Celluloid Heroes

Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid’s Camaro? That’s cool.

When Hasbro gets a production credit, you probably shouldn’t expect a deep, introspective, emotionally fulfilling cinematic experience. Combine that with direction by Michael Bay, and you have the movie-going equivalent of eating all of your little brother’s Halloween candy. It’s nutritionally empty and, after you come down off your sugar buzz, you feel guilty about enjoying yourself. While everyone involved but the special effects teams will probably keep their Oscar acceptance speeches on ice for another year, the truth is that Transformers succeeds in being exactly what it tries to be. Of course, when you aim low, hitting your target is often just a matter of gravity.

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You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.

Economists have a term known as creative destruction. That’s when a new innovation appears on the market and the established order of an industry has the proverbial rug pulled out from under its feet. The introduction of synchronized sound, especially dialog, had that sort of effect on the film industry. Not only were careers ended for performers who couldn’t adapt to the new demands, but silent films already in production were either shelved or reshot with sound. Within a couple of years, silent films had gone from being state of the art to yesterday’s relics. They were the 1920’s equivalent of last year’s iPod.

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