Great news! Christian Bale is set to play John Connor!
Horrible news! It’s being directed by McG.
🙁
I’m having flashbacks to when I learned there’d be a live action Transformers movie with the original Optimus Prime, but it’d be directed by Michael Bay.
You didn’t like the movie?
Not especially. I thought the action sequences were fantastic. I heard that some people thought they ran too long (and I thought the same about some scenes in The Island), but they were fine by me. And Megan Fox was stunning and appropriately named.
The problem I had was with the goofy humor. The transformers trying to be quiet in the back yard, the over the top performance of John Turturro, etc.
And I KNOW this is a sci fi film based on a cartoon that deals with alien robot life forms… but even the basic computer terminology in the film was cringe-inducing. When I heard the actress say, “This is the same signal that hacked the DOD computer!” I had flashbacks to the little girl in Jurassic Park saying, “I know this, this is Unix!” Then we see some strange VR flyby shot. Which, again, is pure sci fi, but that didn’t stop that quote from being a huge joke to Unix users everywhere.
Overall, I came out thinking that if I was 11, I’d really enjoy this movie. Maybe that was the point, but my expectations had been raised considerably by people in their 30’s telling me how awesome the movie was. I also heard a lot of people actually liked the goofy humor that kept me groaning and rolling my eyes. I guess that doesn’t surprise me too much, either.
Try to keep in mind that some people’s perspective might be altered at that age by having children. There are many things I certainly wouldn’t enjoy so much without my kids. (present at the film)
So there’s a sense of bonding over the old generation meeting the new. Although a TV guru like you will note that the Transformers haven’t really been gone. The show is still going strong. Much like the Power Rangers, they just mix up the storyline every year or so, update the toys, and make money for yet another year.
I’m also bias based on their choice to use the Air Force’s elite combat controllers complete with badass C-130. I like that it made the humans not COMPLETELY USELESS like in the cartoons.
I hear you, that makes sense. I’ve always thought movies were a social experience, which is why I’ve only gone solo once. I’m sure it’s special that you get to share something with your kids that you enjoyed, just like many generations were able to both enjoy Looney Toons together for several decades.
What’s interesting is the divide between animated series for kids and those adults can enjoy. More recently, there have been some great superhero series that adults can enjoy like Justice League, Batman Beyond, and some of the new Marvel movies (New Avengers and Dr. Strange were both good). Then you have series that are clearly targeted to kids (e.g., Teen Titans, the more recent Transformers and GI Joe cartoons). Since I don’t have any, they don’t appeal to me.
For Transformers, it was PG-13 because of the violence, but the rest of the movie was kid friendly. I bet they were aiming for PG, which would have bagged them even more money. I *thought* the original Transformers cartoon was ok for adults, but it was so long ago I could easily be mistaken. I think the people my age who liked it were reliving their youth. And let’s face it, a lot of adults like that goofy humor – not everyone is a warped bastard like me 🙂