I just finished watching the Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay, what did I think of them? Was it worth it? What went wrong? And what went right?
Also who was the best character?
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>Was it worth watching
First three, Bumblebee, and Rise of the Beasts are.
>What went wrong
They didn't treat the Transformers as the characters of the movies. And every other problem stems from that. The bad human plotlines, the horrible plotlines, and repetition.
>What went right
Michael Bay knows his action scenes. The transformers had weight and mass behind each motion and it felt like titans fighting among mortals.
These movies were so bad but so profitable that we're likely to never get good Transformers films again.
>Bumblebee, and Rise of the Beasts are.
Those weren't directed by Michael Bay.
You idiot, you moron, you absolute fricking buffoon.
The first one is okay, dare I even say a little entertaining, 2nd is shit, 3rd is a pain to get through and 4 and 5 are two of the worst movies ever made, brain rotting stuff all around
I actually thought they were all about the same quality.
>what did I think of them?
Whatever we tell you to think, apparently. So you mostly liked the first one, mostly disliked Revenge of the Fallen, had mixed feelings about Dark of the Moon, felt Age of Extinction was underrated, and The Last Knight was sort of a mess.
>Was it worth it?
They made a lot of money and they made Transformers normie-tier pop culture for adults for a few years, so they've got that going for it.
>What went wrong?
Most of the Transformers aren't really characters and don't have strong, distinctive designs.
Optimus killing because he has to was fine, Optimus performing war crimes and Mortal Kombat fatalities and screaming GIVE ME YOUR FACE wasn't.
Watching these movies consecutively and they keep repeating the same plot of some important Cybertronian thing that everyone's looking for just happened to end up on Earth, and Transformers have secretly been here all along longer than anyone knew.
Also far too many of the human characters are just annoying and taking up too much time that could be spent on Transformers in a Transformers movie.
>And what went right?
The actions scenes, the sense of scale, drama and epic-ness, very much assisted by the score for most of these movies. Some good voice casting means most of the important Transformers with speaking roles sound like they've got some gravitas. Bay always knew to cast at least one hot girl in a central role.
>Good AND bad
Bay loves getting lots of cool military hardware in these movies and that's fine, but the down side is a lot of the Transformers are portrayed as far too easily injured or even killed by human guns. In general Bayformers are too easily killed for the war to have gone on for millions of years.
>Also who was the best character?
Nitro Zeus, obviously.
Forgot to add, for better or for worse, these movies have cemented Bumblebee as one of the two main Autobots, both the kid-appeal character who first befriends a human AND one of the Autobots' best warriors. It's also cemented that he can't talk properly, which the movies refuse to move past, and has carried over to some other Transformers things.
It's as bad as G1 but with ass and breasts.
G1 was kino actually.
The girls were hot at least.
Whatever happened to Sam anyway?
Most probably dead by TLK
I like to think he went into hiding or something.
But he probably just died.
He got killed inbetween 3 and 4. I don't really care though because he was the worst character in all 3 movies, Simmons was a better character than him and was way interesting than Cade Yager and Sam combined
I was happy to see Simmons again in The Last Knight.
Ironhide was based. Jetfire was based. Hound was based. Crosshairs was based. Laserbeak was based. Mirage was based. Optimus Primal was based. Shatter and Dropick are based. Barricade was based. Blackout was based. Bonecrusher was based.
I just wish Megatron had it good on screen. i'm a huge Megatrongay and they basically let him down in these films.
>One of Megatron's defining traits is his total aversion and unwillingness to fall in servitude of another
>Have him be a lackey in every single film after the first
This movies didn't give a shit about any Transformer but holy frick was Megs on aother level.
no Sideswipe? he was pretty badass too imo
>What went wrong?
Lorenzo wasn't beaten with hammers at any point during the series production
Production trivia
>Steven Spielberg was approached to direct before hiring Michael Bay.
>Early drafts featured only Sam and Mikaela. Bay added the military squad to broaden the movie's audience and secure funding from the U.S. military.
>Early drafts featured Arcee, Hot Rod, Wheeljack and Prowl with the Autobots. Bay liked the concept of a Decepticon police cruiser so much that he turned Prowl into Barricade.
>Early drafts featured Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Shockwave, Skywarp, Blitzwing, Onslaught, Octane and Rumble with the Decepticons. Soundwave and Ravage were replaced by Blackout and Scorponok.
>In early drafts, the Transformers did not speak, but Bay and the writers demanded that they did.
>In early drafts, Megatron is a "Spark Cannibal", who rips out other Transformers' Sparks and consumes them.
>In early drafts, Optimus kills Megatron by punching the Allspark through his chest, but Spielberg felt that Sam needed to be the one to deliver the killing blow.
>In early cuts, Scorponok kills Lennox's soldier Fig, but audiences liked him so much the scene was cut so he could return in the sequels (He never did).
>In early cuts, Optimus kills Barricade on the freeway, but Bay liked him so much he cut the scene so Barricade could return.
>Liam Neeson was approached to voice Optimus before Peter Cullen was cast.
>Ewan McGregor was approached to voice Bumblebee before Mark Ryan was cast.
>Amanda Seyfried and Emma Stone auditioned for Mikaela before Megan Fox was cast.
>Michael Clarke Duncan was originally cast as Simmons' partner, Agent Stone, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
>In early drafts, Optimus kills Megatron by punching the Allspark through his chest, but Spielberg felt that Sam needed to be the one to deliver the killing blow.
It was him!
>Spielberg felt that Sam needed to be the one to deliver the killing blow
It's insane that Sam survived the 2nd movie. Any other Megatron would put a fleshbag like Sam at the top of his shit list.
>Lee Tamahori volunteered to direct the movie at a lower price than Bay and even leaked his pitch online in a failed attempt to drum up fan support.
>The movie was rushed into production and shot without a script due to the Writers’ Strike. Even Bay dislikes it.
>Early drafts featured Pretender Alice as Sam’s new Autobot guardian who joins the search for the Matrix of Leadership, and Mikaela would be jealous of her.
>Early drafts featured Sideswipe and Sunstreaker rather than Skids and Mudflap and Arcee joining them, Alice, Bumblebee and the humans in their quest.
>In early drafts, the Fallen corrupts Megatron by offering to turn him into a Prime. During the final battle, Optimus reveals that to be impossible, causing Megatron and Starscream to abandon the Fallen to die.
>Early cuts included a post-credits scene where Megatron and Starscream return to the Nemesis and begin building a Decepticon army to conquer Earth.
>Devastator’s rampage was reduced due to the complexity of the CGI rendering process, which caused one of ILM's computers to melt down.
>Autobot Jolt was a last-minute addition to display the Chevrolet Volt, and is unexplainably absent for long stretches of the movie.
>Barricade would originally return as the Audi R8, but the brand refused to be associated with one of the villains. They ultimately reconsidered, and car was reinserted into the movie as Sideways.
>Leonard Nimoy was approached to voice the Fallen before Tony Todd was cast.
>Jonah Hill was approached for Leo Spitz before Ramon Rodriguez was cast.
>Teresa Palmer auditioned for Alice before Isabel Lucas was cast.
>John Turturro was set to voice Jetfire with a heavy southern accent, but was ultimately replaced by Mark Ryan with a British accent.
>Anthony Anderson was approached to voice Jolt, but there was no time to even animate him speaking.
drafts featured Sideswipe and Sunstreaker rather than Skids and Mudflap and Arcee joining them, Alice, Bumblebee and the humans in their quest.
dammit, that would've been kino
They're my guilty pleasure (at least, 1 and 3 are). They're blockbusters that are spectacle first, everything else second
I rewatched the first 4 recently, and every criticism about them is completely valid. Humans run around advancing the plot while giant robots kill each other; the Autobots are basically babysitters. Most of RotF is basically Sam and friends going to Egypt to find a macguffin. The films are brought down by just how juvenile they can get; for every emotional/dramatic beat, there's just as many sex/race jokes/fast talking/compromising situations. The first scene after DotM's title card is an ass shot. It's jarring when juxtaposed next to Optimus giving heroic speeches
>what went right?
VFX, sound design, voice acting for the Transformers and music. And there are some hidden gems in the dialogue. Also explosions
>Also who was the best character?
>In early drafts, the Fallen corrupts Megatron by offering to turn him into a Prime. During the final battle, Optimus reveals that to be impossible, causing Megatron and Starscream to abandon the Fallen to die.
>Early cuts included a post-credits scene where Megatron and Starscream return to the Nemesis and begin building a Decepticon army to conquer Earth.
Funny, this was left in the PS3 game
>The movie was intended as the final chapter in the Transformers trilogy.
>The original pitch of Autobots and Decepticons joining forces to fight Unicron was rejected by the studio.
>Shockwave was announced as the main villain to cover up Sentinel Prime's alliance with the Decepticons. An elaborate backstory was created, establishing Shockwave as Decepticon scientist who arrived on Earth long before the others and was responsible for the Tunguska incident in Russia.
>In early drafts, Sentinel Prime would kill the Twins alongside Ironhide, but Bay disliked the characters so much he preferred to ignore them altogether.
>Dino and Que were originally Mirage and Wheeljack. Mirage was changed into Dino to pay homage to Ferrari after they signed up for the movie, while Wheeljack was changed into Que as a homage to the James Bond franchise.
>In early drafts, Dino would be executed by Soundwave, while Que would be killed by Decepticons during the final battle.
>Ferrari objected to "their" character being killed onscreen, so Que became the one executed by Soundwave instead. Ferrari also objected to Dino using weapons or killing Decepticons on screen, so the character was instead given arm blades which he never used.
>Ramon Rodriguez was approached to return as Leo, but the character was removed in further rewrites.
>Megan Fox was slated to return as Mikaela, but was fired due to disagreements with Bay, leading to the character being scrapped and replaced by Carly.
>Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterton, Amber Heard, Ashley Greene, Brooklyn Decker, Miranda Kerr, Bar Refaeli, Heidi Montag, Camilla Belle, Katie Cassidy, Lucy Hale and Julianne Hogue auditioned for Carly before Rosie Huntington-Whitley was cast.
>Stephen Sommers, Roland Emmerich, Jon Turteltaub, Louis Leterrier, David Yates and Joe Johnston were approached to replace Michael Bay before he was persuaded to return in exchange for funding for his passion project Pain & Gain.
>Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura merged two separate pitches, one centered on Galvatron leading an uprising of man-made Transformers and one centered on Lockdown hunting down Optimus Prime on behalf of the Creators, to produce the final script.
>The movie was intended as a "soft reboot" of the franchise, introducing new characters, new designs and a new mythology.
>In early drafts, Lockdown was assisted by "Widowmaker", a psychotic female Cybertronian bounty hunter.
>In early drafts, archaeologist Darcy Tyrell had a larger role, including a romantic subplot with Cade Yeager.
>Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson were approached for Cade before Mark Wahlberg was cast. The character would originally only be featured in one movie and sacrifice himself in the end, but further rewrites changed his fate.
>Margaret Qualley, Gabriella Wilde and Isabelle Cornish auditioned for Tessa before Nicola Peltz was cast. The character would originally be the franchise's new co-lead, but further rewrites reduced her role.
>Brenton Thwaites, Hunter Parrish, Landon Liboiron and Luke Grimes auditioned for Shane before Jack Reynor was cast. The character would originally be the franchise's new co-lead, but further rewrites reduced his role.
>During filming in Hong Kong, Bay was approached by local crooks who demanded protection money from the production. When he refused, one of them threw an air-conditioner at him, which he dodged, inspiring the scene where Cade throws an air-conditioner at Titus Welliver's Savoy.
>Michael Bay agreed to return one last time in exchange for funding for his other passion project 13 Hours.
>Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura combined several different story ideas to create the final script.
>The movie was intended as the final chapter in Bay’s series before Paramount heavily reshot and re-edited it to turn it into the launching point of a Transformers Cinematic Universe.
>Early drafts featured Earth and Cybertron being revealed as Primus and Unicron, respectively. The Allspark would have been a weapon made by the Creators to kill Unicron after he defeated Primus and nearly destroyed the Universe, and the Transformers would have been slaves made by the Creators to guard Unicron who rebelled against their masters.
>Early drafts featured Optimus Primal and the Maximals as part of the Autobots' secret history on Earth.
>Jean Dujardin was approached to voice Hot Rod before Omar Sy was cast.
>Stephen Merchant was approached to voice Cogman before Jim Carter was cast.
>Stanley Tucci was approached to return as Joshua, but the character was removed in further rewrites. Bay then offered him the role of Merlin.
>Tyrese Gibson was approached to return as Epps, but was forced to decline due to scheduling conflicts.
>Nearly 40 minutes of footage was deleted by Paramount to address complaints previous movies were too long.
>The NASA engineer played by Tony Hale was entirely added in reshoots.
>The Unicron subplot was entirely added in reshoots.
>Nearly 40 minutes of footage was deleted by Paramount to address complaints previous movies were too long.
>Run time: 149 minutes
Jesus christ can you imagine what they almost put people through
It might've made sense with those extra 40 minutes, though.
I laughed a few times during the movie when they'd keep cutting to character's faces and some people had just randomly shown up with no preamble.
Like bumblebee reappearing during the final fight, or at least I think it was the final fight.
RELEASE THE BAY CUT
They are bad because they don't care about the Transformers as characters. They don't give them interesting personalities or emotions because the people involved think people can't identify with robots, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Human characters are fine as a way in to learn about the Transformers, but these movies focus all the character development on humans. There are other problems too. The robot design is a mess with all these extraneous alien metal ephemera everywhere. The characters should look sleek and simple. The shaky camera technique is obnoxious and makes fights harder to follow. Etc.
>because the people involved think people can't identify with robots
And they're right. The average movie-goer is an NPC incapable of appreciating or enjoying any media unless there's a human audience surrogate to project themselves onto.
their designs are so fricking ugly and just plain bad. just look at the comics. they couldn't be translated well to another medium at all and come out looking like amorphous grey blobs.
>they don't care about the Transformers as characters
because the normie audience doesn't want to see robots emoting and kids think it's cringe
I like Bayformers Prime. Is he the Optimus you'd REALLY want? No. But is he a fun, and interesting, take on the character? Yes.
Ehhh, he goes a bit too hard on the speeches.
That it's the exact same guy doing all the noble speeches like classic Optimus and also ripping his enemies apart, executing defeated foes, and yelling I'LL KILL YOU ALL! at random humans, it's just insane, like they have two completely different takes on the same character and did them both in the same movie. And kept doing it.
I liked the crazy guy.
I never liked the designs in these movies.
>"You want a piece of me? YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?"
>"NO, I WANT TWO"
Bayformers had some fun moments
It had many funny moments, both intentionally and unintentionally.
>Jazz is a little bit racist
>the two twins in ROTF are VERY racist
I'm surprised Dark Of The Moon didn't have somebody in blackface.
SHUT UP GRANDMA!!!
They aren't great. The first one exists well-above the rest for having a slight Joe Dante/Spielbergian charm. The first three all have a fun blend of practical and CGI set pieces though, and while some of the designs can be a little busy there are also some cool visual choices. The Transformers characters are mostly just one-note vehicles for action which wouldn't be a problem if the human characters weren't similarly flat and cartoonish, but everything is just a delivery system for Bay's sensibilities for better or worse. Rise of the Beasts is the extremely dull result of sucking the Bayisms out while leaving the other flaws in.
Hot take: I liked Hugo Weaving as Megatron. He did a good voice. For the kind of Megatron we got I felt he was pretty appropriate.
I don't think that's an unpopular opinion outside of 2006-2007 fan rage over Welker not being cast. Weaving is great.
They inspired Split/Second so I'm fine with their existence.
>Cogman is mentioned to be a Headmaster
>he never does the Headmaster thing
What was the point of that?
They cut the scene, he was supposed to rip off Nitro Zeus’ head and steal his body to I think save a falling Bumblebee. The toys are still able to replicate it is how far it got before being cut.
1>3>2>4>5
I only saw Bumblebee but I don't think of it as a Bayformers film, no sexy girls besides the girl MC.
>I don't think of it as a Bayformers film
I mean, unlike the first 5, Bay didn't direct it.
Oh.
I couldve swore he did.
Well, he didn't, he stopped directing Transformers movies after Last Knight, he's just one of the producers now
Tom Kenny playing Skids and Mudflap saved TF2 for me honestly.
Huh, didn't know it was him.
>Has the best design in the bayverse
>Cool and badass character
>Only rememebred by the quote you want a piece of me?
Bay raped Jazz and made him a joke such a kino transformer only to be mismanaged
you thought Revenge of the Fallen was the best movie you've ever seen in your life. You watched it twice. You've fapped to the thoughts of Alice mpregging you with her robot tail. You practice Rainn Wilson's classroom lecture to build confidence before you talk to women. You like to strip naked, paint your balls silver, and stomp around on little lego cities.