My whole point is that Jurassic Park, Jaws, etc. are simple movies, but they are clever and fun. Speilberg wants you to care what happens to his characters, Michael Bay just dazzles you with special effects and that is the problem with TF.
I'll just make the obvious point. That's all there's ever really BEEN to Transformers, that, and the usual "forced comic book drama". You are aware that Spielberg was involved in this, right?
If you don't care what happens to the characters in TRANSFORMERS, that's down to you. The movie gave you ample reason to care about them in context.
I made a crack how he advertises the military in 2/3 of his movie to pander to cheap American patriotism or sentimentalism, but to make it clear I am not against patriotism and listed three directors who do it and mean it. But the entire tone of Michael Bay's movies was best described in the beat for beat parody that Trey Parker and matt Stone did, the classic Team America.
TEAM AMERICA is parodying big action movies in general. Were Bay's movies a part of it? Sure. Once again, though...where does TRANSFORMERS pander in terms of patriotism?
And that is my point. I went into TF open minded and it was another mindless action movie.
And that is MY point. What did you expect it to be? It's TRANSFORMERS. How would you have made it any less mindless? THey went into the whole "National Defense" angle, the computer stuff, they tied it to technology, and they played with the "more than meets the eye" angle with several characters. And you're sitting here going "But it was so shallow and mindless because it had jokes in it". Just not seeing it, sorry.
It's development as you call it is obligatory and there simply to satisfy audiences.
Obligatory development as opposed to what? NONE? It is as it always was in the show and the comics. What kind of human character development do you want to see? They gave us relevant development, stuff that humans go through in the situations they found themselves in, stuff that informs and affects the plot.
While the plot point exposition is the Macguffin according to Alfred Hitchcock, everything Bay does is the macguffin. It is all forced and silly so he can sell the visuals that put the butts in the seat so that the studio and advertisers have something to make money off of in the summer.
Forced and silly in what way?
The movie has no real pacing or rising suspense, but a series of interchangeable generic teen comedy jokes that builds to a predictable ending and then when the actio nscnes come they try and create drama with fast cutting and big explosions. I'm no longer a kid and it doesn't work on me. bah.
See, this just sounds like you're SAYING this and expecting it to be true. Again, what in God's name did you want to see?
I'll take your chemistry complaint. I said it was bland and boring, Fox is a bad actress and she and LaBeouf were not interesting, nor did I (or most people) care what happened to them.
I don't know what to tell you. The chemistry is awkward teen guy wants "the hot girl", and that's exactly what it felt like. Yes, Fox is a terrible actor, but she fit her role. To say Shia wasn't interesting in the movie strikes me as insane. It was one of the most involving performances of the year.
The reason is (besides Fox's bad performance) is that they just are there. Bay takes the for granted. Technically the character arcs you trumpet should rely heavily on them getting together, but the audience isn't rooting for them. They are just biding their time until Bay blows some **** up with some comical jokes. It is a drag to watch them.
See, this is just you saying things and expecting it to be true. You just seem to think that you can conveniently dismiss every "character scene" or any "tension building scene" as if it does not exist.
SW does not have one of the great love stories of all time, obviously. But Han and Leia are very memorable and there scenes in ESB crackled because of charismatic performers who had chemistry and a good script for them to work with (yes Kasadan is a good screenwriter. Go watch Body Heat and The Big Chill for more).
Kasden is a good story man. He writes realistic dialogue. But he's not brilliant. STAR WARS romantic angle works because of Ford and Fisher, but it's not especially clever stuff. In fact, it's rather trite and cliche. "The bad boy and the girl who pretends she doesn't want him while he pretends he doesn't want her"?
It wasn't the selling point of the movie but it helped sell the tragedy of Han frozen in carbonite.
Ok...
If Mikela had died at the end of TF I would have shrugged.
I'm pretty sure that because Michael Bay was involved, you would shrugged regardless of what happened or how well executed it was.
And btw I do think Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have chemistry.
Now I see the problem we're facing...
Hate them for the characters or not the reason she was cast was because she and Tobey had an energy between them that can be felt in all three films (particularly the first one). And Raimi made their relationship something important to the characters so the audience would invest in them when she was in danger. It is simple storytelling.
It is the main storyline. TRANSFORMERS was about giant robots coming to Earth with a subplot about Sam and Mikaela. And that's what it was.
Transformers is a badly told story.
Why? And be specific, please.
You're right it is no more deep in concept than any of the movies I listed, but the execution is horrendous.
Why? And be specific, please.
I'm sorry Obi-Wan Kenobi's death is classic. Quint's death is classic. ****, Harry's death in SM3 is at least memorable and moving in a very flawed and awkward movie that should not have those kind of grace points. NO ONE (even the fans) GIVES A FLYING **** JAZZ DIED.
Prove it.
That should tell you why TF is a bad movie. But you excuse it as "simple summer entertainment" that cannot possibly rise above the Hollywood system and be something of substance while still being an entertaining blockbuster film.
I have excused it as no such thing. I have simply asked, numerous times, if you wanted it to be more, to tell me specifically what you wanted to see that was missing.
There was nothing "simple" about TRANSFORMERS. There were some issues dealt with.
But just last year Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille and Harry Potter 5 proved that wrong.
Yeah...no. ULTIMATUM was a more simplistic and less deep story than the two previous films. I don't think any Bourne fan would argue that. Ditto HARRY POTTER 5, which may be the thinnest installment of the franchise so far. RATATOUILLE was entertaining, but mostly because of the cleverness, not because of any great depth or wonderful character development.
