Understand, when I say this isn't me defending Transformers. This is me defending blockbusters.
First and foremost, I don't think he's completely wrong. Of course for a movie to be even remotely watchable, the movie has to have some underlying context moving the characters along. If not, you're basically watching a film full of clips. There is just no way a person will go watch a flick if they know that the only thing they're getting is explosions, a couple of cool action sequences and no context. Fortunately this NEVER happens.
This is what does happen; Summer comes around, and at the time, the big studios get to unleash upon the crowd these big, fuel injected spectacles unto the masses, hoping that the $150 million they dropped on the project will yield at least as much return. Where does a budget like that go you may ask? Well, it goes to many places: to pay obscene actor and director salaries, as well as the mile and half long credit list. But if you ever take the time to look at the budget of one of these productions, you'll see, more than any other area, the money gets spent in two places: Special Effects and Marketing. Many of these movies will secure the ridiculously high budgets before a script is even penned, as was the case with Transformers: Revenge of Michael Bay. I'm sure most of you are well aware the script issues this movie had (if not, in as few words as possible, the script was done in like two weeks, in a hotel room, while Kurtzman and Orci were awaiting the impending writers strike, as well as working with Mr. J.J. Abrams on his monumental Star Trek reboot).
It's not secret that on many of these projects, the script is more of an afterthought than a driving force behind what gets these movies made. Clearly there are the exceptions (Iron Man, the Dark Knight, the aforementioned Star Trek...), and so surely, the writer of this topics blog article has some ground to stand on with his argument. Here is where we begin to part ways though.
I'm a summer blockbuster fan. No doubt about it. I can sit through most of these films, and walk out thoroughly entertained. I watch the explosions, the fight sequences, the crazy, unrealistic driving and chasing scenes, and I eat it up like the popcorn in the bucket sitting in my lap. It gets the blood pumping, and the imagination running a mile a minute. Scratch that, a mile a second. For me to enjoy them though, I'm usually forced to accept that the plot was probably the least developed part of the movie. But to be brutally honest, sometimes, I'm grateful for it.
In every season (most notoriously the months leading up to Oscar noms), we get the standard dramatic fair. Movies that take the plot super seriously. Not ONE of these movies would exist if it didn't have a script that made the studios think that there was something to it. Three seasons out of the year, we get, what, 100 mainstream dramatic flicks all competing for attention? And that's fine. I like movies that make me think outside the box. That shift my perspective for 90 minutes to 2 hours.
But chances are, they don't have very many explosions, and honestly, that probably for the best, seeing as big spectacles tend to detract from the engaging plot that's been laid out for us ever since the directors name flashed across the screen for the first time. Certainly there are exceptions. Movies that have found a nice balance. But a lot of movies that have tried that, ended up falling flat on their face in either trying to provide a spectacle, or developing the plot to make it all work (Superman Returns, anyone?)
But with most of the summer blockbusters, they don't try to hard to make you wade through the metaphors and artistic depictions. They allow you to escape into an action filled frenzy, not bogged down by something, that by action movie standards, would come across as melodramatic.
I know there are more than a few of you who won't agree with me. That's fine. I'm not looking for followers. I'm just providing an alternate take on the blockbuster plot issue, a view I've been trying to get out there for some time now. I'll be the first to admit it: I hold these movies to a different standard of entertainment. I might get flack for this, but I freely admit it. Call it the child in me, but who doesn't like to see shit blow up?
