Growing up with Transformers
- Jul 14, 2017
- 4 min read
My recent conversation topic with my students focused on the latest “Transformers-The Last Knight”. They did not like this particular installment, claiming that there were far too many strands of thoughts and subplots thrown in.
I guessed “dissipated” was the word they were looking for.
“Anglo-Saxon war? King Arthur? How could this be? What a load of BS!” one of them remarked. He's a history buff. Maps of various countries and continents are what you see in his mobile phone wallpaper.
“I haven't watched it. But I probably won't, given the bad reviews,” another rejoined. Nothing comes between her and her basketball, with one exception: the actor in “Descendants Of The Sun” drama, Song Joong Ki.
“What? NO!! Go watch!” I remonstrated, of course.
Allow me to put things in perspective, before any reader out there thinks that I am an autocrat.
My students watched their first “Transformers” on the big screen cinema when they were about 6 years old—thanks to their generous and broad-minded parents. Whereas, when I was at their age, I did not even know what a cinema-in-a-mall was like!
I watched my first “Transformers” on the small TV screen in the living room of my parents' old kampong house. That was the coloured animated cartoon version. Optimus Prime was still disguised as a big red truck. There was no movie adaptation, let alone Michael Bay's panoramic, perpetual metallic pandemonium version which I vouch is certainly best watched on IMAX. (Anything less than IMAX is...well...less.) When the cartoon was shown on TV, it signaled the unspoken 30-minute-truce between my highly-boisterous siblings and the angsty me.
Picture from https://giphy.com/search/transformers-cartoon
Picture from http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/tv-shows/Transformers/
The most familiar gravelly voice of Optimus Prime, “Roll Out!” was the sound that we kids loved to hear. It was the clarion call by the Leader of the Autobots: Time for Action. It meant the Autobots would be kicking the butts of the Decepticons, whose global domination agenda was an absolute no-no for all of us who believe in Optimus Prime and what he stands for: freedom, justice, equality, honour and dignity of the human race, as well as mutually-beneficial and peaceful co-existence with the Transformers on planet earth.
Of course, in our diminutive child's mind, Prime's grandiose ideology simply meant no adult was going to curtail our freedom to watch cartoons for as long as we wanted...that is, until the rule of force (The Cane) was restored by Mother.
Back in those days, the closest I got to a cinema was the ultimate 5.6 ha drive-in cinema owned by Cathay Organisation. It was located somewhere in Jurong industrial area, in Yuan Ching Road, to be exact.
Photo from National Archives of Singapore http://www.nas.gov.sg
The screen was huge. Measuring 47 ft by 100 ft, it stood 25ft above the ground. The entire open-air cinema could easily accommodate more than 850 cars in one single movie screening. Tickets were priced at $2 per adult and $1 per kid under 12 years old.
I remember my Dad would pack his wife and three children into his humble car and enjoy a family movie outing on weekends. To make sure everyone could watch the movie in peace, he would give each child a packet of McDonald fries and a chicken burger. Although Hong Kong-produced movies featuring Bruce Lee were some of our favourites, we little ones would never dare defy parental order and emulate his moves under the stars. Moreover, cinema inspectors would come round to do spot-check to ensure orderliness.
Due to the rising popularity of pirated movie video tapes (those big fat cassette tapes existed before the Compact Disc-era) and unpredictable tropical weather elements, the drive-in cinema was closed in 1985 and entered the historical archives of Singapore and the memories of my generation.
The Jurong drive-in cinema remains the one and only authentic viewing experience of its kind on Singapore soil. As the common saying goes, “money can't buy it” now in 2017.
Unabashedly, I declared to my friends and students, that Optimus Prime has always been my all-time hero.
“Ahhh....once you like Transformers, you will always like it,” another word of wisdom from my students.
And, to add, once you begin to appreciate Michael Bay's technical style and his break-neck pace, that's the benchmark you consciously or sub-conciously set for all other movies in the same genre.
Product placement? Plot contrivances? Pulverising chaos?
Look beyond all of them.
Don't waste time forcing a logical, linear, chronological, conventional storytelling and reading onto “Transformers-The Last Knight”, and, for that matter, any Transformers movie.
An action-thriller movie is an action-thriller, and still an action-thriller. After all, the guy is paid to do what he knows best: I.S.E.X.
Imaginative.
Spectacular.
Extravagant.
Xenology.
And that's the charm of Transformers movies.
So, multi-talented Travis Knight, you have a pair of mega big shoes to fill in for directing Bumble Bee spin-off. And I would consider it a cardinal sin if you take the sting out of the Bee!
Picture from http://www.slashfilm.com/transformers-bumblebee-spinoff/
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