Michael Bay: Destroying our childhoods?

I have to say i loved the new transformers film and the last TMNT film, but compared with the original comics and stories they were not that good. I have gone back and watched the old transformers TV series and i take Michael Bays point, the animation was terrible, the editor deserved to be shot, and the plots were pretty simplistic. But to say the same about transformers the movie, the animated one, is the comic book equivalent of accusing the pope of being a heretic! The original feature length transformers film was not only a great film, well animated and a cast to die for, it had a better plot than most of the films that came out of the eighties and it was a landmark for animated films.

Personally i always preferred the comics to the films anyway, inc. TMNT for that matter, and hear you cannot complain about plots. I read the UK publication so i cannot comment on the American transformers comics but the ones i read had more sophisticated plots at the time than you got on most TV drama programs, they had the advantage of having multiple issues, characters that could be developed over years and a remarkably consistent plot for a comic that ran to over three hundred issues. When you consider that it featured time travel and was set over at least three planets at one point, earth, cybertron and nebulous, this was quite an achievement. Take the time-wars story line, this was the cumulation of a series of separate story arcs that originated with Transformers: The movie and continued for more than a hundred issues. You cannot get much more sophisticated than that!

I have to say that i was really unhappy when the UK transformers comic came to an end in the 90’s and was really looking forward to the film coming out so i would probably have loved it however it turned out, but i actually enjoyed it. I think we have to separate the new film from the old comics and films. Lets face it, its not the same story, it has to be seen as the start of a new film saga!

As far as the new film goes, it had a great cast, the voice of Optimus Prime was perfect, Good choices for the Witwickys, but why change the names and what happened to Sparkplug. I loved Blackout, Scorponok, Roadblock and Starscream but their wasn’t enough of Megatron and his fusion cannon was not worth the name, the best Decepticon was clearly Frenzy. The transformers just looked too organic. That said the transformation and action sequences were fantastic!