Transformers: Age of Extinction & Bad Shot Composition.

While watching the new Transformers film the other day, something continued to bug me and that was my inability to focus on the cool and interesting visual goings on. Instead I seemed to focus on random areas of the screen. At first I thought this was due to my lack of engagement with the film, but on further inspection I realized that it was just the way the film was constructed and how some of the shots where very badly composed.

Focal Point

The main example of this for me must be Lockdowns "Big" reveal. Him stepping out of billowing smoke with a spacecraft flying behind him is cool no matter my feelings towards Micheal Bay's Transformer films.

But Instead my eyes are drawn to thing above him and I seem transfixed by it. The focal point of this shot doesn't seem to be the bad-ass Transformer but instead the engine on the ship above him.

That's Better

What makes this so baffling to me, is that the poster featuring this scene amends this mistakes.All this shot needs is to be re-framed a couple of inches down. Thereby making Lockdown The focal point of the shot. Although it doesn't help that the whole thing is lopsided to the left.

This isn't the only time that it happens either. A continuing theme throughout all the Transformers films is the weird way that the actual Transformers themselves are always shot using these obtuse angles and shots. They are almost always shot using low angle shots, this is probably used to create and constant sense of there size and to make the audience feel small by comparison.

The issue is that the low angel is often used when the transformers are simply conversing among themselves. Combined with the fact that these shots often feature two Transformers, This just makes it very hard to focus and concentrate on what they are saying. When  conversing they should just be shot like normal human characters, this should help to keep the audience visual attention.

Overall when you add this to the often messy and very cluttered visual style, it just means that the majority of the action scene just passed me by, while my eyes glazed over. Is it just me??

Dirt Cannon lol