Transformers: Dumbed Down to Double their Dollars

Prime

When I was a kid my favorite cartoons were G.I. Joe, Thundercats, and Transformers. They were action packed, complex, and totally bad ass. So last winter when I saw a preview for Transformers I was pretty elated. I went back and watched a few episodes on the web just to get myself back in the swing of things. It is funny how much you remember from the hours spent watching them when you were a kid and how much more there is to these cartoons than what you could grasp as a child. The Transformers cartoon full length movie had Optimus Prime sacrificing himself to save the galaxy. Megatron was killed and then usurped by Starscream who has always had an inferiority complex to Megatron and a lust for power that is seen from the first cartoon in the series. Megatron is reformed in the movie and returns with venegeance to overthrow Starscream and take back the reigns of the Decepticons. This is only what I remember having not seen the movie in probably 14 years (it is on my Netflix queue though), but it was complex, edgy, and certainly challenged the comprehension of an 8 year old.

"You got the touch!...You got the Power!!!"

The new Transformers movie was well, as expected. It was visually incredible (including Megan Fox), action packed, funny, and had a happy ending that setup hopefully many more movies to come. Despite enjoying almost every minute of the movie it just wasn't a good movie. It was corny, soft, and full of endorsements. I can get over all the Autobots being GM brand cars, I guess, and every Michael Bay movie is going to have some cheesy humor in it, but what really got me was how the movie was dumbed down. We didn't get to meet the Transformers and their unique characters. We barely got to see them interact with each other. The focus was on the humans instead of the Transformers and this was probably the biggest difference between the cartoon and the movie.

The hardest scene to watch was when Sam (Shia LaBeouf) was looking for his grandfather's glasses while simultaneously trying to get rid of his parents and hide the Autobots in his yard. While it was great to see the Autobots up close, they were lowered to clumsy dummies, helpless to this goofball kid who was wasting time trying to convince his mom that he wasn't playing with himself. The fate of the galaxy is on the line here, man! Another tough scene to watch was when Capt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) had to use a credit card to telephone the Pentagon while in the middle of being attacked. I mean come on... Lastly, Agent Simmons (John Turturro) was a terrible character who was a far stretch from being a leader in a government organization that was so top secret that the Secretary of Defense didn't even know about it. Again, his character was created for a few extra laughs, but what was sacrificed was any remaining integrity the movie could have had.

Wish I was rockin' these back in the day...not so much now though

Leaving the movie I was thoroughly entertained, but I kept asking myself why the producers felt such a need to create a movie that was so hollow. The obvious answer is viewers would enjoy a movie that focused on the humans and had humorous elements even if they strayed far from the feeling of the original cartoon. Here is the thing though: would fans not have enjoyed a film that was much darker, focused more on the Transformers, and lacked the excesses? Would they not have understood a deeper interplay between the characters and more complex story line that as 6 and 10 year-olds we loved so much? Of course they would have! They still could have created a movie that was PG-13, but made it so much better. Batman Begins is the first of the new superhero movies to do this and it was great (the X-Men movies were good too)! It made millions of dollars and managed to actually be a good movie too.

Look at the success of the Star Wars movies and the Lord of the Rings series. These are great movies that are not just visually stimulating, but they are so good because they completely immerse the viewer in the worlds they depict. Why doesn't anyone try to recreate this type of epic movie with these superhero stories?

Megan Fox. The name says it all.

I will never understand why movie producers create such fluff movies out of all these wonderful cartoon and comic book characters. By underestimating public comprehension and letting the marketing and money change the scope of the movie--if this is in fact their reasoning--they turn gold into garbage almost every time. The only hope for the Tranformers is that the producers and directors wise up and aim to capture the full potential of these movies. All hope is not yet lost.