Okay, I got a chill or two when I realized this thing is getting more and more real:

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Now, is it going to be good?

Probably not.

But, I'm one of those few laidback TF fans that doesn't particularly think it has to be good, so long as it has cars that turn into robots. Lets face it, out of the hours and hours of TF adventures out there, how much of it is really good?

The 86 movie. About four or five third season episodes. Maybe a dozen Beast Wars and half-a-dozen Beast Machines episodes. The rest is either flat, silly, hokey, idiotic, or worse. But I don't mind, because you can only take Transformers so seriously.

Earlier this month, a TF fan blogged this, a rather angry diatribe about how nitpicky fans are tearing the movie apart before its even born.

Now, I can empathize with the guy, because, he like me, is one of those who is only ever really irritated by constant fan-gripe more than anything truly offensive about a franchise. If a franchise makes a dumb Star Trek V-esque move, you kind of laugh it off, and count it as part of the ride. You don't spend hours and hours bellyaching about it. Yeah, I can get behind that idea.

But the mistake he made was COMPLAINING about complaining. It's something you need to learn to live with. If you've learned to look past the warts of your franchise, you have to do the same about your fandom (unless they're doing something truly deplorable, of course).

Fans complain. The internet is there for them to do it. They complain about movies. They complain about toys. They complain about clothes. They complain about availability. They complain about Fandango. They complain about lines. They complain about things being too dark. They complain about things not being dark enough. They complain about contests. They complain about terms of service.

Why add to that pile by complaining about complaining?

Are these complaints valid? Some are, but most aren't. And because the internet is such an easy medium, the complaints are mostly ignored, because mountains are just as easy to post as molehills.

But bring on the big honking trucks! And keep Ben Affleck away from this movie, and I'll buy a ticket.

ph