Shia LaBeouf apologises for his past films…again!

I think there becomes a time when you can be too much of an apologist and Shia LaBeouf may have just reached that time.

On the last episode of The Geek Actually Podcast Josh, Nathan and I discussed Shia’s comments on the upcoming Transformers 3 film, where Shia basically said he knows that part 2 wasn’t very good and he promises that part 3 will be much better. You can read more about this apology and promise over at The Huffington Post. In a nutshell he said “When I saw the second movie, I wasn’t impressed with what we did, there were some really wild stunts in it, but the heart was gone.” He went on to say, “We got lost. We tried to get bigger. It’s what happens to sequels. It’s like, how do you top the first one? You’ve got to go bigger.” And there was more, “Mike went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie. … You lost a bit of the relationships. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn’t matter. Then it’s just a bunch of robots fighting each other.”

Now, I respected that Shia came clean on what I thought was, arguably, one of the most disappointing films of the year (next to Terminator Salvation and Public Enemies) but there was a part of me that kind of felt that he was just hyping the next film. In the same Cannes interview he did go on to promise, “It’s going to be the craziest action movie ever made, or we failed.”

Well, he’s at it again! Yesterday in The LA Times, Shia is once again apologising for his past work. This time he wants to say sorry for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the poor fourth instalment to the Indiana Jones franchise. To quote the LA Times article:

“I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished,” LaBeouf said, explaining that this upped the ante for him before he began shooting the “Wall Street” sequel. “If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me.”

Wait a minute. Didn’t he just apologise a couple of days ago for Transformers Revenge of the Fallen? Doesn’t that actually make it two in a row already? I think Shia needs to either remember what he said to whom or practice his maths.

His apology to the fans of the Indiana Jones films went on, once again I quote the LA Times article:

LaBeouf said that he could have kept quiet, especially given the movie’s blockbuster status, but didn’t think the film had fooled anyone. “I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you’ve made … . And I think if you don’t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you’re promoting a movie.” LaBeouf went on to say he wasn’t the only star on the film who felt that way. “We [Harrison Ford and LaBeouf] had major discussions. He wasn’t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted.”

LaBeouf added, “We need to be able to satiate the appetite,” he said. “I think we just misinterpreted what we were trying to satiate.”

I agree with him whole hart-idly and I have to admire his courage for coming out like this considering that he is basically insulting the films of three of the most powerful people in Hollywood at the moment, George Lucas (Producer of the Indiana Jones films), Steven Spielberg (Director of the Indiana Jones films and producer of the Transformers films) and Michael Bay (director of the Transformers films). Or is he?

In the LA Times article Shia said, “I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I’m not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he’s a genius, and he’s given me my whole life. He’s done so much great work that there’s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball.” So he has spoken to Spielberg about this? Does Spielberg also think he dropped the ball on this one? I sure hope so. I have a lot of respect for Steven Spielberg and I think, even though he has had a few misses, he is still one of the most talented filmmakers working today.

Anyway, enough about Steven Spielberg, this was about Shia’s need to clear his conscious. All I can say to Shia is, stop apologising and pick better films. I think Shia LaBeouf is a very talented young man and I loved his performances (if not all the films) in Disturbia, The Transformers and Eagle Eye. He has a likeable personality and a good sense of timing. What he seems to lacks is the ability to see problems with his film choices before he does the film. So in closing, Shia stop apologising now, it is getting old. Just get on with making the next film better.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Shia LaBeouf, his apologies or his films, comment below.