I was planning on providing some music videos as a break from the four part entry on extremism in America, when I felt like doing a search on The Transformers, the movie. I thought it would be cool to watch it on DVD sometime soon now that it’s out, since I didn’t get to when it was in theaters.
So in my quest of finding information about Megatron in particular, I stumbled across an interview from last year with Shia LaBeouf, star of the mega hit of the summer, The Transformers. After reading his interview, I sensed a complete lack of wisdom and felt compelled to send out my court officials immediately to summon him here at King Solomon’s Court.
It seems ignorance has found a willing voice with young Shia.
First, let it be stated on record, I thoroughly enjoyed his role in The Greatest Game Ever Played, so much so, that I almost didn’t follow through on a court summons. But his ignorance was just too outrageous. Now, furthermore, it’s not entirely his fault, or rather, there are many people his age who could have easily said the same thing. So to add that the course our society has taken has somehow been influential in his statements would be more than fair to say.
But he said it.
So bring his ignorance forth…
In the Transformers forum, I found him discussing the point of Megatron’s new look as a Razor jet fighter, instead of his more known shape as a gun in the original cartoon series of the 1980’s. This is the excerpt:
SHIA LABEOUF: Right, right. That’s sort of what Soundwave was about. Those characters all had meaning because Megatron needed that crutch. Now that that’s gone, it’s done in other ways. Megatron’s crutch now is that he’s frozen. But it’s modernized. You can’t have a toy gun. You’ve got 9 year olds watching this movie and yes, we’re creating mythology, but you can’t make a toy gun your antihero and then have Hasbro go out and sell toy guns with the little yellow cap on it, you know? It’ll look ****’ ridiculous to have Megatron with a yellow nose, you know what I mean? It’d look retarded.
The fact that it’s a Razor, a plane that nobody’s seen before, that the military is giving us… that nobody has filmed or seen. I mean, CNN has not seen this plane and we’re filming it. It’s cool. It gives it that edgy s**t. People have seen guns before, but to make Megatron something that nobody’s ever seen and make it an edgy presence… it does, it modernizes it and makes it dangerous again. Guns aren’t dangerous. How crazy is that to say? But guns aren’t dangerous! You’ve got guns in movies that aren’t dangerous at all, you know? I feel like HERBIE THE LOVE BUG could have had a gun and nobody would have questioned it, you know?
QUINT: Maybe stashed in the glove compartment…
SHIA LABEOUF: (laughs) Exactly, it could have been in the glove compartment! But a Razor, you know, with nuclear weapons… Nuclear weapons is what’s dangerous. In the ’80s it was the gun, but we’ve been (desensitized), so you’ve got to amp it up a little bit. And Michael Bay is the dude to amp everything up!
Hehheheh, yeah you’re right Shia, a shiny Megatron gun with a little yellow nose would just be lame huh?? I mean we need realistic toy guns on the streets again, huh Shia, like back in the day huh?? ’Cause otherwise they’re just “retarded,” right??
My brother pulled out a realistic cap gun when we were little and pointed it at a cop car one time. Not such a good idea. It could have been worse than just a little pretend citation the officer handed out to him.
So let me get this straight, Shia, you think guns aren’t dangerous?? I realize, first of all, the context, as it applies to a viewing audience for an action movie these days, but some of that is due to Hollywood’s “what it lacks in story telling and making something simple dramatic, it makes up for in ‘smash ’em trash ’em’” type entertainment. But if you think that, then obviously you’ve been playing with props far too much.
Your ignorance in this matter is overshadowed only by your lack of understanding humanity, and that, although to you and others like you, it takes something as gigantic as nuclear power to understand what harmful means, you obviously have no clue that lives are lost everyday in Iraq from something that fits in your hand. A gun. Now, if you and the audiences that you entertain understood humanity better, or perhaps went to Iraq yourself, or put on a badge to serve in your community as a police officer, you would understand that guns have always been, and will always be “dangerous.”
As a matter of fact, I lost a friend of mine a few years ago to something you deem as not dangerous. My friend “Lizzy” joined the LAPD and was shot and killed in the line of duty, just a few years ago. Nearly 5,000 people attended the memorial service. The one who did it shot him right where the protective vest wasn’t covering on his side. While the criminal eventually hanged himself in such guilt while in jail, it couldn’t bring Officer Lizerraga back. And he went to the same high school in West L.A. as you, Shia.
Not everything is as fake and safe as a Hollywood set. The next time you open your mouth where young viewers are listening, use some wisdom. ’Cause when you don’t, the only thing that looks “retarded” is you.
