The release of the first “Transformers” movie back in 2007 was a huge event for me, not only because I’ve loved the Transformers since I was a kid (I collected just about every single toy they released and then even cut up their boxes that they came in to put up on my bedroom wall… it was COVERED with Transformer images… as you can imagine I didn’t have a lot of girls coming into my bedroom at that time), but I had been blogging and podcasting about it for years ever since the project had been officially announced.

Did the first film have its failings and shortcomings? Absolutely, no question about it. However for me, it hit all the notes that it needed to hit in order to be a positive experience at the movie theatre. For myself, it was probably the best time I had at the theatre all that year. Was it a great motion picture? Hell no, but it was as fun as I could hope it would be as a kid who grew up with Autobots battling evil Decepticons. Oh sure, I wished:

– There was more action
– Megatron had more screen time
– Starscream and Megatron had more than 1 annoyingly short conversation
– Rachael Taylor, Anthony Anderson and their tech crew had been left out of the movie
– More Transformers fighting each other
– Megan Fox could actually act
– There were a lot less “Shaky Cam”

All that is true, but seeing Optimus Prime transform for the first time on that dark street for Sam and Mikaela sent shivers down my spine and almost had a grown man in tears (yeah, I was that happy).

Fast forward now a few years to “Transformers 2″. I was extremely excited about the film since I hoped that not only would it recapture the fun and excitement of the first film, but also that it would be exponentially better by addressing some of the aforementioned glaring weaknesses of the original film.

Transformers 2 was nothing short of disastrous. A monumental disappointment that was unwatchable at best, and overtly offensive at its worst. I hated that movie. I hated it more and more each time I tried to give it another shot and watch it again. I tried to hold on to the few positive elements of the movie, but they faded more and more as time went on. Transformers 2 is garbage plain and simple.

So now here were are in 2011, a mere 6 months away from the release of the next film in the series, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”. If you read around the webshere you’ll see that the vast majority of pundits and bloggers are already proclaiming that T3 is going to be terrible (and who can blame them for thinking so?).

But here’s a surprise… as much as I detested “Transformers 2″ and thought it was one of the worst films of the year… I STILL HAVE HOPE FOR TRANSFORMERS 3!

You may understandably ask: “John, why the hell would you have any hope for this movie, especially considering how much the last one let you down”? That’s a fair question my friends… and here’s how I would respond:

WHY I STILL HAVE SOME HOPE FOR TRANSFORMERS 3

1) Michael Bay Listens To The Fans
Oh Bay might say he doesn’t listen, but trust me he does. As a matter of fact, when you go back and look at Transformers 2 again, you’ll see that a lot of the complaints that people had about the first Transformers movie (see my list above) were actually addressed in the second one. There was LESS shaky camera (still too much, but less), there was more Transformer centric action, there was more Megatron, there was more interaction between Megatron and Starscream, They got rid of Anthony Anderson and Rachael Taylor (unfortunately they added Sam’s worthless college roommate which was a complete waste of screen time).

You can see that even if he failed in 100 different areas, he did indeed try to address some of the main concerns coming from the fans after the first movie. He may not have done a great job at it, but you can see he tried and he listened. I believe that as stand-offish as he’s been regarding the criticism he’s received from Transformers 2, Michael Bay has listed to the universal rips and complaints about the project and will once again at least TRY to correct them. He did it before, he’ll do it again.

2) Top Notch Visuals
One thing that the Transformers film have always had going for them is the absolute best visual effects in the business. Returning for “Transformers 3″ is the best visual effects company in the world… Industrial Light and Magic. With big summer blockbuster movies great action and awe inspiring visual effects can cover up some other weaknesses for a lot of movie goers.

3) The Action Will Be Good
Regardless of any weaknesses Michael Bay has in his game, one can usually count on big explosions and bigger action. Bay does these about as well as anyone in the business today. When talking about a franchise like “The Transformers”, big healthy doses of giant robots beating the living crap out of each other while massive explosions go off in the process gets you more than half way there.

4) The T2 Experience
I think there has been a sense around film fans, pundits and Hollywood studios themselves that you can’t mess up a “Transformers” movie no matter what you do… that as long as Optimus Prime shows up and says some cool things and gets into a fight or two, fans will eat it up regardless of any other weakness the film may have. Well guess what… T2 proved that theory wrong. Die hard Transformers fans, like myself, hated the second film. Yes, you need to do all those assumed things… but it’s still a movie and as such NEEDS a GOOD story, good dialog, likable/compeling or at least interesting characters and a coherent development and progression of the plot. You can’t just throw those essential things away. Transformers 2 ignored all those things, and I’m hoping that the rejection the film got from film fans will have acted like a wake up call for Bay and Paramount as a whole.

Look, I’m certainly NOT saying that “Transformers 3″ will be a great movie, or even a good movie. I think we’ve been given a lot of proof that it’s a long shot. However, I still believe that with all the base building blocks the Transformers have, with the larger than life robotic characters and truly rich background mythology… with a director who at least listens to the fans and the support of the best visual effects company in the history of the business… with a director who does action just about as well as anyone… with all these things I have hope. Maybe not a lot of it… but hope nonetheless.

Until opening day I will hold out that hope (as stupid as that might make me). Until the final credits roll I will hold out that hope… or until the Autobot Twins show up on screen again, because at that point I just walk out.

What do you think? Do you hold out SOME sense of hope for Transformers 3 like I do, or are you completely convinced that it’s destined to suck a great and mighty suck? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.