There has been a ton of news coming out about Transformers 3 lately. The twins are out. The twins are back in. The twin are out again, but something equally unfunny will take their place. It’s all been a blur.
Amidst that blur has been announcement after casting announcement filling up the grandstands and ensuring that the film will spend more on trailers than it does on film.
The most recent news is that fan favorite Alan Tudyk has joined the cast. As usual with Bay’s projects, nothing is known about what role the actor will be playing or the plot of the film.
However, despite people cheering about Tudyk signing on (which I think is great considering how talented he is), it’s important to note just how many people are involved in this thing. Returning talent will meet a huge horde of new actors. Let’s look at them in list form for maximum effect:
- Shia Labeouf
- Megan Fox
- Josh Duhamel
- Tyrese Gibson
- Kevin Dunn
- Julie White
- Patrick Dempsey
- John Malkovich
- Ken Jeong
- Frances McDormand
- Jamie Kennedy
- Alan Tudyk
- ….and possibly John Turturro
I can see this working on of two ways. Either the film is bloated with screen time for these actors, or most of them have cameo-style appearances that make the story feel like an episode of Laugh In. Which guest star will show up next? It’s too bad they can’t cast wacky ol’ Jonathan Winters.
There are also two things to keep in mind here. Beyond the divisiveness the second installment created, a singular focus on the film’s weakness was that it felt far too engorged on action and CGI without any human element. Shia Labeouf recently agreed with that assessment, saying that he wasn’t all that happy with the film and promising a return to that heart for the next film.
With those two things in mind, it would seem that Bay is trading one type of bloat for another. Unless the plot involved Optimus Prime hiding a suitcase with two million dollars in it, and a cross-country trek to find it by any hilarious means necessary, this movie has far too many actors in it.
And that’s not even counting the robotic ones.
What do you think?