I have to say, the best bit of sound I've heard so far is when a Brute said, "I heard a noise, I'm gonna go check it out. No inappropriate touching!" to his squad of Grunts.

Also, when I was on the second level, a Marine jumped out from behind cover and sprayed some bullets at a Jackal and yelled, "This is for all the honeys I'm not sexin' up because I'm here fighting you!"

Nathan Fillion FTW

Though official connection is still being denied, two leads intrigue me.

1. Triton Enterprises. In Alpha Omega, name of similar organization in Lost. Friend told me. Big Lost fan.

2. Confirmation email from AO forums. From a "Rob". Very suspicious. Two trains of thought. Concrete connection, but why not change name to avoid suspicion. Or game is riding coattails of movie, and changed name purposely to create the illusion of connection. Fishy.

Also, I just want to put this out there. I hope this movie isn't about Cthulhu. I really, really hope it isn't. I've seen other movies based off of Lovecraft, and none of them can convey the cosmic horror that permeates his writings. Also, there's just no way they could ever pull off a convincing Old One onscreen, because let's face it, any human representation of them can't actually induce the mind-shattering horror that drives men insane with just a glimpse that the stories stated they were supposed to have. It's a shame, but I just hope they don't butcher Great Cthulhu like other literary monsters that couldn't live up to the written horror visually.

It's on the Apple website. http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/large.html

Well, I just got back from seeing this and Live Free or Die Hard in the same sitting. Now, they're both action movies at heart, so I'll compare the two on that point. The action in Transformers was cooler and more visceral, but at least in LFoDH, I could tell what the heck was happening.

Now see, I grew up as a Transformers fan. I watched the TV show, I owned the toys, and the movie was the only one I rented from our town's first video store. I always liked the basic idea behind aliens that take the form of human vehicles and technology to hide among us and pursue their own goals, be they benevolent or insidious. But despite all this, I never was a hardcore fanboy of the franchise, and I never really understood the mythology behind the saga. I pretty much knew that Optimus Prime was the hero leader of the good-guy Autobots and Megatron was the villain and leader of the evil Decepticons. Beyond that, I could've cared less as a kid.

Because of that attitude, I think I was able to love this movie rather than hate it like the hardcore fanboy faction. I can dig the new designs, which are much cooler and more alien and awe-inspiring than the cartoon ones, and I can deal with the overall irrelevance to the larger Transformers mythology since I never really cared for it in the first place. Prime and Megatron and the basic plot of the Cybertronian War are probably the simplest examples of Shakespearean characters and plot. They're timeless and their personalities, ideologies, and the conflict can be placed anywhere and still be just as entertaining.

So, this movie is no exception. It is unashamedly cheesy, much like the cartoon seems to me now. It uses the Transformers as both dramatic and comedic characters, which works quite well to get that tongue-in-cheek feel of the film. The lines are more often than not corny and unrealistic, but that all fits with the charm of the movie. The characters are paper-thin and the lack of development is unsurprising, given both the characterization Michael Bay is known for and the unimpressive source material given to us. However, the best characters in the film are not the humans, oddly, but the Autobots and the Decepticons. Why? Because I already knew them from the cartoon and understood the archetypes they were based on. Also, logic in this movie took a backseat to just getting us to the action.

And how was the action? Well, it was actually pretty incredible. Industrial Light and Magic now reign supreme, even above WETA with this marvelous achievement. Every punch, every firing weapon, and every time a Transformer goes flying looks and feels totally real. There's a real sense of weight and balance conveyed in the animation. I saw Transformers overbalancing after a missed move, compensating for weapon recoil, and basically appearing to be real, physical beings rather than CGI special effects. They look totally real and I was in awe at the appearances.

The problem, however, is in the directing. Bay uses so many close-up shots, shaky-cam moves, and spinning aerial pans that it is often hard to tell one character from another as they do battle. The Autobots all look distinctive and were easy to tell apart. The Decepticons, however, were not, as they all had a dark, pointy look to them. Luckily they never took on the Autobots more than one at a time, so I could usually infer who was getting the snot beat out of them. And trust me, even if it's difficult to tell who is winning, every attack is sickeningly real, with crunching metal, flying bits and pieces, and excellent sound effects to convey the damage being dealt.

The only real standout among the humans in the cast was Shia LaBeouf, whom I see as a quickly-rising star with some real talent. The females among the cast, while giving decent performances, especially Megan Fox, were obviously chosen more for their looks than to portray strong, interesting characters. John Turturro was entertainingly campy, and Jon Voight was doing a good job up until the point that he turned Rambo on us. The soldiers were largely forgettable, and Anthony Anderson turned in a pretty good comedic performance that made me laugh quite a bit.

The real treat here, though, was Peter Cullen reprising his role as Optimus Prime. Every time he spoke, I got chills as I was taken back to my childhood to all that time spent with the Transformers. The force and vision behind that voice drives both the character and his narration in the film, making it quite inspiring to listen to. Other than that, the concept of Bumblebee communicating through his radio was a nice addition, and the strange noises made by the tiny Frenzy were both funny and corny enough to be considered camp. Hugo Weaving did well as Megatron, and sounded more true to the character than Frank Welker ever did, in my opinion.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie greatly, and I'll be going back to see it again. It gets some things right and some things wrong, but in the end, it's Transformers, a film based on toys. I see it as a good, campy film to be added to the other lore of the universe, though some want to see it as a serious alien-invasion movie. Not me. It's just another incarnation of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict, and it is just as entertaining as any other version. Peace out.

Now, I know the minigun exudes an aura of total destruction, and yes, that is a well-deserved reputation, but in a zombie-fighting scenario, it's probably close to the last weapon you want.

It eats up ammunition like nothing else. The bullets aren't even small-caliber either, so keeping enough of them handy becomes a problem. Second, it's a stationary weapon, as no human can carry and fire this gun. Since mobility and speed are essential to survival, the immobile and ammo-eating minigun quickly becomes a useless weapon unless you have several tons of ammo and a perfectly defensible location to fire from.

Actually, when you consider the hardness of a human skull, a baseball bat wouldn't exactly make the best melee weapon. Cutting/slashing weapons are likewise ineffective when you take into account the thickness of the spinal cord and the energy expended per hit. Now, a piercing weapon, if you could were in the thick of a melee, would be effective since you could concentrate the stabbing power onto a single point and likely pierce the skull to deactivate the zombie.

My thoughts exactly. That is the standard zombie on another site I frequent, and we all use it as the standard.