When the teaser trailer for Transformers came out last year, it seemed like this summer's blockbuster success was going to be an epic robotic ass-whooping, but despite the direction of Michael Bay,the film really focuses on the human element, telling the tale of a coming-of-age guy trying to pick up a girl with his car. Sort of a buzz kill. However, the movie has put robots back on top of the pop-cultural dung heap, and if nothing else, the film is sparking lots of interesting and pretty comical debate about what robots should and shouldn't look like. Just check out this puff piece from CNN's Living section.

Would it have been so bad to just fill two hours with nothing but Autobots and Deceptacons duking it out, and the occasional car-bot dance party a la this amazing spot?

 

If nothing else, it would have made the film a whole lot more entertaining.

Not to harp on the aesthetics issue, but it is interesting to see how Transformers take the shape of current model cars and technologies like cell phones, whereas back in the B-Boy days, Blaster was a big hit. I guess its just a sign of the times, but given the futuristic slant of things, its strange to see the sensibility so linked with the current zeitgeist...


By the time Transformers gets remade again, the field of Roboethics will probably be more practice than theory. We'll have sorted out what we expect our machines to look like, and how we expect them to behave. And despite all the terrifyingly dystopic sci-fi out there, the future of our imagining is always bright, and if we have any say in the matter, there will be reinterpretations like these "real-life Transformers" all over the place very very soon...



Yes, its been everywhere on the web for a couple of weeks, but in recognition of their upcoming tour of the US (kicking off next week) and this peek into Transformer-mania, here is a bit of Daft Punk getting thrown into the mix with our old robotic friends.

Written by Vince Montelongo for EMERGE

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