I want to first make it clear to the site administrators, moderators, members and visitors to TV.com that I mean no disrespect to anyone in the following rant.

I have decided that there are now four things one should not discuss in a public setting:

1. Sex
2. Religion
3. Politics
4. The upcoming Transformers movie

Last Thursday, the first concept pictures of the Transformers appearing in the movie were leaked (or purposely released) to the public.  Fans at the forum I went to seemed okay with the look for the characters Blackout and Scorponok; however, the view for what was labeled as Starscream was universally against it.  Today, pictures leaked of the concept for the movie Megatron, and the reaction is a repeat of Starscream.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not fond of the concept for Starscream, and I freely admit that I like Megatron's look, even though I'd have preferred that the pictures not have released.  I remain cautiously optimistic about the fortunes for the movie.  However, the recent behavior that I percieve from some fans right now absolutely sickens me. 

I don't know, maybe I'm reading too far into it.  I expected naysayers, but maybe I had too high a hope that the majority of fans would remain open minded about this movie.  And perhaps most are and it's just the naysayers who are the ones howling about it.  But I just feel horrified that there are so many people in the fandom who aren't giving this movie a chance based on the choice of director, unfinalized concept images, and a host of other issues I've seen.  I mean, the movie's a little over 10 months away with only a teaser trailer done, and already folks are "doom and gloom" about the movie's prospects.  If I remember correctly, Beast Wars was not recieved well by fans before the pilot aired either, and yet this is now considered the series that revived interest in what was then a dying line.  In the same manner, this movie shouldn't be so universally dismissed, especially since no one's seen the finished product.

Maybe I was too optimistic in my expectation of how much fans would tolerate the changes to the characters.  But I'm just perplexed that just because the concept images - which could change - don't look like "any Transformer that's come before" should be a reason to claim the movie will "suck".  I've read the reasoning, and none of them hold water for me.  I guess for some, in any established fan base like this, any change is a bad one, and the reaction I've seen thus far I fear has created an image - and again, no intended offense to anyone - of a fan base with the collective personality of a spoiled, tempermental child to those who have merely a passing knowledge of Transformers.  I understand that not everyone is like that; I've seen a few other than myself who are attempting to defend this movie, as a well as a few well thought out objections, and I'm not trying to shame anyone.

Thank you for allowing me to vent, and once again, mean no disrespect to anyone with views differing from mine.  It is just I have decided to never again talk about this movie with anyone, whether they agree with my opinion or not.