The Big Picture: Untransformed

[CK76]

It is curious how Bob flips the switch from whiny entitled fanboy to elitist "calm down whiny entitled fanboys" rhetoric from video to video.

The point is simple, we get emotionally invested in something and if someone takes that from us and changes it we generally do not care for it (see: The book was much better argument ANY time a film is made).

I get where people come from, my younger years were peppered with the disappointment of Godzilla, Batman, Spider-Man, Phantom Menace, Transformers, etc. where existing properties were translated (in my view) poorly.

So, I was thrilled when Batman got another shot with Nolan and I enjoyed it, and I have hopes that Spider-Man might finally get a film about that character I enjoy. If not? Oh well. I, like many others, have lives filled with more things than if our beloved characters are mismanaged "ruins" us. I think perspective is often needed whenever we find ourselves declaring the decline of humanity or civilization based on a film.

 

[LordXel]

While I liked the first and third Transformers films, I don't think we need another one. I have no idea where the movies can go from this point forward. How would you reboot it anyway this quickly? But there were discussions made about producing a theatrical movie based on Transformers Prime, I would pay to see that shit more than once! And Bob, I would just like to reccommend a few things here. If you really want to get your fill of better Transformers material, there are good Transformers cartoons out there aside from G1. (Or the original cartoon as you refer it to as)

How about Beast Wars? Yeah yeah, we've heard of how Transformers shouldn't be animals and we've heard the counter arguement to that, but seriously give Beast Wars a chance if you haven't. It has well developed characters, an amazing story that connects to G1 perfectly, and its not just for kids. It felt like Star Trek for some odd reason.

Transformers Animated is also very good. Yes, I was amoung the many who hated the new designs, but when you get past that, it has so much heart and soul put into it. It is also not just for kids, there are countless references to G1 in it, so much so it becomes fanservice.

Transformers Prime. Okay, even though I like 2 thirds of the movies, I still think that this is how the movies should be. Seriously, check this one out. The human characters do take some time to get used to but they don't constantly steal the attention and they do things other than scream and make stupid jokes. That and the Transformers are well developed, the animation is very good, and theres stories in it other than BOOM BOOM BOOM! That and the music is just fucking fantastic!

I would say that personally, I prefer this lot over G1. I love G1, it has likeable characters, it is very entertaining and it had a good movie, but theres so much about it thats so stupid compared to the rest.

As for the other Transformers cartoons, well Beast Machines isn't as good as Beast Wars but I thought it was okay, I don't care for the animes however. But seriously Bob, if you really hate these movies, which is fine, you'll find the three cartoons that I recommended to be such a delight. You'll properly never read this, but seriously, you'll be missing out on a lot of great stuff if you don't see Beast Wars, Animated or Prime.

 

[NortherWolf]

I think you're missing something, to be honest. Either you clearly didn't actually watch more than maybe a couple episodes of the shows you're talking about, or you really don't like kids and/or Humans at all. Well, it could also be that you just don't like the old material, since the one example you said was good was one of the most recent series.

The thing with the Transformers movies isn't that they HAD people, but that they had uninteresting people that often took center stage while the robots did their thing in the background. At least in the first two movies, it wasn't so bad in Dark of the Moon. You claim that Transformers was never about robots fighting, and yet that's what made up many of the cartoons. While Chip, Carly, and others certainly showed up from time to time, their roles were often backdrops to what was going on. Hell, the episode "Autobot Spike" had his brain put into an empty robot body and he goes crazy and we get lots of "robots fighting", so again I can't really see your point.

If the old show had something going against it, it would have been the lack of a consistent overarching storyline, but since this was the 80's and that was rarely done in those days, it just didn't happen with stuff like GI Joe, Thundar, and Voltron. The overall plots might move along after a while, but most of the episodes were still pretty standalone.

And honestly, the character of Sam and the others in the movies would've been better if they'd been better written. Trying to throw in cheap laughs that don't flow naturally, romantic subplots that weren't really necessary, AND low-brow sex-appeal (in a movie about robots) is really a large part of what undermined the movies' appeal.

I've seen every episode of the shows I listed except Prime*shrugs*I've read every comic and own most of them.
And of course I hate the humans in the shows; they're horrible written annoyances. Which is why I didn't mind the humans in the live-action movies that much. They were all over the place, sure, but they were mostly tolerable. (Okay, except for Leo and Sam).
And my view of the old material is split. I understand the importance of it to me since it got me hooked to Transformers, but it's horribly dated. My Season 1 Transformers G1 DVD rots in the shelf because I can't watch it, even with Cullen and Welker.
Now, as for the fourth movie...DO I want one? Hell yes. Do I want it to be Bay's movie? No, absolutely not. Do I still think MovieBob is a pretentious prick? Oh, absolutely.

 

[jack583]

Incidently, Transformers 3 was THE biggest movie in China last year. And most of them saw it dubbed into Chinese, so dialogue really isn't that important when making money. (watch any movie dubbed into Chinese it sounds AWFUL - bad lip sync, and voices don't fit any actor or situation at all)

here's a tip for mr bay:
KEEP...
HUMANS...
OUT OF IT......

But how to make it relate-able to the masses!??!

i wasn't saying that the problem was the dialog, the problem was that bay focused on the humans, and practically just threw the robots into the background.

did they go into much detail about the struggles of war between the autobots and decepticons?
not really
it was just " we are good! they are bad! both sides need shiny thing!"
and you don't need humans to have someone the audiance can relate to

example: Wall-e
wall-e just works a dead-end job, but it gives his life some purpose and he's thankfull to have it. he just get's up each morning and goes out to do his job. it's hard, yes; it's thankless, yes; but he doesn't complain, he just does what needs to be done.
i, for one, can relate to this character
anyone that has ever had to work for just enough to get by can relate to this character
and it took 0 dialogue to do it

bay could go into cybertrons history, and show what lead to the war.
THAT is something people would like.

 

[bpricems]

Transformers is incredibly dumb-down to reach a mass audience. Kind of like the Twilight series (books, not movies...well, maybe movies too) reading level is incredibly low. Lesson learned - Don't scare away potential customers with anything enlightening or intelligent.

 

[android88]

There was a bad Lord of the Rings film. It was done by Warner Bros. and it was animated. And it sucked. I watched it at around the same time the first Peter Jackson film version came out and it's not even in the same league.