My Letter to Michael Bay
Dear Mr. Bay,
I’ll try and keep what I have to say brief, but I seldom see a film truly worth raising my voice about. In a cinema not too far from my place of residence, in small town called Florence, Kentucky, I witnessed what could possibly be this year’s biggest cinematic failure: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But not to worry, I realize the director alone is not at fault for a movie’s overall lack of coherent scripting, many more are to blame for the seemly awful delegation of such an important task. And who am I to point out such incompetence? I sir, am your biggest demographic. I represent a large area of numbers and statistics for this film, being both a white male, and in the eighteen to twenty-five range, living in a middle class family. So imagine the egg on my face when a beloved childhood cartoon, of which I and my family owned the publications and toys of, was turned into a post 9/11, allegorical piece of shit. Now, again, to say the entire movie was a flop would be quite incorrect, as the overplayed special effects and camp of the film were indeed present. I’m sure by sheer volume, the amount of money spent on this film will please your average viewer, as the shiny robots and flashy lights were impressive, assuming you’ve neither seen the first, nor grown up in a digital age of of the Matrix and Terminator.
I can’t, however, excuse the large and seemingly unexplained plot-holes that plagued this film’s dialogue, direction, and cinematography. Also, this film’s over-simplification of what is clearly our present actions in Iraq really detracted from the cartoon value the show once had. When such moments as a Decepticon knocking off an American flag from the Brooklyn bridge, or referring to violence in the area of Jordan as acts of “terrorism”, you’ve done your job in further cementing a nationalist, and very racist, backwards way of thought. Just as Captain America fought Nazis in WWII as a pro-American use of propaganda through the medium of comics, you’ve simply turned Captain America into American cars, and the Nazis of yesteryear into foreign citizens of a desert that happens to be occupied by our troops at this very moment, through a medium of film. Robots or not, you’ve manage to imply through the symbolism in this movie that Decepticons are both Un-American, and terror suspects. Playing right off the post-9/11 fear of Americans today, you rely on our people’s idea of terrorist irradiation, rather than the fear of human annihilation. Human Mr. Bay, not American, they are two very different things. And to deny the connection would be both spineless and asinine, as you sir, take another step to lower the value of the collective unconsciousness of America, further impressing the idea that the US acts as the sole peacekeeping force of the world, and that to be any other than US-born would brand you the label of suspected terrorist. I saw no help from other countries, I saw no global outreach to the issues at hand. And furthermore, I saw that your film’s writers had no objection to using the “we’ll just have to trust him” as a logical justification for wasting the military’s time and money, as well as mine.
But all is not lost, the man who was texting during the film’s duration seemed pretty into it, as did his buddies.
Sure, I could be brush off these comments under the guise that this was a children’s film to show a spectacle of human achievement in the fields of both computer rendering and where that meets human acting: not to mention badass robots fighting with missiles and rockets, but I ask of you sir, to make that film without the misguided and unjustified jabs at our current political debacle, and with a storyline of original thought. Why not show the Decepticons as being misunderstood purveyors of a dangerous commodity, and that by acting as a compassionate and globally forward thinking people, we can defeat a threat to the human way of life, not the American. Why not show the villains as they once were, masked evil geniuses with a pointy mustache, rather than a fellow human, who might just practice a different religion, pray to a different god, or speak another language. How about you add a female character to who can be appreciated for something other than physical assets. How about you and your team try replacing the the product-driven, money hungry message with something that can speak to multiple generations, and not that a worn-out stereotype is still the big box office blockbuster. Take pride in your work Mr. Bay, simply make a movie about fighting robots, and leave the subtle implications of terrorism in our world to the past. Remember, pure perfection comes not when more can be added, but when nothing more can be taken away.
–
I’d like to hear your thoughts before I send it.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Tags: Michael Bay, Transformers 2
Here’s a relativity quick post for ‘yall.
I was talking with my friend Jake about the perception of things, about the overall value of the visual element in our society (actually, it was anime girls over some pancakes) and just how people interact with those elements. He asked if I had ever heard of the blog Photoshop Disasters, of which I haven’t missed a blog post to date. But the reason I talk about this site, is for two reasons. First of all, the site is extremely well written. The author brings a highly developed skill of photo manipulation, and a razor-sharp tongue to the table, and a quick wit that puts some of the most highly respected photo publications on the chopping block.
The other, more important reason I’m sharing this, is because this blog has shared with me a sense of awareness for what I’m exposing my eyeballs to. It’s common knowledge that the grey matter between our ears and our eyes are quick to pass judgment on what it is we’re viewing, but when your brain is focused on finding something that’s wrong, it’s easily spotted what was once glanced over in a matter of seconds. I view thousands of images a day online, through Tumblrs, blogs and feed readers, so a simple four-fingered kid, or a legless model is usually passed by to never be thought of again. But this blog slows down ads and banners, and challenges you to take a second look. And I do mean challenge, because some images I’ve spent nearly hours pouring over, looking for what turns out to be a simple deformed limb or iStock watermark.
After a few months of reading their posts, I can’t stop looking at the number of fingers on magazine ads, or how the reflection on websites is physically impossible. (And is the bane of the author’s existence) You start to realize just what is being passed off in the world of graphic design, and just how easy it is for poorly made ads to cross by your brain and convey a message, and yet, still be a visual abomination of epic proportions. So please, take some time to read Photoshop Disasters, or throw it up on your feed reader to check out later. It just might rock your world, like it rocked mine.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: istock, manipulation, photoshop, photoshop disasters
