A few days ago, I looked at the almost-complete directorial
filmography of Michael Bay from his first film, 1995’s ‘Bad Boys’, to his most
recent, 2013’s ‘Pain and Gain’. I say ‘almost complete’ because I skipped over
a certain trilogy of films that he directed between 2007 and 2011 because I
wanted to save these three for another post that would be published a little
bit closer to the debut of Bay’s newest film, which just so happens to be the
follow-up to the trilogy of films that I’m looking at today; Michael Bay’s
live-action Transformers trilogy based off of the toy line and subsequent media
franchise developed by Takara Tomy and Hasbro. This new film, ‘Transformers: Age
of Extinction’, is the fourth film in the series but features a brand new cast
of characters taking over for the cast of the original trilogy, taking place a
few years after the events of the third film. It is also reportedly set to be
the first in a new trilogy of films however it’s unclear if Bay will return for
the next two films, meaning that it’s likely that this will be Michael Bay’s
last Transformers film (and on that note, without saying anything further about
it, I already know how a lot of you would react to that if that happened
considering the typical reception towards these films).
Now I’m going into this new Transformers film with an open
mind and that is due to the three films that precede it or, as I like to call
them, the most hated film trilogy since the Star Wars prequels. Sure, the first
film got decent enough reviews from critics but then came the sequels, both of
which have been universally bashed by pretty much everybody in the world. So to
those who really, really dislike these movies… prepare to disagree with me
quite a bit. Now I’m going on record and saying that when I was younger, I
really enjoyed all three of these films and I even passionately defended the
two sequels against their harshest critics. Did I think that they were perfect?
Absolutely not, but at the same time, I never thought that they were the worst
films in the world and I’ve heard plenty of people declare them to be the worst
films of all time which for the record I find to be a little too much
exaggerated, just like the whole thing that I mentioned last time about Bay being
the ‘worst director’ ever. But you see… this is where things start to get
interesting for this is actually the first time in a few years since I’ve seen
all of these films. I’m very interested in seeing if they hold up as well as I
had once thought of them. Will my opinion of them change? Well, you’re just
going to have to keep reading to find out.
But first, I’m adding
in a little bonus and will be starting this retrospective with a review of the
‘first’ Transformers film… and no, it’s not the one that Bay directed.
THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986)
Easily one of the most famous cartoons from the 1980’s, ‘The
Transformers’ ran for four seasons as it followed the war between the two
factions of alien robots known as the Autobots and Decepticons. Midway through
the series’ run, there came ‘The Transformers: The Movie’, which some like to
refer to as an 84-minute toy commercial. In a way, it probably is but even with
that in mind, there are still some pretty interesting aspects about this movie
that do make it worthwhile to check out. For one thing, most of the Autobots in
this film are actually killed off, including Optimus Prime, which I’m pretty
sure must’ve come as a major shock for fans of the show. As for that scene
where Prime dies, while I never really watched the original series that much
(though I did watch a few episodes before watching this movie), I will admit
that this scene is a legitimately sad moment. You really have to give this
movie credit; it has major cojones for killing off most of the characters that
audiences had grown attached to through the TV series. Because of this, a new
set of characters were introduced in this film and became the new main
characters of the TV series for the rest of its run.
This movie also has some pretty good voice acting from the
likes of Judd Nelson as Hot Rod (who’s sort of the Luke Skywalker of the film…
yeah, this film has a lot in common with ‘Star Wars’, by the way), Leonard
Nimoy as Galvatron (the revived form of Megatron), and Orson Welles in his
final film role as Unicron. While it has been reported that Welles wasn’t too
enthusiastic about the project, his voice (which for the record had to be synthesized
in post-production because it was very weak when he recorded the dialogue… he
died only five days after he finished working on the film) actually is a really
nice fit for the role of the planet-sized Transformer. In fact, I would really love
to see Unicron appear in the live-action Transformers movies. That would be
awesome. As for this film’s soundtrack, which is the very definition of an 80’s
film soundtrack, there are a lot of good tunes in the film though at the same
time, some feel rather distracting at certain points like during some of the
fight scenes. Still, ‘The Transformers: The Movie’ is a pretty solid animated
film and while I may not have grown up watching the original TV series this is
based on, this will definitely serve as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for
those who did.
Rating: 4/5
TRANSFORMERS (2007)
When it first came out in 2007, the first live-action
‘Transformers’ film received generally decent reviews from critics. I mean to
be more specific, not all of the reviews were positive but at the end of the
day the reviews for this film were much better than the reviews were for its
two sequels. However, I kind of get the feeling that the reaction towards this
film became a bit more negative after its sequels came out. I really don’t get
why that is because, I’m just going to say it… this is a great movie. Nearly a
decade after its release, this film still holds up incredibly well. The biggest
reason for this is that most of the problems that a lot of people had with the
sequels aren’t as big of a problem in this film. The writing is pretty solid in
regards to establishing the lore and the main characters and while the film may
focus more on the human characters more than the Transformers themselves
(something that I’m well aware has been a major disappointment for fans of the
franchise), there are at least a few decent character arcs in this film (I’ll
get into why that becomes a problem later on in the series when I get to the
third film) so it’s not like the human characters in this are completely bland.
The acting, for an action movie, is solid enough in this one and in the lead
role of Sam Witwicky, Shia LaBeouf actually does a pretty good job here, again
mostly because his character does have a solid arc and in this film LaBeouf
actually does manage to make the character sympathetic and relatable.
As with any Michael Bay film, the action sequences in this
are fantastic and amidst all of the CGI in this film (which for the record is
still really good CGI), you do have to appreciate the fact that there were also
quite a lot of practical effects in this film as well. My personal favorite sequence
of the film would have to be the opening scene where the Decepticon Blackout
attacks the U.S. Military at their base in Qatar. This to me was a phenomenal
way to start off the movie though again all of the action scenes here are
excellent. Also, while this film may be nearly two and a half hours long, the
pacing in this is actually pretty good and I never felt that the film dragged
at any point. So, with all of that said, the first of Michael Bay’s
‘Transformers’ films still holds up very well upon re-watch and if I were to
rank my Top 10 favorite films from 2007, I guarantee that this film would have
easily made my Top 10 as I find it to be one of the best action/sci-fi films of
this past decade. Even if you didn’t like this film’s sequels, one thing is for
certain; this film doesn’t deserve the same hate as those films because it
truly is the best of the trilogy and as such, I believe that it is one of
Michael Bay’s best films, if arguably not his best.
Rating: 5/5!
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)
I know that last time I said that I believe that ‘Pearl
Harbor’ was Michael Bay’s most hated movie because it was based on an actual
event in U.S. history and not a toy franchise aimed at kids. But you know the
more that I think about it… really there’s no denying it. I think it’s safe to
say that ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ has to be the most universally
despised summer blockbuster in recent memory, if not all time. I mean, not even
the ‘Star Wars’ prequels, for as reviled as they are, got this much criticism. I
guarantee you that it will be very hard to find someone who actually likes this
film and I’m not talking about the few critics who gave it positive reviews
when it came out. I mean someone who actually really likes this film in the five
years since it was released… well, guess what… you’ve already found one of
them. Now before any of you stop reading this post (and let’s be honest, I’m
fairly certain some of you have already done that once you read that I did like
this film), let me be clear about something. While I do still really like this
film, I don’t necessarily ‘love it’ as I too agree that it has some noticeable
problems but to me these problems aren’t really the ones that everyone likes to
point out (and believe me, they have done so quite a lot these last few years).
Obviously the main problem with the film lies within the
writing but while some have said that this movie’s plot is incomprehensible and
that it makes no sense, I feel that it’s a different problem entirely. For you
see, the first half of this film is actually quite aimless. There is ‘some’
remnants of a plot in this part of the film, but they literally don’t explain
what it is that the Decepticons are looking for, the Matrix of Leadership (the
same object that the two factions fought for in ‘The Transformers: The Movie’,
by the way) until halfway through the movie (believe me, I’ve timed it; just
under one hour and thirty minutes). I mean, that is quite amazing actually that
a film this big in scale could go on for nearly one and a half hours and yet
have nothing much going in regards to developing the plot. I mean, they do
indicate that the Decepticons are looking for a new source of Energon, the
Transformers’ main source of energy, but again that doesn’t really become
relevant until the movie’s half-way over. But really when it comes to this film’s
shortcomings in the writing department, I mostly attribute this to the fact
that the filmmakers had to deal with the Writers Guild of America strike that
took place from November 2007 to February 2008 so I can see how it makes sense
that this film ended up being a little rushed because of that. I bet that if
they didn’t have to deal with this strike then the movie could’ve possibly
turned out to be much better.
But with all of that said, why then do I still like this
movie? Well, to put it bluntly, it’s the main reason why I like most of Michael
Bay’s films in the first place; I still found this movie to be very
entertaining and again I was never bored by it, though I will say that the
final fight in Egypt does go on quite a bit too long. It’s still an awesome
action sequence but it could’ve really been trimmed. I never really felt angry
while watching this film, and that’s saying a lot considering the multiple
aspects of the film that have negatively received by almost everyone who’s seen
it, one of the most infamous being the twin Autobots Mudflaps and Skids for ‘embodying
racial stereotypes’. Now, I never want to address anything racism-related when
it comes to movies because quite frankly I just don’t want to do it so I’m not
going to say anything further about these characters. So in short, while I
don’t think that this movie is perfect and ultimately the first of Bay’s
‘Transformers’ films is the highly superior movie, I don’t think this one is as
bad as a lot of people put it out to be. And hey, if you don’t like it, that’s
fine; I’m not trying to spite anyone here by saying that I like this movie. I’m
just saying that I still enjoy this movie and most of the problems that people
had with it didn’t really bother me that much.
Rating: 3.5/5
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)
So even though ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ got trashed by
critics and audiences, it was still a big success at the box office, meaning
that those who really hated it… apparently saw it more than once, which I find quite
a bit odd because why then would these people see it again if they hated it so
much. This becomes even more peculiar when discussing the next film, ‘Dark of
the Moon’. Now the reviews for this film were a bit better than the previous
film but for the most part they were still rather negative… and yet this film
grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide. While I’m always glad to see films
do successful at the box office, I’m still wondering how this one managed to
get into the billion dollar club. Because again, I’ve heard plenty of people
say that they hated this film, some of whom hated it just as much as the last
film. Well, with that said, if these people hated it so much… why then did they
apparently see it at least twice in theaters? It just makes no sense. Now, I
was one of those people who did see this movie twice in theaters (both times in
3-D… which was actually well-worth it by the way because while I’m aware that a
good chunk of the film was post-converted into the format, at least seventy
percent of the film was shot in 3-D so the film was at least intended to be
filmed that way) but unlike a lot of people, I did like the film when I first
saw it. Having watched it again, I still like it. I like it more than ‘Revenge
of the Fallen’ but still not as much as the first film.
This film thankfully improves on the story problems that
plagued the previous film. This time, the plot for the film was actually pretty
interesting, revolving around how an old Cybertronian spacecraft that had crash-landed
on the moon resulted in the Apollo 11 mission, which in this movie was a cover
so that the ship could be properly investigated. The ship contained the
original leader of the Autobots, Sentinel Prime, and his inventions, a bunch of
Pillars used to create a space bridge to transport matter between two points.
After Sentinel Prime is awakened, he is then revealed to be working with the
Decepticons so that they could restore their planet Cybertron to its former
glory. I must say that this whole plot development with Sentinel was actually a
pretty interesting one because his betrayal was genuinely unexpected and we did
see that it affected Optimus quite a lot because he trusted Sentinel so much. I
thought this was all handled very well and that Leonard Nimoy did a great job
voicing Sentinel. Though as some have already pointed out, there is kind of a
glaring issue when it comes to the first three ‘Transformers’ films; for you
see, all three of these films literally have the exact same general plot-points;
the Decepticons are looking for an artifact so that they can win the war, Sam
Witwicky ends up getting involved in one way or another, etc. Hopefully ‘Age of
Extinction’ doesn’t follow the exact same beats as these three films did.
But whereas the story for this film was better than in the
last one, this time it comes at the expense of good character development. As I
said before, I found that the first ‘Transformers’ film actually did have a
decent amount of character development, which is quite impressive actually especially
when considering the fact that this is a film about giant robots fighting each
other. But basically all of those arcs were already completed after that film
so by this point, it becomes rather pointless that a lot of these characters
are still around after their arcs were already completed in previous films.
Like remember in the first film how Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) was
trying to get home to his wife and their newborn daughter? Well, while Lennox
does still play a major role in the action for the next two films, his family is
never seen again for the rest of the series. As for his friend Epps (Tyrese
Gibson)… well, in this film Epps literally doesn’t show up until halfway
through the movie. I’m guessing this might’ve been because Gibson was also
working on ‘Fast Five’ at the time, but still these two are just there to be a
part of the final battle and really nothing else.
Then we get to Sam Witwicky whose character arc was already
completed in the first film so at this point he really has nowhere to go having
already helped save the world twice. I’ve never been that critical of Shia
LaBeouf’s performances in these three movies, but here I will agree that he
does start to get a bit too annoying but again, that’s just because he quite frankly
doesn’t have much to work with in this. There are multiple times in this movie
where Sam complains about how he should be working with the Autobots and not having
to live a normal life instead… even though at the beginning of the second film,
he was actually looking for things to return to normal for him. Why all of this
changed… I have no idea. This movie also kind of hastily switches girlfriends
on him, though this is mostly because of a behind-the-scenes incident where
Megan Fox reportedly called Michael Bay ‘Hitler’, resulting in him and
Spielberg kicking her off the project, replacing her with Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley. Though to the filmmakers’ credit, this change is actually
handled pretty well considering the whole situation they were in and while I’m
not saying that Whiteley does a ‘great’ job in this, I actually like her more
than Fox because I felt that her character Carly came off as being more likable
and that her and LaBeouf actually had pretty good chemistry.
But one of my biggest problems with the film actually isn’t
anything within the actual film itself. It is actually in regards to how the
film was marketed. Before the film came out, I remember watching interviews
where the cast and crew were saying that the film was going to be much more serious
in tone. Bay even said that the film was going to be like ‘Black Hawk Down’ but
with ‘Transformers’… which could’ve been really, really cool. But guess what…
that’s not the case with the final product. It’s just another Michael Bay ‘Transformers’
film that does have a fairly large-scale final battle but doesn’t have the
emotional depth that those involved were claiming that it had. I feel that some
of the main characters should have died in this. Now, the death of Ironhide did
work because it was unexpected, but aside from him, only a few of the
protagonists are killed off. Maybe they could have killed off Lennox or Epps if
only just because, like I said earlier, they were just there to be a part of
the action; they already went through their character arcs. But nope… instead,
the majority of the main characters survive just as they did in the previous
films. This movie tried to be much more serious and while I do give it credit
for attempting to do so, it could’ve done a lot better in trying to establish a
more serious tone.
But yet again, I never found the film to be boring. The
final fight in Chicago is easily the highlight of the movie, which is greatly
benefitted by the 3-D. This fight thankfully never feels like it drags at any point
which as I said earlier was the main problem with the finale of ‘Revenge of the
Fallen’. And yes, the majority of the action is actually reserved for the
finale whereas the first half hour of the film is mostly reserved for the story
but even then I still found the movie to be pretty engaging. I’ve said it
before and I’ll say it again… Michael Bay’s movies are never boring. So
ultimately, I feel that ‘Dark of the Moon’ is a superior sequel to ‘Revenge of
the Fallen’ but due to some issues it’s still not as good as the first film. I
do kind of feel like this movie got some unfair flack, if only because I feel
that some were a little biased towards it because of their hate for ‘Revenge of
the Fallen’. I’m just going to say it… this film is not ‘Revenge of the Fallen’.
It is easily better than that film but again, if you still don’t like this film
that’s fine. I still really enjoyed ‘Dark of the Moon’ and I’m eagerly waiting
to see ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’. I know I said earlier that I’m going
into that film with an open mind, but in reality I’m actually really excited
for it and that is because I love this trilogy of films.
Rating: 4/5
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