Transformers 3 The Dark of the Moon lit a flame in me that made me feel compelled to write these words.
It was not the film itself, but what it generates around.
Critics are divided, but like everything, I think we, the audience, are those who must decide whether the movie is good or bad, what others think of the movie should not limit our capacity for assessment.
The problem is that critics are the least of our problems. There are two simultaneous processes affecting perception and above all, the tone of the discussion. Is the tone of the discussions that caught my attention, and the complex process that regulates it. All of which gives us something quite disturbing.
On one hand, “the fanboy anger”, oriented to nonsensical hyper criticism of films, and in the other, the "cinematographic fundamentalism” as I like to call it, which causes rage for the fact that someone has a different opinion than their own.
The first aspect consists of aggressive, clearly hostile reaction to those films that for various reasons do not fit the original material in which they are based. In many cases reaching the quasi-hysterical reaction to something that has not even been released yet or what is not real information. Everything is reduced to a pile of speculation and unfounded prejudice that predispose the viewer to deny any positive element in the film.
While it is understandable that, at the idea of "adapting a story," the key aspects of this story should be respected (because adaptation makes sense only when it is targeted to emphasize those aspects that made the story somewhat endearing) fanboy anger is aimed at attacking these things before they even exist.
How can you hate something that does not exist and therefore cannot be judged?
Furthermore, there is the other extreme, intransigent defense of a movie (or anything in general, for example, a publisher of comics) to the point of stubborn denial and worse, the personal onslaught against the dissidents of such a position, in a classic case of "if you don’t think like me, then you must be an idiot"
In both cases, the discussion seems to mutate from an opposition of views about the impression left by a film or entertainment-oriented material, to an exchange of insults without sense and demerit of another human being just for his or her opinion.
Will I turn into a “lifeless stupid” for failing match the tastes of someone?
I think that both processes feed back, at one point, the fanboy increasingly hated what was done with the original material and now is predisposed to reject any innovation to be done with it. In return for this, the "fundamentalist" reacts with growing opposition to this approach, standing at the opposite pole, defending the object of attack, but ironically, it becomes somewhat similar to the angry fanboy.
There is something that can’t be ignored, which is that in recent times, both positions have had reasons for this polarization.
1 - Studios have become greedy and confident of its success to the point of wasting the potential of their franchises.
2 - The level of most of the films that are arriving from Hollywood is not good, and standards are much lower than they should.
3 - The whiny fanboy attitude has generated polarization in the forums and has caused the angry reaction of sectors tired of these complaints. This leads to confusion of any constructive criticism with the whiny attitude of those who oppose without real reason.
4 - There are also equally harmful attitudes, such as praising the new without much critical judgment or to automatically oppose that which is under the focus of media attraction (which we can call the “Avatar effect”).
The point is that the films are not perfect, and there will be no film that pleases everyone. That is a fact.
We should be able to enjoy a movie as entertainment, but also learn to identify their deficiencies and not simply swallow the garbage that Hollywood laziness produces more and more.
For a while now, cinema has been suffering from the "ill of wasted potential": movies have the potential to be excellent (good stories, interesting characters, high budgets, dazzling effects) but they end up being disappointing.
Most often, this is due to corporate actions, others simply because the script is bad or the ineptitude of the director.
Personally, for example, Thor was unable to fulfill my expectations, just because I hated the forced romance of the scenes on Earth and the poor time management. However, the sequences of Asgard were superb. It was like two movies in one: one of them excellent, and the other one bad. Again, wasted potential.
As for Transformers 3, it’s a film that must be seen leaving the brain out of the room, like the rest of the films of Michael Bay. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact, I wanted to see a movie of giant robots kicking each other.
The problem was that Transformers 3, was not it. It was a movie about humans fighting evil alien robots with good robots at the background. A movie that also breaks up the little character development that might have had in the course of these films, with an abrupt ending that fails to close the story of the main character (Sam Witwicky) and turns one of the most noble characters of the saga, into a cold-blooded murderer without any justification (Optimus Prime).
Now, this prevented me spend a pleasant time at the movies? No, it did not. I just highlight the flaws I saw, because I have the right to do so, and simply because ... well, I CAN THINK.
I could watch The Godfather, 2001 Space Odyssey, Star Wars and The Dark Knight (my favorite comic book movie) and list all its faults, and that would not mean that I hate them.
I think the critical activity, when focused on creation and when it is sustained, is healthy. Baseless criticism is simply talking without knowing.
I'm just stating my point of view. The goal of any discussion is the enrichment of the parties that discussed through the productive exchange of views. Of course I do not pretend you change your thinking, nor do I believe you to be subnormal only for not sharing my opinion.
In fact, I don’t even hope you believe that anything that I wrote here is important on any level.
But if you do not agree with what I said and you know why, or if you share what I think; if this editorial has not gone unnoticed, and has left you something (even anger), then we have cultivated together some of the best things of being humans.
Magna Solaris