Just an observation after watching Transformers (2007).

I have to say, first of all that i did like this movie, but it wasn't Transformers.

Was anyone else pissed off that they changed the reason for coming to earth and made the Allspark into a more tangible thing. In the original series, carrying into Beast Wars and Beast Machines, the Allspark was their god essentially. Not an object one could grasp but where all Transformers, good or bad go when their sparks have been extinguished.

I'm glad they gave a more realistic feel to the movie but it bothers me that they went with such a simple plot.

For those that don't know, or didn't understand, the original Transformers was only the first part in a much larger story. Beast Wars and Beast Machines were the next chapters and to follow was supposed to be Trans Tech until the franchise was bought out and the crappy anime versions were aired in North America. This threw out all the plot that the previous incarnations had led up to out the window.

This movie screws over a lot of the original story lines, especially the eventual link between Cybertron and Earth.

I have no issues with Michael Bay but I think it is sad that they picked someone who didn't know Transformers to direct it. There are so many fans out there I'm sure even within the Hollywood crowd that might have done a greater justice to the integrity of the series but without the hoakie style of 80's cartoons. It seems though that our society has been led in that direction. Dumbing things down, weakening plots, all in an effort not to confuse people. Or more so not to make them think.

As I have ranted on other boards, the same thing is happening with mainstream music, with wanna bes like the Disney Channel stars lowering the bar for all performers in training. Music is being raped by crappy lyrics, synthesized vocals, and mass produced stars. No different than movies and tv series that never get to realize their potential simply to ensure ratings and money haul.

Transformers (along with Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Trans Tech, and any that would have followed) is one of many that never got to be what it could have been, two others that I loved being Gargoyles and Ninja Turtles (though I believe an effort is now being made for the turtles).

Honestly at this point I don't know what to think anymore, do the intellectual among us sit back and enjoy the decent? Do those of us that have a genuine love of art and the endurance of its integrity just watch it all fade away? Or do we stand up? Do we make a desperate attempt to rescue the collective mind of our society before all art is simplified for the masses? Watching Dawn of the Dead I wonder if the infection has already come, slowly turning us all into nothing more than mindless zombies, following not a lust for blood, but a lust for marketing and media hype. The heroes in that movie certainly didn't fair well against the onslaught of the dead masses, and I suppose there isn't much I can do either. I'm just a "kid" sitting at his computer.