2099net wrote:I suspect he means the cartoon series, and the animated Transformers movie, which (believe it or not) was an awesome, high-concept 'proper' sci-fi movie - which happened to be animated and based on toys. I cannot express how much imagination, thought and general all-around pride and care went into the animated Transformers movie. There's more creativity in 5 minutes of the animated movie than the whole, drawn out "live action" movie.
He can mean the cartoon series, but it all comes down to toys, which were the inspiration for the series in the first place. As such... it's still all toys. And I tend to like the animated series on the whole. I have mixed feelings about the original animated movie, though. If you want a prime example of making a movie to push new action figures... there you go. I do like the part where everyone dances to "Dare To Be Stupid" and anytime Wheelie's onscreen pissing everyone else off, though.
2099net wrote:And as for a movie being based on toys, do you think that makes the piss and masturbation jokes okay in the Transformers movie?
Eh. I didn't mind it too much. It's not like Optimus Prime was the one joking about masturbation and asking Jazz to grab his hood ornament, it was a goofy little joke with Sam's parents.
2099net wrote:Going back to X3, it was bound to fail, just as Spider-Man 3 was bound to fail (although to a lesser extent). If you want "realism" then don't have a Phoenix storyline. There's literally hundreds of storylines from hundreds of X-Men comics without resorting to the Phoenix story. Just like Venom had no place in a Spider-Man movie. It's because the filmmakers (and no doubt Marvel itself) in more concerned about pushing their brands and trademarks than telling stories consistent with the universe the movies create.
See... here's my thing. On paper, I have no issues with how Phoenix was handled in the movie. It COULD have worked. I wouldn't have included aliens myself. The third movie by default pretty much had to involve Phoenix somehow, given the ending of X2. I don't know Bryan Singer would have dealt with it (presumably better), but I still doubt he'd have X-Men and aliens. He was clearly going to work Phoenix in some capacity, with Emma Frost as the stories go.
Personally, if you have a loose idea for what could make a good movie (Phoenix), I don't have too much of a problem with adapting the original story around to make it fit. It's a personal thing, but it works for me. It's two different mediums, you do what you have to. So I agree with Mooky, there's a certain amount of realism even when you have mutants running around fighting. The past movies created a fairly realistic universe, and anything with aliens would have looked absurd (like you said... Venom. Ugh!). If done well, there was no reason why it was "bound to fail". Annoy fans maybe, but not necessarily fail.
"Ta ta ta taaaa! Look at me... I'm a snowman! I'm gonna go stand on someone's lawn if I don't get something to do around here pretty soon!"