andydreamseeker
06-27-2007, 09:00 PM
Transformers is a movie about alien robots divided into good (Autobots) and evil (Decepticons) raging a war between each other while searching for a cube known as Allspark which is a source of life for them that has found its way into earth.
From the cartoons in its 80s days and a movie version in two-dimensional rendering, it has found a new source of life when DreamWorks, Paramount and Hasbro decided to make a blockbuster movie franchise out of it.
This 2007 summer movie will be the first of a trilogy with two sequels already confirmed.
But after watching it, I feel an amount of disgust about it.
I’m not saying that this is a bad film. It isn’t.
And I understand Transformers would undoubtedly become a hit among the masses for many factors but still…
I hated it.
I raised a question.
Why do they make movies like this?
I stared at this question long and hard.
This is a commercial film for the mass market.
A large population on earth knew what the Transformers are.
It will generate lots of money for the companies involved.
I shall repeat it; this is a commercial film for the mass market.
Talk about the number of toys a movie like Transformers can sell.
Hasbro is going to be rich.
Talk about product placements in a movie like Transformers with the names of Panasonic, Nokia, Chevrolet, GM and the likes showing up.
Product marketing cannot be more obvious.
It’s all in the money.
Money makes the world goes round.
So this is earth and the human race, the world that Optimus Prime and his Autobots are trying to save?
What a sorry state the movie industry has transformed into.
With a budget of $147million, the moviemakers totally changed the Transformers.
The Autobots and the Decepticons no longer resembles the Transformers of the 80s.
Instead of transforming, the robots actually morphed themselves into auto-vehicles, helicopters and jet-planes.
That is so not cool.
Transformation and morphing are two different elements altogether if you ask me.
Yes CGI and special effects are powerful tools in movie making, but could the production use more imagination in their application?
Won’t you just get tired seeing things happened the same way again and again?
Objects crashing into buildings, meteors crashing into earth from outer space, vehicles crashing on the roads and now even robots fight by crashing into each other.
What about the design aesthetics of the robots?
Over elaboration and complexity marred the originality of the Transformers.
Director Michael Bay made most of the “Big” decisions in creating this movie.
Namely he changed Bumblebee from a Volkswagen Beetle into a Chevrolet Camaro and he also influenced the design of the robots by suggesting that the classic “boxy” style would look fake in a three-dimensional environment and thus introduced a complex mechanical look with thousands of visible pieces instead.
I really wondered why executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted him to direct this film.
After all Michael Bay did thought of the film as a “stupid toy movie” for a start.
It is really OK to change things around by giving them a more recent and modern feel but origin still has to be respected.
I find that missing from this movie.
What I find instead was a real mess of things.
Allow me to first list out some relations to other movies.
Batman, Short Circuit, Robocop, Terminator, Gremlins, Armageddon and M.I.B all seems to appear in Transformers sparking me to think towards a lack of creativity on the side of the moviemakers.
Take for instance a scene where Bumblebee beamed a symbol of the Autobots into the night sky.
Isn’t that Batman?
And how about having the Decepticon’s spy, Frenzy, looking and behaving like an evil Gremlin while demonstrating an ability to retrieve data from a computer mainframe by stabbing into it like what Robocop did.
Now tell me why the only way alien life forms can arrive on earth is through a meteor crashing down and then being bare-naked needed to find clothing to disguise themselves among humans?
Terminator?
Sector 7, a top-secret government agency dealing with the topic of extra-terrestrial is just M.I.B aren’t they?
Transformers just cannot be Sci-Fi and be happy about it; they have to pull in a military angle of the Iraq war to make this into a war film.
And if that is not enough why not have a teenager become a hero for holding the key to victory against the Decepticons and then reward his heroism with a hot and sexy female in Megan Fox.
This should be so appealing to the teenage audience.
Transformers also malfunction in way of pacing.
It is one action after another without consideration for character development and story building.
One moment there’s a war going on, next moment there’s a car chase and then the next robots will pitch against one another like a wrestling match while crashing into buildings and structures.
With everything that is going on add in some cheap humor too.
Action aplenty is definite.
But this is supposed to be a film and not some collection of videos from “Amazing Car Chases” or “Amazing Plane Crashes” put together.
And let me do say this again; this is supposed to be a film so do have some considerations for cinematography.
There’s a lack of dynamism and beauty here.
The camera moved and moved and for what?
Is it to create an experience of chaos with the camera shakes going with the sound effects to give us for a truly cinematic experience?
And what sound effects?
The only effects I hear were the bass of “Boom”, “Boom” and “Boom”.
What a headache.
I know that most people will enjoy a movie like Transformers.
I just don’t think that same enjoyment applies to me.
There really should be more than meets the eye in terms of better values unseen here in Transformers.
From the cartoons in its 80s days and a movie version in two-dimensional rendering, it has found a new source of life when DreamWorks, Paramount and Hasbro decided to make a blockbuster movie franchise out of it.
This 2007 summer movie will be the first of a trilogy with two sequels already confirmed.
But after watching it, I feel an amount of disgust about it.
I’m not saying that this is a bad film. It isn’t.
And I understand Transformers would undoubtedly become a hit among the masses for many factors but still…
I hated it.
I raised a question.
Why do they make movies like this?
I stared at this question long and hard.
This is a commercial film for the mass market.
A large population on earth knew what the Transformers are.
It will generate lots of money for the companies involved.
I shall repeat it; this is a commercial film for the mass market.
Talk about the number of toys a movie like Transformers can sell.
Hasbro is going to be rich.
Talk about product placements in a movie like Transformers with the names of Panasonic, Nokia, Chevrolet, GM and the likes showing up.
Product marketing cannot be more obvious.
It’s all in the money.
Money makes the world goes round.
So this is earth and the human race, the world that Optimus Prime and his Autobots are trying to save?
What a sorry state the movie industry has transformed into.
With a budget of $147million, the moviemakers totally changed the Transformers.
The Autobots and the Decepticons no longer resembles the Transformers of the 80s.
Instead of transforming, the robots actually morphed themselves into auto-vehicles, helicopters and jet-planes.
That is so not cool.
Transformation and morphing are two different elements altogether if you ask me.
Yes CGI and special effects are powerful tools in movie making, but could the production use more imagination in their application?
Won’t you just get tired seeing things happened the same way again and again?
Objects crashing into buildings, meteors crashing into earth from outer space, vehicles crashing on the roads and now even robots fight by crashing into each other.
What about the design aesthetics of the robots?
Over elaboration and complexity marred the originality of the Transformers.
Director Michael Bay made most of the “Big” decisions in creating this movie.
Namely he changed Bumblebee from a Volkswagen Beetle into a Chevrolet Camaro and he also influenced the design of the robots by suggesting that the classic “boxy” style would look fake in a three-dimensional environment and thus introduced a complex mechanical look with thousands of visible pieces instead.
I really wondered why executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted him to direct this film.
After all Michael Bay did thought of the film as a “stupid toy movie” for a start.
It is really OK to change things around by giving them a more recent and modern feel but origin still has to be respected.
I find that missing from this movie.
What I find instead was a real mess of things.
Allow me to first list out some relations to other movies.
Batman, Short Circuit, Robocop, Terminator, Gremlins, Armageddon and M.I.B all seems to appear in Transformers sparking me to think towards a lack of creativity on the side of the moviemakers.
Take for instance a scene where Bumblebee beamed a symbol of the Autobots into the night sky.
Isn’t that Batman?
And how about having the Decepticon’s spy, Frenzy, looking and behaving like an evil Gremlin while demonstrating an ability to retrieve data from a computer mainframe by stabbing into it like what Robocop did.
Now tell me why the only way alien life forms can arrive on earth is through a meteor crashing down and then being bare-naked needed to find clothing to disguise themselves among humans?
Terminator?
Sector 7, a top-secret government agency dealing with the topic of extra-terrestrial is just M.I.B aren’t they?
Transformers just cannot be Sci-Fi and be happy about it; they have to pull in a military angle of the Iraq war to make this into a war film.
And if that is not enough why not have a teenager become a hero for holding the key to victory against the Decepticons and then reward his heroism with a hot and sexy female in Megan Fox.
This should be so appealing to the teenage audience.
Transformers also malfunction in way of pacing.
It is one action after another without consideration for character development and story building.
One moment there’s a war going on, next moment there’s a car chase and then the next robots will pitch against one another like a wrestling match while crashing into buildings and structures.
With everything that is going on add in some cheap humor too.
Action aplenty is definite.
But this is supposed to be a film and not some collection of videos from “Amazing Car Chases” or “Amazing Plane Crashes” put together.
And let me do say this again; this is supposed to be a film so do have some considerations for cinematography.
There’s a lack of dynamism and beauty here.
The camera moved and moved and for what?
Is it to create an experience of chaos with the camera shakes going with the sound effects to give us for a truly cinematic experience?
And what sound effects?
The only effects I hear were the bass of “Boom”, “Boom” and “Boom”.
What a headache.
I know that most people will enjoy a movie like Transformers.
I just don’t think that same enjoyment applies to me.
There really should be more than meets the eye in terms of better values unseen here in Transformers.