Transformers - Rise of the woke

I remember when the first Transformers movie came out at the cinemas. I had heard nothing about it and had no idea it was out until someone at work asked if I'd seen it

I remember being a primary school kid in the 1980s and reading the Transformers comics, just like all the other boys in school. Most kids even collected the toys, but I was more into He-Man and Action Force, so as money was tight, I never had any Transformers toys of my own

Transformers was huge among the 80s primary school generation, so I was rather taken aback when an adult at work, a supervisor none-the-less (not mine), asked me if I'd seen the new Transformers movie. I assumed he'd seen it with his kids, but his level of excitement and his interest in my response, seems a little off, to say the least

I just sat back in my seat and said, "Transformers? That's for kids, right?"

He vehemently disagreed, and at the end of the day, it turned out he was right. They were now making Transformers movies for 'adults'. And it didn't stop there. Almost the entire DC and Marvel comics universe has now been turned into big screen movies for adults who really should know better

I walked in the canteen a couple of years ago and two adults were having a conversation:

"what are you reading?"

"A graphic novel"

"What's a graphic novel?"

I chirped in with, "It's what adults call a childrens comic book"

It's not just comics either. Harry Potter was originally written for children, but so many 'adults' took a fancy to it, the nature of the books actually changed as new ones were released, and became more adult orientated (They got darker, they didn't introduce full frontal wizard nudity)

I must admit to having read the Harry Potter books, but that may be another story. I was obviously reading a childrens book for the first couple, but the change in tone became obvious as the series went on. JK Rowling, champion of female rights and owner of some common sense, had begun writing books for children, but saw which way the wind was blowing and changed tactics

I thought at the time that something had been lost to childrens literature, because the adults took over

DC and Marvel are by far the biggest examples of adult things that should only be the domain of children, but there are plenty more examples

And now it seems there may be another change coming. Not just creating childrens stories for adults, but directing them at the woke

New Transformers Movie Is About Black And Latin Culture, Not Robots

The bit that surprised me about this story, is that the title is not supposed to be a negative. I expected an article about how movies are going woke and how rubbish this one is for doing so, but it isn't

It's rather difficult to find a decent series on the telly these days. Writers are no longer able to create decent characters with any depth. Certainly any series after 2015 seems to have a pick from the same set of people:

The black man

The black woman with really big hair

The Asian man

The gay couple (one white, one black)

The mother who makes constant bad choices but somehow ends up in charge

The badly behaved kid who has 'issues'

The man with father issues (They get sorted just before the father dies)

The criminal (White man and the only person who is armed)

The divorced couple who have to work through their excess baggage

The racist redneck

And so on

And movies are off the same way. Disney is doing it's best to 'woke' everything and loose billions of dollars, and most new stuff that comes out has to be more about elevating black actors to lead roles, rather than making a good film

Rise of the Beasts director Steven Caple Jr. reveals that he's ready to bring some new voices and faces to the story – specifically a cast led by "Black and Brown people."

This is the sum of what Black Lives Matter have achieved over the past few years. Equal opportunities and the ability to do a job, is now less important than skin colour. We separate everyone into Black, brown and others. We elvate people in business and Government, and we give them roles in blockbuster movies, not because they are the best people for the job, but because of their skin colour

None of the black and brown actors being brought into this rubbish movie are likely to be any good. If they were, they would have got the job anyway, without skin colour even coming into it

During a recent interview with BET, the film's director and leading actor Anthony Ramos shared their excitement for having the opportunity to take the tale of the Autobots, Maximals, and Terrorcons to the streets of New York, an accomplishment that Ramos says is "for all my homies in the projects."

I'm sure the homies in the projects don't give a tiny rats arse about some race grifter in hollywood casting a couple of brown folk in a kids film. They're probably too engrossed in shooting the other homies before they get shot, while making sure their drug turf is secure

Real life isn't Marvel and DC comics, it's The Wire

Caple Jr. adds, commenting on how the new tale will bring his "culture" and "people" into a blockbuster action franchise where representation was seriously lacking before. 

So the dumbing down of the adult polulation with childrens movies has progressed to race baiting for the sake of the homies in the projects (Whose real culture will certainly not be brought to the film)

This is why the bulk of my film collection is from the 80s and 90s. In case you haven't guessed, I'll be giving this wokefest a miss, just like all the rest of the children comic book (sorry, graphic novel) adaptations