SFR said:
You mentioned the hole "Dude, I just want to see robots fight and not think for a few hours" but you never said anything about it after that. Why? Could you not give a reasoning behind those who like that sort of thing? I'm definitely more into movies with deeper messages, subtext, believable/developed characters, and an original story, but come on. Are you telling me you've never watched a movie just for fun? You gave props to fucking Parana 3D. Is this not similar albeit to a less degree of mind numbing, poorly written fun?
Also, what do you have against the robot design? I've never understood that. The original ones frankly kinda suck, at least if they were made to look real. I guess I'm just one for over-complex design. I like all the moving parts and sort of almost tribal motif.
In short, I like you MovieBob. You give chances to those who normally don't. But it's movies like these that really show how much bias you have. You might be totally right, but you tend to blow things out of proportion and start attacking people verbally.
Bob gives very polarized reviews. Every movie is either the greatest thing ever to touch celluloid or the most execrable piece of garbage ever passed off as entertainment. It's almost like he's unable to be neutral.
But then, as a critic, he A) is required to find faults, and B) sees a great many movies, which present him with the same faults over, and over, and over. He's jaded to a greater degree than we are. It's part of the job description.
I suspect Bob's hatred of the Transformers live-actions comes from having been a boy when the toys were peaking. So was I. We both dislike seeing a beloved childhood icon taken into an alley by the goon that is Hollywood to be mugged for its shoes.
I would have greatly enjoyed a movie made for the thirty-or-sos who were kids during Generation 1, the kids who owned an original Optimus Prime not purchased on eBay. A film that could (in addition to action, of course) have delved into philosophical/moral questions such as the nature of life, the wastefulness of war, the self-defeating nature of evil, the burden of leadership, the difficulty of diplomatic relations across species, the epic scope of interplanetary conflict, those sorts of things. Instead we got a thoughtless, irreverent Michael Bay explode-a-thon a child of seven could comprehend completely. I think they really missed the boat on that one.
I agree with most of what Bob says about Transformers. Bay *is* wrong for the material. I *do* dislike the mecha design. Shia LeBoeuf and his absurd, unlikeable character desperately,
desperately need to not be a part of this franchise. The military *is* too often seen in the forefront of a movie ostensibly about mechas.
Even feeling as I do I will see the movie and take from it what I can.
