Fanboys will be Fanboys...
What's with this Michael Bay hate wagon? It's years already. Is it going to ever stop?
First off, I am not a Michael Bay fan boy. I am neither trying to stick up for him, excuse him, or whatever else one may think of. I am simply tired of seeing his films (and him along with them) being attacked for no other reason other than fandom rage. And let's face it, that is exactly the only thing it is.
Before Transformers, there wasn't really much hate to go around. But then a Transformer film is made and every geek, nerd or anyone else that either greatly or mildly enjoyed Transformers as a child found a chance to complain about and hate like no tomorrow on the film and the creative party as well. "He is ruining childhood memories".
Didn't that phrase get old already with George Lucas?
Upsides
Being a fan of something has its ups and downs. When they ruin a franchise or something you love, of course it is acceptable to waltz out about it and express your opinion. The ups are mostly in the form of fans making comments (not complaints, even though they can have the same effect/result) that keep a creative party in check so they don't go out and do whatever they please with a franchise. These are upsides.
You need to be heard before some irrelevant person walks along and says "wow, my kids are really enjoying these toys as are many more, I have no idea whatsoever about them but I will make a film anyway and do whatever I want with it".
This is obviously not acceptable and yes, fans can keep creative studios in check to make sure they make a worthy product that at least tries to respect the material.
Downsides
Expectations are ridiculous. In many occasions one would be able to identify what expectations fans had and how they were not met, in some occasions however, nobody in their right mind could ever understand what expectations a fanboy had, and that is simply because the fanboys themselves don't know what they want.
More often than not, that is what fanboys are all about. Complaining about every single thing as a cry perhaps that it isn't them making the film or even worse that a time machine has not been created for them to go back in time and enjoy their childhood experiences which will never be re-created since they are now grown up in case they didn't realise. This ultimately means their taste and standards have evolved, and they will not accept the same rubbish they did as children.
Don't get ahead of yourselves people, the franchises you, I and all of us loved as kids, are utter rubbish. What are you expecting? A film that will get every single human being out there loving it? A brilliant masterpiece that has employed to it the wisest and most cunning of all directors and writers all in one room that will create the ultimate blessing of a visual treat that will glow so much from awesomeness people will not be able to help themselves from crying in the theatres from the pure awesomeness?
Something extraordinary that will blow your mind the same way it did when you were a child at which point everything blew your mind? (Including a rubber ducky)
Be realistic people. Transformers is nothing more than a toy-merchandising film based on toy merchandise before they became films, for little children! What on Earth did you expect? Fandom then creates so much hate, with articles over articles and buthurt over buthurt (damn, I said the B word...) until everybody starts noticing things that aren't that great about the films and next thing you know everyone has hopped onto a hate wagon whose rails seem to never stop.
It all starts from fanboys that don't know what they want, when to stop, or how to control their expectations. It only takes a little bit of logic to do so.
Look at Street Fighter: Assassins Fist. Independent, created by actual fans that loved Street Fighter. And so many "fans" were nit-picking over this and over that. I was tired of seeing comments day in day out with such nonsense. Then it came out, and everyone finally shut up. Did they miss something during the whole "making of" process? Independent series... made by fans? Of course it was going to rock.
Hollywood films can at times shine through with a little awesomeness when there is a fan on the steering wheel to a specific franchise (Peter Jackson and The Lord of The Rings would be one for me), sometimes they have all the right people and still don't get it right, even if they are fans, other times studios create a hundred and one limitations on what and how a film should be made leaving little creative ground to a director/writer or whatnot, sometimes there are a dozen and one producers all cramming up their own ideas and wants and expectations from a film... and sometimes the studio and directors are simply douchebags.
Sometimes, they get a lot right but the ridiculous and unearthly expectations of fanboys create a wave of rage making it hard for anyone to see past and through all that smoke of hate.
End of the day, who cares? Unless they have clearly made a mockery of something and had the funding to do otherwise. Transformers was not a mockery of any sort. A lot of work was put into it and whoever says otherwise really should go and make their own film. Seriously. If it is that easy people, please show us the magic formula so we can all learn how to do it. Of course not everyone will agree to it, and that is ok. Going to the other extreme however and having fandom rages all day long year in year out on the other hand, is absurd.
Biased Much?
Any director and any film can be nitpicked. And when you do this to films people like and prove to them cheesy lines, crap visuals, confusing plots or plot-holes that make no sense, or anything really, even a blooper that was forgotten on the film, they always look the other way, laugh it off and say "yeah what can you do it happens man, you are right but who cares? I liked it."
So... the films you like (whoever you is in this example) is ok to have flaws... but the films others might like should be flawless right?
Michael Bay uses explosions like no tomorrow, rotating shots in every film, and cheesy humour (usually that a child can get... I wonder why). Get over it, it is nothing more tragic and evil than half the other filming techniques other directors have and use on every single film of theirs. Simply make fun of it, or not, and move along. Making such a huge deal about it to the point that the entire Internet is filled with hate on this guy is nothing more than the result of fan-rage.
J.J Abrams has blinded the living hell out of us with his damn flares in every single shot. You watch Super 8 and you get a flare off the TV set for no apparent reason blinding you. You see the children watching the TV set, no light source whatsoever, and ANOTHER flare pops in to hide half their faces. This isn't enough, J.J gets his hands on an actual hardcore sci-fi film the likes of Star Trek and next thing you know we are in the Star Trek command bridge where we finally get to meet the birthplace of the flares!
But hey it's ok. We laugh a little over it, we turn the other cheek to be blinded some more, and go on to saying he is a great director even though his obsession with flares is larger than Bay's obsession with explosions. An equivalent Michael Bay would have an explosion going on in the background of every single scene of a film even when characters are off doing their own thing and talking about irrelevant stuff. Seriously, J.J uses that many flares. Which sometimes are cool, but no matter how cool they are he always finds a way to make them tiring.
Should I get started on Spielberg? OMG! What is with this guy? Did Aliens abduct him at a young age and put a probe in him? Every single damn film this person has ever been involved with has ALIENS. He went as far as even putting them in Indiana Jones. Seriously? Does he sleep with a Martian pillow every night?
Oh, wait, hold on, one second... Hold that thought... Wasn't Spielberg involved with Transformers? Oh no, the madness never stops!
Indeed, it was his idea to make them aliens (and everyone is on a Michael Bay hate-wagon?) and... here, some food for thought:
First thing I thought of when I saw Spielberg being involved, "oh my god, they are going to be aliens," and sure enough, they were. He read every script and pretty much had a strong say in everything. But hey, Michael Bay has ruined your childhood and Spielberg is a superstar (/loud metal guitar solo music playing)
I have a feeling that guitar solo never really works as good in a written form as in a video. Anyway.
Sure, every director has a style. And sure, many directors have an obsession with one thing or another. Sure, they make mistakes and what not. But seriously, did anyone think that they would spend over 100 and 200 million dollars on a film and purposefully not want it to succeed? Some are good at making cheesy films because that's all they are good at, some can't be cheesy if they tried and end up making jokes that are really forced hence they steer clear of them and try to keep a serious tone. At which point, some comedy as pushed as it is, in a serious tone, can be easier to pull of with their style. And others are simply here to show us 100 and 1 ways aliens can take over and invade humanity.
They still all have made films that different population groups and different target markets can enjoy and their films can include both gems and rubbish.
Enjoy and hold on to the gems, express your dislike on the rubbish, and move on.
a small added edit.... we learn something new every day. Transformers were originally and always aliens. Yes, I have been a Transformer fan for 30 years and only just found out. I guess I and the other 80% of the Transformer fans out there (who were bashing Michael Bay for making them aliens) didn't know the origin story.
Further proof once more that as children, we are fed anything and we reaaaally don't care about the details. To us, all we saw was "Robots in Disguise". Cool Autobots and Decepticons fighting it out and a boy with his Transformer car. The origin story was downplayed of course, I mean, once you explain an origin story once how many more times do you need to show it again afterwards? But even if we were shown the story a dozen times, I doubt any of us at some ages (as it clearly shows after so many years) really even bothered to pick up on it.
So there you have it, new argument, and one reason less to hate on Michael Bay. They were always aliens. (Spielberg still had a say in almost everything else people complain about but anyway).
What, you don't believe me people were bashing Michael Bay for them being aliens? Here, snapshot of the very first result I found online (it has been years now making these less accessible, and yet you can still find traces of people whining about it)
a small added edit.... we learn something new every day. Transformers were originally and always aliens. Yes, I have been a Transformer fan for 30 years and only just found out. I guess I and the other 80% of the Transformer fans out there (who were bashing Michael Bay for making them aliens) didn't know the origin story.
Further proof once more that as children, we are fed anything and we reaaaally don't care about the details. To us, all we saw was "Robots in Disguise". Cool Autobots and Decepticons fighting it out and a boy with his Transformer car. The origin story was downplayed of course, I mean, once you explain an origin story once how many more times do you need to show it again afterwards? But even if we were shown the story a dozen times, I doubt any of us at some ages (as it clearly shows after so many years) really even bothered to pick up on it.
So there you have it, new argument, and one reason less to hate on Michael Bay. They were always aliens. (Spielberg still had a say in almost everything else people complain about but anyway).
What, you don't believe me people were bashing Michael Bay for them being aliens? Here, snapshot of the very first result I found online (it has been years now making these less accessible, and yet you can still find traces of people whining about it)
We were saying?
A bunch of metal scraps fighting each other...
You people do realise they are Transformers right? Metal scraps fighting each other is pretty much the backbone to it all.
For many the action was too fast paced and they couldn't understand what is going on. For others it was simply cool. For me, it was really clear and I loved it. The action sequences made use of entire shots and had things going on that created a flow in a fight, like the forest scene in Transformers 2, where each Decepticon is attacking Optimus in a sequence that simply flows from one end to the other.
For those that this is too much, too complicated on the eye, too fast or too confusing, it is completely ok. There is a range of different tastes and likes and each person simply fits better to his/her own specific visual expression. I play some 3rd person shooter games for example that are way too fast for some to enjoy. Some are dizzied out by them, others simply don't know what is going on and can't enjoy them, meanwhile I and a range of other friends find this fast paced action being the very thing that has us intrigued and hooked on such a game to begin with.
Each to their own and that is never a bad thing. There is enough content out there for many people of different tastes and experiences to enjoy.
Here is another example. I found the fighting sequences in Pacific Rim to be completely different to that of my liking. Waaaay to slow for my taste. They did well with it all and I really enjoyed the film for what it was. The slower giant robots also gave an epic feeling at points that they were truly big and heavy. Provided I can enjoy both Transformers and Pacific Rim since I actually get what is going on in Transformers, and someone that doesn't only ends up liking Pacific Rim, it still doesn't make Pacific Rim a better film.
For me it was way too clunky, slow, and at times I really felt bored out. The story was so shallow and empty that it made Transformers seem like a masterpiece.
For Transformers we have: An Alien-race that destroyed their planet using a technology to transform it later waging wars over who the keeper of this cube (all-spark) was and chasing it to the ends of the universe to find it again. Their war bringing them to Earth, which seems like a nice candidate to rebuild their own planet. Extra little story themes and elements tying them in with the myths of Atlantis and the cube landing here on Earth 10,000 years ago (or was it 20,000? Basically, the time when Atlantis was in the myths "said" to have sunk) and later tying them in with our history and ancient civilisations having contact with them as a nice tie in to the whole theory, as science fictional as it may sound, that the ancients had contact with such beings or knew of technologies we believe to have been ahead of their time. Add a couple moral speeches on the right each species in the universe has, also translatable to political ideas and the rights people have for their own countries, and you already have more than you need plus some sugar coating to keep it interesting.
(Forgot to mention that the Fallen also tie in well and represent the Titans and the war that the Gods of Olympus and the Titans had from Greek Mythology. Sons of the Primes/Sons of the Titans, taking them out because they believed the people of Earth deserved their own chance... among so much more but hey, it is an empty popcorn film after all.)
That is a hell of a story-idea for a shallow and empty film with metal junks slamming each other aimed at toy merchandising and for children as well.
Pacific Rim - giant dinosaurs are invading our planet from some wormhole that is in a rift within our planet, and the robots are built to protect Earth. Something like that? Yes... That is how uninterested I was in the story. Two days after seeing it I had no idea what it was.
Both cool concepts, but I struggle to see what made Pacific Rim so enjoyable by comparison for so many. The factor that it was slow enough to understand alone? And for those Transformer haters saying "the military forgot they had a rail gun till the end of the film?"... May I ask you of the same thing? Did they forget they had a sword in Pacific Rim till the end of the film?
Each to their own
At the end of the day, we are all made up of different ideas, different tastes, different likes and different needs to satisfy our thirst of being entertained. We all have the right to like some things, and dislike others.
What really makes me mad though is the audacity some people have to go as far as saying "Michael Bay should be kicked out of Hollywood". Whoa, hold on there a second. Did you ask the other part of the population that actually enjoyed the Transformers films if they would be happy with that or the idea that these films they enjoyed were never made? Then going on to say that it makes them angry that people like Michael Bay are banking cash on films that ruin childhoods and what not?
Did half the population forget that there is another half out there that has a different opinion? Our childhoods were not ruined, so in the end who is right and who is wrong is really something subjective isn't it? And you know what, news flash, no-one is either right or wrong. We all simply have different tastes.
Don't like something? Well, you can honestly move on to something that you do like. Adding titles to the list that you believe deserve money or that you liked simply shows from there on how selfish some people can be (yeah, saw that too today and enough was enough... hence the birth of this article).
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Found this lying around somewhere on the Internet. Come
on, you have to admit it is funny.
The thing about fanboys is that they defend something
they love to the death, and if someone pisses on it or
attempts to have a take on it in any manner different to
what they deem right, all that love turns to rage and hate.
They can be litteraly going on for years about the same
damn thing...
"Han shot first." Ring any bells?
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It really has come to my attention that people are actually mad that money is going into the pockets of directors they don't like. What? That is really selfish.
I thought Pacific Rim was a pile of wasted junk before the likes of Transformers. I never wished they wouldn't make any money from it though. That is really selfish. Not liking Pacific Rim the way others did is simply my opinion and in the big picture measures up to absolutely nothing. Obviously, many people liked it and it deserved the credit it got. Well done to them and I hope they make a sequel. I enjoyed the film for what it was and would be more than happy to watch the second one, but I didn't love it and can't bring myself to watching it a second time.
If I didn't enjoy it at all to the point of hating it, then I don't feel as if someone robbed me of something special that belonged to me even though it didn't. I simply wouldn't care and not bother in seeing a sequel. Going out of my way to hate on it for years on end? That is just absurd.
I also didn't find the Avengers to be something that special either. It was good only because it had all those heroes in it. But seriously, the plot was so pointless and empty I could have written a better one when I was 15. Seriously though, I truly could. I enjoyed the hell out of it but at least I know why. A bunch of heroes were all in one place smashing things up instead of being in their own films. That was really fun. But that was all the film had. Now, isn't that just a film for toy merchandising as well?
People giving us these films (like Avengers, and more) as examples to film masterpieces is completely beyond me.
Furthermore, people believing that we are in a time where viewers only care about explosions and empty plots (even though they did just praise the Avengers) and furthermore believing that this is all the films we are getting is again beyond me. Don't be so naive to believe you are but the special snowflakes on this planet and the only ones that can enjoy deeper meanings. Most of the population is like that, they are simply chill enough to enjoy lesser "depthed" films as well and able to kick back to a simple viewing without pretentiously slapping themselves as if they have sinned. And yes, we are in a time where we are getting more variety on films than ever before. Films with depth and quality, others with cheesiness, others that are simply popcorn films, others being completely lame and others being a combination of many things.
It is even more beyond me when people say things of the likes "when people go and support a film like Transformers: Age of Extinction by paying a ticket for it and don't do so for a film like Edge of Tomorrow, then they really have no reason to complain why there aren't any good sci-fi films out there." To prove them wrong, I got some numbers bellow that should be printed and stapled onto their foreheads (metaphorically speaking of course).
I can go on and on throughout a pocketbook of cliché phrases that truly baffle me, but I would rather just wrap it all up now and conclude to the fact that people are getting really selfish nowadays, fanboys are getting really tiring and biased minds are growing in numbers.
There is absolutely no reason to be unhappy that money is going into someone's pocket for films you do not like. Chances are others out there like them just the way they are.
Either way, lets just do a small profit count while we are at it, just for the sake of it and to also prove that the films they deem to be worthy sci-fi tiitles are indeed making the money they should.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Budget- $210 million
Box Office- $302.1 million
That is around 92 million more than what they spent in the first place.
Edge of Tomorrow
Budget- $178 million
Box Office- $318.8 million
Would you look at that? Why, its actually 140 million more.
The Avengers
Budget- $220 million
Box Office- $1,518,594,910... That's $1.5 billion.
That is math I don't even want to do for how much money they turned over. And for a film I barely think deserved that much profit.
Argo (another film that some compared to Transformers and went on about money being put into Michael Bays pocket... I get around, don't even know how many comic and film forums I get around to... but I get around)
Budget- $44.5 million
Box Office- $232 million
That's 190 million more made than spent.
Pacific Rim
Budget- $190 million
Box Office- $411 million
220 million there.
Elysium (just dropped that in there since I loved that film and consider it a quality sci-fi film... just to further prove most great films that deserve credit are getting it)
Budget- $115 million
Box Office- $286 million
That's around 170 million. Believe it or not, some of us know how to enjoy both a cheesy popcorn action film, and one with a more sensitive nature and plot to it.
I am sorry that some of you have to live in a world where the films you like make so much more money than the films you don't like and that you feel it is still a bad thing that the other films are making money too, even if it is less. Hypocrites talking about the banked cash on films they don't like at the expense of the films they do like, when in fact I struggle to see what difficulties those films had in making a profit as one can clearly see. Sounds a lot like people trying to run out of business someone who is obviously making films that a portion of the population likes.
We are so sorry you live in a world where others also get what they want. We thought this was a free world but, apparently we were wrong.
TMNT
Yes, Michael Bay is satanically planning to deliberately ruin your childhoods once again and piss all over everything you hold dear in your hearts with TMNT. After that he is planning on filming a specials extra for the DVD's where he is hunting down puppies with a flame thrower.
I loved TMNT when I was young. Do you know what I expected from a TMNT film when I was young? Nothing. I simply expected them to turn up and had a blast seeing them. I didn't need to care about anything else.
I grew up, and still don't care. The films they made and half the cartoons were so lame that if I was introduced to them at a mature age I'd be pulling my eyes out. Any interpretation of that rubbish that we loved as kids is a good interpretation. But beyond that, directors and producers are going that extra distance to make them more than just good interpretations, aiming also for good films for the genre which they are meant to be a part of. They wouldn't spend so much money on a film if this was not their intent.
Sorry but logic and reality has it, that the very same people some are raging over day in day out are actually trying their best whilst also trying to keep true to their likes as well. They are the ones making the film after all.
In case some didn't get what I am saying, here I'll make it simpler for them: No one is trying to piss on your childhood deliberately (don't know about the flame thrower part but that is beyond the filming industry). If they wanted to do something like that, they wouldn't be gambling hundreds of millions of dollars on it!
