Yeah, NO ONE complained about the changes to the Tranformers, there was absolutely no controversy whatsoever associated with that movie.
GI Joe has gone through many, many changes from Eco Terrorism to the Ninja thing. Read some of the comics.
The difference is, all those sub-lines of Joe toys came out in the same set "universe" as the original "Real American Hero" line. "Transformers" has made several clear continuity breaks in its time. Within G1 there were already at least four distinct timelines. G1 is a totally separate entity from the "Unicron" trilogy (though the "Unicron" trilogy does reference some G1 stuff, mostly as a nod to fans more than continuity). Those series are themselves separate from "Robots in Disguise" and so on.
Regardless of anything else, G.I. Joe = American soldier. That's out here in real world land. This is like making a movie about the "Royal Navy" and having it be an international crime-fighting boat squad that happens to have a few Brit members. It's ok if the premise is silly (international crime-fighting boat squad ) as long as you don't have a blatently contradictory title. If you're going to use a real world term, it should logically fit into your premise and you shouldn't change the premise so that it no longer fits. "Transformers" was still about transforming robots, I think.
Hahaha yes, they gotta put one in the end during the credits. My favorite is the one with Torpedo. It's the one with the kid drowning and then he shows up. "Hey use your head don't lose it" Oh man, classic Joe.
You know on a side note, I just checked the latest info on the movie since I haven't read much on it. My comments thus far: Downpoints: Marlon Wayans is in the movie. The movie might fail because of that. lol.... Goodpoints: Sienna Miller playing Baroness and I already knew that Rachel Nichols was playing Scarlett. Ding! Very nice...
GI Joe has had a number of continuities. The cartoon and the comic were seperate entities, then you had Sigma 6 and possibly Extreme. Technically, the movie doesn't just have to follow the "Real American Hero" rebirth in the 80s since the GI Joe concept started well before that in 1964. The Transformers flick included tons of shit that never appeared in any continuity. If the GI Joe movie does as well, then so be it. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but I am used to Hollywood shitting all over the stuff I like, so c'est la vie...
if you bother to look on yojoe.com, joe toy were sold in several nations as GI Joe, inc. Canada, japan, India and in Europe after the end of the palitoy AF range...
And GI Joe has had multiple character's with the same name. It only made sense that GI Joe would go international when Bludd is Australian, Baroness is European, Tomax and Xamot I believe run an operation out of Switzerland, you got Cobra Island, something that the UN Mandates, Destro who is Scottish, the Dreadnoks from Australia as well...So it only makes sense that they move to an international scene. In Transformers, Bay said he was trying to do G1. Well it wasn't at all. Some of the characters he lifted only stayed in G1 format. GI Joe has had multiple different continuities if you read the comics.
Yes, that's true - up until the point they appeared in the movie continuity. I'm not saying that some Transformers fans weren't upset, there are plenty of divisions in Transformers fandom, just that a lot of people weren't expecting a literal translation of G1, and therefore weren't disappointed by any changes. Plenty were disappointed by the movie itself, but that's a different matter. I think the multiple continuities for GI-Joe have more in common with each other than a lot (not all) of the Transformers ones, especially these days. Anyone expecting G1 was destined for disappointment from the announcement of the movie - I think that's something that people should have taken onboard much more readily. I get that GI-Joe need to be a somewhat international force, that doesn't bother me. Its really just a logic thing - I can't see any multi-national organisation with such a chest-thumpingly American title as GI-Joe, but it really does depend how much they play up the multi-national thing.
Three possibilities: 1. The team originated in the U.S., went international later, and simply retained the name (but a new acronym). 2. The team is named after an American soldier who went by the codename/nickname "G.I. Joe." 3. "G.I. Joe" sounded better than "International Wanker."
Well, not to belabour the point, but even after that the movie was mostly dominated by a myriad of human idiots who haven't been in any Transformers incarnation I've ever seen. The way the Transformers contact the earth was completely new as far as I know. In practically all comics and shows, the Autobots and Decepticons land on Earth in the prehistoric past and Cybertron is not destroyed. That's not the case in the film. You may think this is nitpicking, but for a casual fan of the concept since it first appeared, this seems very jarring to me. And I'm not even mentioning the wholesale changes in the looks of the characters.
Yeah I see what you're getting at. I suppose the casual fans were kind of in the worst position. The general public didn't know enough to care about any changes, the hardcore fans have devoured so much Transformers media by now that some of them actually quite like change, or at least, prefer to debate which changes are good and which aren't, but the casual fans just want to see a good movie about what they know. I confess that I hadn't considered it from that perspective.
the thing is, the majjority of people going to see Transformers were probably kids who's knowledge of Transformers was either limited to the Unicron Trilogy or may RiD or even non-existant. so they probably wouldn't think the TFs had to arrive on Earth in the distant past, yadda-yadda-yadda ala G1, because in those two universes, they don't. the defining story points of Transformers are: The Autobots are the good guys The Decepticons are bad guys they transform into vehicles. Optimus Prime leads the 'bots Megatron leads the 'cons they come from Cybertron beyond that, it's a matter of interpertation, opinion and bickering.
Going by your approach, it's easy to justify any changes to anything: Superman is about a guy who: Is from another planet Gets fantastic powers when he lands on Earth Grows up in a small town Becomes a hero Lex Luthor is his arch-villain Fuck the rest of the mythos...change it, ignore it, whatever...
Yeah - Transformers isn't like that though, at least, not anymore. If this movie came out before we had Beast Wars, Robots in Disguise and all the other stuff, maybe I'd feel ticked about the changes, but to be honest, I find them interesting more than annoying. As Calhoun said, they got the important stuff that makes it Transformers mostly right. You could argue quite strongly that they didn't use those elements correctly, but I really didn't think fealty to G1 was one of the movie's many, many problems.
Numerically true since so many shows tied in with the original G1 continuity. However, that show has not been the basis of TF continuity since roughly 2001 when "Beast Machines" ended aside from the club exclusive comics (which hop continuities anyhow) and the Binaltech stories (and...ugh...Kiss Players). I think it is safe to say however that those stories are pretty unknown outside hardcore TF fandom. The current IDW comic series (which has been going for a few years now) even rebooted their version of G1 to show the Transformers arriving on Earth in modern times. "RiD", "Armada", "Energon", "Cybertron" and "Animated" all involve Transformers arriving on Earth in recent history. I think it's safe to say that in terms of public consciousness of Transformers series over the last decade or so, arriving in prehistoric times is not part of the main driving point of the storyline. And so as not to totally derail this thread, I think it is important to note that G.I. Joe is still American led even if it is an international force in the movie. I think that counts for something.
Too much squishy human stuff, action that was tough to follow, total lack of characterization for over 50% of your bad guys. I think these elements trump any "G1 elements not done right" any day. And I'm saying these things as someone who enjoyed the movie.