Michael Bay Puts a Bounty on Racist Transformers

[TheRealCJ]

Of course they are stereotypes. The robots learned everything they know from the internet. Hell, there even was this medic-bot yelling YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME HUH? COE AT ME BRO!

God forbid the autobots have spent too much time on memebase.

Please stop trying to justify anything that happens in Bayformers. It doesn't work.

It does if the person you're talking to doesn't ignore what is said in the film itself.

I honestly don't understand the hate. Its a film about robots fighting and crude humour. It is in no way canon. Which means fans of the originals need to get over it.

Honestly? I never really got into Transformers as a kid. My parents could never afford any toys of that calibre for me, and I'm a 90s baby, so I never really had a chance to watch the cartoons.

So I went into the Bayformers movies woth only a detached knowledge of the Transformers Canon, and even on its own merits it sucked: The characters were all two-dimensional action movie cliches; the cinematics was... well, I don't think there WERE any; and those giant badass robots spent more time being goofy support characters to the humans than, well, being giant badass robots.

The sequel then took all those problems, ramped them up to eleven, and then added a bigger budget and thicker layer of desert dust.

 

[The3rdEye]

This isn't the kind of challenge you make unless you're sure you're going to win.

Hmm... why does this sound familiar?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/2/12/

I wonder if he would actually pay up though. And I wonder how a Director's Cut would play into things.

 

[Flauros]

So, instead of keeping the characters in and have appearences be DECEIVING when we find out more about them........they are eternally locked as they are because theyve been deleted.

I was so excited about the first Transformers when it came out. Was a big fan of them when i was younger. Now i couldnt give a shit, just another movie thats coming out. Cant wait till they do that to everything, maybe finally I will grow up having deleted my childhood, lol

 

[theultimateend]

Oh, I think I spotted them

Spoiler: image

Thats obviously fake. There aren't nearly enough explosions for that to be a Michael Bay movie. Also, I noticed a distinct lack of slow motion boobies.

Well, if you squint, the bloom of the explosion in the lower right (where the orange robot is) kind of looks like a boobie. And it's a still, which is the slowest kind of motion there is.

That $25 000 is as good as yours, Ranorak.

I might be mistaken but I don't think still counts as a kind of motion. Motion is like an exponential decay. It comes extremely close (infinitely so) to 0 but never reaches it.

I think.

I dunno.

Of course they are stereotypes. The robots learned everything they know from the internet. Hell, there even was this medic-bot yelling YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME HUH? COE AT ME BRO!

God forbid the autobots have spent too much time on memebase.

Please stop trying to justify anything that happens in Bayformers. It doesn't work.

It does if the person you're talking to doesn't ignore what is said in the film itself.

I honestly don't understand the hate. Its a film about robots fighting and crude humour. It is in no way canon. Which means fans of the originals need to get over it.

I never saw the originals and didn't enjoy it.

The camera work was terrible and the primary focus was on a series of extremely dry human characters.

It was a demonstrable hack job whose success I believe only came along because of the name drop. Had it been called "RoboCombat" or some other unknown name it would have done only moderately well at best.

Michael Bay is a fantastically terrible director whose works do well despite him and not because of him.

 

[Optimystic]

It seems strange, however, that Bay would film and render shots of the Twins in the first place, if they weren't ever going to appear in the movie.

The answer to this is obvious - he went to the Bioware school of directing.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

So Michael Bay can't say "Oh, that was a joke" or "Oh, that, that's a hanged munchkin? [http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicide.asp]"

One green or orange pixel out of place, skillfully edited in, and you've got a viral already to go.

Especially if Bay blames it on a "disgruntled employee".

Even at the moment, I could rip a frame out of Transformers, and 'shop it into Dark of the Moon. That nets me $25,000 and anyone else who watches it, equally bankrupting Bay.

You honestly don't think he has an army of lawyers ready to deny it's existence, even if it's actually there?

Yeah, the quote you took wasn't meant to be taken wholly seriously, and I agree with you. I believe the statement was a joke from the off. Not a masterpiece of comedy or anything, but it's a way of expressing his confidence in the fact that those two particular transformers have been removed, in the same way some people 'swear on their own life' about things. Either way, whether they're in or not, there will always be people who find a suspicious looking frame, and, as you said, send it viral. Nobody will get any money from it either, even if they've been undeniably spotted, officially under the pretense of whatever excuse can be conjured up by Hollywood's Lawyers.

 

[samsonguy920]

I didn't find those two nearly as annoying as the large decepticon with the wrecking balls in Revenge of the Fallen. That inclusion was beyond tacky and scene destroying.
If anything they stole a scene or two away from Shia LeBouf, which I count in their favor.

I don't plan on watching this on the big screen, but I will keep an eye out when it comes out on dvd.

 

[Carlston]

played on racist stereotypes of African-Americans.

Really... did Cybertron have a fifth ward? A Ghetto?
No? You do all know the original comic of transformers they crashed on earth, and when reawakened in modern day they got personalities from radio...tv ect.


Bout as lame and weak as the Japanese whining about the Trade Fed in episode 1.

Guess I should be offended by the violent destroy everything white stereotype Megatron had hmm?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Two things: One, the movie better explain where they went. I hate it when characters simply disappear. Drives me nuts.
Two, since they're gone, can we get more screen time with the Triplets? I want to know more about them. They seemed like the most interesting characters in the second movie, and I think between them they had two lines of dialogue.

 

[metal mustache]

so what Bay is saying is that he has secretly hidden the twins somewhere in the movie, and the first 100 people to find him get $25,000!? awesome!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Yeah, the quote you took wasn't meant to be taken wholly seriously, and I agree with you.

Difficult to tell with text at times.

The problem that Michael Bay has is that he forgot (or hadn't researched) that the Autobot form is the original Cybertron form (not Earth based - The Earth based one is the car).

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and even Jazz (Hmmm...Dies first?) are inhuman. Mudflap and Skids are human based, which makes them either wildly inaccurate or leaving a message.

 

[Mahorfeus]

To be completely honest, I watch these movies to see robots blow shit up. The at-times barely coherent plot just ties those parts together, and the excessive humor is just the same stupid crap I would expect from the cartoons. Beast Wars was as guilty as hell. In many ways the first two movies were crappy, but I expected them to be (they are toy movies after all), and I had fun watching them anyway.

And by Odin almighty, if THOR of all franchises was adapted into one of the best Marvel movies ever, I still think there's some hope left for a genuinely good Transformers movie to be made. If it's bad, well, at least more robots will get the hell blown out of them than the last two movies.

 

[EllEzDee]

Check please.

Why'd America decide que was too far fetched for cheque?
Besides that, i have no idea what any of this means because i fucking hate transformers just a little bit more than i hate Michael Bay.
Cos Pearl Harbour sucked...just a little bit more than i miss youuuuuu...

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

Has anyone thought of the fact that you can use that $25,000 for fighting the lawsuit that the movie theatre would bring against you for using a handycam in the theatre so you can collect his bounty?

- honest, I'm not pirating the movie... I'm trying to collect a bounty

 

[standokan]

...wait ...did Micheal Bay just get some kinda positive promotion?

 

[moosek]

Nobody wanted this out of a Transformer movie. The first had enough awesome robots killing each other to overshadow the stupid teen comedy stuff. The second was an abomination.

 

[Belated]

If you looked at those two Transformers and thought "black people", you are the racist here. Not the guy who designed them. And yet, we all did. We all saw the resemblance to stereotypes. Why? Because we're all a little bit racist. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM]

But y'see, movie characters like Skids and Mudflap, or Jar Jar Binks, we should not be trying to avoid them. We should allow them, and try to avoid thinking of them as racially-charged. Treat their personalities, not as racially-charged, but as unique personalities that just happen to resemble old stereotypes. Treat it like coincidence and nothing more.

Stop. Do not suspend me for this post. There is nothing wrong with any of it. Everybody IS a little bit racist. And "black people" is not an offensive term as long as "white people" is still acceptable, which it is. And that song wasn't inappropriate either. Though it is meant for comedy, there is truth in it and it can be informative.

I had to stop at "Jar Jar Binks" and "We should allow them."

It's not recommended to argue for two hated characters by bringing up an even more despised character and saying "we should allow them."

You are correct in the point "that we're all a little bit racist."

Look at my name. I work with kids. They can see race as well. There's a long debate whether it's is taught by peers or naturally learned, but the fact is that they notice differences and can't "treat it like coincidence." Kids as young as six know that Skids, Mudflap, and Jar Jar Binks have the characteristics of real ethnic groups. They also agree that these three are the most annoying characters.

Whether racialist thinking is passed on through nature or nurture I think that perpetuating these stereotypes through the media is extremely damaging for children and society overall. ESPECIALLY in the case of Skids, Mudflap, and Jar Jar which were deliberately created to appeal to and marketed with towards children. It sends the wrong message to impressionable youth: that is okay to make fun of others.

You should know, when a "for our kids!" argument is used to oppose the contents of creative media (films, books, games, music, etc.), I take such an argument with a grain of salt. Phrases like "impressionable" and "damaging" raise red flags to me.

First of all, kids six years old shouldn't be seeing Transformers. If their parents are taking them to Transformers, their PARENTS are "damaging" to them, not the movie. But if we're talking about kids around, 11 to 15, perhaps 10, they'll be fine. Seeing Transformers isn't going to hurt their oh-so-precious little intellects. Skids and Mudflap aren't going to turn them into racists. The cinema doesn't damage kids, irresponsible parents do. I saw Star Wars Episode 1 when I was really young, not even two-digits. And I didn't turn into some KKK member just because of Jar Jar. Nothing bad happened to my head. And nothing will happen to anybody else's. You worry too much.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

If you looked at those two Transformers and thought "black people", you are the racist here. Not the guy who designed them. And yet, we all did. We all saw the resemblance to stereotypes. Why? Because we're all a little bit racist. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM]

But y'see, movie characters like Skids and Mudflap, or Jar Jar Binks, we should not be trying to avoid them. We should allow them, and try to avoid thinking of them as racially-charged. Treat their personalities, not as racially-charged, but as unique personalities that just happen to resemble old stereotypes. Treat it like coincidence and nothing more.

Stop. Do not suspend me for this post. There is nothing wrong with any of it. Everybody IS a little bit racist. And "black people" is not an offensive term as long as "white people" is still acceptable, which it is. And that song wasn't inappropriate either. Though it is meant for comedy, there is truth in it and it can be informative.

thats cool and all. but lets drop the whole ''race'' thing.and conclude they were just overall annoying characters...

This. I mean, I thought that the cries of "Racist!" at those characters were pretty stupid, too. What we should be condemning these movies for is how badly they suck, not for made-up accusations of racism.

 

[Alphakirby]

Oh, I think I spotted them

Thats obviously fake. There aren't nearly enough explosions for that to be a Michael Bay movie. Also, I noticed a distinct lack of slow motion boobies.

and military vehicles,and soldiers.

OT: To Michael Bay,

But how do I send in my entry?

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Transformers related racism? I have one word.

Carbombia.

Seriously, It's nothing new.

That was a piss poor decision when it was made in 1984, and it cost them Kasey Kaseem as one of their voice actors.

Just because they managed to give a middle eastern country a name that's offensively stupid doesn't mean Michael Bay has got some kind of carte blanche to include every stereotype he can think of in his movie; since its supposed to be the mature production.

And personally, I didn't think the twins were African American at all...

I thought they frickin' Hill-Billies...

This I'm pretty in line with, calling them racist gives them more credit than they deserve: they're just fucking stupid. The rendering time and money on them could have been used to include more of Arcee, Jolt or Sideswipe.