Now, I am one of the few people that I know that will freely admit to loving the Transformer series (outside of the 2nd one, because it was slightly racist). Mainly because it took the spirit of the cartoon and brought it to life. That being said, I can understand why many did not like it; its not a deep movie, and requires no higher thought to enjoy. But that is not my issue here, my issue is that visually the film is one of the most impressive I have seen.
The filmmakers took vehicles, turned them into robots, and back with flawless results. They managed to do it complete with moving parts. Not only did they accomplish this, but the scene in which two robots are fighting on the freeway, using their tires like hockey players skating on ice, is awe-inspiring. Yet in spite of all of this, somehow the academy would not bestow the best visual effects Oscar on any one of the three movies. Now I can understand in this last year, because what Rise of the Planet of the Apes did with motion capture was pretty impressive. But how could it be possible that the original Transformers lost best visual effects to The Golden Compass of all movies? A movie which in itself is pretty terrible. Sure it had polar bears fighting…how quaint. I guess we should just ignore the fact that Transformers had multiple robots fighting while simultaneously transforming into cars, and all of it looking virtually seamless. Somehow though, people thought that a talking bear was far more impressive.
I’m not arguing that Transformers should have been awarded best picture, but come on people give the movie its due. It was one of the most visually impressive looking movies of the last 15 years.
The Dark Side 
Movement of real life forms (people, bears, etc.) is much more difficult than robotic movement. If done poorly the real life animated figure moves “like a robot”. I think this definitely had something to do with it. Basically, robots are a whole heck of a lot easier to animate that any real life form.
LikeLike
I understand that, but the end result is what I am looking at, and in my opinion the finished product of Transformers looked far better. If we are awarding Oscars based on only difficulty, rather than the end result, then every actor who attempts a difficult role should win.
LikeLike
Correction: Every actor who attempts a difficult role and succeeds should win.
LikeLike
One role should absolutely stand out in support of your original premise: ROBOCOP . . . !
End of argument.
LikeLike
Agreed!
LikeLike
I agree. Transformers was honestly like the best movie of its time and it didn’t get best picture. Like a toddler and even an old man would think that changing from robotic human form to cars were better than over sized polar bears running around and killing people. Like come on. And nobody knows that it’s harder to make movement of real life human and animals are harder to make than fake things like the transformers. But it does need a little bit more respect than it deserves.
LikeLike