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TRANSMORPHERS AND THE BIRTH OF THE MOCKBUSTER
 

Ultimately movies have two critics they're names are Art and Money. It's ok if you're not familiar with them most people aren't. And only a few film makers know both of them well. Art and Money have an uneasy relationship. They tend to disagree more than they agree. They're the original odd couple. Its like Money is from Mars and Art is from Venus. Money LOVED "Meet the Spartans" while Art hated it. Art LOVED 'Almost Famous' and Money hated it. And both of them hated "Bladerunner" to start off with, but over time have come to love it. Writers and directors tend to like Art's option but producers and investor tend to side with Money. Some extremist would like to think that you only need the praise of Art, as Moneys option is worthless… well that would be true if we lived in some magical world were people lived off fresh art and sunshine. On the other extreme people think you only need the praise of Money… well this is also true if we lived in a world without fresh art and sunshine. If movies are to advance they need both a large soul and wallet.
"The Asylum" is very familiar with both Art and Money. They started out disturbing award winning art house films... that no one wanted to see. In order win over both critics they concentrate on making and disturbing mainstream horror and comedy movies. Over two hundred film later they were still finding it to be rather hit and miss. In 2005 they decided to try something new they started piggybacking major Hollywood Blockbusters. This is a pretty common practice that made people like Roger Corman and Bruno Mattei rich. 'The Asylum' piggyback on Steven Spielberg's "War of the World" with there own "H.G. Well's War of the Worlds". No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that this crazy ass plan would have worked. They ended up making a good film and Blockbuster ordered 100,000 copies which is seven to eight times the typical order from there normal movies. Some people say they went crazy with power. They pigged like no one had ever backed before. They would give birth to the genera known as the 'MOCKBUSTER'. Most piggyback films don't want to draw a lot of attention to its Hollywood counterpart while the Mockbusters want to draw as much attention as humanly possible. They're as subtle as a shot gun wound to the head. "Snakes on a Plane" would become "Snakes on a Train", "Alien Vs Predator: Requiem" became "Alien Vs Hunter", "The Da Vinci Code" becomes "The Da Vinci Treasure" and so on and so on.
     
Now I know what you're thinking "WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?" The answer is simple. Money and Art! Most of there Mockbuster are original screen plays with unoriginal titles. The mock title allows them to make more money and reach a larger audience by doing the same job. They would be crazy not to do it.

Now I know what you're thinking "Why on earth would anyone buy one copy of a movie called Alien Vs Hunter let alone 100,000 copies". Because they sell... well maybe not AVH, it was a bad example. Every successful Blockbuster creates a demand in the market for similar kinds of films. The average person doesn't want to wait another 2 year to see the sequel but they are willing to shell out a couple of bucks to rent a Mockbuster of lesser quality in the hope its half way decent. They day Blockbuster stop buying Mockbuster is that day they will stop making them.
 
Firstly I would like to talk about the massive amount of criticism this film has received. The majority of the arguments against this film are down right hilarious. Every negative review I've ever read about this film claims that the average person is going to get it confuse TransMORPHES with TransFORMERS, these same reviewers also take great joy in pointing that the title is in fact NOT called Transformers. I find this argument a little silly. Maybe it would be valid if they were copying smaller obscure films that no one has ever heard of but Transformers is a house hold name. The average five year old could point out that Transmorphers IS NOT Transformers. Even if they had trick a few money I doubt anyone is retiring off the money. I've searched online but I haven't yet managed to find a single person who has been tricked into renting it. If you have the director has gone on the record saying that he will personally refund your money. From my research the only people who are getting confused are people who download it by mistake, and do they're option really count? Others have called they're publicity campaigns deceitful. They're tactless, tasteless, but not deceitful. It's all pretty obvious what they're doing. The only way it could be deceitful is if Transmorphers wasn't about giant morphing robots and really a period film about French, lesbian, vampire, school girls.
 
Then the critics often raise the moral question asking weather its right to make rip off films. In fact I had this very conversation yesterday in a comic book store. The guy I was talking to was genuinely disgusted that someone would try and cash in on The Transformers movie, the then (I kid you not) he walked out in anger. I found this very confusing, it's not like anyone made the (totally kick arse) Transformers movie for sake of art. Come on, one credit reads "Based on the Hasbro Action Figures". The movie was made so a dead franchise could be restarted. The cartoon was basically a half hour ad from the toys. If any movie deserves a Mockbuster it's this one! I think most critics take this film WAY too seriously. It's a beer and pizza movie and they treating it as if it was something more. I can't see how you can direct a Mockbuster without having a good sense of humor.
 
So lets move on to Transmorphers. This basic plot is that a race of alien robots called the Zbot's have conquered Earth and forced humanity underground. After 400 years, a small group of humans develop a plan to defeat them. This results in the ultimate battle between man and machine.
The best thing about this film is its giant mental ball, in particular the ball of the director Leigh Scott. If the worth of a film was calculated by its sheer ambition and determination this would be one of the greatest films of all time. In fact it's a minor miracle that this film was even made. The budget was $250,000 (more than half of that went on effects) and it was shot in 12 days. A lesser man would have crumbled under this kind of pressure. Let's put that in some context. Napoleon Dynamite was made on $400,000 and had a bunch of kids (hilariously) staring blankly at each other for an hour and a half. Transmorphers was an action sci-fi film that had massive pyrotechnics explosions, rain effects, set, a large cast and badly animated cgi robots. If anything the film looks like a cheaply made low budget film rather than good looking ultra low budget film. Leigh Scott should be commented for pulling it all together and NOT going crazy. But his direction was far from being flawless. There were a few key scenes that feel flat. But the over all time and vibe of the film felt right. The film looked great. It had that terminator/matrix feel with hints of Mario Bava'esq lighting. There is nothing special about the computer generated effects. In fact they maybe some of the worst effects ever committed to film. Which is a real shame as all land battle scenes that surround the bad cgi looks great.
The performances are all over the place. For me Griff Furst (Itchy) and Sarah Hall (Blair) are the two break out stars if this film. Eliza Swenson looks great (but she might have been sexier with an eye patch) she is normally a great actor but just wasn't right for this role. You neither loved her nor loved to hate her. Also there seemed to be TOO many women with black hair, when everyone is wearing the same thing it's a little hard to tell them apart.
One of the best things about this film is the killer soundtrack by 'The Divine Madness' by far the worst thing about it is the sound. Someone really messed up bad in the final mix and at least half of the sound is out of sync. This is very off putting and makes the film almost unwatchable (But it gets better each viewing. The movie not the sound problem, that is). Due to the high demand the second batch they shipped had correct sounds and extra visual and sound effects.
I don't know weather to recommend this movie. So how about I end like this. If only a more time and money could have been given to this film it could have been an underground hit. I think money loved this film, and art really wanted to but just couldn't.
Leslie Morris aka. dr.spider.man
 
P.s.You'll be glad to know that Leigh Scott has left "The Asylum" he has now started his own production company called Black Thorn Industries. I can't wait to see what he can do with a decent budget and creative control. I've got a feeling that in a few years "B Movie News" won't be technically allowed to review his films. ;)
If I've made any factual errors please let me know so I can correct it. Thank You.

 

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