by Sabrblade » Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:05 am
- Motto: "Can't do a job halfway. What's worth doing is worth doing well, I say."
- Weapon: Saber Blade
I'm under no illusion that Bay is the sole problem with these films, knowing full well that the writers and producers are likewise an issue.
Looking at these films, a lot of folks say that if took away Bay's special touches (like the excessive toilet humor or Optimus's viciousness) then they would improve. I'm about to cite an example that completely proves the contrary: The ROTF comic adaptation.
Written by Transformers comic scribe Simon Furman, he made an intent on writing that adaptation with nearly all traces of the film special brand of "humor" excised and removed. He also diminished Optimus's hostility towards the Decepticons, like in the fight against Demolishor he had Optimus express regret in having to use force to stop Demolishor's rampage, and he didn't blast Demolishor in the face, with the Decepticon instead dying from his wounds in the battle, making "The Fallen shall rise again..." being his dying words before death instead of Optimus gunning him in the face.
Even Optimus's death was changed into being "not quite dead yet", giving greater hope for Sam to want to revive him.
On paper, this sounds... at the very least, interesting, at most, promising. It sounds like Furman knew what a lot of fans wouldn't like and made the changes he felt were necessary to make his comic a better-received product, right?
Eeeuuuuuurrrrgghh, well, not really. See, reading that ROTF comic adaptation with all the "bad stuff" taken out just left a still very boring, confusing, lifeless story of uninteresting characters, lacking in anything really substantial or worthwhile.
This reveals that, at its core, ROTF's substance lies not in its story or its characters, but in its special effects (which naturally couldn't be replicated in comic form) and its fetishes for uber violence, sexual innuedos, and being as gross as can be.
Now while this may seem like I'm harping on Bay for the fetish content, my main point is how the story material itself that came from the writers (what little there was since, yes, I'm aware that the writer's stike left Bay to write a lot of it himself, but there was still enough of it written by Orci, Kurtzman, and Kruger) is really no better off with or without Bay's involvement since, at its core, the story they wrote was boring, confusing, and lifeless.
Bay can only do so much with a bad story and, when people say things like "Bay can take a good story and make it bad", ROTF is the end result of the story being dull even before you add Bay to the equation.
"When there's gold feathers, punch behind you!!"Shadowman wrote:This is Sabrblade we're talking about. His ability to store trivial information about TV shows is downright superhuman.
Caelus wrote:My wife pointed out something interesting about the prehistoric Predacons. I said that everyone was complaining because transforming for them mostly consisted of them just standing up-right. She essentially said, 'So? That's what our ancestors did.'
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That would certainly clear all this sort of stuff up!
