KNIGHTRIDER3:16 Posted June 20, 2009 Share #1 Posted June 20, 2009 Can't wait for this movie to come out and see who's new in it ,How bout' you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Messino Posted June 20, 2009 Share #2 Posted June 20, 2009 This one looks like it's going to be even better than the last Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metsfan Posted June 22, 2009 Share #3 Posted June 22, 2009 Seeing it. - A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanfortitude Posted June 22, 2009 Share #4 Posted June 22, 2009 i didnt miss the first one...no way im skipping out on the 2nd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortline Bus Posted June 24, 2009 Share #5 Posted June 24, 2009 And one of the most ancipated films of the summer has already generated controversy. Here the news article. Jive-talking twin Transformers raise race issues The Associated Press News Wires Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen introduces some 40 new mechanized characters of all shapes, sizes and even sexes — but it's a pair of jive-talking bots that critics are singling out as more than just harmless comic relief. Jive-talking Transformers twins Skids and Mudflap are raising questions about racial stereotyping. Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact Chevys, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They're forced to acknowledge that they can't read. One has a gold tooth. As good guys, they fight alongside the Autobots and are intended to provide comic relief. But the traits they're ascribed raise the spectre of stereotypes most notably seen when Jar Jar Binks, the clumsy, broken-English speaking alien from Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, was criticized as a racial caricature. Compared to Stepin Fetchit, Jar Jar Binks Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern described Binks in 1999 as a "Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit," a reference to a black character from the 1920s and '30s that exploited negative stereotypes for comic effect. Extending that metaphor to the Transformers sequel was AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire, who calls Skids and Mudflap "Jar Jar Binks in car form." And Manohla Dargis, film critic for The New York Times, takes it a step further, writing that the Transformers characters were given "conspicuously cartoonish, so-called black voices that indicate that minstrelsy remains as much in fashion in Hollywood as when, well, Jar Jar Binks was set loose by George Lucas." Director Michael Bay insists that the bumbling bots are just good clean fun. "We're just putting more personality in," Bay said. "I don't know if it's stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it." TV actor Reno Wilson, who is black, voices Mudflap. Tom Kenny, the white actor behind SpongeBob SquarePants, voices Skids. Neither immediately responded to interview requests for this story. Bay said the twins' parts "were kind of written but not really written, so the voice actors is when we started to really kind of come up with their characters. "I purely did it for kids," the director said. "Young kids love these robots, because it makes it more accessible to them." Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman said they followed Bay's lead in creating the twins. Still, the characters serve no real purpose in the story, and when the action gets serious, they disappear entirely, notes Tasha Robinson, associate entertainment editor at The Onion. "They don't really have any positive effect on the film," she said. "They only exist to talk in bad Ebonics, beat each other up and talk about how stupid each other is." Negative stereotypes used as comic relief Hollywood has a track record of using negative stereotypes of black characters for comic relief, said Todd Boyd, a professor of popular culture at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, who has not seen the Transformers sequel. "There's a history of people getting laughs at the expense of African-Americans, African-Carribeans and African culture," Boyd said. "These images are not completely divorced from history even though it's a new movie and even though they're robots and not humans." American cinema also has a tendency to deal with race indirectly, said Allyson Nadia Field, an assistant professor of cinema and media studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. "There's a persistent dehumanization of African-Americans and the entire Black race throughout Hollywood that displaces issues of race onto non-human entities," said Field, who also hasn't seen the film. "It's not about skin colour or robot colour. It's about how their actions and language are coded racially." If these characters weren't animated and instead played by real black actors, "then you might have to admit that it's racist," Robinson said. "But stick it into a robot's mouth, and it's just a robot, it's OK." But if they're alien robots, she continued, "why do they talk like bad black stereotypes?" Bay brushes off any whiff of controversy. "Listen, you're going to have your naysayers on anything," he said. "It's like is everything going to be melba toast? It takes all forms and shapes and sizes. c)2009 Associated Press, Inc. reactions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jah Posted June 24, 2009 Share #6 Posted June 24, 2009 Saw Transformers today and thought it was great. Just as good as the first one and they leave an opening for part 3 too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maserati7200 Posted June 25, 2009 Share #7 Posted June 25, 2009 [NEWS ARTICLE THAT Hudson River posted When will people stop being so paranoid? Why is everyone offended at every little thing. Grow up people. In addition, the robot wasn't any race. Tell me, then, how is that racism. :mad::tdown: Stupid media. PS. I can't wait to see it! The first one was great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metsfan Posted June 25, 2009 Share #8 Posted June 25, 2009 I could have done without the dogs humping each other, the robot humping the chick's leg and the uh..... other... thing..... you know what i mean... Other than that was a GREAT movie. - A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metsfan Posted June 25, 2009 Share #9 Posted June 25, 2009 Clarification, "GREAT" = great fun to watch. - A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q43 Floral Park Posted June 25, 2009 Share #10 Posted June 25, 2009 Is it worth me spending the extra cash to see it in IMAX or should I just see it regular? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metsfan Posted June 25, 2009 Share #11 Posted June 25, 2009 Regular, try earlier in the day if the $ is less. - A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R32 3348 Posted June 26, 2009 Share #12 Posted June 26, 2009 People need to stop accusing everything as racist as if it will ever get them anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KNIGHTRIDER3:16 Posted June 27, 2009 Author Share #13 Posted June 27, 2009 I saw it and today going again with my son I'll know when to cover his eyes. Great movie I hope TF3 comes out sooner <R> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UlmerPark B6 Posted June 27, 2009 Share #14 Posted June 27, 2009 It was a mad nice movie, and plus Megan Fox is hot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maserati7200 Posted June 28, 2009 Share #15 Posted June 28, 2009 Megan Fox is hot! MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.... :cool: oohhhh yea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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