Sorry, the Jedi Mind trick doesn't work on my kind. I really liked Ehren Kruger's input and I'm disappointed he won't be around for future films. That said, I never felt like he had quite the ear for humor that Orci & Kurtzman had, so I'm looking forward to that improving again in his absence, fwiw.
Indeed. Though just because the writers of Iron Man and Black Hawk Down are there, it does not necessarily mean much. I'm a little skeptical on how they're going to tackle the film. Kruger just made the mythology a little too hard to follow so I hope these writers clear it up with everything instead of adding another convenience that Earth and Cybertron share this history.
Honestly? Kruger's ideas and little bits of input weren't bad. They just needed editing down and proper implementation. It's his writing that was fuckin' horrible.
That pretty much sums up the guy. The moment Megatron revealed he made a deal with Sentinel, it made you question why exactly was he chasing the Allspark in the first place. Then you have the idea of the Creators which in theory is intriguing and then you remember there is this thing called the Allspark which already explains how Transformers are made.
The AllSpark was nothing more than an almost LITERAL deus ex machina. It actually explained exactly NOTHING. The idea of The Creators builds upon that to suggest WHO made the AllSpark in the first place, not to mention WHY. And LOL at the Megatron/Sentinel/AllSpark line of thought. If Megatron made a deal with Sentinel then Sentinel was clearly still around to honor the deal. Except then Sentinel went missing! Gee, I wonder why Megatron started looking for the AllSpark instead after his deal with Sentinel was basically useless, lol. None of the so-called "continuity problems" of Kruger's TF scripts are ACTUAL continuity problems. If anything, they're really more evidence of the lack of imagination and proactive problem-solving skills one would otherwise expect of a fanbase ostensibly BUILT UPON the idea of solving puzzles. Ugh. :-\
It's easy to give Ehren Kruger shit, but honestly he's probably a better writer than a lot of us give him credit for. It's the producers, directors, and most likely even the actors who were changing the scripts up.
It's a fair point, although I think one of his most underrated strength as a writer is his ability to work within the system to COLLABORATE with the producers, directors, and stars. Man, talk about a TOUGH goddamned job! Pulled in every direction at once, I swear. And I like that he was actually on-set to help feed new lines to the actors when needed, but it's important to remember how much improv takes place during filming, especially during the comedic scenes. OMG, the bonus features of Sam's dialogue with Mikaela when he drives her home from the lake party ALONE demonstrate just how much leeway the actors are given. And GOOD FOR THEM and everyone else involved for letting that process work the way it does. If Harrison Ford hadn't told George Lucas to gtfo with his line reading advice then we'd ALL probably not give a shit about Han Solo, lol.
I really have never understood the hate for Ehren Kruger. He's not perfect, but he brought plenty of good things to the film continuity in my opinion. I really like the plots of DOTM and AOE. Far from being scattershot, the different subplots are actually tied together in neat ways in my opinion.
After hearing all the horrible dialogues in AOE, I had a feeling he will be replaced by someone else for the future films.
^ Ah, that old, endlessly misrepresented chestnut. "Oh, grandmother, what a fantastically open mind you have!" "The better to understand you with, my dear." >_> LOL, irony. XD
Ehren Kruger is the Pat Lee of writing. Shane McCarthy is a far better writer compared to that hackfraud, at least All Hail Megatron and his Drift mini series had their moments.
I think most people, even the harshest critics, would agree that the second, third, and fourth Transformers movies each "had their moments," too.
