of the true SPY Decepticons who could blend in anywhere and record things. So a SPY SATELLITE who can see everything seemed like an interesting update. We considered a super rigged up audio kind car and, of course, it's original boom box form. I wanted every Autobot in there!

The Mad Artist: 1. Was Barricade ever meant to be in the movie? 2. Do you see Devastator as being made up of individual robots, or just separate pieces? 3. Was there ever thought of him having more of a role on the battlefield, or was he always meant to be the eye in the sky? 4. Was that Blackout? Was he just revived off camera along with Megatron? 5. ...was there any roadblocks to getting Prime so much hero time? 6. Speaking of BB, were there ever plans for him to speak?
1. Considered it. Honestly can't remember reasons for decision!
2. I suppose since we didn't commit either way, I wouldn't want to tie the hands of future writers with my non-canon opinion.
3. Fought to have him come down, but so many robots to service and he had his moments -- his main draw is as a spy.
4. Could explain it that way, but I can't remember if he's ever called Blackout in the movie. Is there a Revenge of the Fallen Blackout Toy?
5. We knew we had to do A LOT more with Prime this time, and if we could do it again we would have EVEN MORE time with Prime.
6. We discussed it, but we all loved the musical ability so much, and Bay wanted to focus more on the twins because, as he said, he thought kids would like them

mattjy: 1. There were five new Autobots (Sideswipe, Arcee, Jolt and the Twins), yet only the twins had a large degree of screentime. What was the reasoning behid this choice? 2. Was the fact that the Autobots spent so much time in vehical mode, even when they were beign transported an artistic decision or a practical one?
1. Michael loved the idea of the twins and wanted to feature them to make the movie, as he said, kid friendly.
2. I don't disagree. Money can be tight!

42 comments:

  1. How did the flag get back up on the Brooklyn Bridge?

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  2. Damit Bay! Listen to the writers.Tthey know what they're talking about. You really couldn't give Soundwave his traditional voice??

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  3. BRandon Avery7/13/2009 8:33 PM

    YEA!!! I asked myself some of the same questions. The budget was tight. That was so easy to tell. In the first movie every single autobot and decepticon had there moment to shine. NOT EVEN CLOSE IN THE SEQUEL! I don't know why michael didnt use to vocoder on soundwave. I don't know why he didn't come down to fight in the end. I dont know why Michael bay said the twins are for kids but had that dialouge. CONTRADICTING!!! The BUDGET Should have been 300-350 million. WE ALL KNOW THEY COULD HAVE AFFORDED IT!!! Good movie but too too too many mistakes!

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  4. Optimus Prime7/13/2009 8:55 PM

    Michael Bay is really starting to get on my nerve as I'm reading these and movie reviews. He's a bit of a jackass.

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  5. Less twins, more Sideswipe, please. And do NOT let Michael Bay into the script this time. His "alterations" ruined the non-action parts.

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  6. BRAWN1228: Can you tell us what scene it was that Bay put in the movie where he said "The fans are gonna love this."
    He said that about a few things, I think. Certainly, Megs abusing Starscream.
    ==================================
    I was definitely one of those fans who loved it.

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  7. Devastator should have been triple changer who doesnt get his ass kicked so easily and Soundwave should at least get his real voice. Most of the new transformers never got named in the movie. We dont know if that was blackout, who is the purple bike, was that barricade who took sams parents, jetfire is way too old, This movie was all action, drama, humor, but no story. This movie is messed up, we need Christopher Nolan to remake Transformers. It's obvious that Bay doesnt know who is devastator and brawl, or what kid friendly is. If Bay makes makes a 3rd I hope he doesnt f*ck up with any mistakes again. Or we will all get someone else to redo all the TF movies the way it should be done by someone who knows G1 TF history.

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  8. BAY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!If he is the directer of the next movie I will NOT pay to see it.

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  9. Knowing Bay if Soundwave came down to earth he would have been killed off in the final battle in the bombing run!

    This way he has managed to trick fans to see the film without giving them a Transformers as basicly Soundwave was just a sattelite with Tentacles and a Head.

    Bay shouldnt be allowed near the script next time and the Twins should be removed if everyone has problems with them. That way they have a fresh slate for movie 3.

    Also i have a question:
    Who`s idea was it to revive Megatron with the shard but instead of Sam doing the same for Optimus he simply leaves him and uses the shard to awaken Jetfire from statis lock. Who then sends him on a mission to find the Matrix which isnt explained enough which somehow has tons of power yet all it does in the film is lock into the Sun Harvester to turn it on.

    Problems with ROTF:

    Rudeness
    Racism
    Non vissable fight scenes
    Fight scenes too short
    Cheesy ending
    Devastators death by Railgun (WTF)
    Overdone plot
    The Matrix cannot be taken (Except by The Fallen)

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  10. Soundwave wasn't a boombox... he was a tapedeck.

    Get it strait, Orci/Kurtzman.

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  11. I hope Bay gets run down by a Beat or Trax as he crosses the street one day...

    Would be poetic justice.

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  12. Michael Bay, you fail us yet again.

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  13. they should get blaster and soundwave fight in the next movie. i dont mind my kids watching and hearing the twins language i dont consider the dialoge in the movie adult. people have their perception on whats too conservative or liberal so say what you will about the twins language or wheelie saying bitch i was not worried or offended for my self or my children or any other children or adult. just hope michael bay makes a great transformers movie not humans with some transformers.

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  14. The writers are wrong and the site owner comments here are wrong as well.
    What's up with all the fuss with the Twins and the nonsense racist thing and so on?
    If the characters of the Twins were really kiddish and didn't use any foul language then the movie would have looked like a retarded Power Rangers stuff losing teenagers and adults which are its real main target--and the franchise would be dead and the movie would have bombed.
    No, Michael Bay did the right thing with the Twins. What he did wrong was to make a shorter theatrical cut to please Paramount CEO and managers, the flaws the movie has it's due to the fact that too many scenes were deleted compared to the novel version.

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  15. Having had a 5 yr old tell me to F*** off, "pussy" and "bitch" just doesn't surprise me. . .

    It is a PG-13 movie, those who were upset their 5 yr old was submitted to those words and the testicles(I LOVED IT), need to put on their parenting hat and install some intelligence. It's PG-13, not G. . .if I wanted to watch a 5 yr old proof movie, I'd go watch that horrid Ice Age 3 again. . .

    I loved the movie, I loved the twins, I loved the two giant testicles, I loved Wheelie, I loved jetfire. . maybe I'm not a 'die hard fan' who's read all the comics since the 80s, but I was a geek fan when i was a kid. . .back in the 80's. . .I loved what Michael Bay has done.

    As for why Sam didn't use the shard on Optimus, because he had no clue, and when he finally had a clue, Optimus was I think at Diego Garcia. It seemed the Autobots didn't even know if it'd work on Optimus in the end

    And I sure wish people would STOP CALLING THE TWINS RACIST. . .I have very white (ice cream white, salt white, snow white, take your colour white) family and ex inlaws who could stand right next to those twins and fit right in. They can fit a wide range of subset of the human race. GET OVER YOURSELVES

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  16. Anon: You are an idiot. The novel is always better than the script. They contracted Alan Dean Foster, an award-winning author, to write the adaptation of the film. Get it? ADAPTATION. Novels always are better because they have to flesh out characters and provide intelligent explanations for some of the nonsense that appears on screen.

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  17. Tedimus Prime7/14/2009 9:44 AM

    OK, is it just me, or do the writters seem to have a better grip over the transformers universe then bay does? They are the writters right? Bay? are you listening???

    Look, when im done watching this movie, I dont think about the crappy college part, or all those other... well not transformerish parts, but i think about all the things the movie did right! aka. fight scenes,

    Simply said, michael bay, the fight scenes are where you belong.

    Let the writters do THEIR jobs, you make them look pretty!

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  18. Bay = Failure

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  19. To all whining about the Twins and Wheelie (even the author of this blog author and Orci) - get over it!

    The movie was rated PG-13 for "Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material." If you don't want to see or here "language" or "crude and sexual material" then don't go watch the damn movie - there was fair warning. You people are acting like we live in a sensitized world. Truth is we live a de-sensitized world and there are a lot of other things in movies that are far worse. Its not that bad - sometimes people forget that Jazz said "bitches" in the last movie. Oh My God!!! Jazz is all the bad things you guys are calling the Twins!!!.

    So what if Bay had the twins in there for kids - they were funny, my kids liked them. My kids are at least disciplined enough to know bad words when they hear them and not go off repeating them. Quit bitching at Bay for you Bad parenting.

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  20. Next film: Soundwave hurt badly in the begining. Vocoder ripped out... Temporary (original) vocoder inserted... Sorted!

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  21. Soundwave should be badly hurt (in the throat) in the next films opening. Vocoder is replaced with his normal vocoder. Sorted

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  22. This actually really annoys me that Bumblebee/SideSwipe/Arcee/Ironhide/Ratched screentime was sacrificed because Bay wanted more time devoted to the twins. WEAK!

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  23. you know there ARE ways of being funny without always using crude language...which most comedy movies nowadays fail to realize.

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  24. I think these two are full of it.

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  25. Holy crap! I think I figured out why Soundwaves voice is different than G1! Because the movie IS NOT G1! It's a whole new series and continuity. Kind of like whats been done over and over and over again with Transformers since the original series ended. I am a die hard fan of G1 and I have no issues with the movies we are getting.The original voice actor Frank Welker did Soundwaves voice which was a nice nod to the characters original incarnation but this is NOT G1! Nowhere has it been said that G1 transformers was being made into a live action movie. The basics are there as they have been in EVERY series. But this is a completely different continuity than G1. Get a life. You people here make me sick, (blog owner included). You all jump Ebert's shit because he calls us all idiots for liking the movie then you bitch and complain about the SAME THINGS HE DID! Make up your damn minds, morons. The only thing that would make the twins racist would be if all the ignorant people in this world were black, which they are not. What I got from the twins was a couple of uneducated, clumsy, morons trying to be cool, who from my vantage point didn't look black or gangster. They looked like green and orange robots.

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  26. actually what I got from the twins was they weren't funny.

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  27. I had been looking forward to this movie since the last one came out, and even though I've seen it three times in the theater, I was disappointed. The twins made me laugh, but I would have preferred more time with BB, Sideswipe, Soundwave etc. I lit up when I first saw soundwave, and there was some robot in the final fight scene that seemed to appear like soundwave, shiny silver, but would have been nice to see him in action. Overall, I was just excited to see another live action Transformers movie, but it seemed like it was full of oddly placed military footage taken from file and thrown together to save money so Mr. Bay could bank a few more bucks.

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  28. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Michael Bay, you know, come up with the idea to make a live action version of the series out the blue? If this is true, shouldn't you guys owe it to him that he actually made these movies? Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

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  29. remove the twins? that's just dumb. they were fine. if anyone has a problem with them it's their own problem.

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  30. bay is fine if he stays away from the script but he won't. they need to replace the writers for the third film if anything.

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  31. LOL @ all the people crying about the twins.

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  32. just saw the movie earlier today and gotta say i liked it. let me tell you though this is comin from a tough critic of comic movies and movies that i hold dear to my childhood. sure this one could have used a little more transformers and a little less military but its mike bay so thats just expected. the funny thing i was thinkin about after readin all these posts was how would everyone reacted back in 84 when the original movie came out (if we had the internet) and optimus got killed. everyone would have shit their pants. plus everyone woulda bitched about galvatron and starscream gettin vaporized. people are just gonna hate. all i gotta say is at least it aint gi joe.

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  33. LOL @ ppl that LOLd @ the twins

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  34. If the same people returned for the 3rd film, it wouldn't bother me too much but I would not be opposed to a new director or new writers at all. I think in that regard, it would bring something fresh to the movie. Anyway, as far as the language and what not, most 13 year olds are talking like that. By the way, if its not this movie, they hear it from everywhere else. This movie is the least of their problems. Again, for me, it was still a very exciting movie.

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  35. LOL @ all the people that LOLd @ the LOLing people who LOLd @ all the people crying about the twins! and if you don't get it then you should LOL @ yourself!

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  36. Having the voices of the G1 characters would have been great, it's not like most of them aern't still alive, plus when a childhood character is recreated and aspects of that character are kept the same people seem to be able to relate to that character as they recognise something about them. Personally thought the plot was all over the place, not enough info about the new characters, just dumped on screen. If the twins had died I certainly would not have shed a tear

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  37. y'all just direct a movie or sumthing.. or make yourselves your own tranformers movie.. damn!

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  38. I was let down and my family was let down. When you have a movie based off of a toy there is no reason for the language and crude humor. The movie could have been just as entertaining with out the twins or the language. I am no prude, The Hangover was awesome but I sure as hell would not take my kids to see the Hangover. My opinion of Revenge of the Fallen is this. The story was crap, the acting was crap, and the dialogue was crap. That being said it was awesome seeing Optimus kicking some butt.

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  39. guys the MPAA gave a fair warning...... that's what they do. So why r u all surprised? The fight scene at the end was awesome, especially the battle of Optimus and The Fallen. Comment if u disagree.....

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  40. It amazes me there are still people barking up the racism tree about the Twins in this movie. To me, the charge they're making against the moviemakers is actually guilty of racism - not the Twins, themselves.

    Who wrote the rule that anyone who says "Yo, yo, yo" or who says they don't read much, automatically are black folks? So black people are the ones in charge of "Yahmean" and illiteracy?? If that's the case that urban slang is purely a "black" thing, explain Enimem. Or K-Fed. "Yo, wassup" isn't a COLOR thing, it's an environment & culture thing.

    Not only that, do we need reminding that the Transformers learn Earth's dialects through adapting to their surroundings? Why else do you think Ironhide has a British twang, or Sideswipe having a British accent? ALSO, seems to me no one wants to remember JAZZ FROM THE FIRST MOVIE!!?? "What's crackin', lil bitches" were his first words in the film. Which is also where Optimus informed Sam they "learn Earth's languages through the world wide web". Who on here was moaning about racism with Jazz? How convenient.

    There are TONS of white kids in the suburbs, growing up listening to Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, who go out with their friends & talk like they're from the streets. It has nothing to do with color.

    Otherwise, where are some of these same race accusers, to criticize the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for being racist against caucasian surfer boys when they yell "KOWABUNGA DUDE!"? Exactly. No one bothers to make such a retarded claim. But the moment someone speaks with an urban slang or says they don't read, suddenly that IS racism. It's a double standard & needs to go away.

    "Yo wassup, son" is no more a black thing than "Kowabunga Dude" is a white thing, so stop looking for issues to inflate! And by the way, I'm a black man saying this.

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  41. Bay did one thing right keeping the Arcee sisters as individuals, and totally agree with the dude above

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