Transformers: Race problems lacking disguise
Just back from Transformers, the Michael Bay teenage romance flick which also had robots.
In short, it had more than a few race problems up and central on screen.
ETA: On the whole, as far as comparing Transformers:TheMovie to Transformers:TheSeries? No problems. Mainly, because, well, the series and the movie had so little connection, it was George Clooney’s “Batman & Robin” to the DC print lines.
[Complaining about a film means spoilers after the cut. Errr. Sorry about the RSS feed *grimmace*]
- I do not need to have a US Marine SpecOps groups say “Speak English” to the spanish speaking unit members.
- Doing it more than once means setting it up for a take down.
- Doing it twice, and leaving it at that, means race problem.
- Take down = Other marines speaking spanish, and realising they were dicks for saying “Speak english”.
- I do not need to have to see racial stereotypes of three different racial cliches.
- OH HAI! POC character IT HAZ CRIME HISTORY.
- OH HAI! I IZ OTHER POC! I CAN BE STEREOTYPICALLY REPRESENTATIVE OF RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WAYAN BROTHERS COMEDY
- Remember kids, all black people are good with music, hate cops and an look like Fat Albert cast members.
- OH HAI! I iz…wait, they got the Australian right. Woah. No kangaroos, no g’day, no shrimp.
- Excusing the fact that they breached the show don’t tell rule by telling us about said character’s skill set without ever actually demonstrating it on screen.
- OH HAI! I IZ WHITE! WORLD BE SAVED BY ME!
- Please tell me I wasn’t supposed to look at Sam “Cardboardbased Lifeform” Witiwikipedia and care about him. Tell me. Please. Just make him go away.
- Oh look, Voice Actors of Colour!
- We couldn’t have Arcee because GirlBots need explaining.
- However, we had plenty of time for human mating rituals, human bonding rituals, and explaining how people we saw on screen did stuff off screen (including a couple of quite seriously important moments for one character. We are told, not shown, at the end of the film, that this character is dead. But hey, no time for an onscreen death, those minutes were spent on Bumblebee urinating on a human). Explaining that GIRLBOTS EXISTS OMG! WHAT IF THEY HAD SEX? THEY MAY BE HAVING RELATIONSHIPS THAT GOD WOULD NOT… were transformers evolution or creation?…APPROVE OF AND REPUBLICAN FAMILY VALUES FOR THE WINterofoutdiscontent. Seriously. Explain? We didn’t need to explain that an autobot would say “What’s up bitches?” or that the human male wished to mate with the female human … wait, they did. How about “And this is Arcee, communications/weapons/asskicker” just like we found out that Ratchet was the medic by being told.
- Also, get a better medic next time. One with more than a laser pointer.
- Also, Ironhide, dude, LESS TIME WATCHING MATRIX FILMS.
- Also, Prime, dude, I’m sorry, I really am. Watching Prime cry over Megatron was heartbreaking.
- Either they really were brothers (Winchesters in robot form!) OR
- They were so in love once, and it never worked out did it?
- Also, no Girlbots. All I can say is babybots come from when a Daddycon and Daddobot^H^H^H Daddybot love each other very much…and give birth to CD players.
- Call centre sequence.
- Totally not needed.
- Made no sense
- Felt entirely racist in the context of a film about giant transforming robots.
- Also, we had time for a scene attacking call centre staff, but no space to explain a girlbot?
- Also, seriously, I really fucking hate the “Bros before hos?” shit. What? THE? FUCK? (Do not want, do not like, do not care if the cool kids are saying it. Do. Not. Want.)
- Jazz needed dialogue that didn’t scream “This content download from Chappelle’s Show and stripped of all ironic content”
- Given the Australian voice didn’t say “Strewth”, everyone else could have skipped the cliche.
- Finally, I’m looking forward to the Transformers Movie. Y’know, the one about the Transformers?
If you haven’t checked out the TV Tropes wiki, then you really should.
“OH HAI! I IZ WHITE! WORLD BE SAVED BY ME!”
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey
“Anything you can do, he can do better. He can do anything better than you. Oh yes he can, especially if you happen to be of Asian, Indian, African, Aboriginal or Native American descent. It doesn’t matter that you have spent your entire life living in the densest African jungle, being taught the ways of your ancestors since you were old enough to stand up — the moment Mighty Whitey arrives in your town (most likely as a prisoner of war, an orphan or a lost traveler), you might as well hang up your blowpipe and take up crochet because his European (and therefore superior) genetics have pretty much made you redundant.”
They’ve gone way passed just TV, btw.
Comment by DFG — July 10, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Also, seriously, I really fucking hate the “Bros before hos?” shit. What? THE? FUCK? (Do not want, do not like, do not care if the cool kids are saying it. Do. Not. Want.)
Actually, here you got a part I liked because the movie quickly debunked that one. The character who said that ended up walking ten miles home while the guy with the car picked up the female love interest, and not only that, she saved his life a few scenes later because the main character ignored that idiotic maxim.
Comment by Ragnell — July 11, 2007 @ 11:44 am
I kinda assumed that watching his lights go out as he was quite graphically ripped in half was an “on-screen” death.
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic about OP’s grief or not.
I didn’t mind emphasis being placed on the human characters, because all the way back to the original series, Transformers has a long and distinguished tradition of focusing on human teenagers who more or less trip over their own shoelaces into helping the AutoBots save the world.
Given the choice between no female Transformers and one token, forcibly-gendered, and ultimately disposable Transformer, I’ll take the former option, thanks. I want Arcee to be flushed down the toilet of Things We Just Don’t Talk About. I would, however, prefer to be offered choices other than these.
Aside from that, I can’t help but agree with everything you just said.
Comment by VioletSamurai — July 12, 2007 @ 11:32 am
I liked how Megan Fox’s character at least got to be fairly tough and resourceful. It was a nice contrast to the ridiculousness of believing a woman who looks like a Maxim cover model was somehow in the same high school as Shia LaBeouf who looks like he is barely 16 when he’s actually 21. I liked that she quickly dissed and dismissed her stereotypically asshole-y boyfriend and we didn’t have to see some tired Bully Beats On Nerdy Guy scene.
Was I the only one totally perplexed by John Turturro’s role in the movie? It’s like Michael Bay just really wanted him in there but couldn’t figure out a really organic way to make it happen so they just tacked on that whole “Sector 7″ thing.
Comment by chriso — July 12, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
“Remember kids, all black people are good with music, hate cops and an look like Fat Albert cast members.”
I’m guessing that refers to the two friends what’s-her-face takes the stolen evidence to. I don’t think those things (being good with music = playing DDR? Not sure if that’s what you’re refering to) necessarily indicated a stereotype towards black people. I saw more of a stereotype about nerds. (Fat, live with their moms, playing videogames, good on computers, etcetera)
Just a thought.
Comment by Nathaniel — July 16, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
“We couldn’t have Arcee because GirlBots need explaining.”
Actually, we couldn’t have Arcee because she didn’t test well.
Comment by Charlie Owens — July 19, 2007 @ 7:11 am
Charlie — Try the link on Arcee. According to screenwriter Robert Orci, it was because they dreaded being called panderers and explaining. He sounds like they never bothered to test her.
Comment by Ragnell — July 21, 2007 @ 1:41 pm