Hey, at least they tried something new. Prime doubting himself in Animated and questioning his leadership is pretty out of character. Sure, it was a totally different interpretation of Prime, but so is movie Prime. Movie Prime is a more realistic version of G1 Prime. He comes to Earth initially with the idea that “freedom is the right of all sentient beings” but then has horrible stuff happen to him and his friends. Jazz dies at Megatron’s hands. HE dies at Megatron’s hands. His mentor turns evil and kills Ironhide. The very bot that taught him that freedom was everyone’s right turned to the dark side! Tell me that wouldn’t make you question your morals. Then the humans turn their backs on the Autobots and start hunting them down. After all the stuff he’s been through of course he went a little nuts for a bit. I wasn’t a fan of his “He is going to DIE” line (c’mon, just change it to pay and it sounds so much better), but otherwise was glad at least they took a risk in Age of Extinction and thought it turned out well.
As for his [quote=“Chronicler, post:403, topic:19445”]
acts more like a decepticon
[/quote]
personality, I’m assuming you’re referring to how violent he is. Well, with how the robots fight in these movies, it basically how humans would fight. They’re at war, of course they’re going to stab each other and mutilate each other. War is messy. Ok, maybe Prime going around yelling “you, DIE!” is a little much, but humans will stab and shoot each other basically in the same manner all day long. It’s just that the Transformers are robots that can rip each other apart easier than we can each other. Bumblebee is like some sort of acrobatic spec-ops ninja.
If DC hasn’t already pulled the plug and is trying to patch things up, no way Paramount is going to do the same with a franchise that has made more money. I think the stories the previous five have set up can continue as long as new directors and more simplistic scripts are brought forward. Revenge of the Fallen and The Last Knight were both dragged down by the lore they included. It didn’t make sense because it wasn’t given enough explanation and more time went to… the Twins and submarine innuendo scenes.
I mean, the box office for The Last Knight would indicate that they’re finally encountering troubles, and that shows people are finally getting bored with these movies. Like I said the DCEU hasn’t been around as long as the Transformers movies have. The first one came out ten years ago, while Man of Steel came out just four years ago. I’d say Transformers is finally starting to show it’s age as a franchise and it isn’t impossible they’re at least considering gonna dumping it sooner or later.
I’d argue we got an abundance of giant robots fighting.
The problem is we didn’t get enough giant robots emoting, conversing, and generally being treated as proper characters in their own right. I think the first film can somewhat be excused from this, since it was about the humans discovering the war going on in their midst, but the sequels don’t have this excuse, and that is the biggest reason the series falls flat.
I’d be able to forgive all of… er, most of the bay-isms, if they just gave the Autobots and Decepticons proper motivations and personality and the time to display that personality, but as it stands… It’s just unacceptable. Of course, there’s Murder Prime, but I really don’t think that ought to count.
Four, actually. 2013 to 2017 is four years. But look at Transformers in that same amount of time. TF2007, and ROTF made 1.55 Billion dollars at the box office where Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, and Suicide Squad (left out WW because it’s still in theaters) made 2.28 Billion. The TF franchise basically made half that with one less movie, and with better audience response.
Transformers as a franchise is older than just a 10 year old movie, but to the general populace, it is showing it’s age. The movies have kept up the same shtick, and they are getting tired of it. However, Hollywood sees that MARVEL is raking in the dough and just assumes that the Cinematic Universe gimmick is what is selling tickets and not the quality products MARVEL is putting out. If Paramount was going to reboot, they would have done so already and created a new TF cinematic universe instead of ‘creating’ one out of what they already had. Trust me, there’s no cinematic Transformers reboot coming any time soon unless the next two or three movies bomb horribly.
Making their money back will be acceptable to them, I think. I’m talking like 47 Ronin bad. Then they’ll take a break like DC did with Batman after Batman & Robin, but only then. Studio executives are stupid and stubborn.
Then you forget a huge aspect of Optimus Prime: he doesn’t like casualties. Nor does he want the death of anyone. This is prevalent in (I think) all of his other incarnations. It also is a huge weakness to him.
But Optimus shouldn’t have to. Optimus isn’t his mentor, and has a mind of his own. He can still take the lessons and apply them through his own ideals. If one person corrupts it doesn’t mean you have to put EVERYTHING related to it into question. Plus, freedom to every being is such a common moral, that even if one person who taught you that becomes corrupt, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an existing moral.
That’s because the leadership was corrupt, though. That Optimus Prime knew this. Plus Prime was new at his game in that series. G1 Prime and many other versions are already war generals by the time they first appear in their shows. This is the same for the Bay films.
I’m sorry but Optimus Prime’s characterization doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in these movies. He’s an unrelenting force of good, a pinnacle of light against the undying evil of the Decepticons. He cares for all life, and he fights for the co-existance of humans and transformers.
Bay was clearly shooting for a G1 portrayal of Optimus Prime, and I’m sorry to say he failed.
I think I could’ve explained what I meant a bit better, so I apologize for that. What I meant is that while I don’t think there’s gonna be a reboot any time soon, I do think it’s likely there will only be a few films left before they wrap up. I would however like a reboot in the future if possible, because I want movies that are actually good.
I know not a lot of people are going to agree with me on this, but I hope they’d keep the same general visual style of the Cybertronians for the most part. Just simplify them juuust enough to make the budget less of an issue and allow them more screentime, and fix some of the more egregious designs (Lookin’ at you, Starscream. I have massive respect for the folks at ILM, but why they saw fit to make him a gorilla dorito is beyond me) and bring everything closer to their common portrayals in other stuff.
And for the love of Primus, keep Bay and Ehren Kruger as far away from the reboot as possible.
In the first movie, sure, and he hits that nail on the head. But movie Optimus has become his own entity over time.
Movie Prime doesn’t like casualties either. Are we forgetting the KSI scene? “They were my friends!”
He obviously cares for his fellow Cybertronians.
“How many more of my kind must be sacrificed?”
He’s kind of fed up with Autobots continuously dying for humanity, and the bias towards his own race starts to show. He’s more human in that capacity. It’s like Americans in the 1960s complaining about being in Vietnam (that’s history, it’s a fact, it happened, not political!).
Also, Movie Prime probably doesn’t want the death of anyone the majority of the time either, but in the '86 movie, Prime says “One shall stand, one shall fall” for a reason. He knows he either has to kill Megatron or be killed trying. Cue Hot Rod. At the end of Dark of the Moon, yeah, it probably would have been more G1ish of Prime to accept Megatron’s truce, but, y’know, Michael Bay. Not sure how to defend that one. He was probably fed up with the fighting and just wanted an end to it once and for all. How was he supposed to know that KSI would hook him up and unknowingly turn him back on?
I’m sure a reboot will happen eventually. Transformers has had NINE television shows (and that’s just the US ones!) in the past 30 some odd years. I’m sure this current live-action franchise will end at some point and then be rebooted like Batman or Superman or Spider-Man have been for a long, long time. Just not sure if it’ll happen anytime soon.
Also, just because it’s a reboot doesn’t automatically make it good.
That doesn’t mean the original source material will be good either though.
But that’s the point of the autobots. They fight so we can have freedom, and it has sacrifices for the fighting. Decepticons would think the way you describe. Their bias for Cybertronians dying in this war with the Autobots (who want to protect humanity) is one of the reasons Megatron is always so angry.
Aye, but he never does. Even then, I have a feeling we would have never actually killed Megatron if he won that battle. Besides, what would killing Megatron do? Starscream, an unkillable foe who is far more chaotic and far more devoted to destruction, would be the next leader. If we’re gonna kill every main enemy, you’re gonna get to the point where you can’t.
Like with how Robots in Disguise 2015 has some really interesting, yet unspoken ideas, so do the movies. The idea that maybe Optimus and Megatron aren’t all that different is fascinating, though, isn’t it? It makes both more relateable to us. Hitler and FDR were two sides of the same coin. Hitler had his concentration camps, yet FDR commissioned the Manhattan Project. Both Optimus and Megatron have led their armies in a who-knows-how-long civil war over what is essentially at it’s core an argument over who is right (in Prime anyway, not so much G1).
Honestly Prime Prime (the one thing I don’t like about that show, the name) is probably the perfect mix between G1 Prime and Movie Prime. Movie Prime does edge toward one extreme too often though, I’ll concur.
Oh, like G1 Starscream would have been leader long. Soundwave or Shockwave would have probably usurped him pretty fast. Those two would have also maybe been more willing to make peace with the Autobots.
That kinda depends, though. Most decepticons are loyal to their leaders, they’re just biased to which ones they like as leader. Also, Starscream would be plotting to overthrow them as well.
And being evil Decepticons, if they didn’t like their leader, they’d probably get rid of them right quick. Everyone seemed happy enough to throw Megatron out of Astrotrain in the '86 movie after he got beat up by Optimus…
Mmm, yeah, I don’t think Screamer would have survived being overthrown. They wouldn’t want to deal with Starscream all the time like Megatron had to.
You’ve stated it yourself. He goes to the extreme with his actions most of the time. For example, why did he want Sam to put the cube in his chest during the final fight in the first film? He should have known it would kill him, and that would have doomed everyone. Shia did something right for once in that scene and defeated Megatron…
Well, at that point Brawl, and Bonecrusher were dead, Barricade was MIA, and Blackout was about to be RIP in piece while Megatron was taking a good pounding from the F-22s. If Sam had put the cube in Optimus to destroy it and keep it out of Megatron’s hands, the only cons left would have been Starscream and Megatron, which after everything that had already happened that day might have gone down with some military reinforcements.
Saw TLK last weekend, and from a pretty casual fan’s perspective, it was fine. Nothing to write home about, but enjoyable in the right mindset.
Unicron, Nemesis Prime, Steve Buscemi, oh my!
I saw it with my Dad (Bless his heart for tagging along) and he was not happy before the movie started. He’s only ever seen the first one, wasn’t a huge fan, and doesn’t like anything else Transformers, but I swear he enjoyed himself, maybe more than I did. During the whole “Did you forget who I am? I am Optimus Prime!” scene he looked over at me with childlike wonder on his face. Once it was over, we had an actual discussion about Transformers - something he didn’t care about two hours before.
This is exactly what happened when we saw Power Rangers together.
Except almost all the danger humans get into in these movies is because of either Cybertronians or Optimus himself.
The Allspark, and by extension Megatron, wound up on Earth because of Optimus.
The carnage in RotF happened because of Optmus’s ancestors.
The carnage in DotM happened because of Optmus’s lapse in judgement towards Sentinel.
AoE is the only time where the humans’ predicament is self-imposed. Optimus’s kind never died for humans’ mistakes before that. It was always a fault of his race and his war, and stepping in to stop it is as much a matter of responsibility as it is morality.
Hence why that arc in AoE made no sense and was forced af
Doesn’t help that in the first movie, Optimus already understood how violent humans could be, but still knew thatt didn’t apply to all of them.
“They’re a young species. They have much to learn, but I’ve seen goodness in them. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.”
Guess he forgot saying all that.
It was already released in the U.S. and China, the biggest BO draws, and it drastically underperformed in both.
The budget was almost 300 million. With distribution and marketing in mind, the movie has to make at least three times that much to break even, which it still hasn’t managed to do a month after release. It’s definitely in a bad place right now.
