With the impending release of Transformers: Age of
Extinction, this seems a good time to bring out another franchise perspective.
It has been filled with hits, and far too many misses. Age of Extinction has to
try and salvage something and prove that Transformers is not quite a dead horse
yet. Michael Bay has taken the definition of a modern summer blockbuster (that
does not mean it has to be good, just profitable) and made not just one, but
three versions of them. Without any further delay I’m moving into the start of
the series.
The start is also the highpoint, the worst thing any
franchise can do. But focussing on the first Transformers as a standalone film,
I must say that it was quite impressive upon its release. Admit it, you were
blown away by the amazing CGI used to bring these iconic toys to life, I know I
was. This was an area that Michael Bay actually succeeded at, he made them look
very mechanical whilst keeping an element of organic nature about them. Fans of
the animated show were obviously split right down the middle over the redesign,
but I felt that this was an effective way to utilize the effects, which would
be needed to distract us from the many problems.
The film was one of those instances where you felt as if the
part of you that respects true film art should hate this feature. But you don’t,
it is a rather stupid plot, with many holes and parts that could only have come
from a script, not to mention the rather flat dialogue between the humans. Mind
you, and what I’m about to say may be a bit controversial, but I really liked
Shia LaBeouf in this film. This time he had a part to suit him, a socially
awkward, smart but underappreciated by everyone character, who could also rise
to any challenge that comes his way even if that involves saving the world. For
once, his part perfectly suited his range as an actor. However, it is still
very difficult to connect with these humans, because of the fact that many have
weaker personalities than the robots they’re helping. So far from perfect, but
then you see explosions and giant robots and you think ‘who cares’.
So the sequel was eagerly awaited as most science fiction
sequels tend to be better that the first, the backstory is out of the way and
you can now expand on the world you have created and set up the long term plot
for the other films. Oh, how wrong we all were. To describe the flaws of this
film, I find myself quoting from the Youtube channel Screen Junkies’ Honest
Trailer segment. Revenge of the Fallen contained way too many racist and sexual
parts of dialogue for a film based on CHILDREN’S TOYS. Kids are going to want
to watch this film and yet this is the image they are presented with, nasty,
that’s all I can say. Shots are reused from both the first film, and earlier
parts of the same film, and we still have to endure the humans that have no
personality or character of any kind. Not to mention wasting more time with Sam’s
parents, because that is what everyone was asking for (!).
More problems include that fact that we’d all gotten over
the initial excitement of seeing the CGI Transformers, and now that they were
being used in huge battles there was no way to distinguish between the good
side and the bad side. Every time we see a Transformer die it is difficult to
know if it is even relevant to the plot because we have no idea who it is. The
first may have had plot holes, but this one goes above and beyond. Just a few
unanswered questions are; why does the all-spark bring Megatron back to life if
it’s what killed him, and if it brings him back why not just use it on Optimus,
why is the roommate included, why does the military not use the Decepticon gun
until the last five minutes, and why do the Decepticons not utilize their human
transforming abilities to a more useful task than just seducing Sam, and many,
many more.
Now onto Dark of the Moon, and immediately there are
problems. I’m no fan of Megan Fox, but if you create a character for a film
that keep that character rather than just use a terrible excuse to explain
their absence. Luckily the effects are minimalized due to the fact that we don’t
care about the character anyway. Anyway, I digress as Dark of the Moon was a
lot better than Revenge of the fallen, but that is still a lot worse than the
first film. It was better mainly for the fact that the story was improved and this
time the Transformers were partially distinguishable from each other. The
acting however is worse than ever, even more characters are introduced and they
all still fail to connect with the audience. But what’s more is that this
really should have ended a trilogy. I have no doubt that the next film will
make more money, but I’m struggling to look forward to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment