Voltron Headed For The Big Screen

An anonymous reader writes "Following the success of the Transformers movie, Hollywood is preparing to make another live-action film featuring giant robots from the 1980s: 'Voltron: Defender of the Universe'. The script, by Justin Marks, is described as '...a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico. Five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.' Let's go, Voltron force!"

Good old Holywood

[hine_uk]

...a film does well and they start looking for the next easy cashin. Think back to how the recent comic adaptions were kick started by the likes of Xmen, one does well and all of a sudden there is a bandwagon trundling down the hill.

Now a giant robot film has done well so the bandwagon looks for the next passenger it can send down. Personally I think voltron will tank. Hardly anyone knows what it is and it lacked that 'cool' factor when I was a kid growing up, even my father knew what transformers were then and wanted to see the film now. But Voltron?

Its over reaching and says straight to dvd.

I know I know, flamebait, troll, whatever you want but this is just my opinion from the UK, in the US it might be different.

Re:just stop

[garett_spencley]

They don't pick these movies to make based on good scripts, good ideas, or good director/writers, they are just knocking them down one after the other because people will go see something they have good memories of. They're completely taking advantage of everyone's misplaced hope that the next one will be better, because "that was sooo awesome when I was a kid."

If one single person feels obligated to pay his/her hard earned cash on a movie for that reason alone and then feels "duped" afterwards then they got what they had coming.

Come on, seriously! I realize it's cliche on /. to bash big money but it's not like they're employing slave labour to produce these films or robbing money right out of people's wallets at gun point. You're talking as if they're exploiting a group of people and forcing them to do something against their will. They're bloody movies! If you don't like them don't go see them. It's really as simple as that.

Honestly, for a crowd who is so vocal about free speech and copyright law I get the feeling that the same group of people, if given the power, would strip the rights of anyone to make movies based on anything that they feel close to. It's like, they just can't do right. No matter what. Even though Transformers was a huge success you just can't escape the bitching and whining and, in this case, total exagerated teenage drama queen hyperbole about evil corporation raping some childhood memory and forcing you to consume it "mwuhahahahahaha we're rolling in money and it's all at the expense of some Joe Blow's precious childhood interpretation of a corny and cheesy cartoon who's sole purpose was to sell a line of toy's and make massive amounts of money anyway..."

But then, I supposed it really is the "geek" thing to do. To quote Kevin Smith / Ben Affleck "The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another".

/ rant

Re:As popular?

[zakezuke]

I believe I'm not alone to still own both Transformers and Voltron toys from the 80's, but somehow Voltron doesn't do me as much as Transformers does.

I don't know how to explain it, but does anyone feel the same? Or do you think Voltron has a stronger, more emotional and deeper storyline?

It's hard to tell as Lion Voltron was a somewhat bastardized version of Hyakujuu Oo GoLion, a series that doesn't seem to exist in a dubbed DVD form. Even worse, the English version, they after a main character died (The prince), they rewrote another 10 or 16 episodes.

Reviewing "Transformers" I can't say there was really a deep emotional storyline in the English version, but rather it seemed to be a vehicle to sell toys. Voltron is however a better example as an obvious attempt to adapt a short lived cheap Japanese series to the American market, and an excellent example of how stupid marking things the average sub-teen is.

Now Macross is another animal. It was well well writen, and even the first part of the English version Robotech was very much watchable. It's not seen as being as popular as there was a dispute over the rights to the toys. It seemed in the early 80s the yen was somewhat weak and kids who were interested had a choice to buy either Robotech toys, or Macross toys, where Macross Toys were slightly cheaper.

Re:Good old Holywood

[Ecuador]

<offtopic>
Actually, "March of the Penguins" was not a Hollywood documentary, but a French production. What's more, having seen both the original French version and the English
translation, I have to say that all Hollywood did to the movie, by adding the narration of Morgan Freeman, was to destroy one great and original aspect of the film. You see, the French version doesn't have a narrator, but voices for Mother, Father and Baby penguin. It sounds very silly doesn't it? Well, apparently it was very hard to make it good enough, so that it doesn't sound silly, and the translated versions followed the easy route of narration. Now in the original French version, the voice over was done brilliantly so that it does not sound like a "animals are talking" kids movie, but rather an alternate and more "personal" narration that added more feeling to the movie.
</offtopic>

On the current topic, I always thought it would be very hard to make a good live action Transformers movie. They pulled it off very well. But Voltron? Come on! From the far-fetched Transformers we are going to ridiculous lion headed fighters (or even worse, lionhead-limbed when combined as Voltron). If you want giant mecha, do Macross or something...

Re:just stop

[Chris_Jefferson]

I,Robot, Transformers, all the comic book movies lately.. ... When is the movie industry going stop pissing all over my childhood?

When people stop paying money to see the films.

Re:just stop

[DeepHurtn!]

I sympathize with you. I really do. (I mean, have you seen the poster for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie??? [iwatchstuff.com]) But it's worth keeping in mind that all of our precious 80s childhood memories are memories of consumer-culture commodities to begin with. All the Transformer shows, comics, and so forth were *really* just ads for the toys. You're losing perspective if you think they were not exploitative cashgrabs to begin with. These endless remakes (err, reimaginings or whatever they're called these days) aren't bastardizations of these properties, but the perfectly natural and logical extension of what they were designed to do in the first place. Don't blame the studios, what they're doing is perfectly rational (although you can certainly despise them for it). Blame Transformers, and all the other "properties" that get recycled. It's in their nature.

Up next Go-Bots the Musical

[grapeape]

If Hollywood really has to go after also ran robot properties to create movies why cant they at least go after something semi-repectable like Getter Robo G or Mazinger rather than one of the shows that tried to rip them off?

Re:Let there be lions.

[jollyreaper]

They are (are you ready?)...found in some deep dark cave. They don't know how long they've been there, but the language on the instrument panel changes from something alien to English!

Seriously, does it matter? It's a fuckin Voltron movie for god sake! Where talking about mechanical lion mech warriors (painted in different colors no doubt)!!!

But it's a Hollywood movie, it's gotta have poop jokes. Tell me they have poop jokes! If not, dick and fart jokes would suffice. And if the robots can piss on something, so much the better. We've got to maintain the standards of the craft here, people.

Re:You like comic book movies? Weird!

[theNeophile]

Comic books movies are embarrassing. Comic books are for children and we aren't children. To tell people that we really like comic book movies, such a Superman, Batman, X-Men, Transformers, is to tell people that you are still a child in your cultural development. Not as in 'child-like', but in 'retarded'. This is not a good thing.

I really can't fathom how insecure and fear-based you must be to advise hiding you enjoyment of these movies like there were a crack addiction. I don't know how long you've been in a cave, but comic book movies have never been more respectable. Yeah, Batman Begins, A History of Violence, Sin City, American Splendor, all kids stuff!

Now before you start to flame me or boot me down to -2 Score, just a short word. This is simply a warning to people who usually don't interact in the non-tech world. If you actually are a serious fan of comic books and comic book movies, keep it quiet. Be quite discreet. This same advice goes out to the guy who still thinks that Turtle LOGO is a serious programming language.

Fuck that shit. How about, instead, you just admit what you like without a crippling fear that people won't think you're cool. You'll be much happier.