Transformers Movie Review: Optimus Prime was Robbed!
Tags: Bumblebee | Hugo-Weaving | Megatron | Michael-Bay | Movies | Optimus-Prime | Peter-Cullen | Starscream | stupid | Transformers
“Stay away, lad! That’s Prime’s fight!” — Kup, in the original 1986 Transformers animated movie. I just watched Michael Bay’s Transformers movie at the Gateway Globe Platinum Theater. Believe it or not, it’s even more of an abomination than everyone expected it to be — from jumpy editing to fake graphics to gibberish computerspeak to […]Click here to continue reading "Transformers Movie Review: Optimus Prime was Robbed!"...Transformers Movie Review: Optimus Prime was Robbed!
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It’s been a while since there was film this polarizing. I’ve gone through dozens of reviews and read the comments. This is one film that you either love it or you hate it.
I have yet to find someone who’s ambivalent towards Transformers. Those who love it love it in a freakin’-awesome-best-film-of-the-year way while those who hate it hate it in a crappy-garbage-dumb-hollywood-monstrosity way.
Also, those who hate it oftentimes train their anger towards Michael Bay. Few have mentioned the screenwriters who are equally, if not, more culpable than the director.
Most miss the fact that in the making of any film, the screenplay is the “Allspark.” Film directors cannot actually shoot without a script. If you are to read a screenplay, all the action sequences are carefully detailed. If you watched this year’s Oscars, they clearly demonstrated this when they handed out the best screenplay award. A voice-over read the sequence while the actual scene is played out. In film-making, the director’s job is to flesh out the what is written on the script.
Of course it’s a collaborative effort and the director can suggest changes. Note, he can only suggest. Ultimately it’s the vision of the screenwriters that carries more weight.
Notice how Hollywood stars accept or decline a movie role. They first read the script before deciding if they should go on board or not. They are not concerned with visuals (as that’s the director’s job). They are more concerned with the story and how it is played out in the script.
In the case of Transformers, the hatred that has been mostly directed at Michael Bay is often misplaced. One has to figure out the motivations of Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the screenwriters) behind the writing of the film.
Here’s part of an interview by Geek Monthly with the two writers that gives us a glimpse behind their motivations:
“Bob: He (Steven Spielberg) was very involved. He was the first one that asked us to do it. We were like what is it? We couldn’t even imagine how to go about it. We knew that action scenes would be amazing but we didn’t want it to just be a giant toy commercial. And neither did he. And of course, he had the answer.
GM: And what was that?
Bob: He gave us the first clue that opened up our minds to what the movie could be. It was the scene of a boy and his car. In that one sentence, it became very clear that the human point of view was going to be more important than we were thinking of it being. And that the process of discovering the Transformers was going to be a process that you would need someone to represent the audience in the movie. And not just focus, exclusively, on the giant robots.
Alex: We worked with him on every draft. Every meeting to how the movie was going to be to marketing to everything. I remember we wrote the first transformation and he actually gave us the note that he really wanted us to take our time with the description because he wanted to savor the transformation and make sue that we really went into it and it wasn’t just thrown away.”
And more insights:
“Alex: Steven has the mind of a kid certainly when approaching movies like this one, which is the best thing in the world. It’s this absolutely non-cynical, free-thinking mind that is a pleasure to be around. Also, as a film maker, he knows the adult in him needs the rule and structure and that this movie requires that. He was a great balance for those two things.”
Gleaning from this, we now know why this movie comes off totally disgusting to some while absolutely brilliant to others.
If you watch this film as an adult, expecting an adult treatment, an adult mythos and an adult logic, you’ll be sorely disappointed as it doesn’t follow grown-up rules. The screenwriters are deliberately reaching out to that kid inside you who has been asleep for the last two decades. A kid doesn’t care about plot, dialogue or logic. He just wants to see robots and he wants to imagine himself with the robots. This is precisely the reason why Sam Witwicky had such a huge part in the film. Sam reperesents that kid in all of us.
If you are unable to see this movie from the eyes of a child, it will be a total disaster as you’ll feel you’re being treated like a mindless toddler.
However, those who find this film awesome saw it with fresh eyes. They were able to suspend disbelief and just let the kid in them take over.
What I am really jealous of are my own kids who have seen Transformers for the first time in their lives. This is and will probably be the best movie they have ever seen. The look in their eyes is priceless.
As for me, I have enjoyed this movie immensely. And I do think it is a good one. Not because the plot is brilliant or that it is intelligent.
It is a good one because it didn’t try to reason or plead with my intellect. It spoke right through my gut and succeeded in awakening the child in me. I cannot recall another film that made me as giddy as my children that were seated beside me.
More than a couple of times I went “whoa” simultaneously with my kids. For a magical two hours me and my kids are all eight-year olds. It’s one experience I will truly cherish.
It’s just impossible to have no reaction to this movie once you’ve seen it.
For that, I think Michael Bay has succeeded. Whether you love this film or you hate it, there is one undeniable truth. Bay has made an impression on you.
Wow…I felt completely robbed. I am studying for the CA bar exam right now. And this movie was going to be my little treat at the end of the week. (In fact, the first Transformers movie was my treat for finishing first grade in 1986 …he he he) But this new movie….I can’t even begin to express the many ways I felt disappointed. I mean… c’mon 1 hr and 10 minutes before we finally see Optimus Prime! And no RC!! …And feeling nauseous from the shaking camera…And to read they have already starting working on no. 2!!! Oh, the horror!! Thanks for listening to my little incoherent rant. Peace!
Eloisa, you should read what Marmite wrote. I think his post was very very well said.
And good luck with your bar exams, I know that your mind is close to going nuts. that’s why you weren’t able to enjoy the movie. That’s sooooooooooooooooo saddddddddddddddddddddddddd.
Kudos to Marmite!! I agree with everything you had just posted.
and oh, sorry. are you female? you write as though you’re not.
“(In fact, the first Transformers movie was my treat for finishing first grade in 1986 …he he he) But this new movie….I can’t even begin to express the many ways I felt disappointed. I mean… c’mon 1 hr and 10 minutes before we finally see Optimus Prime! And no RC!! ”
and it’s a “treat” for you since first grade? what!? no Barbie dolls for you?
you have one sad life as a girl.
Hi, I just came across this review and read most of the comments here. One comment struck me as making a lot of sense–that of Marmite.
I work in the advertising industry as a TV commercial writer and although my job is not as big as that of Robet Orci and Alex Kurtzman, I can relate with their motivations.
Just as in the creation of a TV commercial, a movie has to have that one single hook or idea that should resonate with audiences. Everything else follows when you succeed in finding and latching on to a very powerful and very human insight. I think Steven Spielberg had it so right when he thought Transformers can be distilled simply as a story about a boy and his car.
I think that is sheer brilliance. As some fans have suggested, this movie should have centered solely around the ancient battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. As an “imagineer” myself, I can picture quite vividly how neat and how cool that must look! I can imagine a great dessert plain (the Salt Flats in the US?) with thousands of brutal robots ripping each other apart.
But as a storyteller, I will have a hard time sustaining the imagery if there is no humanity behind it.
Remember how awful Godzilla was in spite of it being a huge spectacle. There was no human drama and audiences simply ditched the film, relegating its creators to has-beens and monumental failures.
It may seem like it, but audiences aren’t really flocking to see Transformers just for the CGI effects and the mindless explosions. They are charmed by Bumblebee’s antics at helping Sam get a hot chick or by the almighty Optimus Prime acting not like a ruthless general but more like a father to his fellow Autobots.
These little human touches lend a sense of magic and more importantly, a soul to the film.
It’s that inexplicable, intangible human connection that bypasses the logical reasoning part of the brain. Yes, this film hits you in the gut. You can forgive the shallow plot. All that matters is the feeling that “Hey, I can make friends with these bots, I’d like to have them on my yard, too.”
There may be lapses in plot and storytelling and the screenplay won’t win Orci and Kurtzman an Oscar but the idea is there, the human connection is there and I give this film a thumbs-up as well for making me feel like a little boy again.
And Marmite is right in saying, love it or hate it, but the one truth is, you cannot ignore it.