There was once a time when I would go to the movies four times during a summer to see films like Independence Day or Armageddon multiple times. I couldn't get enough of the loud explosions, and the lack of any real story didn't bother me. I was able to find humor in the meaningless sex and fart jokes. It was pure escapism. Just grab a bucket of popcorn and a 40 ounce jug of soda and I was happy.
So what the hell happened to me?
Have I really become such a cynical grumpy old man that I can't fully enjoy films like that anymore? Have my tastes changed, or has Hollywood's standards changed?
Whatever the reason may be, I can not endorse Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I am puzzled that a movie as poor as this garnered applause at the end of the viewing in my theater. I'm even more puzzled at the amount of money this film is bringing in. The success of a film like this can mean only the further dumbing down of the Summer blockbuster.
Now to be fair, I wasn't a big fan of the first film. The first two thirds of that film was enjoyable. It had some good characters and funny moments. Shia LaBeouf is a very charismatic actor with a certain amount of gravitas. The special effects weren't that great and it was hard to make out a lot of the robots during the fight scenes. When the John Turturro character showed up the movie got quite silly and quickly turned sour. It was basically what I would expect from a Michael Bay film.
The sequel wasn't quite the disaster I was expecting, but it wasn't really good either. The actual story isn't bad. The premise is that the Transformers have been to Earth before, long ago in our history, and now an ancient Transformer known as the Fallen has returned to finish what he has started. Along the way there are several battles between the Decepticons and the Autobots who wage war on our planet.
The special effect were much better this time out. The robots were better defined and easier to make out, especially during the fight scenes. Most of the fights were done in slow motion to help make it easier to see, but unfortunately the slow motion scenes filtered out into almost every aspect of the film and was completely overused.
The film was conceived during the writer's strike last year. What I imagine happening is Michael Bay creating a series of action scenes, and once the strike was over and the screenwriters were able to work again he gave them those scenes and said to make a story out of it. It's a backwards way to work and that is ultimately the problem with this film: the writing is just simply lazy.
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who wrote the other big Summer blockbuster film Star Trek, are credited along with Ehren Kruger as writing Transformers. I wonder how much of Orci and Kurtzman's work is really in the finished film because Star Trek is a far superior film. There is no character development at all and the humor in the film is just bad.
It is quite possible to write an intelligent funny action film, it's been done several times with great success. Star Trek has several moments of humor that work within the story. Having to rely on crude humor that serves no point to the characters or the story is just cheap. There are about three scenes showing a small dog trying to hump a bigger dog. There's a scene of a small Transformer humping Megan Fox's leg. There are plenty of fart jokes, drug jokes, pussy jokes, and quite honestly inappropriate humor. This is a film that is being marketed towards kids and it is full of language I would not let my kids hear or would I want them exposed to that kind of behavior. It is just embarrassing.
And speaking of Megan Fox, we all know she is a gorgeous person, but we really don't know if she can act, especially with material like this. The extent of her character development in this film is several slow motion shots showing her beautiful figure running while wearing tight skimpy clothes. We get to see lots of her beautifully photographed, but she really doesn't have much else to do beside look good. That's pretty much the amount of effort that was given to characters in this film. I understand it's just a high energy popcorn flick, but I just expect more for my entertainment.
So what the hell happened to me?
Have I really become such a cynical grumpy old man that I can't fully enjoy films like that anymore? Have my tastes changed, or has Hollywood's standards changed?
Whatever the reason may be, I can not endorse Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I am puzzled that a movie as poor as this garnered applause at the end of the viewing in my theater. I'm even more puzzled at the amount of money this film is bringing in. The success of a film like this can mean only the further dumbing down of the Summer blockbuster.
Now to be fair, I wasn't a big fan of the first film. The first two thirds of that film was enjoyable. It had some good characters and funny moments. Shia LaBeouf is a very charismatic actor with a certain amount of gravitas. The special effects weren't that great and it was hard to make out a lot of the robots during the fight scenes. When the John Turturro character showed up the movie got quite silly and quickly turned sour. It was basically what I would expect from a Michael Bay film.
The sequel wasn't quite the disaster I was expecting, but it wasn't really good either. The actual story isn't bad. The premise is that the Transformers have been to Earth before, long ago in our history, and now an ancient Transformer known as the Fallen has returned to finish what he has started. Along the way there are several battles between the Decepticons and the Autobots who wage war on our planet.
The special effect were much better this time out. The robots were better defined and easier to make out, especially during the fight scenes. Most of the fights were done in slow motion to help make it easier to see, but unfortunately the slow motion scenes filtered out into almost every aspect of the film and was completely overused.
The film was conceived during the writer's strike last year. What I imagine happening is Michael Bay creating a series of action scenes, and once the strike was over and the screenwriters were able to work again he gave them those scenes and said to make a story out of it. It's a backwards way to work and that is ultimately the problem with this film: the writing is just simply lazy.
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who wrote the other big Summer blockbuster film Star Trek, are credited along with Ehren Kruger as writing Transformers. I wonder how much of Orci and Kurtzman's work is really in the finished film because Star Trek is a far superior film. There is no character development at all and the humor in the film is just bad.
It is quite possible to write an intelligent funny action film, it's been done several times with great success. Star Trek has several moments of humor that work within the story. Having to rely on crude humor that serves no point to the characters or the story is just cheap. There are about three scenes showing a small dog trying to hump a bigger dog. There's a scene of a small Transformer humping Megan Fox's leg. There are plenty of fart jokes, drug jokes, pussy jokes, and quite honestly inappropriate humor. This is a film that is being marketed towards kids and it is full of language I would not let my kids hear or would I want them exposed to that kind of behavior. It is just embarrassing.
And speaking of Megan Fox, we all know she is a gorgeous person, but we really don't know if she can act, especially with material like this. The extent of her character development in this film is several slow motion shots showing her beautiful figure running while wearing tight skimpy clothes. We get to see lots of her beautifully photographed, but she really doesn't have much else to do beside look good. That's pretty much the amount of effort that was given to characters in this film. I understand it's just a high energy popcorn flick, but I just expect more for my entertainment.
And let's not forget the twin Autobots Wheelie and Skids. I had read briefly about the racial stereotypes in the film before I saw it but I just passed if off to some conservative nuts looking to get people wound up over nothing. Boy was I wrong. They talk as if they are from the ghetto, acting like bumbling idiots and living up to the typical racial black stereotypes. One of them even has a gold tooth. Once again, it's just embarrassing.
Literature is full of the fool characters that act like idiots for comic relief, but they always serve a purpose for the story. From the gravediggers in Hamlet to the peasants in Hidden Fortress to R2-D2 and C-3PO in Star Wars, the characters have brought a purpose to the plot while entertaining with humor. In Transformers they serve no real purpose other than to try and get some cheap laughs with crude and offensive humor.
Most times I really wouldn't care. I got a few minor laughs out of it myself, but mostly I was just left shaking my head. My problem is that this is a film based a line of children's toys and it is being marketed towards children. Maybe more towards older children, but the young ones are definitely going to want to see it too. Quite honestly, it's only real purpose is to help sell some toys. It is irresponsible to just throw in the type of joke you would expect in a teen sex comedy. The movie didn't need all of the bad humor. There is plenty of action and explosions to draw people in to see it. We want and expect humor, but we should want and expect a certain level of intelligence as well.
If the box office is any indication, I am probably in the minority on this. The majority of the population is going to eat this stuff up and love it and not care that a few brain cells were wasted away. It's going to make a ton of money, make a huge profit for the studio, and strengthen their perception that they don't need to spend any time or money on a script. You can dumb it down all you want, the people will come and see it. It's going to help perpetrate a rapidly growing trend of poorly conceived films that rely on special effects and no story. The success of films like Dark Knight or Star Trek, movies that are smartly written and executed perfectly, are going to be outnumbered by the dimwitted fluff that is dominating the box office. Money dictates what the studios will do. As long as people keep buying tickets to these kinds of movies, then they will keep making them.
And I'm a sucker like everyone else. I paid my money. I sat in that theater and did my part to help strengthen the establishment. I usually avoid movies I know are going to be bad, but I held out hope that the critics were wrong and I would be surprised and entertained. I was wrong, they were right. I really thought word of mouth would kill this movie before the weekend, but it seems to have only gotten stronger. I really don't get it, but that's probably because I'm just a cynical old man with a more sophisticated palette.
I am obviously not the targeted demographic. Are you?
Literature is full of the fool characters that act like idiots for comic relief, but they always serve a purpose for the story. From the gravediggers in Hamlet to the peasants in Hidden Fortress to R2-D2 and C-3PO in Star Wars, the characters have brought a purpose to the plot while entertaining with humor. In Transformers they serve no real purpose other than to try and get some cheap laughs with crude and offensive humor.
Most times I really wouldn't care. I got a few minor laughs out of it myself, but mostly I was just left shaking my head. My problem is that this is a film based a line of children's toys and it is being marketed towards children. Maybe more towards older children, but the young ones are definitely going to want to see it too. Quite honestly, it's only real purpose is to help sell some toys. It is irresponsible to just throw in the type of joke you would expect in a teen sex comedy. The movie didn't need all of the bad humor. There is plenty of action and explosions to draw people in to see it. We want and expect humor, but we should want and expect a certain level of intelligence as well.
If the box office is any indication, I am probably in the minority on this. The majority of the population is going to eat this stuff up and love it and not care that a few brain cells were wasted away. It's going to make a ton of money, make a huge profit for the studio, and strengthen their perception that they don't need to spend any time or money on a script. You can dumb it down all you want, the people will come and see it. It's going to help perpetrate a rapidly growing trend of poorly conceived films that rely on special effects and no story. The success of films like Dark Knight or Star Trek, movies that are smartly written and executed perfectly, are going to be outnumbered by the dimwitted fluff that is dominating the box office. Money dictates what the studios will do. As long as people keep buying tickets to these kinds of movies, then they will keep making them.
And I'm a sucker like everyone else. I paid my money. I sat in that theater and did my part to help strengthen the establishment. I usually avoid movies I know are going to be bad, but I held out hope that the critics were wrong and I would be surprised and entertained. I was wrong, they were right. I really thought word of mouth would kill this movie before the weekend, but it seems to have only gotten stronger. I really don't get it, but that's probably because I'm just a cynical old man with a more sophisticated palette.
I am obviously not the targeted demographic. Are you?
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damn! this might be your longest post so far. And a damn good one at that....And no. Iam not the targeted demographic. As a matter of fact, the targeted demographic would enjoy watching a gigantic robot impale me with his fist. But then again, i did like Speed Racer.
ReplyDeleteI'll never understand what you saw in Speed Racer. I really wanted to give it a chance but it's just so bad. Nice to look at in some parts, but it's just bad! You are truely an enigma my friend.
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