I think that the CG animals would actually look rather convincing; people can do amazing things with CG creatures these days (e.g. Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Jurassic World etc.). And our brains are more easily fooled than with CG human faces. The only thing is that it would be extremely expensive because it means that every scene where there's a Transformer would have to be CGI, whereas the current movies only need CG Transformers in robot mode, but otherwise they just use actual vehicles when they are in alt mode. And the Transformers do spend a lot of time in alt mode in the films during certain scenes - often to save money. They will often have part or all of a Transformer's transformation obscured or done off-screen to cut on costs too. Bay admitted this in one scene in the first movie where we hear Bumblebee transforming only to cut to a shot of him in vehicle mode with a few panels sliding into place. In the DVD audio commentary Bay admits that this was a cheat to give the illusion that Bumblebee had transformed but without actually animating his transformation. I suppose the main way to get around this is to do what the Beast Wars TV series did, and that is to limit the Transformers to a small ensemble cast rather than having armies. This should make it easier for the story to be more character-focused.

But please not Bay. Even if it were set in prehistoric Earth, I know that he'd find a way to stuff it up. Chak and Una would become the main protagonists, with Una looking underage but scantily clad in cavemen clothes... guh. And he'd have them doing all sorts of inappropriate things in beast mode (remember that he had vehicular-moded Transformers doing inappropriate things in robot mode!)

Quote Originally Posted by FatalityPitt View Post
It's time they moved onto something more challenging and different.
They won't even move onto something basically decent. I recently took my daughter to watch Ballerina - a kid's movie. There's not much in it for adults, but as a children's movie it was pretty decent. It had a straightforward narrative that didn't derail or stall itself, character-driven story and interesting social morals, both obvious and well hidden (one of which none of the critics have even picked up in the reviews that I've read; that's how subtle it is). I reckon the upcoming Peppa Pig movie will have a more solid story than The Last Knight.