The Death Of Techno
Adapting a movie series into a toy series is often a waste of time.
It's easy to imagine that director Michael Bay was happy with the first Transformers movie because it had an image that excited kids and disappointed their parents. What if the ugly Volkswagen was actually a heroic robot and the ordinary cell phone a cruel alien? With the advent of AI, this latest title looks scarier than ever.
If the first film was about Bay and her team having fun playing with toy robots, her films in this series reminded me of what happens when our toys get too heavy. Almost everyone involved seemed to take inspiration from Hasbro and seemed very annoyed to do so.
Steven Caple Jr. (Creed 2) isn't too keen on this new adventure, and the five credited writers (that's right, five) haven't given him or us any new human or cyborg characters to love or hate.
As in previous films, the daytime battles between the Autobots and their adversaries are loud, furious and hard to follow. It's hard to tell when one metal overtakes the other because neither dies. The characters are so subtle that you miss the emotional investment. It's like being in a demolition derby if cars can be recycled.
The stock does not rise or fall. It continues at the same frenetic pace.
Of course, a new race of evil robots called the Predacons worship a god who wants to eat the universe, just like Pac-Man. Their evil leader (Peter Dinklage) tries to find the key to help with this.
The second group of cyborgs, the Maximals, have key units hidden here on Earth that look pretty stupid even to human eyes.
Autobot leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, who has played the role for decades) wants to help take out the Predacons and hopes the key will help the tribe return to their home planet. Somehow a beleaguered veteran (Anthony Ramos, “Hamilton”) and an art critic (Dominic Fishbeck, “Judas and the Black Messiah”) fit the story, but both seem too competent to play second fiddle up front. Toys.
On the other hand, the cast of famous artists such as Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Ron Perlman do not sound effective when their voices are electronically muted. If you can't hear him speak or see his face, why is there an Oscar winner like Yoh? This was a shocking trend in previous films and it seems even more silly now.
It also prevents artists from customizing new bots. It was fun guessing what verse might come out of Bumblebee speakers. It now shows clips of top movies, reminding viewers that they can now watch the best movies.
Hasbro has the audacity to add a second line of toys at the end of this story, unaware that their sales potential is diminishing. It was easy to imagine that watching 6-year-olds play with toys would be more fun. They don't know the clichés yet and they approach the process more than the adults who made this mess.
