Darn You, Michael Bay! A Transformers Review

Any time you find yourself wandering around deep with in the cavernous world wide web and you find yourself with in ear shot of any site that might even remotely deal with or link to a site were fans of movies, comic books, science fiction, TV, cartoons, collectibles, or video games air their thoughts...the faintest cry of "Damn you Michael Bay" may echo it's way off the walls and into your hearing. In fact, if you hear one, you'll likely hear several. It's become a sort of chant amongst the Transformers faithful. A mantra.

Well, I just saw Transformers, myself a fan of the characters going back to the beginning in 1984 and the comic book mini-series. Optimus Prime (heroic leader of the Autobots) is a father figure to me and I happen to have a pretty great dad as it is. Despite that, Prime is one of the most influential fictional characters in my life. He ranks high, right up there with Aragorn and Samwise Gamgee, Guy Montag, the Great Lion - Aslan, Jim Caviezel's portrayal of Private Witt in The Thin Red Line, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Yoda, Rhett Butler, Batman, Rocky Balboa, the list goes on. I'm a faux geek. I fall in love with the spirit of certain stories and characters but I've never found a way to sell me self over to collecting myself into bliss by watching, reading, and seeing it all. I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes feel very, very passionate about how source material (books, comics, cartoons, actual history) is treated as it is adapted into film. Other times, I just don't get it being that important to complain and rant about such things when there are many other more important matters going on in this world, even when it's source material that is important to me. I understand the need to ADAPT when adapting something. Some changes are made and the only real wrong is a difference in opinion, how can one be write about art all the time. Other times, the stupid times, changes are made for any number of stupid, uneducated, or plain shallow reasons.