1) I wish that I had thought to make this video.
2) I might have enjoyed this more than the actual movie.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/brutally-honest-trailer-explains-why-transformers-sucks-1592472763?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Mostly for Jameel, Dave and Max.
Brutally honest trailer explains why Transformers sucks so badly
The guys at Screen Junkies just released a new and hilarious Honest Trailer. This time they rip Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen apart. A must watch for those who like me get dizzy watching Michael Bay movies.
No, thanks. I’ve had enough mean-spirited poking at stuff I enjoy for a while.
bah! it’s perfectly good natured fun poking! (really, Bay has even said that he doesn’t like that movie)
Actually I thought this was a bit of a letdown…lacking bite. I guess the more serious criticisms of the movie are less funny, so they focused on cheap shots.
Out of curiosity, as a TF fan, what would you have used as your criticism?
Yeah, I already know what’s wrong with the movies. I don’t need Johnny Internet reminding me.
same question to you too, then, Jameel
Honest Movie Trailers are awesome 🙂
Check out the Avengers one … the description of Loki alone is worth the effort.
Agreed
I’d have focused on the callous dehumanization of the transformers. File under “missing the point of the entire franchise.”
Ok, I’ll agree there, but I think that breaks down the same way it does for Man of Steel. Namely, they changed what the story was about. It’s not that you CAN’T make a good story about coldhearted aliens. It would have been fine if that’s what they’d done (same for MoS). It would have pissed off the purists, but at least you’d have a good movie.
The problem is that not only did they change the underlying premise (thus pissing off the purists) they ALSO made a really crappy movie.
Like, despite my teasing him about it, Jameel will in good nature admit that he’s a fan boy. He will forgive crappy filmmaking/writing/SFX/etc. for the good natured chance to relive his childhood (which I’d argue the 1st TF movie actually does reasonably well, for instance. To a lesser extent same thing with the GI Joe movies or Green Lantern). But the second is so bad that even the fanboys don’t have any reason to defend it.
Well on the fanboy level I enjoyed the movie a lot…it was packed full of juicy transformery goodness, possibly best exemplified in the soundwave/ravage/ball bearings sequence. The plot and story had their problems but were really not especially worse than hundreds of other action movies, some of which are considered “good” in spite of them. For me the flaw (and this goes for all three movies, but especially the second) is in thinking that since they’re machines, you can pack the movie with unrelenting violence and gruesome death and yet maintain a light comedic tone. Which works only if the audience is as lacking in empathy as the director, or if the director is some kinda Frank-Millerish genius, which Michael Bay is not.
I’m not really sure how I feel about the movies being a G1 purist in all but no one can argue that the second one was easily recognizable as being written during the writer’s strike.
A well-written story can overcome a lot of filming and technical weaknesses. A poorly-written one can often fail technical wizardry.
I would love to see the Transformers movie you and Max would make.
I don’t like discussing the flaws of Transformers media with people outside the fandom. It feels like I have to defend myself.
Ray: “easily recognizable as being written during the writer’s strike.” yeah, Bay has used that as an excuse. But really, bad writing is bad writing. But the co-writers on TF2 were 1) a guy who was a writer on TF3 & TF4, 2) two guys who were writers on TF1. And Bay was both director and executive producer. At the end of the day, it’s his job (twice) to make sure that things are done right. If he didn’t like the script, he had the power at any point along the line to fix it.
i think what’s more accurate is that he got a bad script. There was a writer strike, and so he couldn’t get it fixed. With his producer hat on he basically said “fuck it, we don’t need a bad script. Tranformers fans just care about ‘juicy transformery goodness’ anyway. And whenever we have a plot hole will just toss in a shot of Megan Fox’s ass or maybe some black jokes with the Jiggabots! Then we’ll have crossover appeal with the minorities!”
Only he didn’t really understand what “juicy transformery goodness” was as well as he thought he did. And he didn’t understand minority humor AT ALL. Megan Fox does have an amazing ass, but it turns out that as amazing as it is, it’s not enough to carry a film all on its own (see also Jonah Hex and Jennifer’s Body). So you ended up with a less than mediocre action movie (Max is right, there are other bad action movies right there on par with it, but as he knows, I’m hard on those too. Man of Steel is one of them) with barely a recognizable connection for Jameel’s fandom to connect to other than the fact that they “happened” to be transforming robots (again, the Man of Steel problem… “I guess he’s superman, he has that S on his chest”), and (IMO) lazy cinematography (which really hurts because, love him or hate him, epic action cinematography is kind of Bay’s strong suit. And it’s sorely lacking in that one compared to most of his work).
So when it failed he said “writer’s strike, what was I supposed to do?” The answer, FUCKING DIRECT, or FUCKING PRODUCE! (read: make the decision that, “this is a bad script and will hurt our bottom line. Maybe we should delay here”)
And on top of that, Fox’s ass only got like 5 min of screen time tops!
I take issue with using Frank Miller and genius in the same sentence. A broken clock is right twice a day…nobody calls it a genius.
Eh… you don’t have to like Frank Miller, but to discount his accomplishments is just silly. He has done some stuff I like and some I don’t. Hell, there are tons of talented people in any field that I don’t care for. But comparing him to a broken clock is just silly.
Some of his “accomplishments” are exactly what I don’t like. Year One was amazing with the exception of Catwoman. A great comic. I admittedly have never read his run on Daredevil. I don’t like Dark Knight or Sin City. I’ve seen the movie 300. It was pretty good.
And pretty much anything he’s done in the last 15 years is garbage.
ok, fine… that’s exactly my point. You not liking something isn’t it not being “genius.” It certainly isn’t the same as it not being significant. In your “I don’t like these” comment you literally named five comics that you knew are commonly considered amongst the most innovative of all time in the American market. All by one guy. There aren’t too many other people on that list in the industry.
I’m not aTodd McFarlane fan, but I recognize his innovations to the industry particular in creator owned rights, and Spawn was revolutionary in its time. Dave Sim is a sexist raving lunatic. Cerebus on the other hand is one of the most significant publications (not even comics, just publications) of all time. As H. Jameel Al Khafiz will tell you, John Byrne is literally one of most horrible human beings either of us have ever met. That said, he’s also brilliant.
To look at it another way. I don’t like Michael Jordan. I hated the 1990s Chicago Bulls. But saying he wasn’t a great basketball player would just make me sound like an idiot.
I think Alan Moore is a egotistical loon..I hate him. But his contributions to comics are genius. I worked in a comic store for five years. I know what Miller is famous for. I’ve found most of his work to be highly overrated. He was one of several creators treading new ground in his time. So was Liefeld (I am not likening their levels of talent). But being groundbreaking is not the same as being genius. In fact he’s horribly repetitive.
Other groundbreaking artists who made great contributions to nerdery (or to culture as a whole) while being severely vile human beings include Orson Scott Card, Michael Crichton, and Bryan Singer. In Israel they still debate whether to ever play Wagner’s music in public.
Watching this tempered my excitement for AoE. Significantly.