[No spoilers here. Trust me.]
AWESOME ROBOTS: INVASION!
That could have been the title of the latest Michael Bay epic Transformers film, and it would have been fine with me. Had the robots not resembled my childhood mechanical heroes, I wouldn’t have minded one bit, and I still would have enjoyed seeing this grand spectacle with all of its mindless action, and explosive wonder.
As it turns out, the source material caught my interest because of the colorful backstories and excellent attention to character heroics and noble attributes of these fascinating characters. Accidentally, the Transformers cartoon and comic book series actually ended up being some very well written science fiction that just happened to be aimed at my very young demographic.
The creators of this movie franchise must have known that the kiddies would be all grown up and would expect the restrictions of television to be cast away for an all new, more adult-oriented Transformers. Right?
Wrong.
See, you can ask any Transformers fan who enjoyed the genre before the Michael Bay movies came out, and they’ll probably tell you it had something to do with this character known as Optimus Prime.
Now, I’ve seen the fan reactions to this character. Some are reverant. Some are nostalgic to the point of being laughable.
Take this one young fan’s story;
"I remember when I was 8. My parents had left me to live with my grandfather, who was a World War II veteran, and had stepped in to be responsible when my own parents were too flaky. He was loving, respectable, strong, had a voice that sounded like John Wayne, and drove a sturdy, new automobile. He taught me everything I needed to know about being a man.
Anyway, he died in 1986, the same year that Transformers: The Movie came out. Even though during my grandfather’s funeral I was too young and immature to be able to express the sorrow I felt at my hero passing away, when I was sitting in the theatre that summer and witnessed the amazing sacrificial act that Optimus Prime did to save the day, the tears flowed.
And I certainly wasn’t the only kid. See, there were a lot of kids in my 4th grade class that were indifferent to the Transformers, many that just liked the rudimentary fun of it all, but still – amongst all of my boyhood buddies, we all knew the stories, knew the characters, and respected the hell out of their leader, the most revered bad-ass of all time; Optimus Prime."
Well, that kid is now 32 years old, and he just got finished watching the 3rd and final Michael Bay treatment of his boyhood toy franchise, and ya know what?
He didn’t like seeing such a vibrant, noble hero being turned into a cold blooded, common murderer.
Peter Cullen once said he drew certain lines where Optimus’ dialogue was concerned, whenever he felt “Prime wouldn’t do that.” One wonders where that old-fashioned accountability is now.
Let's imagine Christopher Reeve's Superman callously ignoring an enemy's cry for mercy, and stepping in heartlessly for the death blow. Would have tarnished the red, blue and yellow that make up the same primary colors that define Op. See what I mean?
Maybe when Transformers was created, it was purely to sell toys, and to do that the cartoons had to display impossible virtue. Decades later, in order to sell movie tickets, these cartoon characters have to display base immorality and turn into stone cold killers.
You missed the mark, Mr. Bay. Your movie may make a zillion dollars, and since money is all that counts in the world of today, I’m sure you’ll sleep just fine at night. Just know that the reason that me and a lot of people like me streamed into the movie theaters wasn't because we were anxious to see your camera skill, and ability to succesfully blow shit up amidst snappy urban dialogue.
Hey, it's just the movies right? You've got no obligation to craft a big moral tale, and truth is, your treatment of these characters is never going to inspire any young people to do the right things, to respect others, and to lead by good example.
And that’s a shame, because at one point in history; that’s EXACTLY what these characters did.