Feminist review: Transformers 1-3
Jul. 25th, 2013 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkAh, Transformers.
Where to even start?
I have a soft spot for giant robots, especially giant robots that turn into cars via gorgeous CGI. And really, the Transformers films are only worth watching for the Transformers themselves and the epic battles between them, because the scripts generally suck. A lot.
I mean, even without getting into the intersectional issues, the humor is awkward and forced and usually just not very funny, any moment that could've led to emotional depth is flattened, and the characterization is very, very stock. Probably worst of all is that for movies that are supposed to be about the Autobots, oftentimes 1/3 or less of the movie is actually about the Autobots and Decepticons, and most of it focuses on the humans' rather boring lives and romantic problems.
I mean, it's not as though there aren't good ideas in the films. In my opinion, the second one was beyond saving, but the first had a pretty good plot structure and the third had a great setup (about halfway into the film). It's just that any potential there was is squandered by the horrible writing of the script.
Add to that the gender and race issues, and boy, the movies seriously suck.
First up, gender.
These movies are textbook in Male Gaze camera views. In the first and second films, the camera pans up and down Mikaela's body, blatantly objectifying her. In the third movie, Carly is introduced in her underwear with the camera focusing on her legs and behind before we even see her face. Whoo boy. And please don't get me started on how Carly is never depicted in anything other than high heels and designer clothes...even when she's running through a freaking warzone.
And then there's the way the script itself treats the female leads. There are sexual innuendos (first movie: Sam to Mikaela: "I want to ride you...I mean, give you a ride home") and sexist jabs made by other characters to the women (first movie: Simmons to Mikaela: "You, in the training bra" and "She's a criminal. Criminals are hot"). There was that weird bit in the third movie about how it almost seemed like there was a thing going on between Carly and her boss, when Dylan is describing the "curves" of a car and the camera is panning over Carly's body. Also in the third movie, there was the part where Carly gives Sam a big jug of licorice when she visits him at work, for no reason other than so she can bite a piece in a sexually suggestive way in front of Sam's boss. And the list goes on.
I find Carly's depiction the more obnoxious one, as she's a completely stock character with basically no personality (except to hinder Sam in his quest to help the Autobots by insisting that he's addicted to danger) or reason for Sam to love her so much, and she serves as a complete Damsel in Distress in the movie. Even though Mikaela was subjected to all the problems I mentioned above, I actually liked her a bit because she was a mechanic (which is a stereotypically male-coded profession in fiction and worked great in the setting with cars and Autobots) and she wasn't Damselified to nearly the same degree that Carly was.
Apart from the female leads/Designated Love Interests, there are only a few other female characters. The first movie, interestingly, had a female analyst working for the government. She was pretty cool, although she doesn't actually accomplish much other than suggest ideas (that turn out to be right, but no one believes her). There's also Sam's mom, who across the three movies is there solely for comic relief, as she's shown to be a ditz and an airhead. In the second movie, there's the Decepticon who's disguised as a female college student named "Alice" who is depicted as a femme fatale and is sexually objectified. In the third movie, we have the high-ranking intelligence officer lady, who is depicted negatively again. She refuses the title "Ma'am" (and doesn't reply when Carly says "Aren't you a woman?"--I have no idea what to take away from that exchange) and she hinders Sam's efforts to help the Autobots and is hostile to the obviously heroic Autobots.
Speaking of the Autobots, in the second movie we have the "Arcee twins" as female Autobots, but I don't remember them playing a significant role. The Autobots generally are sorely lacking in female members. According to Wikipedia (source to come), someone decided there "wasn't enough time to explain the presence of a female Autobot" in the first movie, which of course is just blatantly sexist; what's there to "explain" about it?
Okay, I think that's all for gender. Now for race.
Yeah, the movies are kind of racist. There is Epps, one of the soldiers who winds up helping the Autobot cause, and another super minor PoC soldier in the third movie, but I think they're the only unquestionably positive person of color (PoC) characters in the films. The first movie had the PoC owner of the car dealer where Sam "buys" Bumblebee, who's nothing but a caricature. There's also Glen, the PoC computer genius, yet he's played up as a comic relief as much as a hero. And there was the throwaway line about how Iranian scientists "weren't smart enough" to design the code that the Pentagon analysts were trying to hack. The second movie had the Autobot ice cream truck twins, whom I've read are racist caricatures, but I don't remember the movie well enough to comment myself. And the third movie had the horrible "Latina meltdown" comment and the pretty awful portrayal of minor character Jerry Wang, which also made jokes about homosexuality.
Yeah. Saying these movies are riddled with problematic material is an understatement.
Where to even start?
I have a soft spot for giant robots, especially giant robots that turn into cars via gorgeous CGI. And really, the Transformers films are only worth watching for the Transformers themselves and the epic battles between them, because the scripts generally suck. A lot.
I mean, even without getting into the intersectional issues, the humor is awkward and forced and usually just not very funny, any moment that could've led to emotional depth is flattened, and the characterization is very, very stock. Probably worst of all is that for movies that are supposed to be about the Autobots, oftentimes 1/3 or less of the movie is actually about the Autobots and Decepticons, and most of it focuses on the humans' rather boring lives and romantic problems.
I mean, it's not as though there aren't good ideas in the films. In my opinion, the second one was beyond saving, but the first had a pretty good plot structure and the third had a great setup (about halfway into the film). It's just that any potential there was is squandered by the horrible writing of the script.
Add to that the gender and race issues, and boy, the movies seriously suck.
First up, gender.
These movies are textbook in Male Gaze camera views. In the first and second films, the camera pans up and down Mikaela's body, blatantly objectifying her. In the third movie, Carly is introduced in her underwear with the camera focusing on her legs and behind before we even see her face. Whoo boy. And please don't get me started on how Carly is never depicted in anything other than high heels and designer clothes...even when she's running through a freaking warzone.
And then there's the way the script itself treats the female leads. There are sexual innuendos (first movie: Sam to Mikaela: "I want to ride you...I mean, give you a ride home") and sexist jabs made by other characters to the women (first movie: Simmons to Mikaela: "You, in the training bra" and "She's a criminal. Criminals are hot"). There was that weird bit in the third movie about how it almost seemed like there was a thing going on between Carly and her boss, when Dylan is describing the "curves" of a car and the camera is panning over Carly's body. Also in the third movie, there was the part where Carly gives Sam a big jug of licorice when she visits him at work, for no reason other than so she can bite a piece in a sexually suggestive way in front of Sam's boss. And the list goes on.
I find Carly's depiction the more obnoxious one, as she's a completely stock character with basically no personality (except to hinder Sam in his quest to help the Autobots by insisting that he's addicted to danger) or reason for Sam to love her so much, and she serves as a complete Damsel in Distress in the movie. Even though Mikaela was subjected to all the problems I mentioned above, I actually liked her a bit because she was a mechanic (which is a stereotypically male-coded profession in fiction and worked great in the setting with cars and Autobots) and she wasn't Damselified to nearly the same degree that Carly was.
Apart from the female leads/Designated Love Interests, there are only a few other female characters. The first movie, interestingly, had a female analyst working for the government. She was pretty cool, although she doesn't actually accomplish much other than suggest ideas (that turn out to be right, but no one believes her). There's also Sam's mom, who across the three movies is there solely for comic relief, as she's shown to be a ditz and an airhead. In the second movie, there's the Decepticon who's disguised as a female college student named "Alice" who is depicted as a femme fatale and is sexually objectified. In the third movie, we have the high-ranking intelligence officer lady, who is depicted negatively again. She refuses the title "Ma'am" (and doesn't reply when Carly says "Aren't you a woman?"--I have no idea what to take away from that exchange) and she hinders Sam's efforts to help the Autobots and is hostile to the obviously heroic Autobots.
Speaking of the Autobots, in the second movie we have the "Arcee twins" as female Autobots, but I don't remember them playing a significant role. The Autobots generally are sorely lacking in female members. According to Wikipedia (source to come), someone decided there "wasn't enough time to explain the presence of a female Autobot" in the first movie, which of course is just blatantly sexist; what's there to "explain" about it?
Okay, I think that's all for gender. Now for race.
Yeah, the movies are kind of racist. There is Epps, one of the soldiers who winds up helping the Autobot cause, and another super minor PoC soldier in the third movie, but I think they're the only unquestionably positive person of color (PoC) characters in the films. The first movie had the PoC owner of the car dealer where Sam "buys" Bumblebee, who's nothing but a caricature. There's also Glen, the PoC computer genius, yet he's played up as a comic relief as much as a hero. And there was the throwaway line about how Iranian scientists "weren't smart enough" to design the code that the Pentagon analysts were trying to hack. The second movie had the Autobot ice cream truck twins, whom I've read are racist caricatures, but I don't remember the movie well enough to comment myself. And the third movie had the horrible "Latina meltdown" comment and the pretty awful portrayal of minor character Jerry Wang, which also made jokes about homosexuality.
Yeah. Saying these movies are riddled with problematic material is an understatement.
