After opening to the second largest midnight showing in box-office history, “Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen” began its theatrical run yesterday on a high note.
However the hot opening may not be what’s generating the most heat for the potential summer blockbuster. Instead, fans and critics are labelling the movie “racist” for some character portrayals during the two and a half hour running time of the film.
The controversy centers on a pair of robots that reportedly “jive-talk” and are “racial caricatures,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact hatchbacks, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They’re forced to acknowledge that they can’t read. One has a gold tooth.
According to reports, the two fight on the side of the Autobots and are intended as comic relief in the film. But their traits raise the specter of stereotypes most notably seen when Jar Jar Binks, the clumsy, broken-English speaking alien from “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” was criticized as a caricature.
Reaction to the robots appears to be polarizing among audiences who have seen the film. One fan, Todd Herrold, called the characters “outrageous” after seeing the movie in New York City.
“It’s one thing when robot cars are racial stereotypes,” he said, “but the movie also had a bucktoothed black guy who is briefly in one scene who’s also a stereotype.”
“They’re like the fools,” said 18-year-old Nicholas Govede, also of New York City. “The comic relief in a degrading way.”
On the other hand, some fans say they relate to bickering of the characters. Twin brothers Jason and William Garcia, 18, said they found the bickering similar to the bickering that occurs in their relationship.
“They were hilarious,” Jason said. “Every movie has their standout character, and I think they were the ones for this movie.”
In Atlanta, Rico Lawson said people were reading too much into the characters. “It was actually funny,” said Lawson, 25.
That was the aim, director Michael Bay said in an interview.
“It’s done in fun,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it.”
Bay said the twins’ parts “were kind of written but not really written, so the voice actors is when we started to really kind of come up with their characters.”
Actor Reno Wilson, who is black, voices Mudflap. Tom Kenny, the white actor behind SpongeBob SquarePants, voices Skids.
Wilson said Wednesday that he never imagined viewers might consider the twins to be racial caricatures. When he took the role, he was told that the alien robots learned about human culture through the Web and that the twins were “wannabe gangster types.”
“It’s an alien who uploaded information from the Internet and put together the conglomeration and formed this cadence, way of speaking and body language that was accumulated over X amount of years of information and that’s what came out,” the 40-year-old actor said. “If he had uploaded country music, he would have come out like that.”
It’s not fair to assume the characters are black, he said.
“It could easily be a Transformer that uploaded Kevin Federline data,” Wilson said. “They were just like posers to me.”
Whether this will affect that potential box-office for the movie remains to be seen. The movie may have to overcome some other big hurdles in the coming weeks with the less than glowing critical reviews it has received.
Gazerbeam says
Is there noting actually important to be outraged about than how a pair of *fictional robots* are portrayed?
sonickat says
People just need to grow the @#$% up. Most of the people who get offended at these things are people who are offended because it might offend someone else not because it offended them. If it did happen to offend them they can be the better person and simply walk out of the movie or stop supporting individuals and companies that offend them.
It offends me that I can’t enjoy the type of movies I enjoy because they offend someone who thinks it might offend someone else. Where does my rights come into play?
bluray says
Sonickat offended me.
beasty5498 says
I dont think it is racist. they never said that they were “black.” They are only robots. If you think that they are acting “black” it is you that is being stereotypical.
Jaames says
Those characters didn’t offend me, but in my opinion they did bring the maturity level of the film down, along with the rest of the juvenile humor sprinkled throughout. The dogs humping each other, the robot humping Megan Fox, the high mom, etc. There was very little of that in the first film and I don’t understand the thinking that this film needed it.
Skiznot says
I’m reminded of the Onion piece where everyone was shocked that a porn star said the N word. Like anyone would expect any thing of quality from an 80 minute toy commercial. I watched the first one because I heard people say it was good and I found it offensive to children as the writers seemed to think kids needn’t worry their illiterate little heads with things like “a story.” Thank the gods for Harry Potter.
Superman says
I’ve always been highly offended of the Transformers portrayal of ROBOTS. I mean, there’s no proof their black. But they clearly show the decepticons as bad. THat is trying to say that you can’t trust robots. If i was a robot i’d be offendd.
Jeremy H says
Gee, nobody WHINED about Jazz in the FIRST movie, he was the same “Stereotype”, what’s the big deal now? It’s just bored people who have nothing better to do than make alotta hulla-balloo about nothing, I’m sending them all a free copy of ‘BLAZING SADLES’, then they can WHINE all they want !!!
So pathetic, just pathetic !!!
David says
Are you kidding me? How many hip hop videos has any of you cry-baby morons seen? I get so sick of the hip hop mentality in black culture. I know thugs and I’m friends with some of them and they jive talk all day long, so a couple of ficitional characters portray a real vernacular that most rap stars are famous for and it’s called racist? Grow up. Stop crying. If the hip hop culture protrays people of color in that light, aren’t they the real racists? Stop portraying yourselves as fools and the world will take you serious. Otherwise guess what? That’s how the brothers in the street talk and they’re proud of it so don’t put yourself in their category. True intelligence means that you acknowledge that you have fools who paint your culture in that light, they are the ones who are the real racists, don’t hate on Hollywood for portraying ALL aspects of the human condition. Other than that…it’s all ficition you don’t get special privileges for being portrayed in a light that you portray yourselves in.
Darknight says
So here’s the thing. Bay is an irresponsible filmmaker who can only get laughs at the expense of old, tasteless stereotypes. From Transformers 1 alone, consider the many attempts at degrading non-white characters:
1) US Soldiers for some reason ostracize a fellow member because he speaks spanish (totally pointless–these movies are so long and full of so much pointless fluff)
2) the most predictable “Indian tech support” stereotype when the soldiers try and call the Pentagon.
3) Jazz. “What’s up bitches?”
4) Why is the “World’s greatest Hacker” ironic? Because he’s black.
david says
WHAT A !@#%@$#^ CROCK!!! IT ALWAYS COMES TO BLACK PEOPLE!! WHAT ABOUT THE WREAKER TRUCK IN THE MOVIE “CARS” ? DONT HEAR ANYONE RAISING A FUSS ABOUT THAT!! THAT WAS CLEARLY STEREO TYPING AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE, BUT YOU DONT HEAR ANYONE COMPLAINING. IF YOU ACT LIKE THAT THEN YOUR GOING TO GET PICKED ON!! MAYBE THEY SHOULD PULL THEIR PANTS UP AND START ACTING CIVILIZED THEY WOULDN’T GET PUNKED OUT!!! (HOMEY G DOG!!!)
Mike From Des Moines says
I found the two robots to be annoying and somewhat stereotypical, just like I find Larry “the Cable Guy” annoying and stereotypical.
The “gold tooth” was a bit much, for a robot. I think it was more a lack of good scripting then intentional stereotyping.
They were also guilty of “ageism” in the “Jetfire” character. With all the crap flying off of it, how did it so much of it make it as long as it did??
catsy says
Welp my big issue w/ it is that young kids, (who desperatly want to see this movie) are going to pick up bad things from it. My son is 7, and wanted nothing more than to see this movie. Because I don’t want him to use that sort of talk, I heard from someone that this movie uses the “N” word a few times, and we are white, if he used that word he’d get pummelled by someone. And I hate that word. I don’t think that word has any buisness being used by anyone, it is a word that inspires hate, anger, and ugliness. Now he wants to cry for the rest of his life cause now we are taking him to the night at the museum part 2 or Up in 3d. Neither of which he is excited about. So it angers me that they would make a movie for kids unkidfriendly.
Mike From Des Moines says
There are many more reasons that a 7 year old kid shouldn’t be allowed to see this movie.
Chris says
Well thats just it isn’t it? This IS a kids movie. How many of us, as kids, used to watch the old cartoon transformers? Thing is, it should have been more geared towards kids. Cause that is what it is, or SHOULD be, a kid’s movie. When I was a kid, I watched the cartoon. As a kid, I read the choose your own adventure transformers books, hell my brothers and I used to make transformers out of toilet paper rolls, glue, and colored paper. Come on! This is a KIDS movie, yet they throw in so much violence and so much bad language and wasn’t there even some sort of sexual scene in the first movie? That’s crazy! That’s not what transformers is supposed to be about, it is supposed to be something FOR KIDS! And I see all of this merchandise GEARED toward kids too! Like kid sized tee shirts with optimus prime on the front, and lighted tee shirts in kid sizes and transformer toys at toys r us! So what in the hell? Is it for kids, (where there should NOT be any lang and stereotypes and stuff), or is it for adults, (and if so why the hell the kid sized tees and the friggin toys and stuff)?! Which the hell is it? The stupid people who put these movies together should know, YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
BrittyGal says
I have an eight year old girl who wants to see this movie. She says she’ll simply die if she doesn’t get to see it. But after hearing about everything that is supposed to be on this movie, I can’t take her. Not without turning from a good parent into a bad one. It reminds me of when Titanic first came out. A friend of my sisters took the seven and eight year old children to see it for her kid’s birthday. How irresponsible. The sex scene was much too old for them. And, btw, I know people who have taken their five and six year olds already to see transformers. Now that is irresponsible!
Jimbo says
how many of us as children watched the transformer cartoons? My brothers and I used to make transformers out of toilet paper rolls, glue, and colored construction paper? This should have been a KIDS movie. Not to mention all of the little kids I see wearing transformer tee shirts and playing with the toys now. This is totally ridiculous. You can’t take a kids movie and totally gear it towards adults, and than sell kids merchandise so all of the kids feel the need to see it. It’s crazy. You can’t have it BOTH ways. Period.
Nina says
I’ve seen the movie and I thought the twins were hilarious, in a stupid sort of way.
I didn’t see them as being black, I saw them as using slang which anyone of any color/culture could use. They are replicating info from our planet, so they replicated that type of attitude, talk and characteristics. Let’s be real some people do act like that. I don’t, but some do. The movie is a lil bit more on the adult side with some of the jokes and the way the robots battle. If the movie offends you, don’t watch it. There are ton of movies that have scenes or actors that so call stereotype. Like someone said before, Jazz was using slang nobody said a word. I’m going to say this, if you don’t like it don’t watch it. If it is not suitable for your kids, which I do agree, don’t take them to see it. It was not a bad movie, it was great movie (im a 80’s baby, grew up with Transformers, Voltron, Thundercats, etc.). It didnt bother me because I can’t relate to that behavior. So everyone needs to stop. Depending on what day it is, someone is always calling something racist. Heck, the robots could have been from the suburbs or wherever. Seems like some people are the ones stereotyping.
ejdalise says
@catsy . . . on the other hand it might have been used as an opportunity to discuss why certain words are insulting, hurtful, and should not be used.
It’s a fair bet he will come across that and other words on his own, if he hasn’t already, and it might help him to have been prepared for it.
Then again, it varies with individuals.
ejdalise says
That was a good point made a few posts back. Characterization of all sorts of nationalities, races, religions, etc. is a normal part of entertainment, and often played for laughs.
Very seldom are these characterizations malicious in nature or portrayal. It escapes me why this should merit special tratment or differing reaction than all others as acting is, after all, meant to reflect through exageration.
Indiana Jim says
I didn’t see a single thing racist about it.
What I hate is that ALIEN ROBOTS FROM OUTER SPACE TALK LIKE HUMANS. I don’t mean English. I mean slang, I mean cussing, I mean the STUPID phrases. I couldn’t remember hardly any cuss words in the first one, and now my kids won’t be watching this movie as much as they want to. That, in my opinion, ruins this movie for my kids, and that’s a crime.
I guess that makes me a LINGUIST.
And I guess they went the way of George Lucas/Battle Droids/Jar-Jar. If it appeals to the lowest common denominator it MUST be funny. Wrong answer.
LinkDaBoss says
Oh come on. What was Michael Bay thinking? I would’ve let this slide of the twin robots didn’t have monkey-shaped heads. that just… wasn’t smart. the movie would’ve been fine w/o this “comic relief”. Sam’s mom was enough comic relief for me.
the lows says
Ah Jim,
Most time I am in full agreement with you, this time I should point you back to the original film and the character of Bumblebee, he learn the language though listening to our broadcasts. So I would stand to reason the rest would have too. I do agree the two character reported above are put in for cheap jokes and was unfunny, offensive, and unnecessary. If you can’t put out a good plot, then don’t put in something like this to make up for it. Go back to film school, learn the CRAFT of film making. Something that is sorely lacking in hollywood these days.
Tim
the lows says
Saw it, it was okay. not as good as first one. And yeah those two guys are pretty dumb and don’t add anything to the movie. What i am wondering is why no one is upset about the dogs??? That was just like watching the discovery channel, who needs to pay money to see that? Not funny just rude.
Darcy
the lows says
And it’s not a kids movie. was a lot of violence and even a few words in it. Plus the slut girl and stuff. More a teen boy movie for real. it was a okay popcorn movie, but first was SO much better.
Darcy
Joe in Denver says
The ENTIRE movie was lame and filled with stereotypical comic relief. If Orci and Kurtzman had introduced even a little drama it would be easier (though probably still not likely) to forgive two alien robots with monkey shaped heads and giant oversize ears talking in bad ghetto slang for 2 hours and thirty minutes. I was having PTSD flashbacks to my ill fated viewing of Peter Jackson’s King-Kong on IMAX, sans toilet humor.
Mike H says
Regardless of whether or not one thinks the movie is racist, I find it hilarious that people want to argue plot points in a film that has none. This was just a two-plus hour movie of special effects, aka robot porn. I got to hear Peter Cullen as Optimus and see Megan Fox in slow motion….those are the only two quality plot points this movie had (and i don’t mean that to sound as perverted as it does, but I’ll own it.
scott says
reading a few of these, people have to open their eyes and see that the high school and college generation is full of “posers” who act in such stereotypes, and at one point we all have acted in such manners. It is not just one person who created this pants around the knees, gold tooth grills, and rap talk that this movie conveys, it is a whole generation full of many colors. Every movie out there today has something that is racist, weather it be the smart Asian, or the prude rich white girl. If you don’t want your kids to see this then don’t let them go on the internet, watch tv, or go to the movies, hell don’t even let them go to school because it is EVERYWHERE. Don’t be so naive to think that your fifth grade son or daughter hasn’t heard the words “shit,” “fuck” or “bitches,” because i promise you at one point they have. For those of you who are upset that this isn’t appropriate for kids, who ever said it was geared towards them? This is a PG 13 movie, meaning its not made for everyone. There is supposed to be violence between the two robots, that is what transformers is, robots in disguise fighting one another. The dumb humor is to get you to laugh a little, look around, all movies today have it. If you don’t want your kids to see it then that is a problem you have with your kid, not with the film makers. If you think its racist then don’t go see it, don’t buy a ticket. Its your choice to go see it or not, your choice to be offended by it or not because what is offensive to you isn’t always to someone else. Get over it, its a movie, not real, not life changing (despite what your 10 year old kid says when you tell them they can’t go).
Craig Priestley says
It seems to me that the critics who have branded this film racist are all white folk. I feel that it’s these people who are more responsible than the film for suggesting such nonsense in the first place.
Lets say for the sake of argument that the characters were playing to stereotypes. Is this actually racist? Will it incite racism? I say no. I found that Skids and Mudflap were easily my favourite characters. There are more than likely somre real people who have personalities similar to that of these characters, perhaps they will be black, perhaps not, but I do not think it leads anyone to believe that all black people talk like that, nor do I think that this film will contribute to a persons prejudices towards black people. I think this is an obsurd suggestion.
I though the film was great and Skids and Mudflap helped to make sure the 2.5 hours running time fly by. Definately a film that the critics got wrong, big time!
Yvette Greene says
Decided to see it for myself. I do think it was racist. Covert racism, but still racism and here’s why.
1) The twins were the only ones who admitted they couldn’t read it. They never asked the camaro if he could read it…it was just implied since he didn’t. But the ignorance of the ghetto characters was confirmed. Plus, they didn’t say they couldn’t read that particular text, but that they don’t read much. Assuming they happened upon an urban station and adopted those personalities, logic would say that when required, they’d be highly intelligent considering they’re an advanced life form from another planet.
2) The twins were the only cheap, sub compact vehicles.
3) The twins were the only two autobots fighting each other.
4) The twins were called Skids and Mudflap whilte the others have names like Megatron, Starscream, and Optimus Prime.
5) The twins were the only ones with big lips and gold teeth when they were autobots. Just a coincidence that the two autobots who assumed ghetto personas were built with ethnic features???
The subliminal message is that ethnic = ghetto = dumb, violent and cheap.
Teddy KGB says
Think it’s offensive? Fine. Don’t buy a ticket. Don’t take your kids to see it, either. But don’t try to tell me I shouldn’t go see it because it offends you. I am sick to death of people who call for movies, or TV shows, or any other type of entertainment to be pulled from broadcast because it might offend this demographic or that demographic. There is no passage in the Constitution guaranteeing a right to not be offended. Quit acting like there is.
Really? says
“The subliminal message is that ethnic = ghetto = dumb, violent and cheap…”
Yvette Green
It’s unfortunate that hip hop sells this to the public on a daily basis…. they don’t seem to complain about their paychecks. Tell them to stop portraying the ghetto in this light.
I actually thought the cars reminded me of some ghetto white kids I know…