LeBeouf's character is not likable at all. He is consistently a douche. The fact that he started off with Megan Fox, and then somehow moved on to Rosie Huntington just amplifies this. If he can save the earth, any idiot can. I would prefer a chiseled meat-head.
shareMain characters can be whoever the writers want them to be, there is no law saying that a protagonist must be likeable. But Sam in this movie is just stressed out and feels constantly shoved out of the way from his superiors. He wants to fight alongside his Autobot friends because from the second movie he knows he has to becuase it is his destiny. Also, he's barely making enough to supply himself while his girlfriend is making the most, and that her boss may have intentions for her than just be his assistant. Not too mention he was almost killed at work by a Decepticon. Bringing this to attention he goes on a quest to understand the Decepticon's motives which helps his friends understand their situation better. Ultimately he becomes the soldier he wants to be and helps saves the day.
Really, all you people complaining about Sam being too whiny in this movie makes me wonder just how perfect of a life you guys live. What if you were in his situation? Bake cookies? The dude's life wasn't going so smoothly and he was under a lot of stress.
...SPOON!
If we were talking about a better movie, with more depth, then yes, I would agree.
But this is a mainstream action flick. Characters are pretty shallow, expect when flinging out Hollywood speeches when everyone doesn't agree with what he wants to do. I don't live a perfect life and blah blah blah. But that's my point, everyday normal guys don't rescue earth, they die.
You're right, everyday normal guys don't rescue earth, hence why it is FICTION. anything can happen.
...SPOON!
Fiction is not an excuse for something to be bad.
shareNot the point.
...SPOON!
Your point is not very good then.
shareI found him likable in the first film. I started wanting to punch him in the face within five minutes of his screen time in the second film. Like how he kept Bumblebee (who voluntarily decided to be Sam's aide) in the garage like a disobedient dog. Yells for him to come out and save his ass from the Decepticons who were destroying his house and likely would've killed him, and then when Bumblebee does just that, he proceeds to bitch at him and send him back in the garage. Then enters the garage, bitches at him some more, then completely kicks him to the curb. Then Optimus Prime stresses that he needs Sam's help to convince the government higher-ups that the world is potentially in danger and the Autobots aren't a threat, and Sam, apparently not caring about the world being in chaos, flat-out says "no", because living a normal life is so much more important than the Decepticons taking over. It takes Prime's death for him to realize how much of a little dickweed he was being.
Then in the third film, he continues to be a dickhead, only this time, since he was around while the giant robots were fighting each other, he now decides that he has an incredibly overwhelming sense of entitlement. To the degree where he talks down to everyone he comes across. Everyone. Including his exceptionally patient girlfriend. "I wanna be alongside the Autobots! I'm better than you! I'll settle for nothing short of taking orders from Optimus Prime!" Berates Bumblebee some more when he shows up outside of NEST Headquarters and drives off the other soldiers, because apparently putting up with more of Sam's b.s. is more important than doing top-secret international missions. Bumblebee, the sentient otherworldly robot, of course just takes it.
Screw Sam. Self-centered little prick.
Logan, buddy. It's me, Deadpool! I shot youuuuuu....
Exactly! I can't comprehend why they would script him like that.
shareDamn you said it WhoopsieThree-D and have said it all together my beef with this series besides Paramount giving to bay in the first place. The fact being besides the bot designs being misplaced in these movies or very odd looking, its the whole characterization that suffers in these movies.
The stories besides saving the world from the Decepticons doesn't make any sense at all either.
This is exactly why along with Bay being attached to this TF franchise and the CGI that animates the Transformers onscreen awkwardly looking enough, that these films don't work at all with the majority of older fans and why fans argue with one another over these awful films.
The stories don't work and the characters don't work, nuff said.
ST4
When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die!
Yes, all this is true. It's like Shia started to forget about acting and just decided to be himself.
shareWell said, I agree completely. All I could think while watching this is why does this whining idiot think people should bow down and give him things. The CIA woman was right: Why does this teenager think he should be in charge of national security?
He spends the first half of the movie whining about how he can't get a job, and he expects it to be handed to him on a platter. News flash: Nobody's going to hire you because you have a robot friend. Get some qualifications and do some work like everyone else. But no, instead he decides to whine and yell at his girlfriend, who by all means should have dumped him for being a lazy self-centered unemployed bum.
I also never understood his treatment of Bumblebee. These robots are an advanced civilization, a proud and powerful race, why are they taking abuse from a puny whiny human? Bumblebee's role is written like a pet dog, which is unfortunate.
Wow, haters will always miss the point. Sam saved the world twice...not once... TWICE! He doesn't expect everyone to worship him and suck his dick, he just wants a break. All he wants is a respectable job and a little recognition, are you saying he doesn't deserve at least that? He does not want to be a pathetic little mail boy who takes *beep* from his *beep* boss, a boss who owes him his life...twice. Sam's character in this movie makes perfect sense and in the end, he realizes that there are more important things in the world than what he wants, just as he admits "I'm just the messenger."
This is what's called a character arc, boys and girls. Even if you hate Sam at the beginning of this movie, he becomes a better person by the end of it. It's called character development: the thing haters like to say these films don't have but actually do.
That's not how the world works. What exactly does he want? To say "Hey guys, I saved your behinds, now I want $10,000 a month, pay up!" If he's not qualified for anything other than a mailroom job, he should get a mailroom job. Otherwise, he's just sticking his hand out and begging for charity.
He's got a university degree that the government DID pay for, so he already has an advantage over everybody else -- his classmates had to borrow, loan, and work their way through college. But he still wants more, he wants a nice job as well, and he wants it to be handed to him on a platter. Why doesn't he want to do what his other classmates have to do, and work his way up?
On top of this, he takes his frustration out on his girlfriend. What has she done? She's just trying to support him.
Besides, how much did he actually contribute to saving the world, the robots did all the fighting.
I disagree that he becomes a better person, he just whines and moans until somebody listens to him and he gets his way.
Maybe you just don't grasp how big saving the world is. 7 billion lives were saved the moment he shoved the all spark into Megatron's chest and again when he revived Optimus Prime to destroy the sun harvester. Sam did not come up to the President with a list of demands. "I want a mansion, my own record label, a garage full of Ferraris, my own brand of shoes and statue erected in my honor placed right next to the Lincoln memorial." Had he said something like that I might have agreed with you that he was being a douche but he didn't. He just wanted a messily little job. There's only one time where he lashed out at his girlfriend and that's when he meet her good looking, rich and powerful boss who so obviously had a thing for her. Sam felt threatened by Dylan, so of course on top of everything else, he's got to worry about losing his girlfriend. How would you feel in his situation? No job, crappy car, girlfriend who has the option to leave you for a guy who is 100X the man you are. Sam just wants to matter, how can you not understand his plight? It's not like saving the world is an everyday occurrence that just makes the headlines every week. The government may have paid for his college but is that all? I think the savior of the earth deserves a little more than that...just a little more...not much, just a job where he can be involved with the autobots. Just so he can fell like he matters, at the very least, give him a data entry job at NEST or something.
Give the kid a break, he's not asking for an island or anything.
You say he doesn't become a better person? "I'm just the messenger," "I love you, you're the only thing I need in this world and I'll do anything to make it up to you." sounds to me like he's over his quest for greatness and is ready to just settle down and like a mediocre life with his girlfriend.
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Yes I do hear myself; it's actually really refreshing to hear someone actually NOT bitching about this movie, even if it's just me. I'm not getting offended and I'm not apologizing for Sam, I'm just pointing out what the writer intended.
1. Yeah, he has a hot girlfriend, a girlfriend who pays for his apartment and makes him feel worthless.
2. He doesn't hang out with robots anymore; they're too busy with their missions.
3. He SAVED the world; he hasn't done that in 4 years.
4. He spends the entire first act dwelling on his *beep* life; the car is just a small part of it.
Just because I'm not jumping on the hate bandwagon doesn't mean I'm apologizing for Sam.
The first Transformers wasn't fantastic but a pretty fun movie all things considered. What I can't figure out is why Bay and the writers seem so invested in making Sam a D-bag in the following movies and why they feel the need to keep giving more screen time to very "forced" comedic bits that always fall flat.
I hated the second film but Sam was even worse in this one. I even stopped part way through I scanned through earlier scenes to see if I'd missed something that would explain why he is such a pain in the ass. It's not even just the writing (though that's most of it). Yeah, he's written as entitled and rude, but it surprised me how often Shia felt the need to just scream at the top of his lungs for no reason. Yikes.
His relationship with his girlfriend was very strange. Very bad acting. Never felt they cared for eachother.
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One has to wonder if Carly has self-esteem issues. It seems she could definitely do better, yet she seems to have that 'well, he's not perfect, but surely he'll change his ways and be less of a jerk to me in time.'
I think if Sam had 'matured' over the course of the sequels, he wouldn't have seemed so unlikable. That's supposed to be what happens in sequels: a character grows, and you see them become different from their first incarnation.
Sam as a self-entitled, whiny teenager in the first film, I get that (almost all of us were that way in suburbia). But by the third film, they turned him into a bitter old man in a 20-somethings body.
"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."
- Toy Story 3 (9/10)
It's not Sam that's a douche, it's Shia.
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I like how Sam constantly tries to act tough and tell the military soldiers what to do. "One shots all we need"
The people who complain about everything are no worse than the sheep who agree with everything.
Guess we see him totally differently. I think he's totally likable. I've seen all the Transformers movies several several several times and I've never considered him a douche. That word and Sam Witwicky together have never even crossed my mind lol. But hey, that's why we all have opinions eh
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