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I'll be linking to this from my Transformers reviews page, but I'm locking comments to just people on my Friends list. This is one time I don't particularly want a lot of responses, for reasons that should become clear.
So, you've probably heard the news. Spielberg is attached as an executive producer to a live action Transformers movie, presumably with loads of CG effects, due out in a year or two. That's the good news, from the perspective of a Transformers fan (henceforth to be referred to as "transfan").
Here's the bad news, if you're a transfan.
It's not being made for you.
It's not being made for people who care whether Optimus Prime has short or long smokestacks, who want to see Megatron as a gun, who expect the story to closely follow any of the plots in the existing mythos.
Why?
There's simply not enough transfans, even less if you limit it to the whiny types who can't bear to see any deviation from the Real Transformers Given To Us By God, Er, Hasbro In The 1980s. I mean, think about it. How many people with control over their own finances (i.e. adults or teenagers with jobs) are currently transfans? To say 50,000 would probably be overestimating by a LOT, but I'll pick that number.
Now, say that every transfan sees the movie ten times, for full price. That's no more than five million dollars of earnings, and I'm using intentionally high estimates. In reality, the average transfan will probably only see the movie twice in the theater, maybe three times (sure, there's those who will see it ten times, but they're rare). And they're not all going to see it at night, some of us will hit matinees. And there's probably not 50,000 of us, even if some transfans act like they're part of a huge social movement.
That makes transfans an almost negligible market segment. Any studio that focuses on pleasing us as the first priority will be very lucky to only lose its shirt.
No, the target audience is really split into two main groups. One, people who kinda remember Transformers from when they were kids, probably don't even remember any of the names, but are pulled in by vague nostalgia. Two, fans of action movies in general, who come to see the effects. Both would like a good story, but aren't too particular on the details. Staying within spitting distance of the G1 cartoon would probably help some, but if Prime is an Escalade, I doubt any of them would mind too terribly much.
Hasbro will probably insist on certain things being retained, for merchandising purposes, so Prime will likely have the classic head with faceplate (although might have the Primal-style optional mouth). There will be a lot of transforming, and the robots should be in at least a half hour's worth of footage total...they're the selling point, after all.
But even with good CG, robots don't emote all that well. I've heard they're avoiding the size-changing thing, so interior scenes will be difficult for Transformers. So we definitely need a protagonist who's played by a human. Just as Gollum had to be fronted by Frodo and the Ents by Hobbits, I'm positive that the script will include one or more stars who are played by real, human actors, and not virtual actors. They might go the Spy Kids Ripoff route and use Spike, Carley, etc. Or they might make up an entirely new human star. Heck, they might even look at the Japanese Masterforce series and decide to make Optimus Prime a Pretender or a Headmaster or something (suggesting this last one caused a flurry of whining on a Transformers message board I was foolish enough to post it to, thinking that they weren't as kneejerk there as other places...silly me).
Also, consider that this is a movie. One shot, two hours or so. They need to make sure the story can be told to complete non-fans in that time limit and work. Sometimes jettisoning backstory and making up a new origin works (hey, I liked Hulk), sometimes it doesn't (I had a free pass to Catwoman and I still didn't go see it). And whenever a change is made, a segment of the fandom wails and gnashes their teeth ("Organic webshooters? They're DESTROYING Spider-Man!"), but they're generally ignored (Spider-Man 1 took in HALF A BILLION DOLLARS or more overall, including foreign. He can keep the organic webshooters, man).
Anyway, I'd like to see this movie make a few hundred million, because that means there will be sequels, and I'm not so attached to any one Transformers setting that I can't handle a new one being introduced. Here's what I think needs to happen for the Transformers movie to succeed:
1) Ignore the whining of transfans.
2) Keep the cast small, no more than a half dozen Autobots and two or three "named" Decepticons (hordes of mooks are allowed, of course).
3) Start from scratch, don't assume anyone in the audience knows anything about anything.
4) Get a Big Name Star for the main role, preferably an on-screen role (although Vin Diesel would be cool for several of the voices).
5) Make the Big Name Star's role important without overshadowing the Transformers. If that means making him a Headmaster or something, fine. And while I'd rather avoid the Spy Kids Ripoff, it does seem to sell.
6) Lots of CG robots, but save the really involved effects shots for two or three important scenes. Bad idea to have the audience getting bored of the effects before the end.
7) Seriously, ignore any angry letters and threatened boycotts from transfans. Just make a good movie and try to bring in the usual audiences.
8) By the way, don't suck. Don't camp it up, don't dumb it down, don't change the ending at the last minute because of focus groups. Especially if the focus groups have a lot of transfans. :)
So, just keep this in mind if you're a transfan. The movie is an opportunity to expand Transformers, to add to the story, not just retell it. If it sucks, it sucks...sticking to the 1980s stuff won't keep it from sucking in any case. Worry about the core, not the surface details.
After all, consider that 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime is an awesome toy, regardless of how long his smokestacks are. So stop obsessing about the details.
So, you've probably heard the news. Spielberg is attached as an executive producer to a live action Transformers movie, presumably with loads of CG effects, due out in a year or two. That's the good news, from the perspective of a Transformers fan (henceforth to be referred to as "transfan").
Here's the bad news, if you're a transfan.
It's not being made for you.
It's not being made for people who care whether Optimus Prime has short or long smokestacks, who want to see Megatron as a gun, who expect the story to closely follow any of the plots in the existing mythos.
Why?
There's simply not enough transfans, even less if you limit it to the whiny types who can't bear to see any deviation from the Real Transformers Given To Us By God, Er, Hasbro In The 1980s. I mean, think about it. How many people with control over their own finances (i.e. adults or teenagers with jobs) are currently transfans? To say 50,000 would probably be overestimating by a LOT, but I'll pick that number.
Now, say that every transfan sees the movie ten times, for full price. That's no more than five million dollars of earnings, and I'm using intentionally high estimates. In reality, the average transfan will probably only see the movie twice in the theater, maybe three times (sure, there's those who will see it ten times, but they're rare). And they're not all going to see it at night, some of us will hit matinees. And there's probably not 50,000 of us, even if some transfans act like they're part of a huge social movement.
That makes transfans an almost negligible market segment. Any studio that focuses on pleasing us as the first priority will be very lucky to only lose its shirt.
No, the target audience is really split into two main groups. One, people who kinda remember Transformers from when they were kids, probably don't even remember any of the names, but are pulled in by vague nostalgia. Two, fans of action movies in general, who come to see the effects. Both would like a good story, but aren't too particular on the details. Staying within spitting distance of the G1 cartoon would probably help some, but if Prime is an Escalade, I doubt any of them would mind too terribly much.
Hasbro will probably insist on certain things being retained, for merchandising purposes, so Prime will likely have the classic head with faceplate (although might have the Primal-style optional mouth). There will be a lot of transforming, and the robots should be in at least a half hour's worth of footage total...they're the selling point, after all.
But even with good CG, robots don't emote all that well. I've heard they're avoiding the size-changing thing, so interior scenes will be difficult for Transformers. So we definitely need a protagonist who's played by a human. Just as Gollum had to be fronted by Frodo and the Ents by Hobbits, I'm positive that the script will include one or more stars who are played by real, human actors, and not virtual actors. They might go the Spy Kids Ripoff route and use Spike, Carley, etc. Or they might make up an entirely new human star. Heck, they might even look at the Japanese Masterforce series and decide to make Optimus Prime a Pretender or a Headmaster or something (suggesting this last one caused a flurry of whining on a Transformers message board I was foolish enough to post it to, thinking that they weren't as kneejerk there as other places...silly me).
Also, consider that this is a movie. One shot, two hours or so. They need to make sure the story can be told to complete non-fans in that time limit and work. Sometimes jettisoning backstory and making up a new origin works (hey, I liked Hulk), sometimes it doesn't (I had a free pass to Catwoman and I still didn't go see it). And whenever a change is made, a segment of the fandom wails and gnashes their teeth ("Organic webshooters? They're DESTROYING Spider-Man!"), but they're generally ignored (Spider-Man 1 took in HALF A BILLION DOLLARS or more overall, including foreign. He can keep the organic webshooters, man).
Anyway, I'd like to see this movie make a few hundred million, because that means there will be sequels, and I'm not so attached to any one Transformers setting that I can't handle a new one being introduced. Here's what I think needs to happen for the Transformers movie to succeed:
1) Ignore the whining of transfans.
2) Keep the cast small, no more than a half dozen Autobots and two or three "named" Decepticons (hordes of mooks are allowed, of course).
3) Start from scratch, don't assume anyone in the audience knows anything about anything.
4) Get a Big Name Star for the main role, preferably an on-screen role (although Vin Diesel would be cool for several of the voices).
5) Make the Big Name Star's role important without overshadowing the Transformers. If that means making him a Headmaster or something, fine. And while I'd rather avoid the Spy Kids Ripoff, it does seem to sell.
6) Lots of CG robots, but save the really involved effects shots for two or three important scenes. Bad idea to have the audience getting bored of the effects before the end.
7) Seriously, ignore any angry letters and threatened boycotts from transfans. Just make a good movie and try to bring in the usual audiences.
8) By the way, don't suck. Don't camp it up, don't dumb it down, don't change the ending at the last minute because of focus groups. Especially if the focus groups have a lot of transfans. :)
So, just keep this in mind if you're a transfan. The movie is an opportunity to expand Transformers, to add to the story, not just retell it. If it sucks, it sucks...sticking to the 1980s stuff won't keep it from sucking in any case. Worry about the core, not the surface details.
After all, consider that 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime is an awesome toy, regardless of how long his smokestacks are. So stop obsessing about the details.