Monday, July 4, 2011

Transformers

Went and watched the new Transformers movie today.  I have to say that I liked it.  I've liked all of them so far.  I have heard so many complaints about all of them, enough that it kind of bugs me a little.  I've heard or read complaints ranging from poor character development to weak story lines.  Maybe there is one thing that those people seam to forget when they watch these movies.  They are based on a cartoon from the early '80's and the sole purpose of that cartoon was to sell the toys.  No matter how much money they throw at the screen for us to take in, no matter how many sequels or what dimension we see it in.  Its based on a toy. 

Now, I grew up watching those cartoons and yes, I had many of those toys (that I would LOVE to have today).  It was fun.  It was classic Good Guys VS Bad Guys but with giant robots.  What was there for a kid not to like?  Poor character development? HA!  When the first Tramsformers movie was released, a lot of old school fans immediately complained that the movie robots looked nothing like the original cartoons.  Seriously?  Do people realize how goofy and in some cases, down right stupid some things would look if they were translated directly to the big screen?  Looking back on those cartoons, yeah, there are a few things I would like to see on the big screen.  But once in a while, when the Good Guys would win, the robots would celebrate and dance.  NOW, would those same people that were complaining about the looks be happy with dancing robots at the end? 

The whole 3-D fad may come and go, but I believe it works best for movies like this.  The Summer Blockbuster.  Some have said movies like this are a, "check your brain at the door" type.  How can you go into a movie about giant robots fighting and expect an Oscar winner?  Not to say you should have no expectations, but c'mon, you paid to see a movie about giant robots and you want to complain about how believable it is? 

I remember back when the very first Transformers movie came out, the animated one.  It was great.  We got the video and watched I probably 3 times in one night.  I do realize they started that movie where the cartoon left off, which I was watching all the time anyways, so they could jump right into the action without having to come up with some kind of origin story for the masses to except.  But in less then an hour and a half, they were able to cram in a ton of action, a cool story and one of the greatest bad guys ever.  That is one story I would love to see translated to the big screen.  Unicron.  Cmon, do it!

Now that they have 3 movies about fighting on Earth, I think its time to take this fight to space.  Do something on the Transformers home planet of Cybertron.  Plus they have killed Megatron twice, the next logical step would be to have him go through the transformation into Galvatron.  Optimus Prime, while I have enjoyed watching him kick butt for 3 movies now, I think its time to introduce Hot Rod and eventually Rodimus Prime.  Maybe the Dinobots too?  and while we are at it, give Sam one of those cool transforming suits.  This was the best Sam to date and seeing him grow and fight along the Autobots would be cool.  Most of the other humans are interchangeable, Bay swapped out Megan Fox for some Victoria's Secret model and not much was really different but the hair color. 

I know I may be asking for a lot for a live action movie so I propose they make a 2 part story and film both movies back to back, like the Lord of the Rings movies where.  They are spending HUGE amounts of money on the budgets for these movies now and half of the movie is CGI anyways, whats a few more million in the bucket?  Michael Bay says he is done with the Transformers after this 3rd one.  OK.  Lets get someone else, someone that knows these characters and how to handle them.  Get us Steven Spielberg.  Or his highest paid Mexican equivalent, Steven Spielbergo (you get extra points if you know where I got that).  

This new movie will probably gross a billion dollars and the next movie will probably have a new cast and director and everything so the movie studio will probably call it a "reboot" and want to retell the origin again,  so my hopes and dreams will probably have to wait a few more decades.  But how awesome would it be to have a giant planet munching robot taking on all the Autobots and Deceptacons at once?  A guy can dream can't he?

MiketheTripp

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