Transformers 4: Age of Extinction (2014)

 

Transformers 4: Age of Extinction

Transformers is back again with a fourth installment. After the first Transformers blew our minds away with incredible transformations from vehicles to metal humanoids, a great opening plot and story the subsequent Transformers 2 & 3 gradually sunk into oblivion with poorly developed stories, dinky humor and less than impressive delivery of the idea to the big screen. Transformers 4, is a significant improvement on the decline observed in Transformers 2 and 3. Transformers 4 has elements and the correct ingredients in the right proportions that will make it a certain box-office blockbuster. It will do well due to the fact there is not a wasted moment or movement in the movie, and the delivery is relentless.

Transformers 4 is now a step in the right direction, however, the earlier gradual decline in the story telling quality of Transformer Franchise demonstrates the importance of good story and a well delivered plot. A movie is first and foremost a story. Any director or producer who forgets this faces the risk of producing a dud at the box office. People watch movies every day, they call them books, novels, articles and so on. When we read stories the words are translated by our minds into living experiences. When a book is well written the reader forgets that he or she is converting letters and words into pictures, images, feelings and sounds; instead they begin to watch a moving picture in their minds. When audiences go to the cinema what a director does is remove one stage of the process and this is the text. The director frees the audience from the labour or effort of translating letters and words into moving pictures in the audience’s mind.  This is why the most enjoyable movies are the ones that make sense.

Though there has been a significant improvement of Transformers in this latest installment there is still some room for greater quality. It would be nice to see more competition between the Autobots and the Decepticons that consists of more than just humanoid transformers brawling. Human beings find machines intriguing, these transformers as a concept are more than intriguing machines. What fascinates human beings about machines is which is best at something; one bad ass machine being pitted against another; which Transformer is the fastest roadster? This can be portrayed by a straight up long distance race between transformer cars to get from one location to another in order to retrieve something until only two of the fastest cars are left racing to the destination. Which Transformer can: fly the fastest, - take flight and lift the heaviest load? –is the nimblest flyer? – can tow the heaviest load? - is the fastest at switching to different weapons? -  can dig underground the fastest?  - has the most powerful shield? – has the most powerful or most accurate long range weapons? – has the fastest processors?  -is the most skilled hacker? There is an unlimited number of ways competition can be introduced to the story during transformer confrontations (other than just pounding each other senseless as humanoids - this becomes too one dimensional) that showcase engineering to make the movie way more thrilling. Isn’t this what machines are all about? The vehicles in Fast and the Furious 6 (FF6) were probably doing more to showcase what talented machines can do than Transformers, how is this possible? Even the plane failing to lift off the ground in FF6 could easily have been a transformer performing this story-line in a Transformer movie.  The audience tends to sit waiting for the transformers to turn into humanoids for the action to begin; when they can transform into all kinds of machines. The problem is that the action and writing is often too concentrated on the humanoid forms of transformers so more can be done to improve this aspect. There is room for creativity, for instance if two Transformers simply transformed their tyres adding special hooked spikes to the rubber they could race to the top of skyscraper scattering glass to see who gets there first and only transform into humanoids at the top as they leap over the edge and so on. 

The Art of Directing 

 In order for a movie to make sense to an audience the story that the moving images tell needs to be well written and properly delivered or executed. In my view a diligent director never forgets or loses track of the fact that he or she is delivering words or text first and images second. He or she knows that every expression on an actors face, every movement on the screen is textual and conveys a textual idea that is pinned to the cognitive flow of the story being conveyed rather than the image being screened. A less diligent director tries to tell a story using moving images and this weaker method often leaves out many important nuances and it immediately becomes obvious as it becomes a flawed or uninteresting movie that often fails to make sense. 

Contrary to belief a diligent director is not on the set to ensure the images or screenplay work, he or she is there to ensure the ideas in the text for which the images are a substitute mesh together cognitively such that they convey the interesting story being told. A diligent director tinkers with the textual ideas being conveyed underneath the images, this is due to the fact that he or she has no control over what the audience makes of what it sees on the screen, in the same way an author has no control over what images each individual reader eventually conjures in the mind from the text being read. The baseline in human social interaction allows for text being read by multitudes of different readers to be translated into fairly similar moving images in their individual minds. Human beings are connoisseurs of life, after all they live it everyday from birth.  When the images on the screen bypass the role of text to take the place of the imagination, like an author’s limitation with words,  a director cannot control what every individual makes of what they observe on the screen, despite the fact that they observe the same images. Consequently the director must focus on the text of the movie first in order to understand how its images need to be delivered rather than focus or rely on the images first to deliver a blockbuster. The instinct behind directing therefore functions counter intuitively; a great director is not looking at the images first, he or she is looking at the text first, then the image. 

Secondly a great director does not persistently tell one story in an image which is linear. A great director layers several ideas that form the story into one dynamic screenshot. An interesting image often tells one story, but has several ideas running through it. Take for example , the story line; “the boy following his mother on a busy street stopped to picked up an abandoned tennis ball as they crossed the road” . Study a single frame of a boy on a busy street picking up a tennis ball. If we white out all other imagery, the boy picking up the ball is the story being followed by the audience. A director may make the mistake of simply filming the boy picking up the tennis ball as conveyed by the text. But this is not how the mind works. The human brain will translate the text into images with layers, interpreting what it believes it might observe on a “busy street”. A good director recognizes that the brain constantly subconsciously uses its life experience to automatically render and adds layers to what it observes in order to improve the accuracy of what it could be that it observes and this is referred to as an imagination or dreams. This is how the imagination works; it is how it converts text into images in the reading process that brings stories to life in the mind and emotions. The layers are automatically rendered by the mind. 

When producers decide to create a movie they need to realize that first and foremost they are telling a story, but secondly they should never forget that creating cinematic images bypasses text and therefore cuts off the process of rendering by which human beings naturally process reality.  Therefore, the background or backdrop is not some mundane linear imagery consisting of extras. It is the dynamic render through which the brain perceives the unfolding story. Let’s go back to the boy and the tennis ball story. The brain will add layers to this story. Layers entail what expression is on the boys face as he picks up the ball. If the back ground is brought back, we see a couple across the street arguing, the boy is picking up the ball in the middle of the road, a car’s tyres are screeching as it turns and hurtles in his direction, his mother is talking avidly on the phone and does not realize he has lagged behind, the old man just about to cross the street with a raised hand is anxiously about to try and warn the mother. These are not in the text, they do not directly affect the story – but they exist “emotively” in the render. Regardless of the genre of a movie the director therefore has to artificially render the scene in order to make it interesting for the audience, the same way the brain naturally renders a dynamic background to the text and a story it converts into moving images in the mind. To give an example of a render, a simple story from Star Trek: Into the Darkness may be “Khan and Kirk knelt in readiness, as the countdown to their launch toward the hatch on the dreadnaught began.” A render, if it’s not already in the text, would be the manner in which Kirk observes the more experienced mercenary Khan and hesitantly tries to imitate his crouched position. If this were text and the reader knew Kirk was in the company of a more experienced soldier, despite this being missing from the text the reader is likely to fill this aspect in emotively. If it is missing from the image the scene becomes less interesting. That simple action made by Kirk is a "render", it may seem small, but it enriches what is conveyed on the screen to the audience in a big way - that brush stroke from the director is what separates a Michael Angelo (Michelangelo) from other artists. When looking for genius in directing, these are the tell-tale brushstrokes. The role of a diligent director is to be able to see these renderings that would otherwise be dropped or missing from the screen and act as the medium through which they are portrayed as part of the imagery on the big screen. This mimics how the mind subconsciously entertains itself. Without the director rendering into images what the mind would naturally do with a story a movie becomes flat.

Having said this, Transformers 4 was remarkably better than 2 and 3, admittedly 1 had the novelty factor on its side. It must be said Transformers 4 was a relief to watch. Great action sequences, which were well woven into the social fabric of the movie observed in the father/daughter relationship played by Mark and Nicola and the boyfriend as a love interest. It would have been nice to see more independent story lines for them that later converge.

Visible Weakness in the CGI

What was noticeable on Transformers 4, however, was the reluctance of the producers to spend more time on the resurrection of Megatron into Galvatron and the evolution of the new generation of Decepticons and take this new development more seriously. Firstly, the Franchise deserves a pat on the back for daring to evolve the Decepticons. Never remain static, innovate or die; this is how you keep a franchise like this going. The new mode of transformation involving the shape-shifting blocks was a good start, but it certainly requires more finesse; it almost looked like a low resolution transformation that was still in the development stage at the studio, but hastily transferred to the big screen. It comes across as if the director of art and his team prefer the old “cog and wheel” (CAG) transformations where the audience sees complex cogs shifting and wheels spinning  as Transformers shape-shift so they deliberately half-assed the new more evolved concept of cube-fluid transformations (CFT) given to the Decepticons. It’s as though the CGI teams wants the audience to come back and say they prefer the CAG method more than the CFT method. If this is true then personal emotions of the CGI team may have been  allowed to interfere with and spill over into the movie and this deliberately lowered the quality of this form of transformation, which is a no-no. You shouldn’t try to sabotage your own work out of spite. Or it could be that the budget allocated to the CGI for the new method for transforming Decepticons was low; this is hard to believe. If one were to rate the image quality of the female nemesis in Terminator who could shape shift using the metallic fluid process, the image quality in this older movie was superior. The new CTF method is much  better than that in the older Terminator movie but the deliberate use  of multiple “blocky” parts appeared to deliberately lower the quality of the new method of transformation since the blocks convey the impression of low resolution or low pixilation which a CGI expert would know many in the audience are not going like; therefore why use it, unless it’s a deliberate attempt to force audiences to prefer the CAG method over the CFT method; if this is true then its unprofessional on the part of the CGI team as its Is counterproductive to the quality of the movie the producers are trying to sell to recoup the investment; this is after all a business; the objective is to generate necessary income through excellence rather than become entangled in emotional obstacles that threaten to reduce the quality of the product. 

Human involvement in the evolution of the Decepticons lead to lower quality Transformer like drones. This is good story telling since humans did not have the advanced technology required to create Transformers. However, when Megatron’s programming secretly took over the newly evolved Transformers and they became independent Decepticons they should have become bad-ass, yet they continued to remain lame to the extent that they were thrashed by the older CAG based Autobots. This was a big mistake in story telling. Why? A lame nemsis such as that depicted by the newly evolved Decepticons inevitably creates lame heros. The writers let their affection for the Autobots interfere with “reality” in the sci-fi fantasy and this reduced the quality of their story. Galvatron as Megatron and a small well defined handful of his newly evolved Decepticons should have thrashed the now older Autobots; after all they are now more evolved. Therefore, they should have been portrayed as a new dangerous and more threatening nemsis. The Autobots would also have been required to find a way of evolving to defeat them. This being the case Galvatron should have ordered his team of new Decepticons to stop engaging and fighting the Autobots at that time . Galvatron and his new elite team of evolved Decepticons should have expressed their disgust at the attempt by humans to turn them into remotely controlled slaves and copies of themselves. He should have been seen to proudly tell Optimus Prime that because this fight against him had been initiated by humans he and his team would withdraw, to show the humans they could not control Decepticons. Galvatron as Megatron should then have transformed into their respective vehicles and disappeared leaving Optimus and his team to face the bounty hunter. This would give the CGI team and writers time to creatively develop how the Autobots evolve to be able to keep up with and battle the new Decepticons in the next installment. If the creative team doesn't have the mettle to come up with a new stunning way of evolving the Autobots to bring them upto the level of the new Decepticons they shouldn't be in this business. This is not a genre in which you can run out of stunning ideas. The Franchise must demand it. There is always new, there is always better; there is always more "amazing" - as long as you reach for it; it will always be there, it only ceases to exist when you give up looking for it. Since Optimus Prime is on his way to challenge the creators as depicted at the end of the movie, his encounter with them, may be a way of introducing new technology that evolves the Autobots such that they become equal to and strong enough to face off with the newly evolved Decepticons. Its important for writers to remember that when you introduce a new method of transformation, for instance the way the Decepticons were upgraded from CAG to CFT transformation methods you don't have to completely lose the older method. Just because you learn how to play the guitar doesn't mean you've now forgotten how to play the piano. The CAG method can be used, but in a situation were it proves inadequate a Transformer can use its upgraded CFT method demonstrating the advantages of the new over the old, as they really should. Its very important to remember this. Should the Autobots receive an even more stunning way of transforming than the CAG method, don't make the mistake of completely disposing of the CAG method; the Autobots can still use it, but demonstrate the advantages the new more stunning method has, especially if during a battle the Decepticon or other opponent is unaware that the Autobots have upgrades. This allows the audience to begin to acclimatise to the new method of transforming. 

Good work on the new Autobots; Hound, Cross-hairs and Drift and on Lockdown.The greater style on the body (e.g. the cloaks) and definition on the faces is very nice, well done. Also, they are not caricatures, they are real characters. These characters need a little more definition by giving each one unique characteristics which can be done by showing they have particular tastes and interests. For instance why does Drift prefer Bugatti and Cross-hairs a Corvette. Why does Bumblebee prefer Camaro. They are demonstrating preferences - why? They need to tell the audience this in their conversations with each other. The peculiar interests we have define our personalities. The Transformers should each have some human interest that intrigues them from butterflies to art and other creations; these also differentiate their characters. For instance if Drift is fascinated by wildlife and animals, he would have a tendency of trying to interact with them, play with them, rescue them etc sometimes to the annoyance of the team. For instance if an animal becomes trapped during the battle, the team will groan as it knows Drift is going to risk his life trying to save it even if they try to stop him. Clearly, Bumblebee's intrigue is listening to the radio saving clips playing them to express himself in certain situations; for example when he plays MC Hammers's "Can't Touch This", nice touch by the way. Its a mistake to believe that he can't talk normally and do this whenever he wants to. Its silly to  force him to have to choose between either being able to talk or use these clips. The malfunctioning voice-box problem can be dropped. He loves radios and picking up different frequencies to listen to what DJs are laying out there that's why though he can talk he often inserts clips. Let him talk when its appropriate but resort to his clips when he feels like it, consequently it becomes a character trait rather than a defect as it is currently portrayed. Every Transformer needs a character trait like this - even Megatron, it draws the audience in and endears them to the audience because its an attribute human beings recognize as a "personality". The greater definition on the new Autobots requires that Optimus and Bumblebee receive similar upgrades, transformically you could peal away more of their masks to show that the more delicate facial features have been there all the time, they just haven't revealed them to the audience. For instance, when Optimus goes into battle a mouth plate moves into place. There can be two stages, were the mouth-plate withdraws, then the current less defined eyes, brows and the rest of the face withdraws to reveal that they were protecting and concealing the more delicate and defined features, the same method applies to Bumblebee.This also allows for a more dramatic 2 stage change when they conceal the face to go into battle.

What do transformers do when they are not on a mission? The ship that Lockdown came on that once belonged to the Autobots was a chance to show how they spend their leisure time. Its big enough for every original Autobot to have a quarter on the ship that is their own, however, the interior of the ship that was shown looks rustic, dreary and unlivable; its a meaningless dump that says little about how Transormers live. Remember Optimus in T4 alludes to Bumblebee having once been a difficult teenager, but the interior of the ship says absolutely nothing aesthetic about a Transformer's life. Its as if someone you think is really classy like Optimus invites you to his home, but when you get there you find this guy you really respect lives like bum, in a dirty, murky stinky environment - what-the-? With Optimus headed toward the creators he will inevitably have to pass through the Transformer home world. Thus far the audience has seen Transformers on earth as banged up, ragged rebels and fugitives. The Franchise now has a chance to stun the audience by showing it the world from which Transformers came. It should be magnificent and jaw dropping world. Its a chance to show that Transformers come from a world which, like earth, has different cities, societies, customs, beliefs, politics, governments, families etc as they would be understood in a Transformer world. Please don't take the audience to war torn, dingy and unpalatable place as the interior of Lockdown's ship might imply. Instead show the audience that Transformers come from a magnificent world more technologically advanced than earth. The audience seeing Transformers as refugees on earth gives the wrong impression. Remember Optimus is a Knight, this means he comes from a world of Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses whose magnificence and quality of life would be out of this world. The social demeanor of the Autobots and how they relate shows that they come from a societal setting with families and social order and the Franchise will need to carefully build this world. Fine some parts of their universe may have been destroyed by wars created by differences, but this devastation should only be found in few outer sectors in the far reaches. The core of their world should be intact and as jaw dropping as ever in order to build a greater understanding of the origin of these magnificent living machines and enhance the lore that surrounds them in the audience's mind.Its important to remember that to date nobody knows what Transformers actually look like. When they arrived on earth in T1 they wore the disguises lifted from the planet they had just left. When they arrived on earth they scanned the environment and lifted new disguises. When they transform into humanoids they go straight into combat gear. The challenge for the producers, writers and art director is to contemplate what a Transformer looks like when it goes home. When a soldier returns home and takes off his or her uniform what do they look like and who do they become? The CGI for Drift and Cross-hairs in T4 which very innovatively flows like cloaks and cloth material shows that Transformers can fashion what appears like cloth and clothing from their transformium, this is pure genius. Why? It allows the Franchise to have the Tranformers appear to take-off the battle body armor they seem to wear 24 hours a day as refugees, unclothe themselves so to speak of the "Iron-man-like suite" to the extent were they have visible natural limbs, hands, feat, even skin-like properties as is observed on the more detailed faces in T4. Instead of body armour they can then also have hair, soft, flowing, natural cloth-like clothes the art director can use to create and fashion garments peculiar to the custom and tradition of their home world. It would be interesting to see Transformers transform from what is basically a "natural" person of "skin" and clothes up into battle armor. which they can do from their DNA without first having a battle suite brought to them. When they arrive in their home world the Autobots would have to buy fashion (the design, not the actual clothes) from stores and blend in with the population as they do in every world they travel to in order to investigate who the creators are, what they are and where to find them. Optimus, for example, would have to report back to central command when he returns to his home world, but he might have to investigate the creators and where to find them cautiously as the political environment in his home world may know of the creators, but fear to even speak of them making Optimus' mission ever more difficult and dangerous. There is also the issue of the Autobots returning to their home world, reuniting for a while with close family, old friends, love interests and so on, this would be very emotional especially if they have brought "ambassadors"with them, that is, some humans from earth who are actually their new friends from T4. The astonishment of the humans entering the Transformer home world would represent the awe experienced by audience. Unlike the Autobots the Decepticons would have to follow them to the home world as unwelcome foes, therefore they would have to blend into the home world like spies tracking the Autobots every step to the creators and get rid of anyone in the home world who identifies them. The Franchise could introduce Transformer children and show that Transformers actually go through growth stages just like humans. It could introduce a Transformer that would appear like a gifted ten or twelve year old child that can transform from casual clothes and appearance into full battle armor; possibly a new character that can return to earth with the Autobots that will appeal to younger members of the audience. What a fantastic opportunity to create new adventures in an exciting never-before-seen environment, new lore and new visuals for the Franchise. This is possible as T4 explains that Transformers were once biological lifeforms just like on earth until they were seeded and changed into a new civilization of living metallic automated beings.


The way Transformers can scan their environment for technology, trace it and incorporate it in themselves is exceptionally cool. Those juicy camera shots and accompanying music when they transform or upgrade into cars is unbeatable. The Franchise can tap a little more into this cool factor by having transformers scan their environment for upgrades to give them an advantage during battles.For instance if a transformer is being crushed and a forklift happens to be nearby, he or she could scan it, transform a part of the body into a forklift and push off the enemy. When Bumblebee upgrades from the 1967 Camaro to the 2014 concept Camaro that kind of scan-and-evolve style should be taking place at critical moments throughout the movie. That ability is what lies at the heart of what it means to be a Transformer; when the chips are down and more is required the scan-and-evolve methodology is critical for the cool factor to carry the movie. The transformation does not always have to be upwards. It can also take place downwards the way Optimus transformed into the beat up truck to hide himself from the hunters. When he later does the scan-and-evolve upward into a brand new truck the cool factor is never lost. This means writers can evolve Transformers up and down to for various reasons to capitlise on the cool factor of the ability to transform upwards. Imagine the entire team of Autobots transforming from being disguised as lesser vehicles into top of the range trucks and sports cars with the score to boot. These cool visuals are what distinguish Transformers from any other movie Franchise currently in the offing. Transformers know what "cool" looks like, Bumblebee (B) definitely shows this when he is compared to Stingray. Next time, with the right music score, before a brawl the director should contemplate a face off between B and Stingray where they are both disguised as old models; Stingray upgrades from 1960 to 1964, B upgrades from 1964 to 1970, Stingray upgrades from 1964 to 1975, B then upgrades from 1970 to 1985 - you know what I mean, meanwhile with each transformation they size each other up, screech tyres and change pose while the lens takes those sexy car camera shots. Finally they evolve into the latest concept car, size each other up one last time than transform into humanoids and brawl.

The Story

Mention has to be made of the growth of maturity in the Transformer story. The writers must be given credit for this. Introducing the existence of a clandestine element in the government willing to work with Lockdown against the Autobots is very good, creative story telling. It shows the writers are earning their pay and actually challenging themselves and making an effort to grow. This concept can now be extended to include Megatron in his new form as Galvatron. The Autobots defeated Megatron, literally destroyed him. Human beings brought him back to life. This has to be a life altering experience for Megatron. If you died and somebody brought you back and gave you a new lease on life would you be the same person? No, I don't think so, you would change, therefore the writers have to illustrate this change. He needs to be seen to be changed by his experiences the same way Optimus' attitude to humans is changed by his own experiences with humans hunting him and the Autobots down. Yes the humans tried to copy and enslave Megatron through Galvatron, but he cannot ignore the fact that he was in the abyss and they gave him back his life. Galvatron, unlike his old self as Megatron must now concede that human beings are not all bad, they can be useful therefore it is pointless to have a one dimensional goal that wantonly seeks to destroy them. There are some whom he will be willing to tolerate and work with to achieve his objectives. Naturally he will gravitate to the more insidious human beings who are ruthless and think like him, whose objectives, like the Autobots may be to do their own version of what is good, but through less humane attitudes and approaches. Isn't this really the true scary nature of a Decepticon? The writers show the audience the complexity of human beings, that at any moment there can be good in the bad, and bad in the good. This is important because it allows the writers to create a longer lasting more intriguing story for Transformers. Wherever, the Autobots go the Decepticons might be there, not to stop them, but to achieve the same same objective except using much more ruthless means. This ruthlessness is then what causes the two sides to clash. For instance with Optimus off to challenge the creators, humans on earth may see this as an opportunity to learn more and gain more technology that will lead to a better life for all of humanity, however, there are some politically powerful humans on earth who want the same objective but they want the new tech and knowledge for themselves. Galvatron seeing the sense in their objective and gains for himself (and is now willing to share with this kind of human) then teams up with them by following Optimus. They have the same objective, a new common enemy they are seeking out but the two teams are certainly bound to get in each others way. This approach presents a growth in scope and maturity of the writers that can keep the Franchise profitable and going indefinitely. 

Transformer Teams and Evolution

Its great to add and subtract Autobots to the team every now and again, but there should be a continuous core of at least three Autobots including Bumblebee who are permanent members that enjoy ongoing creative development.  There is a growing over reliance on Optimus Prime to carry the Transformers story. Optimus is a leader, therefore he is understood in the context of his team, yet he increasingly seems to hog the limelight and glory.

Evolution is important for keeping an audience interested in a Franchise. The Optimus Prime the Audience saw in Transformers 4, should not look or fight the same way the Optimus in Transformers 1 did. The Autobots need to evolve with every encounter. If the Autobots in Transformers 4 are transforming exactly the same way they did in Transformers 1 something is wrong. It means the art direction of the movie is not being challenged. There is no such thing as stagnation, the imagination is an engine for creativity and new ways of stunning the audience need to be persistently sought. Finding new nemeses is also important, don’t have the hero fighting the same nemesis over and over- this is just childish and unimaginative. This change may be taking place as can be observed in the way Transformers 4 ends with Optimus heading into space ot fight a new nemesis.

Similarly, in the coming Star Wars sequel for instance; do you still want the Jedi’s Nemesis to be the Sith and the Dark Side? C’mon, please don’t make this rookie mistake. This is not how this genre of block busters are made and sustained. Give the Jedi Vs Sith storyline a hiatus. Let them get out of each others hair for a while. In fact let it be shown that they now tolerate each other to some extent and everything seems fine. There was an ancient rivalry between them, but now Jedi and Sith sometimes find they have to go on missions together and collaborate to fight back or address common interests, they have an uneasy truce. There is peace. The Republic is growing, war is over, the Republic’s people are happy, thriving economically and expanding. However, the Republic, its politics and industries are becoming a victim of their own success. They are expanding too deeply into some areas of space other advanced civilizations have chosen to avoid since time immemorial. These in Star Wars have come to be called the Forbidden Quadrants and are clearly depicted on all starship maps so that they are avoided; even hyperspace jumps should not be taken through them as it is too risky. Prospectors sent to these quadrants of space never come back and the very few who do, come back severely mentally imbalanced and unstable with harrowing and horrifying tales. However, the Alliance is now powerful and in its glory days believes there is no one it fears and that all regions of space are open to those who are willing to go there. Geological equipment shows that some meteors emerging from the Forbidden Quadrants have an abundance of minerals and new meteor discoveries urge industries of the Republic to believe they have the right to further explore and exploit these resources.  The Republic  spends a huge amount of money to send settlers, pioneers and prospectors in the largest advance into this region ever initiated. The fleets are guarded by both Jedi Knights and Sith Lords working together; who are also curious as to what they will find. At first the Jedi Council argues strongly against the massive expedition; while the Sith encourage it saying they fear nothing (while deep down inside when they are alone as a group they express their fear of these quadrants). Not to be outdone by the Sith the Jedi finally accept to play their part. Eventually the momentum moves the expedition forward. There is a lot of fanfare and the fleets receive a fantastic send off by the King and Queen of the Republic, much like the celebratory ending we saw at the conclusion of Star Wars the Return of the Jedi. When the fleets enter these quadrants communications begin to break up. Intermittent messages come through, ghostly figures appear and then disappear on ships,  some images are accompanied by piercing screams. Strange frightening images are seen momentarily then flicker out. Since the fleet was accompanied by Jedi, the Jedi council meets to discuss what could have gone wrong. When they attempt to use the Force to communicate telepathically with the Jedi they sent on this mission, even their combined use of the Force fails to penetrate the Forbidden Quadrants. The Forbidden Quadrants could conceal gateways to many new universes of which the Republic and all other advanced civilizations are not aware. Amongst those universes there could even be one containing a planet called earth. Meanwhile, the Sith are also concerned about their team that accompanied the fleet alongside the Jedi, when they too attempt to use the Dark Side of the Force to reach their team the attempt fails and they are fiercely shut out much to their shock. Why is this approach ideal? The audience knows a great deal about the Empire, the Alliance, the Jedi and the Sith. A new Star Wars sequel should therefore not be based on too much of the same lore. There needs to be continuity, but there also needs to be novelty, a new unknown, more formidable nemesis than that already in hand. Knowing all this the audience is forced to wonder what new Kingdom, peoples and groups could make such an extensive expedition that was “too big and powerful to fail” disappear, and what foe could possibly resist and parry the supernatural probing of both the Sith and the Jedi? In this new Realm let the Alliance discover a completely new world very different from their own, with its own intrigues, rulers and powers. Let it also have its own sets of “good” and “evil” supernatural warrior sorcerers  who, to the chagrin of Jedi and Sith do not recognize, fear or accept either side of the Force; who instead have their own beliefs, customs and powerful warriors who’s prowess and supernatural abilities based on magic rival that of both Jedi and Sith forcing them to have to work together and understand one another to survive.  For the lore of the nemeses inspiration can be taken from the sorcery found in Bravos – Game of Thrones. The methodology by which this sorcery is delivered much resembles that observed in Star Wars; it uses intrigue rather than cheap theatrics; it is matter of fact yet very powerful and intriguing.  Let it be the clash of new empires, new adventures and new republics  taking the audience on a journey to places, scenes, technologies, customs and beliefs it has never seen before where they find existing tensions between galactic kingdoms engaged in their own gropings for power or dominance, and  new diverse alien nemeses growing whom they are just beginning to understand and encounter for the first time.

Similarly, what will Optimus find as he leaves earth’s atmosphere on his journey to the creators? This is a delicious chance to reboot the entire Transformers Franchise; as what he will discover can create an opportunity to recreate the Autobots, as well as introduce new worlds and ideas to the audience that keeps them wanting to come back for each new sequel.

Comedy

 T4 makes a good attempt to include some comedy. Its been a while since I've heard audiences cheer and laugh in unison and get emotionally involved in a movie. This happened at intervals with T4 so there is a palatable improvement in the delivery of this project. A movie is supposed to evoke emotional buy in from the audience.Comedy is a craft in itself, it takes a particular skill-set to make an audience laugh, jokes that fall flat don't help a movie, as if they miss the funny mark they instead come across as stupid, so the director has to be very careful in terms of how something funny will be delivered on the screen. There are innumerable kinds of funny. "Funny" has a number of ingredients that have to be thrown into the mix.The easiest kind of funny is circumstantial e.g. Joe is in a hurry, the date he's hoping to impress is waiting in the car, he dashes out of the house and slams the front door. He suddenly remembers the car keys are on kitchen counter. He tries to open the front door, but he's locked himself out. Joe has a mild fit then composes himself etc etc. Many of the comedic inserts in T4 are funny and will make you laugh even when you see them a second time. However, others are weak, for example, the guy easting the crumbly cup cake talking to his boss about the girlfriend, the audience gets it, but its poorly delivered, so it comes across as silly; the delivery needs to be improved next time.    

Casting, Diversity and Romance

On the diversity front there is a strong Chinese aspect in Transformers 4, so expect it to do well in the East. This is a good use of diversity. Other than this the producers don't bother to have any black lead actors in the movie even though there were many opportunities to do so. This means a proportion of the African demographic will be missing from ticket sales. This is very sloppy for this genre of movies and will cause T4 to probably not perform as well as its best rival, T1, in its initial takings at the box office (movie goers bought tickets for T2 on the strength of what they saw in T1). The producers failing to build the right diversity in the cast costs the investors money at the box office and shows an amateurish approach to putting the cast together that the director of casting is responsible for.  Indeed you put together lead actors at the top of their game, highly respected professionals, but you did so like rich people who can afford anything they want, but who spend their wealth in ways that make the audience think they have no taste. Whoever put this cast together needs more international exposure or shouldn't be casting for this genre of movies because mistakes made here make it more difficult for a movie to recoup the funds invested in it. Worse still it shows the casting director is unaware of his or her own racial biases which leads to myopic casting choices or a cast selection that unnecessarily smacks of a kind of Hollywood cronyism. 

On the romantic front the movie does fairly well. However, more could have been done to write a more romantic relationship between the two love interests.

Music

On the music front, thank you; the director of music is finally beginning to get it. What this music director did is what an audience is looking for. That haunting voice with its goose-bumpy tone in the opening sequence - nice. Well done, you totally began to understood what you're supposed to be doing in this genre and set the mood even before the audience meet the characters in the movie for the first time. This is what a musical score is supposed to do. There is a use of orchestral music, but its in decent, limited proportions, and at the battle between Optimus and Lockdown there is a really nice track that conveys the mood. The audience can actually remember there was a musical score. You're beginning to challenge yourselves, to mix it up; to take the more creative road, this is the beginning of musical score genius, more please.

Most importantly in T4 we are beginning to see the kind of meaningful and relentless delivery of a story to the big screen which hints at the potential to master the art of movie making. 

Peace

Ways of improving movie ticket sales:

It’s sad to see how often movie theatres run half empty, or show a movie with just four or five people in the audience. There are many innovative ways of enhancing business and seeing to it that movies get watched.  It’s not enough to have a “build it and they will come” attitude to selling movie tickets. A movie like any product can be driven by aggressive sales. Like any other product it also has a shelf life and needs to be sold in certain space of time. Movies tend to have a shorter shelf life than other products due to the fact that there is only a limited time for which a movie can run in any one theatre. However, this does not mean a generic ticket cannot be sold in advance of any movie a client may want to watch in the future. Its smarter to treat a movie ticket as a unit of pleasure that can be bought now and cashed in by watching any movie later. There are innovative ways of boosting ticket sales.

1.     Lower ticket prices from Monday to Thursday.

2.    Most people will only watch a movie once, but you can keep bringing them back by allowing people to watch a movie more than once. If a person understands that if he or she returns to the theatre to watch the same movie a second time the charge will be 50% of the original ticket price. And that if they come to watch it a third time the price will be 50% of the last price. For instance, a movie ticket that costs US$8 on the first watch will cost US$4 the next time the same person goes to see it, US$2 the third time a person goes to see it and US$1 the fourth time and just US$0.50c if they want to see it a 5^th time. Non-transferable , i.e.,  It must, however, be the same person. The advantage? Marketing shows that people are naturally drawn to obtaining products at a lower price. It will not matter that they have seen the movie before, they will want to watch it again because it’s now cheaper. Whereas before you only sold one ticket for US$8 and gained no further income, if a person keeps coming back to watch a movie again because its substantively cheaper each time to the full extent, the theatre would make US$15.50c from one customer for the same movie instead of just US$8. Understanding how human psychology works is good for business.

3.   Offer wholesale tickets to corporate entities. It is a common practice in many businesses to offer staff and clients special perks such as tickets to football, rugby and baseball matches and to basketball games. There is no reason why movie tickets cannot be used for the same purposes. A movie theatre operator, such as Fresh View, Ster Kinekor, IMAX or Nu Metro should ideally have a small team of sales staff who build corporate accounts. Some business have entertainment and marketing budgets in place. The sales team are relationship managers: they don’t just sell tickets but build relationships with large and small business for a ticket use strategy for each business they sign up. They also strive to maintain each account they secure. Each business is different so the sales exec has to tailor a strategy for each client they sign up. For example:

a.       Perks to senior executives in a company as form of entertainment for their families allowing them to go to the movies at least once a month;

b.      Tickets given weekly to top performing junior staff;

c.       Corporates giving tickets to loyal or special clients to maintain relationships;

 d.       Tickets for clients who make purchases above a certain quantity or value;

e.      Tickets for clients who make no claim on their insurance policy for a prescribed period of time;

f.        In banks, tickets for clients who maintain a certain level of money in their accounts for a month or so;

g.       Company movie day; sell the idea that at least once or twice a year staff can all go and watch a movie together as a fun activity for motivating, building and improving staff relations

There are innumerable strategies account execs can design to boost ticket sales. Technology such as email allows account execs to keep large volumes of clients interested in what’s on the big screen at low cost. Each account manager or executive’s role is to approach the marketing department of large and small corporates to offer bulk purchases and a commitment to buy a set number of tickets per month or per year;  the greater the quantity bought in advance the better the discount offered. For example, an account manager could secure a large corporate account that could commit to buying 200 tickets every month at an agreed discount. These are then applied in the business to the strategy designed by the account executive for his or her client. Smaller business can have different strategies that secure consistent ticket purchases.  As long as people are kept arriving at the theatre this also improves the sale of other products such as popcorn, frozen yoghurt, slushies, beverages and so on.