An open apology to Michael Bay

Dear Mr. Bay. I recently was listening to a Podcast called Geek Out Loud. In this episode the hosts were talking about their love for Transformers. They said something in that episode that made me think. I have been a basher of the Michael Bay Transformers franchise since I saw the original in the theater. I hated it at the time. I saw the second one just to be curious and although I liked it better than the first I was still on the Michael Bay Transformers hate bandwagon. The hosts of Geek Out Loud unabashedly pronounced their love not only for the original Generation 1 cartoon but for the current movies.

What they said that made me think is "What were you expecting?" This is a movie that is blatantly based on a toy line and is an entertainment vehicle to make money and sell toys. Although that is not necessarily the noblest of causes it isn't claiming to be something that it isn't. So what I did was re watch the movies. But this time I watched them with the mindset of my 10 year old self watching Transformers on television. From a child's eye, were they entertaining. Hell Yeah they were. They are filled with amazing visuals, effects, action, and blatant childish comedy. These are not being made to win Academy Awards or be discussed and dissected in depth  to find out the true meaning of the film makers. If I was to see this movie when I was a kid it would make me want to go right out to Wal Mart and buy Transformers toys. Hell, it still does, lol. 

My grown up, film school warped mind sometimes forgets to just enjoy mindless entertainment, and that makes me sad. I'm sad that I have become so holier than thou that I can place judgement on someone doing a job and doing it the way it would be successful and entertain it's main core audience. It brings happiness and smiles to the faces of little boys who watch it and say "WHOA! DID YOU SEE THAT? THAT WAS AWESOME!" Pretty much just what the little boy in the first movie says when his mom skids to a stop in the car as Optimus Prime and Megatron land in front of them.

Although the jokes are childish and laced with sexual innuendos and originally insulted me at their simplicity and crudeness; I thought back to the comedies I loved as a kid and realized that most often they were just as crude  and simplistic. 

I have to remember that I just paid $80 for the complete Blu Ray collection of the Friday the 13th movie franchise; and I have always said that none of those movies are good. But their entertaining, to me at least and I have watched them countless times over and over again. I watched the Transformers through the eyes of my Friday the 13th fan's eyes and I enjoyed them. Good job Michael Bay.

Even if the Friday the 13th remake sucked but hey, you were just a producer on that one so I'll let you slide since I liked the Texas Chainsaw reboot you produced too.