ExcellentOriginally Posted by Sinnertwin
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Excellent
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
I like the latest news piece about making the next TF movie with a shared universe in mind. They mentioned they have 30 years of TF stories to draw from and they're all very excited.
Hilarious that they said they have 30 years of stories because im wondering how we ended up with the 4 TF movies that we have now.
And a shared universe only works if people care about the characters. Besides Optimus not one TF had a personality. Not one.
Bay's directing is just awful. I can see how it could appeal to some people but to me its just unwatchable.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Well said. And Optimus Prime only got characterisation in the fourth film. He was basically a big walking caricature in the first 3 films, and an inconsistent one at that. Switching from:
* the fairly G1-accurate compassionate Optimus Prime in TF1. He only killed in the heat of combat defending humans and was willing to push the Cube into his own chest to sacrifice himself over killing Megatron (as Sam chose, and Optimus Prime cried, "No, Sam!"); to...
* the brutally merciless Optimus Prime in ROTF who executed defeated opponents!
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
I would've done the same & I'm glad we're seeing this side of Optimus, it's about time.
The days of letting the Decepticons retreat only to come back the following week with another Ultimate Weapon/Plot for World Domination are looooong gone
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They are a technologically advanced race... I'm sure there were humane methods at their disposal to put prisoners into stasis-lock or hybernation, and store their sparks until such time that they could be re-educated or re-programmed to be non-violent.I would've done the same & I'm glad we're seeing this side of Optimus, it's about time.
The days of letting the Decepticons retreat only to come back the following week with another Ultimate Weapon/Plot for World Domination are looooong gone
And what about Optimus enslaving the Dinobots in TF4? He only "frees" them from Lockdown's captivity when he needed them, not as soon as he was free... and then instead of pleading with his "fellow knights" for their help, he starts bashing up Grimlock and holding a sword to his throat stating, "help my friends or die".
That, and the execution of prisoners, is why I would really hope they decide a reboot before starting the "expanded Universe" series of movies, as the first four don't give a solid foundation for future movies to build on. There are just way too many contradictions between them, and character flaws, for a Marvel-style universe to be created.
At least for Marvel and DC, they set out a rough framework to follow BEFORE starting the series of movies... so that they don't have to retcon too much later or leave fans with glaringly obvious contradictions.... something that won't be possible if they look at other avenues of Transformers like prequels, when we have three different origins of Transformers and three different "first contact" scenarios in just four movies.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
But there's the inconsistency. It's not as if Optimus Prime had been a merciless take-no-prisoners bad-bot the whole time. The first movie showed him as being more merciful, especially in the way that he was willing to sacrifice himself over Megatron. But then in ROTF he suddenly changed to become a more cold-blooded character for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Dai Atlas has a long history of copping fan criticism in Japan for being a similarly merciless character who never took prisoners. Many Japanese fans criticise him for not being in the same spirit as other Autobot leaders who follow Convoy's example of compassion. But at least Dai Atlas is consistently merciless! It wasn't as if he didn't want to kill Devastator but was happy to kill Predaking -- Dai Atlas killed every Decepticon that he fought! Dai Atlas a ruthless sod, but at least he was a consistently ruthless sod!
The funny thing is... Star Sabre and Dai Atlas' moral positions in Japanese G1 are reversed in IDW.
P.S.: Although IDW Star Sabre is much more ruthless than TF Zone Dai Atlas. G1 Dai Atlas was only ruthless towards the Decepticons but still compassionate towards Autobots and their protectorates (e.g. humans).
Rank 3 - Basic Member
Given that consistency and coherence have been largely irrelevant to the franchise so far, it's hard to see why a reboot would be neccessary.
Just take whatever is working, make another movie and call it "TF5: Age of Galvatron". No need to throw the baby-bot out with the cyber-bathwater. There's good stuff here to build on. In fact, it would be nice to see them develop things rather than scrapping everything and starting over. How many characters and TF models have they gone to the effort of creating only to have them stand around in the background or do one scene before they're killed-off or never seen again? Jolt, Que, Mirage... Jazz? Even Ratchet didn't really get a decent spotlight until his demise in TF4. Megatron looked so cool in DoTM so it felt like he was under-utilized with almost all of his scenes just being him standing around being grumpy before getting his spine immediately ripped out as soon as he decides to get involved in the action. Shockwave? Now that was an anti-climax. We get a cool two-headed version of him in TF4 apparently only to further taunt us.
Rank 10 - Admin
If Bay does is not a Director or Story Editor for the new Universe (to dictate the overall story arc), and the power goes back to Hasbro like it was for the 2007 movie (before they bribed Bay with overriding power to get him back for 2, 3 and 4), then I think a reboot would be very useful.
We could have Autobots and Optimus Prime being the Heroes that we can look up to and trust... something that Michael Bay sabotaged just to get a short good action shot or a Trailer scene, at the expense of the overall plot and consistent or believable characterisation.
I still enjoy watching the movies and often watch them when they are on TV, so I'm not one who finds things to complain about them or him, but I'd enjoy them a lot more if I could ignore the plot errors, embrace the characters and love to be inspired by the pure hero that "Optimus" has always been in the past. After all, if you can't trust your heroes, who is left to inspire you.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Considering that they couldn't even fix Bumblebee's voice box & their limited resources spark storage doesn't seem like a viable option to me.
I may be wrong, but weren't the Dinobots on the ship they needed to travel across the world? Freeing them onboard may not have been the best course of action if they were
Prime does ask for their help first though "so, today you stand with us, or you stand against me."
Grimlock decided to stand against Prime and once Jungle Law was applied and Optimus Prime proved that he was the Alpha Male, Grimlock and the other Dinobots fell in line. Happens in nature every day of the week
That's what we want though, isn't it? we want to see Prime develop as a character. we want to see how he feels and reacts. He's witnessed his family get torn apart, blown up, melted, betrayed by humans and we still expect him to do cartwheels?But there's the inconsistency. It's not as if Optimus Prime had been a merciless take-no-prisoners bad-bot the whole time. The first movie showed him as being more merciful, especially in the way that he was willing to sacrifice himself over Megatron. But then in ROTF he suddenly changed to become a more cold-blooded character for no apparent reason whatsoever.
If i see one more Prime sacrifice himself or die only to come back i'm going to headbutt something -it's cliche, it's tired, it's old. it loses it's edge when you've seen the same thing for the last 30 freaking years.
rule #1 you must die and come back to life
rule #2 you must sacrifice yourself at any given opportunity
yawn.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Didn't they fix Bumblebee's voice at the end of the first movie?
Or did audiences think him being a robot Lassie was too cute, so it was retconned?
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