Bay's final word on Jazz in TF2? (SPOILERS)

[Trailer Park Ninja]

I'm glad that Michael Bay is considering not bringing Jazz back , though this may change between now and when the sequel comes out. We still have the Writers Guild Strike to contend with and that will circumvent any start on a script let alone production.

To be totally honest, I didn't feel much when Jazz kicked the bucket. Not that I think I'm an insensitive jerk or anything but I put it down to the little screen time Jazz had. I know he put himself on the line to protect the humans and died fighting (though vainly) against Megatron to suffer such a terrible fate.

But it didn't have the emotional resonance to me it should have. Another reason was that I didn't identify the movie Jazz with the G1 Jazz even though they both share the same characteristics. I made the executive decision to treat the movie as a separate animal to the G1 Transformers I love and grew up with before I entered the theatre. That said, I think it made me love the movie even more on its own merits and avoid unfair comparisons.

Now if Bumblebee bit the big one, it would be a different story. There was a lot of emotional investment in building that relationship up between Sam and Bumblebee as his guardian/protector which I'm sure will carry over to the next movie.

Related to my point about the correlation between screen time and emotional impact of Jazz's death, Michael Bay can only give so much screen time to both human and transformer cast members for each interdependent story arc to work. I thought his management on this front was excellent as each had their own great moments. The human cast were important link for the audience to identify with their experiences.

I think the good thing now with the first movie out of the way, less time is needed in a sequel to set things up as it isn't an origin-type movie. I am hoping this will translate into more screen time for the core cast but also peripheral cast members. This would see the introduction of other new Transformers. Alas, poor Jazz, we knew you well but there are a lot of Transformer toys to play with in the sandbox.

P.S. I am writing this reply in the wee hours of a Monday morning before a work day because it is too FRIGGEN HOT here in Sydney to sleep at night