See, I agree, that's a core change that can't happen. It would be like making Ironman a transvestite or something.

In Bay's defense (never thought I'd say that!) but that happens in the cartoons all the time. Gen1 and TF:Animated constantly had 1 episode wonders where a character appears for a show then you never see that character again, even though they SHOULD be there. You'll have an episode with Cosmo as a central character, then you never see him again (maybe in a background) but he's all but forgotten. Or DirtBoss in TF:A. You get the idea... Besides, Bay was given a list of names of characters with similar alt-modes, and he just picked one. The character was designed long before the name. That how it went from Soundwave to Soundbyte to Frenzy, or from Vortex to Blackout, etc. Even Barricade was known as Prowl for a short time.

As a total non-trekkie, I loved the new star trek film. I wish Transformers was a tenth as good. I've seen all the Trek films, (my dad was a MAJOR Trek nerd) and Spock never seemed to actually battle his human half, it always seemed to be just an annoyance. In this movie, he shifts between the Vulcan and the human and you see the pain in his face with dealing with that. The monster chase seemed lame and taken straight out of a George Lucas series, but most of all I LOVED the actor who played McCoy. He was PERFECT.

 

Are you kidding? You must be kidding. People DID like Batman 1. Then with Batman 2 they started disliking it more. Batman 3 was too much of the same formulaic method Hollywood uses to churn out a movie.

I could be wrong and the Transformers movie could be a hit again. However, when people see Optimus killing a robot in China and then that robot reappearing to form Devastator plus all the other weirdness will make is simply a popcorn flick. You could paste together an hour and a half of explosions and stunt tricks and have about the same amount of plot as Transformers.

Lets not kid ourselves that TF is anything more than an action movie. You're meant to come in, sit down, and turn off your mind and just watch the fireworks. Nothing more. Much like how the first Hulk movie was.

 

I don't think we should be comparing this to G1. Either we do all the time or we don't ever compare. People will use the argument that this isn't G1 so there is no comparison yet they will compare when it validates whatever opinion they have.

This is supposed to be a standalone series.

Besides - comparing a blockbuster summer movie that took hundreds of millions to produce to the story of a children's cartoon from the 80s is not appropriate. Either you'd be implying that the cartoon from the 80s was modern day movie caliber or that the modern day movie was at the caliber of a cartoon from the 80s meant for kids...

 

And yet Wolverine still left fans feeling empty at the end of the film.
The story felt forced and generic. And do I even have to mention the ridiculous misuse of just about every mutant character in the damn movie.

So bringing up the DK doesn't really help your testimony since unlike FOX, WB proved that they actually can make of move with changes and still please fans in the process.

And because of movies like DK, Ironman and Incredible Hulk in which the producers put more emphasis in their stories people are spoiled now so films like this wont cut it.

Case in point.....
Star Trek is killing Wolverine in the box office despite Logan only having Beyonce' to compete with during it's first week.

And it's a safe bet to say that Terminator will be just as superior over Wolverine as Star Trek is.

 

I love the first Batman film. However, as far as overall sales, Batman Forever was the top moneymaker of the franchise before Dark Knight came along. Critics, too, gave this Batman the top nods of the films, praising it's dynamic action, "witty" banter, and nods to the campy 60's tv show.

I'm not comparing the movie franchise with the cartoon, I was merely pointing out that it's not unheard of in TF lore for one-hit-wonders. Heck, even X-Men films had Nightcrawler for only one film, in only 4 scenes, so I don't see why people are upset about TF2 having scene-specific characters.

Star Trek isn't a "case in point" because there are more Star Trek fans than just about any other franchise in history. Star Trek brought the series back to what it was in the 60's: exciting action and characters, and not some immense political war posturing of the last 3 or 4 series.

As for wolverine "leaving fans feeling empty" I walked out being pretty satisfied with the movie, and I'll put my Wolverine fandom card up against anyone. The theater was full of people who cheered where appropriate, and enjoyed the flick. Even my wife really enjoyed the flick. The main reason wolverine isn't doing as insanely well as Ironman did was because most casual film goers see Wolverine as "the fourth X-Men film". They've seen Hugh Jackman growl at the camera 3 times already. Ironman was brand new to 90% of the population. It's not a accurate comparison.

Anyway, this is starting to get waaaaaay off topic, and I'm stopping it before someone else starts a flame war because they can't allow someone to enjoy Wolverine.

So back on topic.... I read some of the jr. novel over at Barnes & Nobles while my boys looked at Dr. Seuss books. Was fun. Got a question tho, is the prequel "adult" novel any good? I didn't read the previous prequel novel "Ghosts of something or other".

 

The key word here is that "Most" fans were disappointed. And despite you being easily impressed, that 70% drop at the box office the following week speaks for itself.

Between this and Dragonball Evolution FOX is batting zero right now especially since they were hoping for Wolverine to do Spider-man numbers.

 

And here's the painful truth of why: because the people making the movie actually listened to the brainless masses of fans who cared more about faithfulness to the source material and cameos by their favorite characters than actual story structure. To make a good movie, having a decent story that stands on its own should always come above everything else.