Weighing in on Transformers 2
- Posted by: JP Smith | July 6, 2009
- Filed Under: Entertainment
I try not to be uptight about a lot of things and realize that, in American humor, a lot of people can be the subject of a joke. However, there are some things that clearly cross a line and cease to be parody, going into the terrority of downright disrespectful.
Being a techie, like a lot of us, I like science fiction. It is particularly appealing when we see big-screen adaptations of the shows from our childhoods. We remember, with a sense of nostalgia, the fun and excitement we felt then and hope that it is duplicated when we see it in the movies.
I was pleasantly surprised when the first Transformers movie came it. I was particularly impressed with the special effects and how they managed to do some great things with CGI without making it look cheesy. More importantly, it was a fun movie to watch that didn't get in the way of itself.
Now, I'll admit that I heard some things about Transformers 2 that made me wonder if I was going to see it. Particularly, in regards to the two new Autobots, Mudflap and Skids. However, I thought that, maybe, some of what I was hearing was exaggerated and, though there might be a scene that offended me, it would only be brief.
Well, if anything, I think the level of insult was understated.
The only thing I could think of was that, in regards to these two, it was like a techie minstrel show. The characters sounded to me like two white guys trying to do their "black guy" voices (if you know the history of minstrel shows, you'll know why this itself is insulting). And, of course, these characters fed into some of the worst racial stereotypes about black people there are: dimwitted, intellecutally disinterested, socially inapporpriate, loud, vile, etc. In nearly every scene with these characters, it was the same thing. It wasn't just me. I heard groans from many folks, mostly black, in the audience when these characters had dialogue on the screen.
Outside of these, the dialogue and humor, across the board, was clearly aimed at 15-year-old boys (which made me wonder why people were bringing their pre-teens to this PG-13 film). The amount of testicle jokes where overwhelming and really had no relevance to the story line. It was like the creators of this film had five dollars left and remembered they had to hire script writers.
I have to give Transformer 2 a "C" and, Michael Bay, you need to apologize and come better next time.
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