So I'm a regular lurker of John Campea's The Movie Blog and today he did an excellent post entitled "Deciding To Hate A Movie Before You See It" in which he discusses the differences between pre-hating a film versus predicting a film might be bad.
There is a difference between predicting and pre-deciding. We see the pre-deciders all the time. People who get so emotionally invested in their predictions, that no matter what happens, they will declare the movie bad. Sometimes people pre-decide they hate a film because of the subject matter... sometimes it's because of a certain actor or actress who is in the film. Sometimes it's because of a detail (Optimus Prime has a mouth, Galactus is a Storm Cloud). Sometimes it's just in spite of someone else (trust me, there are people who have already drafted their emails to me about how bad Transformers was weeks before seeing it). There are lots of reasons, and let's face it... once in a while we're all prone to it.I think too many TF geeks are too invested in the overall hobby.
I'm far too invested in the toys but have no real care about the fiction.
The movie will be what it will be: a summer popcorn flick.
The toys are what they are: attempts to translate the film's flat virtual design aesthetic to an actual physical medium.
I'm still seeing people bitch about the movie.
It blows my mind.
If you want something to really bitch about, how about the fact that Cullen's voice isn't used on all of the TF movie Prime stuff that talks.
That one I can't figure out.
I wondered about this as well, and I bet I can tell you exactly why:
Based on what I've seen in stores, the ratio of Cullen-voiced to non-Cullen-voiced products is around 40-60, maybe closer to 30-70. I'd be willing to bet that Peter Cullen's contract with Hasbro includes some kind of royalty/residual from each toy sold with his voice; therefore, by making two versions, they make us crazy fans happy by providing a version with Cullen's voice, and they cut down on the actual amount they have to pay Cullen compared to the total number of units they sell.
I'd love to hear a better theory, but this one makes too much sense for me to let it go.
i think that people that are still complaining, even after they've made up their minds on how it's going to suck, is the same people who feel inclined to slow down for the wreck on the side of the road.
One of the interesting things about this franchise, compared to the other disposable 80's cartoon nonsense, is the amount of sheer investiture the fans have.
I mean, you don't see this going on with He-Man,G.I. Joe, or Thundercats, or Jem, do you?
I can only figure that somewhere in the all-important business of animating these thinly-veiled commercials, something of actual value was accidentally imparted. Strange though it sounds; but why else would so many fans point to Optimus Prime as a bloody father figure, of all things?
I think in many ways it's these fans that are most incensed of all - not because the iconic Autobot leader is covered in flames, but rather, because it is exactly as you described - a throwaway popcorn flick, when it could have been *so much* more.
JOP:
You sure we're not just out of the loop? Maybe there is a Jem/Thundercats/He-Man/GI Joe/Oceans 11 fandom that is just as bad as we are. I really don't know.
Cordially yours:
Autobus Prime
w/minicon Farebox.
I had the Misfits as my desktop image at work for weeks. One of my co-workers knew what it was, and hated me for showing it but hated himself more for knowing what it was.
I still could never figure out which of them were supposed to be Danzig.
I would rather watch my mom do porn than see a live action He-Man movie.
Besides the life changing Frank Langella/Dolph Lundgren/Courtney Cox one, right?
Right?
RIGHT???