“The best reviews seem to be coming from the people who had no vested interest in the franchise and therefore those that had no baggage for what they thought a Transformers movie should be.”

Matt, allow me to blow off some steam, and hopefully enlighten some people who just don’t get it. First of all Matt I got two problems with your little bit of analyses. First, as a long time Transformers fan, I don’t have “baggage” that was brought into this movie. I had expectations. Like, for instance, that they would make the robots look like, -oh, I don’t know- Transformers maybe, instead of Bionicle rejects. And please don’t try the argument that “every adaptation needs changes.” The ONLY change they made in the X-Men movie was to make the X-Men’s costumes black, that’s it. Everything else from Magneto’s bucket helmet, to Wolverine’s absurd hair-do was left intact. Spider-Man stuck strictly to comic-book cannon as did Batman Begins. Notice how these are the most successful movies in recent years. Now compare those with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Superman Returns where cannon and expectations were thrown out the window. Disappointing, weren’t they?

Fans of a franchise want what attracted them to it in the first place to be maintained, and for any other movie that seems reasonable, (you certainly didn’t think the way Spider-Man 3 or Star Wars ep 1,2,3 were handled was acceptable to you Matt) but ever since this movie was announced there’s been this group of vocal Bay-apologists who adamantly scream that the Transformers cartoon was SO stupid and the designs were SO terrible and the show was nothing more than “a 30-minute toy commercial.” Jesus, then why are these same people defending this flick so vehemently and declaring how excited they are to see it? There are so many shameless product placement shots for GM, Cadillac and Chevy I thought it was a preview of the Detroit Auto Show. Mountain Dew gets a cameo as does Nokia and a half dozen other corporate sponsors of this flick. This whole movie is two hours of product placement. The designs are so mangled I defy you to identify ANY Transformer other than Prime or Bumblebee.

Star wars fans wanted their beloved franchise to be handled with respect. When they saw Jar-Jar Binks they thought it was a travesty, and the new trilogy was uninspired. I’m not a Star Wars per se, and I didn’t see what all the fuss from fans like you Matt was about, but I didn’t begrudge you your right to want the franchise handled a certain way. Amazingly people who admittedly hated TF demand that the fans have no say in this movie’s development, indeed, that the fans don’t know what’s good to begin with. This is stupidity on the TF-haters part. Fans are the ONLY reason this movie is getting made. No one demanded this movie be an absolute slave to the cartoon or comic book, or accurate to the most minute detail. All we wanted was for it to be mostly accurate, like every other sucessful franchise. Now you may think that as long as robots tranform that’s transformers. And you would be wrong. This movie could have easily been GoBots or Bionicle or BattleBots. Just a small change of the title and you would never have known the difference. THAT’S why this isn’t TF.

Every other well-handled movie adpatation franchise has had one thing in common: a director who was a fan of the source material and sought to keep the movie as close to it as possible. Not only was Michael Bay not a fan of transformers he has spent the last two YEARS denigrating the cartoon, the comic, the fans and the robots themselves. Don Murphy chimed right in with him. Now THAT was my first sign this movie was in trouble. Would you have thought little of it if Peter Jackson derided Lord of the Rings and called the story and concept “stupid” as Bay did, and if Jackson insulted fans of Tolkien’s series? Probably not, since you’re one of them.
But you seem perfectly content with this movie as long as the production values are good. Well so were Star Wars ep 1,2,3, but for some strange reason you didn’t like those…funny how that works, though only with properties that YOU like.

Bay has a reputation for crappy movies. At best (and I use that word tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek with Bay) his movies are big explosions and music video POV shots. Nobody has ever accused Bay of making a good story. And isn’t it hypocritical of certain folks to decry how bad the movies have been this summer, yet defend Bay’s hack-job by saying, “Hey, some movies you just want to turn off your brain and enjoy the ride.” Well my brain doesn’t have an off-switch. I WANT my movies to be smart, repsectful of whatever source material they’re adapated from, and to be well told and well performed by the actors.

If all you want it SFX (and that is the battlecry of the folks heaping praise on this flick) then go rent Beyond the Mind’s Eye. TF fans have a right to see he frnachise they’ve kept alive for 20 years done the way they want. Anyone who disagrees with that…well, invariably these are people who didn’t watch the show or just didn’t like it. If you didn’t like TF fine, but shut up already trying to cheer Bay on as he tears up a franchise that other people liked. If all you want are special effects with no prupose, then dammit, make a movie where that’s all there is in it. And if it doesn’t matter how dumb a movie’s plot is, so long as the CGI is killer, then shut up about how bad this years crop of movie’s has been. They all had great CGI, but crappy stories. Oh, but Spider-Man was a franchise that YOU liked, so suddenly it mattered how the material was handled. That’s called being a hypocrite. Bay screwed the pooch on this one, the fans were right and are the only ones who know what’s good for this franchsie. Anyone who disagrees with that is IMHO an empty-headed Bayhead who probably thought Gigli was fine entertainment.

I’m absolutely agreeing with you, I guess it was the way I said it was poor.

Your comment is what I meant. People who love the series (which is what I meant by baggage, because love can be heavy shit sometimes) are disappointed. People who don’t know about the source material… love it.

I wasn’t saying either was right or wrong (although I do think you should ALWAYS stick to the source material), I was just saying what the facts were.

First of all. I never watched the original series. I was born in late ‘84. And the Transformers movie came out around that time (I believe). I went to see this film with medium expectations (nowhere near as high as Spider-man 3). I know Michael Bay has done made some turds in the past, most of which I have never even seen. I know that many of the Transformers vehicle forms are different from their original, that didn’t bother me. I went to enjoy the film on it’s own.

I thought the layout of the story was well organized and the used of flashbacks didn’t make the film boring. If all the flashbacks had been at the beginning of the film, it would have made for a slow start. The use of comedy seemed a bit over the top at some points, but it didn’t distract me from the story or action. The effects of the Transformers themselves looked amazing! The sounds of their weapons sounded incredible. The acted was good, the score was powered and fit the action, but also helped put emotion into the Transformers (Bumblebee’s capture scene).

And I enjoyed the heroic style ending with the heroes ending the story on a high note (Unlike the “My Heart will Go On” style of ending from Spider-man 3).

I consider this the best action film I’ve seen this Summer. I know my opinion is totally different from many others because I never watched the original cartoons from the 1980s. But I enjoyed it.

P.S. – As far as comparing original franchises to movies, I don’t get uber-crazy when changes are made. I enjoy the Batman comics, Batman animated show, and Tim Burton films a great deal. When the Batmobile, suit, and origin was altered for Batman Begins, I only had slight problems with it, but I didn’t let it ruin the film for me. I consider Batman Begins the greatest Batman film (and possibly the greatest Superhero film). I look forward to The Dark Knight next Summer and I don’t mind if they change Jokers look or origin, because the films are seperate from the cartoon and other media. I wish the Transformers fans from except the film for what it is, whether you enjoy it our not.

My post was much harsher than I meant, so let me apologize for the timber of it, especially the shut up part. But I wanted to respond to the fact that the same folks who’re saying, “Yeah, it doesn’t have a story, and the acting is shit, and I spent two hours watching characters I don’t even care about, but the CGI is just so fucking COOL! Look at the robots TRANSFORMING!!!” See how retarded that type of uncalled for glee is? It’s like a 2 year-old, but that’s precisely how the folks cheering this film are acting. Over CGI! Not a kick-ass story, or a reveolutionary film technique, but over CGI which is nearly thirty years old.
Now if this was 1997 instead of 2007 this kind of reaction to transforming robots might -BIG might- make more sense, but to anyone who watched Beast Wars/Machines this is really old hat. And the same people demanding a witless worthless CGI demo reel with no story are the same folks who gripe and complain that all the movies these days are crap with no story. Well gee, I wonder why Hollywood keeps making them? Because to them complaint without box-office pain is meaningless perhaps?
I understand there are a lot of braindead folks. folks out there for whom a studio could throw any old shit up there and as long as it’s “cool-looking” CGI changing shapes they’ll say, “Who carea, I was never a Transformers fan, and it looks good, so what’s the big deal?”

Too many people who pretend to be more knowledgeable and informed than they really are (BTW I’m thinking about a certain a-hole at another blog) think they sound business-smart when they say, “If they had kept the ‘boxy’ designs from the cartoon it would have looked stupid. Movie adpatations require massive changes.” As I said in my above post, the most successful adaptations are the ones that stick the closest to the source material. Hell, an adaptation is basically a limitless ATM card for the studio willing to reign in erratic hack directors like Bay. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were almost word for word transcribed from Stephen King’s novels and they are to date the best received and most loved movie adaptations of his work. The “boxy” designs could undergo some minor change without pissing off die-hards like me. They certainly oculd ahve done it without making them all look like mangled metal. Bay designs aren’t cool, the ‘84 look was. I loved the X-Men’s comic-book uniforms but I didn’t have a fit when I saw them all decked out in black leather, because 1.) It made sense, 2.) That was the ONLY thing they changed for the movie, everything else was EXACTLY like the comic-book. Oh, and Singer told a damned good story, better with the sequel. Hell, I even liked the third, though I didn’t feel it touched the heights the first two did.

But Bay didn’t merely make a few small changes, he changed EVERYTHING! The ONLY thing that stayed the same was names of the characters. And Bay has heaped a non-stop stream of derision and hate on the very property he’s been charged with adapting. NOWHERE have I heard ANYONE talk about how out-of-the-ordinary this is -not even you Matt have talked about it. THIS would be newsworthy. Just today I read in Wired magazine where he was reacting to “fanboy” criticism for not sticking to the source material. And he said, “Have you seen the ‘86 movie? Have you seen the cartoon? I tried to and I wanted to shoot myself.” Hell, I would have saved the fucker the trouble if I’d known he was going to go THIS far off the reservation.

Look I know there are some people who don’t dig Transformers, and thought it was “stupid” or whatever. It was a kids cartoon in the 80’s, not Star Trek, how profound and ground-breaking do you want it to be? But name for me any other cartoon that dealt with anti-matter or black holes. Scooby-Doo sure as hell didn’t. Speed Racer didn’t either as I recall.

Boy did Bay really say that? Jesus.

I do try and keep out of Transformers debate because it’s what series I know nothing about and I don’t want my comments to sound ignorant. I do hate Michael Bay and everything he stands for as a director though.

I was a bit pissed when Singer changed the X-Men costumes if I’m being honest because they look sooooooooooooooo boring for one of the most colorful comic book series out there and also the fact that we wouldn’t get another shot at the costume for a very, very, very long time.

Once the black was chosen… that’s it for years.

I think if X-Men 1 was being made today they would have costumes that were closer to their original incarnation because with the Spider-Man, FF and other superhero franchises, audiences are getting use to the idea of seeing men in funny costumes again.

I do like the X-Men movies but I have to say the costumes do gripe on me a little. And also, the portrayl of Storm and Cyclops.