DOTM - not excited? [possible spoils]

[Robzy]

Beast Wars Megatron, the best Megatron, would like a word with you

+1

-2 If you guys don't want him, I'll take Welkertron anyday!

Not much difference if youu ask me.

Even so, with Megatron's attack on the city we had just watched many beloved Autobots (Ironhide, Wheeljack, Prowl, Ratchet) killed so the audience wouldn't have been too upset if Prime had pulled the trigger.

Demolisher was sitting around in hiding until NEST turned up. Regardless of what post-movie comics might have given Demolisher as backstory, the audience hadn't built up any anger towards the character that made us feel he deserved to die. And that's a film making decision. If the Autobots had arrived to a scene where hundreds were dead due to this Decepticon's rampage it would have been more acceptable in film terms to see the character killed.

The difference is that G1 Prime didn't actually pull the trigger.
[snip]
For example in Revenge of the Sith Anakin Skywalker had a defeated Count Dooku at his mercy with two light sabres against his neck. [snip]In the end Anakin gave into the Dark Side (for a moment) and killed Dooku - although immediately after that he acknowledged that it was the wrong thing to do as he was an unarmed and defeated opponent ("It's not the Jedi way.").

Yeah, I agree with PB and GP. It's totally different IMO. I've never read any "extra material" for ROTF (shouldn't have to in order to watch a film ) and I have no idea why Prime killed him - except for because (apparently) he's doing bad things??? Ridiculous! In TF:TM the audience has seen Megatron personally slaughter Ironhide, Brawn and many others, not to mention leading an attack which has seen the deaths of countless others. We, as an audience, rally behind a champion to put a stop to this merciless killing spree. It's made even more tragic by the fact Prime fails... Megatron still (cunning as ever) secretly crawls towards the gun, raising the tension and ultimately kills Prime. It's a perfect cinematic moment... set the audience up for one thing (Prime saves the day) only to pull the rug out from underneath (Hot Rod gets in the way, Megs wins, Prime dies). It's more unexpected and tragic... Prime could have (and should have) ended it immediately, but he hesitated... and it cost him his life. He died a hero, instead of living and looking like an a$$ in ROTF. It's these subtle character elements that make us love characters or hate them. How many American action films, for example, have you seen where the hero has a chance to kill the villain but instead shows pity... only to have the baddie pull out a hidden weapon from his shoe, which causes the hero to fire a reactive shot! BANG! He's a hero... he didn't kill the guy in cold blood, he was only reacting to the bad guy's sneaky attack!

At the end of the day, it's all moot anyway. We're arguing about whether or not Prime has certain characteristics. The reality is, ROTF Prime was a construct of Michael Bay's direction... a guy who doesn't know or care enough about Transformers and their history anyway!