It is not that I don't believe things could be better executed, it's that every time people say "This or that should be better, they are vague about it.
Sure, I could come up with ideas. So could a lot of us. But being able to come up with ideas myself doesn't tell me what other people wanted to see, or what would have been reasonable to expect to see from such a film. That is what I am curious about. I'm frankly starting to question if people truly understand what they're talking about when they say "I wanted better characterization, more themes, and a better story".
I think the relevant themes are there, and have been there. In this movie, the themes were evolved and developed fairly well, considering. This movie even managed to touch on the theme of resources, tying it to theme of responsibility that was begun in the first movie, not only in dealing with the scarcity of them (Energon resources), but the responsibility the Transformers have in deciding whether to share certain resources with humanity (weapons and technology).
This story isn't remotely crap. I don't think the story in REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is brilliant, mind you. It's very point to point, in some ways your typical "globetrotting reveal" storyline, where a little more is discovered about the plot every so often until it makes sense, the threat is revealed, the stakes are set, etc. But it's not like no thought at all went into this storyline. It is not, given the subject matter and the possibilities...a particularly bad story. I do think certain elements of it are pretty compelling. And frankly, I think in a 2:30 film that was always going to have a lot of action in it, this was a decent story effort.
I also want to add...jokes aren't story. As such, a film with a lot of humor or jokes in it is not neccessarily a film without a story. If you pay attention, you'll see that the scenes with jokes in them also generally inform the story and move it forward.
I think to flesh out the relevant Transformer history elements much more, and you'd be looking at a frankly, pretty bloated film that instead of just getting to the point, harped on the point with even more exposition. Is there even an appropriate way to "show, don't tell" some of the things they need to get aross?
Cut the 20 minutes or so of "sheer nonsense" out of the movie and you're STILL looking at a long film that would have had to have a lot of screentime added to it in order to flesh out ideas like the Primes, the Transformers origins, or their personal relationships.
That said, three months was more than enough time to make a story, decent characters, etc. They chose to go this route with the time they had. The Writer's Strike shouldn't be used as an excuse for any weaknesses this movie has.
The main problem for me was the fact that there was not a "theme" in the movie. And a film without a theme is a film without a soul. I still don´t know what the story wanted to tell me.
I won't argue your point about character development, although I thought Sam had a decent amount. And I thought the themes were pretty obvious.
The weight of sacrifice, trust and loyalty, all around. Several of the characters in the movie inform these themes. Sam, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream, The Fallen, and Jetfire, even Mikaela and Simmons, to some extent.
I think movie could have had some more heart. More of a sense of loss when one falls, etc. That's one of the major things that bothers me about this franchise. The Transformers don't seem to have the attachment to their comrades that humans do. Maybe that's on purpose, but it's a missed element. And more (hella expensive) bonding between the Transformers is always nice to see.
But again...that's the execution of characterization.
The character development should be all about the robots, not the humans. The humans aren't really important, except maybe the army guys and government people that work with the Autobots. The cartoon and the comics are about the robot's struggle. Spike, his family, and his girlfriend really have no importance later on. They helped introduce the robots. The next movie should be about their war, their personal struggles, history, etc. Not that hard, Guard
Ok, so you want less humans and more Transformers. But that doesn't tell me anything about WHAT the character development should be.
Someone tell me what a really good Transformers story is. Not neccessarily how to execute it, but what elements does it have?
If it's not "Humans growing as people, Transformers dealing with elements of their past and history and future, and their friends and allies being threatened, and global battles with the Decepticons and humanity being threatened"...what the hell should it be about?
Someone pitch me a better storyline, or at least a good one.
