Yes, I'm being prejudgemental.

I'd been following the development of this supposedly revolutionary mainland Chinese sci-fi opus through Dennis' Daily News updates, but had lost track until I saw this horrendous English trailer a while back at YouTube. Good GAWD does this look stupid. I recall Jeff Lau being quoted, somewhere, as stating that he found the robot battles in the TRANSFORMERS movies to be confusing and/or laughable and that his overreaching fantasy would erase all memory of Michael Bay's allegedly incoherent action design (none of which I found particularly incoherent, I should add), but looking at this trailer, I just have to laugh at the naivete on display here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfyHzr03oaM

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just that trailer and it's jaw-droppingly callow attempts at American-style marketing, I don't know. But I don't think it is. Still, this is NOT the way to advertise an arguably gonzo picture like this to overseas distributors, (as the case seems to be), despite the marketing department clearly thinking it is. I posted a comment under the video at YouTube that I'll repost here for kicks:

Mainland Chinese film companies should NOT try to mimic American marketing techniques. Regardless of the quality of the finished film, this trailer is just a mess. Nearly EVERY line from that narrator is a catch-phrase you might find on a poster, as though the marketers thought they had SO MANY good ones, they might as well use them ALL in the trailer. The constant DESCRIBING of? characters instead of plot doesn't help. Too bad this couldn't have been made in Hong Kong. It might've had a chance.

All said, I'm still interested in seeing this, just to see if Jeff Lau's as delusional as he seemed to be when he was shooting this alleged turkey. (and yes, I know some Chinese trailer-makers actually mimic American styles quite successfully, even in English, but this is not one of those instances).

Thanks, for not making me regret passing up even the cheap Malaysian version of this, though I was tempted. Also, Mtime.com readers only gave it 6/10. Still, I'd like to see it, eventually.

The stupid dubbing doesn't help the trailer much, either.

From the Taipei Times:
Hong Kong’s China-market-friendly (read: suffocatingly naive) version of Michael Bay’s Transformers series holds back until late before the action kicks in. A policeman must look after a cyborg that has joined the force, but romantic complications between the robot and “his” colleagues take the plot hostage before an evil cyborg can do his thing. As the title suggests, there’s more love stuff in this one, but the reviews are even worse than for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which at least had splendid effects. Note: The English title is reversed in some markets.

Ever since I saw the poster for this film (I think that and Cow have been my favorite posters of late) I've been curious about that movie. From the poster I thought of Robot Jox, but that's just me . I'll look at the trailer soon.

Masterofoneinchpunch wrote:Ever since I saw the poster for this film (I think that and Cow have been my favorite posters of late) I've been curious about that movie. From the poster I thought of Robot Jox, but that's just me . I'll look at the trailer soon.

Cow is out on subbed DVD, now. and I'm getting it!

It doesn't look horrible. It looks like total sh*t.

Mind you, as stated, the trailer itself is appauling. "In a world where..." "One is a pessimist...one, not so much." WTF?

I think I can live my life without ever seeing this one.

cal42 wrote:"In a world where..." "One is a pessimist...one, not so much." WTF?

Exactly. They're clearly not pros when it comes to writing copy in English. They must've figured these little catchphrases would sound impressive if they were delivered by a "trailer guy" voice, but the voice they got sounds more like someone aping what they recall the U.S. voiceover trailer guys sounded like the last time they visited the theatre. The late, great Don LaFontaine would have made you see this film -- if he'd wanted to, that is!

cal42 wrote:I think I can live my life without ever seeing this one.

Sadly, my curiosity will inevitably get the better of me I'm sure, especially with reviews like the one at Twitch:
http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/2009/08/k ... review.php

Still, no big rush.