Michael Bay will not be directing TF5

[Sinnertwin]

Meh. I'll still be watching the next two instalments either way

[drifand]

This is good news.

I don't think I could handle another Bay Transformers movie. If he does do the next, I already know exactly what I'll be in for and will therefore save my money.

Hope this is really true for realssszs

but sadly it will be from where is left off? So there isn't much to work upon as the foundation is laid. Unless is a clean reboot.

[Megatran]

I haven't seen TF4 movie yet.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

but sadly it will be from where is left off? So there isn't much to work upon as the foundation is laid. Unless is a clean reboot.

I'm fine with a clean reboot. The fact that Bay's movies had bugger all continuation hasn't affected anything. Reboot is great.

If they wanted to they could even continue with Bumblebee leading Autobots on Earth, Optimus will be off fighting aliens/whatever. None of the main Autobots (Hound, Drift et al.) matter, just like the other movies.

As long as there is a good, coherent story, I'm fine with that.

[Bidoofdude]

Well, it looks like Hasbro just started caring. Michael Bay is out now, because he "got hit with several DCMAs from Hasbro at around 3am this morning. Apparently the director had been 'Overenthusiastically promoting an inferior knock off of Hasbro intellectual properties that were protected properties.' Things are not looking good right now. That's all I can say at this time." Big news

I knew it. Huge fan rage predicted.

Bay's films aren't awful, they have their moments and some of the character designs are nice. It is good to see that they'll be given a fresher perspective, since the whole Bayformers mood is losing its shine IMO. Not as special as the first film.

[Gofigure]

In my minds eye I am seeing a beautiful reboot being put in motion. A director who gives a hoot and has read a few idw issues, saw the G1 cartoons as a child, and wants to simplify the designs of these robots in disguise with a heavy G1 aesthetic however keeping modern. Mature plot lines being rolled out however making it all accessible (no F bombs or sex with motorcycles)...I can see it all.....and it's beautiful

[1AZRAEL1]

Oh god here we go...

I'll laugh at all the nerd rage if it turns out to be false

[Hursticon]

Oh god here we go...

I'll laugh at all the nerd rage if it turns out to be false

Given that he has said this twice and twice returned? - Yeah, I'll probably be there with you.

Would certainly be interesting to see who'd be chosen to take up the challenge from where Bay "Left Off", definitely wouldn't be a small effort that's for sure.


Say what you will about Bay's complete ineptness at story telling and characterisation, the guy sure knows how to film a visually-arousing spectacle that grows brand awareness, coffers and wallets - I'll always thank him for my sizeable Classicsverse collection personally.

[GoktimusPrime]

If this turns out to be true, we don't know if the new director will be any better or possibly even worse. Hopefully better (let's face it. it's not hard... but also not impossible for someone worse to come along ). I just really want to see a director who can strike the balance between thrilling action and emotional character-driven stories, e.g. Irvin Kershner (Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back).

I personally would prefer to see the movies continue from the Bayverse films -- as flawed as they are, I don't want to see a reboot. That's just lazy and as others have said, it is throwing away a lot of the foundations laid in AoE which do have the potential to create good stories if done right. Galvatron is essentially a blank slate; we know very little about his character from AoE because he got virtually no characterisation. While this did make his character rather forgettable in AoE, it does mean that he's a fairly open slate for future writers/directors to mould into a more interesting antagonist. The whole creators sub-plot is just ripe for doing almost anything with; such as exactly how do they tie in with the AllSpark Cube, Matrix of Leadership, Dynasty of the Primes, the Fallen etc. It'd be great if the creator arc could be tied in with pre-existing canon from the previous films and attempt to tie them all together; potentially retrospectively enhancing the previous films.

A lot of Bay's strengths as a film maker have been disappating in the sequels anyway.
e.g.
* Ties with the military and to portray a relatively more realistic military response to an alien threat. This was done pretty well in movies 1-3, but disposed of in AoE. Lockdown's ship is anchored above a U.S. city and trashes Hong Kong, but the military don't seem to do all that much. We saw a better response from the Jordanian Air Force when the Decepticons were laying siege in Jordan and Egypt (as well as suggestions of Jordanian and Egyptian cooperation with U.S. forces). While some of the military plots were distracting, as a concept this was pretty cool - because human technology isn't something to be laughed at, we do have some highly damaging weapons like sabot rounds! The first 3 movies showed that the Cybertronians were physically and technologically superior to humans, but they weren't gods. Human tech could hurt and kill them if applied appropriately.
* Portraying the Transformers as "Giant Effing Robots." Bay was really good at this with TF1 and ROTF with a lot of the low angle shots, showing what TFs would look like from a human POV if they were actually real. The first two movies never let us forget that the Transformers are giant robots; better than any other medium before or since. But he's let that slide in DotM and AoE due to the longer and wider angle distance shots, most likely due to the studio's decision to film with 3D cameras (thus using more "epic" distance shots to make scenes look better in 3D). The plus side is that the fights are less 'blurry' and messy looking than those in the first two films, although I personally liked it for the realism. But the action in DotM and AoE is a clearer and easier to see/follow than in TF1 and ROTF. The new director will probably maintain this because I think it's a studio decision rather than the director's choice; but either way, it was something that I considered to be one of Bay's strengths that has dwindled in the past two films anyway.

[Sky Shadow]

Well, it looks like Hasbro just started caring. Michael Bay is out now, because he "got hit with several DCMAs from Hasbro at around 3am this morning. Apparently the director had been 'Overenthusiastically promoting an inferior knock off of Hasbro intellectual properties that were protected properties.' Things are not looking good right now. That's all I can say at this time." Big news

Ha. You took the words right out of my keyboard!