I'd been meaning to put this in words, and finally did.

[acroyear]

I've determined I'll never see Transformers 2, because the trailer showed the terribly quick and easy destruction of a U.S. supercarrier. Nevermind that a nuclear bomb had trouble sinking a WW2 carrier (Saratoga sank after 8 hours on a near direct hit, but Independence held up to *two* hits from only a few hundred feet further away), but there's that whole personnel factor.

To a teenage kid, a carrier blowing up is "lots of cool action".

To me, the son of a 22 year Navy Commander, and who has spent considerable time on carriers himself as a child, a carrier blowing up is twice as many deaths as 9/11.

I simply can not and will not put that statistic out of my head.

The whole Transformers theme: the bad guys are so totally immune to everything we have that the U.S. Military is just cannon fodder, is quite simply one I refuse to see. I turned the first movie off after the first "battle". Seeing troops slaughtered right and left does not thrill me at all; it sickens me.

For whatever reason, I can "cartoonify" it and deal with it in Anime, and when rediculous death statistics happen in Dr. Who the character of the Doctor (or, say, Jack Harkness in Torchwood) is enough to get me past it.

But Shia Labeouf, while a nice guy, isn't a strong enough actor nor does he play an interesting enough character, to compensate.

Comments

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

I guess you won't be seeing "2012" for similar reasons. (Well, in that case a big gigantic tidal wave apparently flips the John F Kennedy over. The trailer is full of ridiculously over-the-top destruction, but amazingly enough, no lava anywhere.)

BTW, about all the reviews I've read for it have said that the film is awful, even by Michael Bay standards.

[xpioti.livejournal.com]

I watched T1 for the special effects. Bumblebee was awesome! I need to watch it again on a larger screen so I can see more detail in how they transform. And Optimus Prime's close-up talking scenes!

... There was a plot? *blinkblink* I didn't notice. I also didn't notice the inclusion of US Military, I only remember noticing fictional Special Forces types. (Who, frankly, were unimpressive. But that's normal, for movies.)

[rmblktty.livejournal.com]

Actually, I understand where you are coming from 100%. My dad was a marine. :-) Plus I find that violence for violence's sake in movies is a turn off - i need it to make sense and move the plot forward, mob movies for example, gratuitious violence is part of the plot movement. No matter how good the effects are, I cannot find enjoyment in movies like this. As for Dr.Who and Captain Jack giving it a way to be dealt with, in the end, it does help to move the plot forward and is good enough though character developtment to make me believe it.

[amalphiea.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem. I went to see it with my Navy boyfriend and had a very hard time watching that.