Salkafar

Well... yes and no. It includes Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk, who were founding Avengers, but Captain America, the Black Widow and Hawkeye weren't, while the Wasp and Ant-Man were, but they're not in the movie. Too bad, I would have liked to see Giant-Man onscreen. It's so iconic. Those who have read the mini-series 'Marvels' (By Alex Ross) will understand what I mean.

The movies can't ruin the G1 canon. Alternate universes have been a mainstay of Transformers comics for years, since way before the first Bayformers movie came out. This is just another one. What I take issue with is that these movies just are not very good. All the cliché complaints I heard about Michael Bay have been confirmed. Shia LeBoeuf, God love him, but his character did not grow at all. Why not? It's like, four years in movie-time? And he's still the same guy. A goofball! I'd expect him to learn skills. In fact, the way he takes out Starscream suggests he actually did, but no attention is given to it otherwise. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was mere eye-candy - but that's to be expected, since she's a model, not an actress. Megan Fox may be something of a vicious witch trollope with brachydactily, at least her character, Mikaela, had spunk. And the humor. Oh, God. I think it hit its nadir when Sentinel Prime went "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" to justify his intention of enslaving the human race to restore Cybertron and killing anyone who would try to stop him. For those who, for whatever incomprehensible reason, don't understand the reference - that line may be the single most dramatic line in the entire Star Trek franchise, from perhaps the most dramatic scene in the entire franchise - the death of Spock. It's the companion to "I am, and always shall be, your friend." And it was spoken by the same actor, Leonard Nimoy - who earlier played a pivotal part in a Transformers film, with his inimitable rendering of Galvatron in the 1986 animated movie! A more brutal and nasty perversion is not possible. My best friend, who is a Trekkie of sorts, was sitting next to me in the theatre when the line came up and he didn't know where to look. The Transformers themselves look nice, but actually, even some aspects of their physiology did not sit right with me. How do they change form so quickly? I don't mean transforming, I mean adapting a new form. The Twins from the second movie, and Bumblebee in the first one, literally change their appearance completely in a second or two. Maybe I am nitpicking, but that's just... wuhh. Michael Bay did not want size-changing in the movies, but instant makeovers are okay? Meanwhile, Optimus barely changes at all over the movies. The brutality was OK, because they have been at war for millions of years after all. And when the Wreckers pulled apart that Decepticon in TF3, well, they were just being the Wreckers. But Optimus... well... executing several of his opponents... that's just not right. Another nitpick. In Revenge of the Fallen, the Constructicons form Devastator (or at least a Devastator - that was actually interesting to me, the idea that any large enough number of Constructicons can join together to form a Devastator), pretty much the ultimate Transformer. And what does this towering engine of destruction do? Um... nothing. He tries to destroy Mudflap and Skids, the two smallest, weakest and most inept Autobots, and fails to do even that. The only thing he actually accomplishes is to partly demolish the pyramid of Khufu to reveal the Stellar Harvester underneath, and he's shot dead by a human weapon while doing that. It would have made more sense to deploy him on the battle field, while a bunch of the other Decepticons - who were getting shot left and right - attended to the pyramid. That would have made for a kicking action scene - in fact, I just realized he would have wiped out the Autobots and the human forces, who only managed to hold their own because the Decepticons, very foolishly, attacked as infantry. Why didn't he? And why didn't Megatron do something himself? His entire right arm was a cannon, he had a perfect vantage point and in the first movie, he was mopping the deck with Optimus. Two shots would have taken care of those annoying little scraplets. Throughout three flicks, Bumblebee's voice box is not repaired. What's up with that? It's not that cute. Plus he touched the Allspark, which completely fixed Frenzy from being just a head when he was standing fifty feet away! Hell, he should have been upgraded to Bumblebee Prime! And all this is just off the top of my head. If I really sat down and analyzed the movies... ugh, I don't even want to think about that. These movies suck! The first one was the best one, and it wasn't even that great.

I am finally going to come out and say the Bayformers trilogy sucks. There, I said it.

Cap, done right, is amazing. An idealist who is not naive.

Something just occurred to me: Is this one going to be a 'shared universe' flick with the Avengers franchise?

Final wars really wasn't that good. Although it had a good title sequence.

I might be one of the few people who liked the American Godzilla flick better than any of the Japanese ones. With the possible exception of "Terror Times Three". Or did I already say that?

Apocalypse AND Sinister in the same movie would be interesting. Originally separate, they were sort retconned into being mentor and student. Apocalypse, as you may know, is the 5000-year-old meta-mutant (his natural mutation is that his body is sort of malleable, it is super-strong and he regenerates, but it was altered by Celestial technology so now he is ageless, is practically unkillable and can alter his body into any configuration he wants - changing size, mass, proportions and functions) who believes in a rather brutal version of 'survival of the fittest'. In nature it is simply competition for the same resources, but he feels that everybody should fight each other all the time so that only the most powerful thrive at all times. Mr.Sinister is one of his projects - every now and then, Apocalypse will 'adopt' individuals that interest him, to challenge himself and to further his plans, sometimes acting as his lieutenants (Another such person is Exodus, for instance). He husbanded dr. Nathan Essex sometime during the nineteenth century. Eventually Mr.Sinister (his original name and looks very much a Dork Age product) went his own way; he seems more interested in studying mutant genetics and breeding specific powersets. He was particularly interested in the Summers bloodline. He is not unlike the High Evolutionary, except the latter is essentially benevolent. Facing those two, ostensibly working together but with ultimately incompatible world views, yet both hostile to the X-Men, would be interesting and quite a challenge. --- X-Man, Nathan Summers, indeed is from an alternate timeline, namely the "Age of Apocalypse". When David Haller, professor Xavier's son, used one of his myriad power sets to travel back in time to eliminate Magneto - whom he saw as the cause of too much evil to live - he accidentally killed his father instead. Because of this, a new timeline was created in which it was Magneto, not Charles Xavier, who led the X-Men. But ironically, in this world, Magneto was a much less violent man. As a result of the changes, Apocalypse arose and took control of the American continents, killing or enslaving all non-mutants. Humanity organized opposition from Europe, sending armies of Sentinel war robots, and things were looking bleak for everybody basically. Anyway, in that timeline there was of course also a Mr.Sinister and he was still experimenting with the Summers bloodline, recognizing the potential for immense power. The product of his experiments was X-Man, the equivalent to Cable from the mainstream universe and like him possessing immensely powerful psionic abilities, but unlike him is not infected with the techno-organic virus which takes almost all Cable's power to restrain. When that timeline was eliminated, four people escaped it using the transcendental M'Kraan Crystal: Dark Beast, that world's Hank McCoy, who, ending up in the past, apparently was responsible for the mutation of many of the Morlocks; the Sugar Man, a particularly nasty and hideous mutant who also was shunted to the past, and, similarly to the Beast, was responsible for much of the horror on the island Genosha; Holocaust, Apocalypse's son, who drew a trail of carnage across the Marvel Universe until he was killed by the evil Hyperion; and Nathan Summers.

His German also didn't sound labored at all, like Kevin Bacon's heroic struggle. "Mein Eltern hätten keine Namen. Die werden Sie abgenommen... von Schweinebauer... und Schneider." And he shows his arm. With the number. Can't go wrong with hunting Nazis.

I saw it today and I have to say I think it's the best of the three. But the next one had better feature Unicron...

They've already used the most famous ones... The original team consisted of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman and Angel, all of which have had their appearances in the movies. The new team was made up of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler (I still prefer Harlequin), Thunderbird, Sunfire, Banshee and Wolverine. Few people who aren't X-fans know Thunderbird and that is because he was killed off almost immediately. This has happened several times with other characters named Thunderbird. I think it is a cynical joke. Sunfire was a member for even less time than Thunderbird; he is not a team player. Which probably explains why they have yet to receive movie counterparts. Anyway, the team has had loads and loads of members since, including Emma Frost (former villainness but since reformed and current main squeeze of Cyclops), Siryn (Daughter of Banshee with the same power), Cannonball, Xorn, Beak - Well, anyway, check it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-Men_members And that's just the X-men. There's also X-Factor, X-Force, the New Mutants, Excalibur, the Young X-Men (for about 10 minutes), the Morlocks, the people from District X, Genosha, Cadre K (Who were mutant refugees from the Skrull nation)...

Of the Wolverine-type mutants: - Logan has three extendable claws, basically between his knuckles. - X-23 has two claws on her hands, like Logan's but missing the middle one, while she also has one claw on each foot. - Daken has two claws like X-23, plus one under his wrist (well, he used to have). - The only Wolverine-type with four claws was Sabretooth in the Ultimate Universe. Mainstream universe Sabertooth has no extendable claws, although on two separate occasions he, like Wolverine, had his skeleton laced with adamantium, which somehow also made his clawlike fingernails metallic. Ultimate Wolverine had three claws per arm, and so does Jim Hudson, his son from 'Ultimate X'. Those extendable claws are a nightmare to me. How do they fit inside the forearm (they are typically depicted as too long to fit)? How do they slide past the carpal bones, if those are also adamantium? Exactly how do they slide, anyway? It can't just be muscle action... They suck, really. Q.E.D.

X-23 is not called 'Aniki' but Laura Kinney. Although I don't think she uses that name. Daken, Wolverine's @$$hole son, is about 70 or 80 years old, and easily distinguishable from his father even in combat gear because he has only two claws on each hand (he used to have three, with the third ones coming out from under his wrists - but those, laced with metal from the Soul Sword and thus capable of killing Wolverine, were torn out and have not regenerated). And of course Wolverine would not have aged (much) - In the continuity of the movies, he was born around 1835. Xavier and Lensherr (not yet Magneto at the time) would have located him sometime before (maybe a few years, maybe mere hours) he went to Vietnam (where he was eventually drafted into the Weapon X program). Frankly I was slightly offended to hear that remark used bluntly in what in essence is an adventure film. I mean, "f*ck off" would have done perfectly well.

Kevin Bacon must have worked hard on that German. He sure made a villain you love to hate. What a rat bastard. In the comics, being 'killed' by Shinobi is ancient history. He is currently without his memories, however. I like the movie better than Green Lantern. That one is bordering on being a kids' movie.

Vulcan. Thank God they killed him off. He had this totally unquantified, practically omnipotent power set and was totally evil. As a character and a storyline seed he was about as inspiring as a bowl of porridge.

Fixed it for ya That's low.

This again! No, there is no adamantium in Captain America's shield. There is iron, and Wakandan vibranium, and some other rare earth metals, and an X factor which cannot be determined. When dr. Myron McLain was experimenting with vibranium in order to create a stable alloy with the element, he did so many tests that at one point, he fell asleep from exhaustion. When he woke up, one of his experiments had been successful. He poured the mixture into the mold for a tank turret cover and that is why it is shaped like that. The shield turned out to be indestructible (for all intents and purposes) but dr.McLain never figured out how the process worked. His tireless searching for the solution did lead him to the discovery (more than twenty years later) of the super-alloy Adamantium, which is almost, but not quite, as strong as Captain America's shield. Captain America did in fact wield a solid Adamantium shield for a while when he had lost his original round shield. The Ultimate version was also issued an Adamantium shield.

Nay, nay, and once again I say nay. That was Bill Nighy. From 'Love, Actually' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'. But he did play Elrond the Half-Elf who is older (as a character) than my mother.

Chaos War: Well, I don't know how much you know. Take it from the top...

I wouldn't bother with Chaos War. I'll spoil you if you want. Brightest Day... well... I have no idea where this is going. The Entity (Life itself) is looking for a new host, but there is as yet no indication exactly why this is. With about five more issues to go, things are still far from clear. Also, Hawkman and Hawkwoman are dead. Permanently this time, it would seem, since they broke the curse that bound them together and regained their lives, only to have them taken away again when they refused to play ball with the Life entity. They should have known: If a big White Man tells you you should do something and you protest, he'll get all pissy. Nevertheless this was pretty damn dismissive and mean, it seems.

All the hating on Bayformers! You guys! Tell me this is not beautiful! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_G96gxvrHqrE/Smp0hjKxIpI/AAAAAAAAHLY/GYK6i51aHto/s1600-h/TF2BusterOptimusPrime1.jpg

Um... what? Ryuki, we weren't having a discussion. It's not a matter of opinion. It's a fact. "To give you some sense of just how big Devastator is, Farrar said that Optimus Prime has 10,000 moving parts. The computer algorithms actually manipulate each part to go from truck to standing robot." http://blastr.com/2009/06/how-the-giant-robot-fx-in.php I really don't understand your point. One of Bay's issues was to make sure no "cheating" would occur. Every single part is accounted for.

Ryuki, I was just being polite. What I mean to say is: you are wrong. They ARE exact. Every cubic millimeter is accounted for.

I'm not seeing it. It would defeat the whole point of the exact models.

No, of course I don't mind... But you are wrong about the transformation being a cop-out. The computer models are exact. Everything goes somewhere. Look!