I would just like to point out that the first question (I believe it was the first one?) asked from people in the crowd was how this new Attack KITT would handle
speed bumps with it's low clearence bumper in the front. I believe that the show's great copout answer will be "we can transform it" any time there is a question of clearance or functional conflict. Another thing to point out is the doors are not lambo doors, they swing out and up.
Consider how you're going to handle trying to get inside KITT when bullets are flying at you. With the older KITT Michael could sprint behind an open door and be ok but here what can you hide behind when the doors are primarily ABOVE you?
It just seems like it's stylish for the sake of being "cool" but not very practical at all. Obviously we also know that the interior of any KITT can be damaged right? So if those doors swing up and someone is shooting at Mike who is trying to get into the car, what is going to happen when he does? Will the door be able to swing down fast enough or will the ol nanotech just magically form a new door and shift the other one's position?
These kind of things should be considered when you decide to declare that Knight Rider is being taken into a more realistic direction. Form should follow function, not flash following cash.
I don't hate the attack KITT, I really can't draw a concrete conclusion until we actually see it in action but I can tell you those frying pan rims that weezel pointed out have to go big time. The older Pontiac had such a great look with just the silver rims. People might have said the bowling ball hubcaps were weird too but at least they blended in with the rest of the car instead of being an eyesore.
I think having seen the car from pretty up close, design wise they've taken steps backward instead of forward. Interior wise, don't really know till the show actually airs. From what Justin has said in some of his interviews, he has to handle doing several things at once while driving from reading stats to having conversations to dragging things around on a HUD screen on the windshield...man and I thought driving while talking on a cellphone was distracting! I mean really, hand eye coordination is knocked seriously off balance when you have to multitask on the the fly. I guess when Michael has to operate things of this nature, KITT will take over in some sort of "auto cruise" mode.
Aside from speed, I wonder what makes this car an "attack" car. My guess is they'll CG weaponry too. Here's another destined answer to be given whenever there is a design flaw, "We'll fix it in post."
I didn't like the three scoops in the front, still don't like them now. I think the scanner looks
much better then the backdoor pilot and no longer looks like "nostrils". The newer hood looks much better and sleeker. I also noticed there was no shelby lettering across the hood either. I definately feel the whole "dragster" look with the front wheels being smaller and thinner then the thicker, wider racing wheels in the back. It's a good point that dragsters are designed for the most part to go in straight lines and don't handle curves well. Perhaps those silver vents along the side act as some sort of thrusters to give more control, not really sure.
I don't see anything on the Attack KITT that even remotely resembles the 82 Trans Am other then the fact it's black.
Again this is why we really have to wait until we see it in action before we can really judge it from a functional standpoint. Visually, it's obvious there are some obvious issues to work out. At least the paint looked nice. I like the tailights from the back and I agree that visually the spoiler looks pretty rediculous but if it serves as both a braking device and stabalizer, I would prefer to see one piece move and adjust then multiple pop out flaps on the original SPM car. Since this thing is claimed to go around 377 mph, you do need some sort of high tech braking system in place, even Barris knew that back in season four.
As far as the
Transformers issue is concerned, we know from the start it was their intention to do something "like" what they did in Transformers but they can't seem to keep their distinctions straight between "transforming" and "morphing".
See keep this in mind,
transformering by TF movie's defination implies that
all the parts needed to form a robot are already prebuilt. They just arrange in different ways in order to conceal the robot into a vehicle mode. I would agree that this show's approach is also like M.A.S.K. however in MASK vehicles
turned into other vehicles but again
all said parts were originally prebuilt and concealed until they needed to be used.
In this case "nanotech" is supposed to
rearrange itself into various forms. This means that it does not have things prebuilt into the car itself and concealed because it's a "nanotech skin armor", which I would have to assume rests on top of the general structure of the car itself, not unlike MBS but with nano-tech it's not a rigid shell.
In order to change, it can
reshape itself...reshape and "morph", not actually "transform". There's really a great deal of difference when you say you are going to "transform" something and when you're going to "morph/reshape" something.
Legally NBCU is walking a fine line with what Paramount did with Transformers but you have to keep in mind you can't trademark a visual effect. This is why you see countless reprisals of the "bullet time" effects from Matrix, bullet trails etc. What you can do is trademark the technology to produce an effect if you need specialized equipment to do it. So there is nothing Paramount can really do about NBCU using something that's oddly simular enough to their idea but on a lower budgetary scale. When you borrow visual effect ideas from someone who originally came up with it first, you have to accept that people will say you're just borrowing a concept from someone else.
I think unfortunatly a lot of story gets lost in this race to come up with the next big visual effect that no one has done before or is done in a different enough approach it's like something else but expanded on. For example, Episode I with the use of CG army "sprites" and mutliple droids and then
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy with the same type of techniques but on a larger more improved scale.
The SPM KITT from the original series in season four "transformed". All the parts needed were
prebuilt into the car itself which even then didn't work because all the panel lines magically disappeared when it wasn't in use. Still at least back then they were considering
form and function. There's only so much you can do with prebuilt things.
With this new show and the whole exploration of nano-tech, what is missing here is what specifically
are it's limits. It's still experimental technology that they've taken creative liberties with and that is perfectly fine but at what point do you move from believability into pure fantasy. That's a balance they're going to have to establish besides a computer virus shutting KITT down to turn it back into a typical vulnerable mustang.
Just some things to think about beyond just the "look" of it.
Long post I know, just wanted to give people another honest perspective from someone who was there.
=VK=
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