vonpatrick

I'm pretty annoyed with the way the Transformers films have turned out...and Revenge of the Fallen doesn't look like its going to be any kind of improvement.



With the sequel on its way I tried re-watching the original. And I haven't really watched it since it came out on DVD. I remember when I saw it in the theaters thinking yeah thats pretty cool despite it not being the Transformers film I waited my whole life to see.

But now going back and revisiting it....its pretty fucking awful. My mind started to wander to other things while I was watching it because it was boring and I was trying to focus on 3 story lines revolving around humans, none of which, despite maybe Sam, I have any interest in. By the time Barricade finally transforms to threaten Sam I realized we still had another hour in a half of movie to go and I just wanted it to be over soon and it was just getting started.

I'm a hardcore Transfan the way some people know everything about Star Wars...I could tell you just about anything from the twenty plus years of Transformers history and mythology. So compared to the average movie goer I was pretty offended at most of this.

I guess my main gripe is the lack of characterization, especially regarding the Decepticons. Yeah, each Autobot has lines, but with the ever so slight exception of Prime, we don't really get to know or care about any of them. By the time I got to the final battle, I didn't really know any of the Transformers so I didn't really care if any of them got hurt. Like if one got a blast I wasn't like Oh shit I hope Ironhide doesn't get it!!!

They randomly kill Jazz in the most nonsensical way ever. In order to kill a Transformer and this has been all through the history of it, you have to extinguish their spark. Which is examplified in the film through Prime willing to shove the Allspark into his chest and when Brawl takes a shot in his as does Blackout....But Bumblebee gets his legs all the way up to the groin ripped off and he lives. Jazz gets ripped in half at the torso and he dies? Huh?

The worst part is the any lack of characterization of the Cons. They just get treated like giant invanding monster bug robot things...one of the things that made Transforemrs last as long as it did was how human the Robots were and their specific personalities. When the film was coming out the producers and writers assured audiences the relationship between Starscream and Megatron would be intact. How? They share the screen for two seconds and because Megatron tells Starscream he failed him, THATS the relationship? Woop de shit. I didn't see Starscream do anything underhanded to betray Megs or take over. Speaking of which, that 3 seconds of their conversation is the most characterization ANY of the cons get in the film. Not to mention Megs is only present for the last 20 minutes, has like 5 or 6 lines then DIES.

I'd also like to point out, with the exception of the final battle just because the characters are present, if you totally removed the storyline from the middle east after the base has been attacked, it has no effect on the story or the flow of the movie. You could watch it with that whole story and Scorponok battle missing and it would have no effect. I didn't need an entire third arc in the film to explain to me what kind of fucking shell we need to damage the Transformers. Blackout needed to wipe out the base and be done with it. And now those characters are in the sequel...because they were just such a big part of the first film...


I'm one of the few hardcore fans who didn't have a shit fit over the designs. As long as they characters were the same I didn't mine the design anesthetic being a little more complicated or whatever. I mean they did over do it a bit, but whatever. But this is a little out of hand now...the picture below is a picture of The Fallen from the comic series in which he appeared...




Now this is him in the film...


Something is WRONG here...the only similarity is his inner parts looking like charcoal...

I'm going to see ROTF but goddamn it better have some better story telling than the first film.


Oh and the only reason I don't mind the hacker arc in the first film, is because I get to look at the hot Aussie chick. Which below for your pleasure is a nice pin-up of her.