I've been pondering the Transformers movie sequel in 2009 and I've
been wondering what direction they're going to go in. Note that I
don't read the message boards and I don't really care if there's some
kind of alleged information out there about what characters will be
featured or what direction the plot will go in. I'm not fi****ng for
spoilers, I'm just curious to know what everyone *hopes* they'll do.
I envision a scenario in which the movie starts out showcasing the day-
to-day lives of the Autobots, largely relegated to hiding in plain
sight while disguised as Earth vehicles. The Autobots never really
got to play up the "talking cars" angle in the first movie so this
would be a good chance to do so (I could definitely see Ironhide
getting upset at some motorist who parallel-parked too close to him
and giving himself a little more personal space).
I really don't want the second movie to become the Sam and Bumblebee
Show, even though that sure seems like what they were setting things
up for with the end of the first movie. There are so many
embarrassing scenarios that I'm dreading they'll end up retreading,
either because they don't realize the material's already been covered
or they think they need to "update" the scenarios for a modern
audience. Ratchet having conversations with traffic lights in the
early Marvel Comics issues, for example, was ridiculous and painful to
read. Spike and Bumblebee getting stopped by a traffic cop in the G1
cartoon. That sort of thing. (I will say that the more I see the
first movie, the more I like ****a LaBeouf's acting. His off-the-cuff
mannerisms always seem natural and genuine, unlike so much of the
forced script-reading-that-p*****-for-acting prevalent in younger
actors [SEE: Jake Lloyd; SEE ALSO: Eddie Furlong]).
What I do want to see is a greater focus on the relation****ps between
the individual Transformers, rather than such a strong emphasis on the
humans and their reactions to gigantic alien robots. I suppose that
worked well enough for an introductory movie, but it's time to move
past that. It's surprising how little the Autobots actually
interacted with each *other* in the first film. We got very brief
personality snippets here and there... we know Ironhide's got an itchy
trigger finger and Prime has admonished him on the subject repeatedly,
and the late, great Jazz openly questioned Prime's decision to leave
Bumblebee to the tender mercies of the flesh creatures, but that's
about it, really. (What kind of robot is movie Ratchet, anyway?
You'd think that with only five Autobots in the movie, one of whom
couldn't talk, they could have painted a clearer picture. It's almost
forgivable with the Decepticons because there were nine of 'em, and
they were all pretty much treated as Generic Bad Guys.)
I think the fight scenes could stand to be taken to the next level.
They've already demolished military aircraft and cars and buildings,
so just about the only way to trump that is to crank up the scale
factor. I don't know if this is in the cards or not, but the next
obvious step is to bring in the Constructicons (whatever they'll end
up being named) and Devastator (whatever he's going to be called).
The only thing more entertaining than giant robots sma****ng the crap
out of each other is really, really *huge* robots sma****ng the crap
out of each other. I guess they could bring in the Dinobots, too
(that seems like another inevitability), but quite frankly there were
already so many dumb, lumbering robots in the first film that I fail
to see the point of adding more.
The disturbing absence of a trailer for Optimus Prime dawned on me the
other day. The guy needs to get himself a trailer. He just doesn't
look whole without one.
I hope the sound editors use the G1 transforming sound effect more
consistently. You can really only hear it maybe twice in the first
movie (once for Blackout and once for Optimus Prime; correct me if
I've missed any) despite the dozens of transformations we actually
see.
That's all I've got for now. Anyone else?
Zob
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