Although both Transformers, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have the same appealing qualities, it was whilst watching the third Transformers’ film that I noticed how Paramount Pictures segmented this product to suit a masculine audience. Transformers: Dark of the Moon has three major features that are designed to suit their target audience: Storyline: Although the film has a storyline, it is halted mid-way through the film only to be replaced with a good hour and a half of running and fighting sequences that would make a female lethargic while watching it. But what remains of a plotline is thick with military campaigns, characters, weaponry and patriotism. Although the armed forces are globally male-attracting, the movie specifically focuses on the US military and America- the major consumers and producers of these kinds of film.
Before being remade for an older audience, Transformers began as an 80’s children toy and TV series. The story focuses on the war between the good Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Unlike the Bay’s version, the transformers are not as violent and the situation never as dire. The franchise was very popular with boys, only to becoming a retro and a cult classic in the following decades. In the age of dark movie reboots, Paramount (in cooperation with Hasbro) bought the rights to recreate the childhood classic, into a mature action adventure in the same league as The Dark Knight and Sam Raimi’s Spiderman films.
Casting and crew: Michael Bay led the production team for the three films. Much like many of Bay’s previous projects, the film’s storyline comes second to the need for action sequences. Pearl Harbour, Armageddon and I Am Number Four sport Bay’s ability to compensate bad scripts with the perfect action adventure- explosions and impending doom included. And without attempting to stereotype the entire male population, this is exactly what turns men on.
Even the casting skews towards satisfying, or at least appealing, to men. For example, Meghan Fox’s character (and her replacement in the third film, who coincidently looks like Meghan with a blonde wig on), are extremely popular, smart, sexy and successful. Realistically, this kind of women would not date or even consider dating someone as ordinary as Shia LaBeouf’s character. But in the film they do, and that is what ordinary men would prefer to see and believe. And apart from a line of dialogue and being eye-candy, the female lead is largely irreverent to the plot.
Props: When it comes to transforming robots, producers cannot ignore pleasing and attracting boys with an interest in big toys. Among helicopters, spaceships and guns, the film deliberately draws attention to the very costly cars that are the Autobots. The Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Solstice, Hummer H2 and Saleen S281 Extreme are just some of the cars that would make a man’s mouth water when watching them tear up the roads (sealed or not) all across the globe at high speeds.
