It should be pretty tricky to make a film about giant robots beating the hell out of each other bad. Any other director would could have chilled out, taken two days to make Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and done so with a blind-fold and it still would have been good. Michael Bay on the other hand spent however long slaving over it and it still came out crap...
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the majority of it. The parts with the giant robots. Just every moment there was a human on the screen I was writhing in agony. Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration but a large majority of it was uncomfortable. The love scenes made me feel awkward. And some of the acting was just, well, bad! You really do expect more from a Hollywood film.
But maybe we're giving Michael Bay too much stick. Ignoring his previous work, maybe it's actually difficult to make a film about giant alien robots good. I can understand the difficulties.
But there's something about Transformers 2 that actually drew my attention away from the film...
For the first time in my life I want to talk about a film in a way that doesn't involve entertainment. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm never one to moan about politics and political correctness. I think the world's going mad with all that stuff. But for the first time ever a film has actually made me think about and it's been playing on my mind.
There's been bits and bobs going around the net about how two of the characters, Mudflaps and Skids, are racist stereotypes. I really wouldn't bat an eyelid about this sort of hype but I didn't read anything about this before going into the film and came out thinking to myself 'Damn, that was just outright racist!' Both robots look like monkeys, have large ears and one even has a gold tooth. And then Michael Bay went and gave them obviously black voices. Which wouldn't be the biggest issue in the world (despite the fact it reverts back to the old school Disney representation of black people) except for the fact that one of them is voiced by a white man, Tom Kenny, doing an impression of a black... robot! Why!?! It's just ridiculous! It's such a stereotype that isn't even true! I can't think of the last time I met a black person who had a gold tooth who suggested 'popping a cap' in someone's 'ass!' Dear God!
I imagine next film there'll be a robot wearing a skull cap proclaiming 'oi!' and selling bagels.
I'm not offended, although I'm sure some people would be. I just think it's lazy characterisation and considering that Bay suggested they were in there to entertain kids, (*cough* 1940s Walt Disney *cough*) I'd like to think that children had more of a sense of humour than being reduced to laughing at black stereotypes.
So my general point? Transformers 2 is just rubbish considering it's meant to be a film about GIANT ROBOTS!
I think I need a lie down.
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