Thursday, June 7, 2007

More Than Meets The Eye?

Now that summer 2007 is finally upon us, and the blockbuster movie season has begun, I find myself staring into the impending release of the Michael Bay directed Transformers. I have had mixed feelings about this film since production was announced years ago: I hate Michael Bay, but I love Transformers.
I remember when I first heard that the movie was in production I was ecstatic, A live-action Transformers movie has massive potential, but then I heard that Michael Bay was attached to direct. To fully understand my horror at this revelation, you must first understand my hatred of Bay as a director: a shitty music video director, Bay somehow went from Meat Loaf videos to popcorn flicks such as Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, and Armageddon. Needless to say, Bay is the poster child for the style-over-substance approach that is plaguing American cinemas today.
Now, I know that any good Transformers movie will have plenty of explosions. The only type of sequence that Bay can actually direct is the explosion-filled chase scene. However, action and explosions does not always make a great action film, take Bay last film The Island for instance, it was an over budget box-office failure that turned a decent plot idea into a steaming pile of crapola.
As far as Transformers is concerned, there is a well established continuity of characters and themes that has been developed from years of comics and cartoons that needs to be respected in any interpretation. My issues arise when I hear the words "reboot" and "re-imagining" tossed around by a director who originally had no interest in a "stupid toy movie" and admittedly has no knowledge of the vast Transformers continuum. Megatron is said to transform into an "alien jet", not a pistol or a gun or even a cannon, an "alien jet". what about Starscream? he's a jet too. Hell, why don't they make all the Decepticons Jets? (When your a Jet your a Jet all the way). Bumblebee was changed from a VW Bug into a Camaro: WTF!?!? I always thought only assholes drove Camaros: with Bay at the helm I guess I was right.
Maybe I'm just a pretentious fanboy: but is it really that hard to get the little details right? I was pissed about the symbiote suit's origin in Spiderman 3 (gimme at least a Secret Wars reference). I will go up in arms if the rumors are true and Galactus is portrayed as a space cloud in the new Fantastic 4 film. No matter what, this film is gonna make boatloads of cash, so why not try to make a film that shows some amount of respect for what has come before? I am positive that Transformers will be a special-effects laden rollercoaster ride, but I am equally positive that it will be lacking in one area that a director like Michael Bay can never give to a film: heart.