It sounds more like something out of Entourage than anything that could possibly be true. Steven Spielberg gets the rights to produce a mega-budget movie based on the Transformers toys of the '80s, and hand-picks Michael Bay to direct.
It's too surreal a production to possibly be taken seriously, and you can be guaranteed the filmmakers themselves are not. It's Snakes on a Plane to the nth degree from the granddaddy of cinema pop and the sultan of the slo-mo explosion. It's a multi-million dollar tongue jammed so hard into the cheek it's leaving a bruise. Transformers. A live-action motion picture. I don't care one tiny little bit about the franchise, having simply missed that boat as a child, but nevertheless, that silly-ass teaser trailer makes me smile. This may be the first time I have ever actually been looking forward to a new Michael Bay movie.
But strangely enough, it seems like a whole bunch of people are really upset over this thing. On movie forums and talkbacks all across the Internet, there are countless people posting furiously venomous complaints about the production, about the changes being made to the designs of the robots, and about the fact that it's not taking the history of the franchise seriously. A full year away from the release date, and the entire Internet already hates Michael Bay's Transformers. It's as if the vast majority of the geek population was suddenly rendered incapable of appreciating irony.
Now, believe me, I've earned my geek cred. I went to the midnight screenings of, among many others, Spider-Man 2, Revenge of the Sith, and King Kong. I've passionately argued the finer points in the Batman versus Superman debate until I was breathless. I've gotten into a Simpsons' one-liner quote-off. And I've won. But it was always just for fun. I simply cannot wrap my mind around the way people are getting so serious and upset over this project. Take a deep breath, folks. It's a movie about a toy franchise.
"But Boxclocke," you say, "it's not a toy franchise. It's a long-running epic saga spanning two decades of books, television, and film! Have you seen the original movie? They say 'shit' in it!"
Article comments
1 - Aaron Fleming
Personally I could care less about the history of the franchise, you're right it was simply about selling toys. But the thing that gets it for me is Michael Bay. Michael Bay! Ack, anyone would be better, what is Spielberg thinking!?!
Although at the same time I don't lose sleep over it, maybe someone good will do the live action Thundercats movie (you know it'll come eventually).
2 - Boxclocke
Well, my theory is that he was thinking "who could possibly make the silliest, most explode-y popcorn entertainment out of this property?" Again, not a Bay fan, but personally, I think he's perfectly suited for this.
And I'm pulling for an Ang Lee super-serious Thundercats ala Crouching Tiger.
3 - Sterfish
Geeks tend to always hate when changes are made until the final product actually comes out. Anyone remember how people were mad that the filmmakers gave Spider-Man organic web shooters instead of having him make them himself like the comic book? Or how people didn't really like the black leather costumes for the first X-Men film? I think as we get closer to the release date (and see more of the finished product), the hatred will likely die down...unless it really does look like a crappy movie.
4 - Oerwinde
The problems we Transfans are having are mostly with the iconic characters. Its hard to find a person who doesn't know who Optimus Prime is or what he looks like. Bumblebee is another one. So when you make a big budget movie out of the property and don't even stay true to the iconic characters (Notice the fans don't have any problems with the characters made up specifically for the film like Bonecrusher) whats the point of using the property in the first place? Just make your generic giant robot movie and leave Transformers alone.
5 - Anon. E. Mouse
Why is it hated?
What if they took superman, and made him a woman with a microsoft logo on his ..errr.. her chest? Do you think people would hate the new superman movie?
Same thing here.
Optimus Prime is going to be what? A garbage-truck or fire-truck? Optimus Prime is an 18 Wheeler - End of story.
Bumblebee is going to be a dodge charger? Uhhh.. Bumblebee is a VW BUG - End of story.
If this movie was honest to the source material I would have seen it out of nostalgia, but as it stands I think the movie is going to fall flat on its commercialized butt.
6 - Tolrick
I've never had a problem with movie makers changing small bits to fit the story they're trying to tell.
My problem is exactly what Anon mentioned. If you're going to make a movie about something another person created, and you know it's got a huge fan base, stay true to the source.
Granted I find most of the more recent cartoons aren't true to the source either, hence why I don't bother watching any of them either.
The small teaser I've seen looked alright, but I spent quite some time trying to figure out which character that truck was supposed to be.
Optimus was supposed to be awe-insipring. You tell me which is more impressive: An 18-wheeler barreling down on you at high speed, or a fire truck?
Yeah, you'll get out of the way of both as fast as you can, but for very different reasons.....
7 - Phillip Winn
It's really, really early, folks. It is by no means assured that the characters will really be as radically changed as you fear.
Then again, I thought that the organic web-shooting made a lot more sense than the idea that Peter Parker sat down and invented that nearly-magical stuff. Plus the X-Men costimes worked well, and the yellow spandex would have sucked in live action.
8 - Boxclocke
To #'s 5 & 6:
Actually, Optimus Prime is indeed still an 18-wheeler in the new movie. Take a look here.
9 - Mark Sahm
I second Phillp's point--- I bet they haven't even finalized 90% of the digital stuff, and will be changing things up to the end of June 2007.
Besides, they have to update their forms to the current generation. All of the old forms were 80's throwbacks. When was the last time you saw a M*A*S*H style jeep (Hound), or a 280ZX (Prowl), or an old school boombox (Soundwave), or even cassette tapes for that matter (Laserbeak, others)?
Come on, Jaguar would make a bitchin' black iPod. I'm joking with that one, of course. It would make sense though.
Nice write-up, Boxclocke.
10 - Boxclocke
Thanks Mark! And you touch on a point that I had originally intended to make in the article, but decided to leave out: why these changes are often made. It actually very seldom has anything to do with marketing or product placement or some sort of corporate decision. More often than not, it really is a storytelling choice.
Spidey's organic web was created for narrative economy: easier and faster (and probably more fun) to convey to the audience than an engineering montage.
Now, if there was an iPod transformer, then I might start to agree that they've drifted into insanity. But as is, I don't think that "commercialization" is at work here in any capacity. At least not more so than modernization and, well, logic.
11 - A. Person
They didn't change a few things, they did change everything in the movie. Sure, the movie is called Transformers, and a few character names are the same, but the similarities end there.
Plot, Story, Motivations, Looks, Character personality, and so on. Enough has changed that this is only a Transformer movie, in name only.
The disappointment comes from hoping our heroes will never leave is, that they will grow with us. In the way that The Lord of The Ring did. The characters grew from a fantastic book to an even more fantastic movie. There was no need to make huge changes. People knew what they wanted. You didn't see updated Elves with machine guns did you? Wonder why?
Our heroes aren't coming beck, and they have not grown with us. They have been taken from us and strangers now carry their names, and expect us to not notice the difference. They have become like miss children, we don't know where they are or what has happened to them, or even if we'll see them again. We knew them when we were young, and when we need them to remind of us of those fond times they reject us.
We always expected them to be there for us no matter our age, and hoped they could be there for our children. This outright rejection or disappearance leaves one alone, at a time when we were told our old friends were going to come back for a visit giving us a moment to be young again, and share them with our kids.
12 - hanxthre
"I don't care one tiny little bit about the franchise, having simply missed that boat as a child, but nevertheless..."
After you said this the rest of your comments meant nothing to me...How can you expect to understand 1 iota of the G1 fan's bitterness toward Micheal Bay and this mockery of a film with that as the basis for your argument?? Pathetic really...The G1 fans have no other recourse but to go insane over something they love so much being treated this way...But keep going on with the same uninformed drivel that all Transformers is is some toy show...These are the comments that expose your lack of knowledge on all fronts...
So how in God's name could I expect you or some other Michael Bay apologist to even have a sliver of a clue on why fans would react this way?? There's gotta be something deeper than "Just some toy show" that makes them act this way (However crazy we sometimes are)...But again you'll never understand in any depth, so continue with your souless examination...