The 3 newer Star Wars movies had similar fan reactions. You will never make every one happy and those that are unhappy tend to make more noise then those that are.
Speaking as a TF fan. The live action movies are what I have been waiting for for most of my childhood and adult life. I was (and still am) in awe of seeing realistic robots transforming, fighting etc. I love the movie designs (most of them at least) and feel that the movies have made transformers appeal to a must wider audience (my wife loves them). Speaking a movie/scifi fan. The live actions movies suffer from many fundamental flaws, from poor story telling, poor editing etc. No matter how much of my inner child loves to see the bots on the big screen - I still cant escape that fact that the movies could have been far better.
From what I've seen, it doesn't appear to be unique to Transformers. Perhaps you just have a greater exposure to Transformers, so you're more likely to notice the dissenting opinions. I read a couple of reviews on X men First Class the other day, and most of the comments were pretty much reflective of a similar sentiment. Perhaps Potter fans are a little more receptive, I don't know, but I'm sure they obsess when things diverge from the books, and favour particular directors over others. Regardless, Michael Bay tends to unashamedly make movies that polarise peoples opinions.
I was initially put off by some of the changes they made, and some of the design choices. I got over that. What I can't get past is just inadequacies in the filmmaking, and again I still find that Michael Bay has particularly awful sensibilities. Not true, look at Catwoman or Batman and Robin. The difference with the Bayformer movies is there's actually quite a few people who unapologetically like them. They're just polarising.
Since DOTM came out, a lot of people who enjoyed the film have accused me of being the one with the problem. I.e. asking me 'what was I expecting?' or the brilliant, 'turn your brain off' argument. Seems to be the mantra of the moron within this community sometimes. First things first, I appreciate it's a kids franchise made into a Hollywood blockbuster. It isn't going to be amazing. BUT, that doesn't mean it has to be terribly paced, juvenile humoured, sexist and borderline racist, does it? The CG works. We can believe these characters have presence on screen. My disbelief is genuinely suspended in that regard. SO why not make a good film? The case in point I would offer is something akin to The Iron Giant. An absolutely beautiful, warm and humble film about a giant robot. I hate to sound like a G1er, but these films were definitely missing the 'warmth' G1 had. These films have no heart. Now that Michael Bay is gone, I'd love for Spielberg to exert more control over this franchise and get somebody onboard who can deliver in this regard.
Love TF's. hate movies 2 & 3, just awful. The storylines are already there, instead they make up some awful storylines. My biggest gripe is I want Transformers with the odd human on the side, not the other way round! Just my opinion
People like to fight, and opinions on these movies were so hard-lined, on both sides, it gave the people something to fight about. That's my take, anyway Personally, I didn't really like the movies. I'm a substance over style / story over effects kinda guy. To me, these movies were the total opposite. But to others, the movies clearly provided enough of a balance for people to like them. And nobody's wrong for liking them, hating them, or even falling somewhere in the middle when it comes to them; we're just different, is all. Have fun, everybody!!!
As a G1 fan (and overall robot fan) from the 80s, I thought it was a little strange to see the Trojan-esque Ironhide become a bear-robot; I thought it was weird that the Autobots were like the monsters in Coccoon and the Cons were like robot chicken creatures instead of "handsome" regal robots.... I was one of the ones who was admittedly pissed that Sideswipe wasnt red, especially after Dino is anyway (I thought Bay didnt like red onscreen), but hey, what can I say? He was a favorite design of mine as a kid and through time. But I can get over all that. Its like how Batman had the black suit in the movies. It looks great, but in the cartoons his blue and grey works better. I enjoyed the movies immensely becuase I am a Transformers fan. Of course there are parts that lag, the inappropriate humor IMO, etc. I find them enjoyable when I imagine them as long "half hour" episodes, basically I stopped expecting a whole lot. Im very happy they chose to make Optimus look how he did, instead of perhaps the way he looked upon arrival to earth. Can you imagine if he had looked like that, and that was our "Optimus Prime"? Im just sayin..... It coulda been worse. Ill support whatever they do, unless it gets too shitty. (i didnt see GI Joe, or the recent Turtles or x-men stuff) Right now, Peter Cullen is carrying the bayverse on his shoulders IMO, I hope he is extremely well taken care of by Hasbro because they owe him alot IMO EDIT: One more thing. Admit it. They turned the mighty Devastator into a Ghostbusters animal And WTF with the huge wheel thing that Optimus takes down in ROTF....that was goofy. On the other hand Blackout was genius in the first one. That hand , his explosion noise, etc, ah shit I might have to pull that movie out today
I think one thing that lends to the criticism is Bay. While I've heard he's the nicest guy in the world if you meet him AWAY from the set, he's pretty hardcore when he's working on his films, because he's a hard-driving guy and expects a lot from his cast and crew. That, and the fact he's pretty open about speaking his mind, don't make for someone that people have warm fuzzies about. Another big part is that, for most of us, Transformers are hugely important to us as kids. As hokey as it sounds, for a lot of people characters like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were more than just characters on a cartoon show. And even though we've grown up, those emotions remain in place. And if we played with the toys as a kid, we might all have slightly different takes on what OUR versions of the characters are. I do think there are more film series or adaptations that have these kinds of reactions, but the Transformers were so big in the past, and the movies are so big now, people have more awareness. As someone who used to be big into the Mega Man fandom, I saw nasty arguments break out over the 1995 cartoon. Same level of emotion, but a narrower focus. I don't mind that other people don't enjoy the film. I only get irked when people who didn't like the movie barge into threads to leave a snarky comment, or insinuate that people who DID enjoy the movie are somehow mentally deficient or don't know anything about film. For me, I go into a movie and I turn the internal critic off, and it doesn't get turned back on until its' over, unless something is so glaringly bad that it takes me out of the movie.
I still say the root of everything is simply that the movies were never about the robots. I liked Rise of Cobra It has a brisk consistent pace and the Cobra characters came off quite well IMO. I went in thinking I would hate Wayans but he was entertaining.
I really like DOTM for the following reasons: 1. The twist regarding Sentinel; 2. A human working for the Decepticons; 3. Action seems more watchable - in fact out of the 3 movies, I could see the action in all its beauty; 4. Ironhide's "fate" made Sentinel's actions more impactful; 5. Appearance of the Wreckers was used properly. Unlike the Twins who were over exposed in ROTF. My dislikes: 1. Too much focus on the human i.e. military; 2. Side stories with Sam's job search, looking for the Russians; 3. Pacing of the story; 4. too few Decepticons - I know that the Cons out numbered the Bots but it doesn't have the sense of "scale" of a massive army. I guess this can be explained that there were a few TFs left on Cyberton? 5. Designs of the TFs - the Decepticons were too generic in design. When my buddy got confused during the show = I simply told him that the Cons were either gray/black and that the bots were more "colourful". 6. TFs with hair i.e. Que and Brains. The hair concept seems to work better with the Decepticons - Crankcase and Crowbar?
Perhaps part of the problem is that some fans have a strange idea that somehow they own Transformers now and other fans no longer count. That it's okay to just cast out the people who were fans back before geek culture went mainstream. Lots and lots of movie fans who are nice about it being just one of many versions of Transformers. People who don't mind the input of people who were fans of other series about what might be cool to add to the film franchise or some things that could be changed to make the films more accessible to older fans. But a few bad apples in the bunch can act rather selfish about Transformers should only be about what they want and any ideas from other series is just somehow whining. The other side has it's bad apples who are just as bad about it should only be about what they want. I guess Hasbro hasn't really helped in this war either since they seem to cast aside everyone else when a movie comes out. I understand the need to cash in to maximize the profits while you can, but it seems like there would be ways to make your other fans still feel important even if it was just in some statement to just the fan sites.
It's like X Men Origins: Wolverine. I love that movie but it sure got a lot of hate. It spans throughout the spectrum.
Thats lol funny bud very clever. I'm not a fan of the movie because I just wanna get to know the bots and the story seems to just focus on these annoying people and their love intrest. I don't mind Epps and Lenox but sam carly. mikela just kill it for me. Mabye I'd just like to see the bots talk to one another.
