Next Transformers Film Won't Be A Reboot

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

get rid of Ehren Kruger who does some of the most offensive writing I've ever seen. Seriously, just get rid of these movies, they're only bad they've gone right into boring with the third one.

 

[striderkiwi]

They can go ahead and make as many transformers movies as they want, I'm done watching them either way >

 

[monnes]

I never understood the whole "not enough robots" complaint. The movie happens on Earth, and is about a young man that happens to discover a robot alien, and his adventures that follow. It isn't about a bunch of giant robots fighting each other. That's the sub plot

Well that's the problem. I would have to say that a Transformers film based on Transformer toys shouldn't make the Transformers the subplot.

Sure, it's the problem if you wanted the original cartoon to be remade into a set of boring two-and-a-half-hour long movies where there's only a vague plot, and absolutely zero depth.

There's a reason the films are so popular, and it isn't because everyone that goes to see them is mentally handicapped. It's because they work. If people really didn't like the fact that the robots aren't constantly on screen, a second and third movie would have never been made.

Are you implying the films have depth?

I didn't even like the original cartoon, and wasn't at all wishing for a live action remake. I also didn't want a Transformers film about bland shallow people. If you're going to make a transformers film with shallow and unrelateable characters, at least have them be the actual transformers.

 

[Omechron]

It's good to show contempt for your audience.

That is not us. Their audience is the general movie going populace, not the geek demographic. They took something from us because it lends itself to over the top special effects and crazy explosions, but this movie is not for us and it never was from the first pitch.

The star of a transformers movie should always be a transformer, preferably with a name ending in "--mus Prime". When they made the movie about sexy teens instead, they gave up all pretense.

Stop trying to appeal as both a comedy movie and an action one. Because then your movie is good at neither. Just ask the people behind The Phantom Menace.

Okay,

Action comedies can work. Go watch literally anything with Jackie Chan in it. Preferably the older ones where he doesn't speak much English. The problem is not that this movie tries to do both, the problem is that it isn't good at either one because it was thrown together as a flimsy vehicle for special effects with absolutely no respect for the audience or the source material.

 

[funguy2121]

My honest reaction and in no way trolling:

Who really cares? It's a nostalgia trip. There is no real substance to the Transformers. It's a childhood fascination coupled with some id-wanking. Everything else from the trilogy is window dressing from Bay trying to maintain the pretense of worthwhile filmmaking (read: storytelling). No assessment of the steep literary shortcomings of the films need to be mentioned here, as they have already been articulated far better than I already have. A truly transcendent Transformers film would have to be something almost wholly new, with the franchise as nothing more than the canvas, similar to what Tarantino does with virtually every one of his movies. Transformers is not like the Metroid games, wherein the weaknesses of the storytelling were compensated by immersion not quite like anything one can experience elsewhere, or the original Star Wars trilogy, wherein the actual telling of the tale is so engrossing that the audience fully buys even the camp aspects. In the end it really is just a cartoon made to sell toys, and even the totally awesome! anime movie from the 80's was really only totally awesome! in surface-level ways: mindless entertainment, but sophisticated mindless entertainment with proper attention paid to the approach to sci-fi tropes and the cartoon equivalent of action set pieces.

In other words, it's over now, what's been fucked up has been fucked up, and it's not really worth trying to do over in the way that, say, Batman was worth doing over (and doing over twice) because Transformers is only a part of our childhood mythology and hasn't really done anything at all for modern storytelling except make it okay to write stories about giant robots, which admittedly is cool on a level that words cannot possibly convey.

I told myself I could get through one verbose post without using italics. I am such a fuckin' dweeb.

 

[Canadish]

I never understood the whole "not enough robots" complaint. The movie happens on Earth, and is about a young man that happens to discover a robot alien, and his adventures that follow. It isn't about a bunch of giant robots fighting each other. That's the sub plot, and I think that it was worked into the movie well.

Having just seen Transformers 3 about an hour ago, I can safely say that I don't know where they'd go with it. The ending seemed pretty final, and I'm not sure what they could to top this one. It was freaking amazing.

That's the problem people had with it.
The movie is called Transformers. They wanted a movie about the Transformers, and not some bratty kid who wants to get laid.
War for Cybertron and all that. That should have been written as the main plot and Sam as the side character.

That would justify the "leave your brain at the door" argument for me. Sadly I have to sit through 2 hours of fluff and awful masturbation jokes. Not worth it.

What would be the point in a studio spending millions of dollars to make an exact copy of a sub-par cartoon from the 80's?

If you want the old Transformers, go watch the old Transformers. It still exists. The new movies didn't destroy the old cartoon.(Edit)[I should probably note that that wasn't directed at you, but the people that think that the movie should be what the Transformers have always been; Boring.]

The thing is, I don't think people go to see the plot or the humor or romance.

They go to see the giant robots.
From original 80's cartoon nerds, to working class redneck American girls and all the way to guys living in small Malaysian towns on the border of the jungle. Giant Robots kinda have a worldwide appeal.

As you guessed, I'm no fan of the original cartoons, but I'd rather see Optimus Prime characterized as opposed to the humans. That would give his battles at the end more weight. The aliens are more interesting to learn about here, because they bring a different perspective to the table, and don't pander to one culture (America, fuck yeah and all that...)

Now, this debate we're having here is all pretty moot at the moment.
Even if the films HAD been about the robots, they would have sucked, because Michel Bay, and the writers for Transformers are all awful at characterization and pacing.
But at least we could have just kept looking at pretty robots.

If a competent film maker and team were behind the wheel, I'd be fine with a focus on the humans, because they would know how to make them interesting and less offensive to my intelligence. So who knows, these new movies may rock.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

I'm honestly not surprised at all by this news. The movies have been coming quickly enough that a reboot would be just plain confusing to general moviegoers.

 

[Dorian6]

Well, with the two biggest problems gone, then it sounds like there shouldn't be a problem.

Here's my question. If you know that many people hate the movies because the titular characters become secondary to the annoying humans who literally no one cares about, then why do you keep doing the same thing over and over?

There is no reason why a movie called "Transformers" shouldn't focus on the goddamn robots!

 

[gundamrx101]

Well now I know I won't be seeing the next one. I had faith for three movies that the franchise will be more about the bots and less about the humans. Unless they reboot and have the first movie on cybertron ala War for Cybertron and Transformers Exodus, then I won;t even acknowledge it.

 

[duchaked]

how about I hate it because the movies SUCKED?

I mean I loved the first, but the second was so MEH I'm still hesitant about spending anymore money to see the 3rd despite people telling me it's better than the second. wait, that's not hard. okay, they say it's almost as good as the first if not better (despite its flaws, I enjoyed the first). problem is I just have trouble caring about any characters or action related to it because I'm no longer invested in the story...

but whatever, I'm not a die-hard Transformers fan (never watched the show as a kid...) but I'm tempted to be snarky and say there ought to be a reboot

 

[-Samurai-]

I never understood the whole "not enough robots" complaint. The movie happens on Earth, and is about a young man that happens to discover a robot alien, and his adventures that follow. It isn't about a bunch of giant robots fighting each other. That's the sub plot

Well that's the problem. I would have to say that a Transformers film based on Transformer toys shouldn't make the Transformers the subplot.

Sure, it's the problem if you wanted the original cartoon to be remade into a set of boring two-and-a-half-hour long movies where there's only a vague plot, and absolutely zero depth.

There's a reason the films are so popular, and it isn't because everyone that goes to see them is mentally handicapped. It's because they work. If people really didn't like the fact that the robots aren't constantly on screen, a second and third movie would have never been made.

Are you implying the films have depth?

I didn't even like the original cartoon, and wasn't at all wishing for a live action remake. I also didn't want a Transformers film about bland shallow people. If you're going to make a transformers film with shallow and unrelateable characters, at least have them be the actual transformers.

In the first movie, Sam is trying to start a relationship with with someone he's had his eye on for quite some time.
In the second movie, he's struggling to keep that relationship, and himself, alive, and trying to adjust to life away from home and being on his own.
In the third movie,

Spoiler: Spoilered for those of you that havent seen the movie, but it's nothing majorly spoileriffic

he's trying to move on and find his place on Earth, while struggling to maintain his new relationship, and trying to make something of himself. He's also dealing with the potential loss of friends, through death or exile, and trying to deal with growing apart from his best friend.

If you can't relate to any of that, I pity you.
And with all that, and the robot sub-plot, which contains inner and outer struggles with each character, comes depth.

 

[viranimus]

Yeah This does in fact make me optimistic the abscence of Bay and Ladouche.

However, I dont think its really possible to make #4 and not have it be a reboot considering

Spoiler

Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, and Megatron, all basically die

So who would be left? The next film would have to take a way off course approach.

Actually what I think more than anything needs to happen is the film needs to be delayed for a couple of years While a new canon can be built that clarifies all the various conflictions of the series, and rebuilds the franchise with some sort of solid foundation. Then a new film based on that refined and logical canon would be most welcome.

 

[Omechron]

I'd prefer a Transformers movie to focus on Bumblebee personally and let Optimus be a wise and charismatic leader.

That would be a valid compromise.

That said, the reason I said that is because they don't know how to mesh them together.

That's not the problem. There are movies with that problem, but this is not one of them. The problem isn't that the comedy makes the action seem less important, or that the action makes the comedy seem stupid. The problem is that neither component was good in the first place. The humor is low brow and unfunny and obvious, and the action is a poorly filmed shaky cam nightmare that I can't even really tell what's going on in.

That's like saying a cheeseburger isn't good because cheese and meat blended poorly. No, the cheeseburger wasn't good because the meat was full of cereal and the cheese was expired.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Wha? What?

Where do they even go from there? They could do a prequel, but that would contradict the whole "It won't be all bots" thing. The ending seemed pretty final, does anyone else feel the same way?

Nope. They could go into the Unicron saga. This could also lead the resurrection of Megatron as Galvatron. The Matrix of Leadership which Optimus now has in the movies was a key part of a Unicron saga. It could be reimagined for the movies.

Also they could introduce dark energon to the movies. Dark energon has the power to corrupt and mutate Transformers, and in a couple of plots Megatron used it to create armies or corrupt Cybertron itself. It is some pretty powerful stuff in the TF universe, and Megatron was one of the only surviving Transformers able to control it. Perhaps they could use that to bring Megatron back somehow for more.

There lies a problem in this and it's that producers are mostly stupid in seeing actual plot elements like Cybertron which was involved in the 3rd movie for only a few seconds of frame and then it was just destroyed like that which kinda irked me slightly and the whole unicron idea would be great and i did love Unicron in the 80's movie and the saga.

I think the producers need to sit down actually look at the past source material they are planning for a live action movie and then improvise slightly instead of bay just looking at a toy and then his best whiny friend and putting two and two together without much thought like he did.

Also this was one of the best scenes in the animated movie and i would hope they could redo the same for live action sometime in the future.

 

[-Samurai-]

The thing is, I don't think people go to see the plot or the humor or romance.

They go to see the giant robots.
From original 80's cartoon nerds, to working class redneck American girls and all the way to guys living in small Malaysian towns on the border of the jungle. Giant Robots kinda have a worldwide appeal.

As you guessed, I'm no fan of the original cartoons, but I'd rather see Optimus Prime characterized as opposed to the humans. That would give his battles at the end more weight. The aliens are more interesting to learn about here, because they bring a different perspective to the table, and don't pander to one culture (America, fuck yeah and all that...)

Now, this debate we're having here is all pretty moot at the moment.
Even if the films HAD been about the robots, they would have sucked, because Michel Bay, and the writers for Transformers are all awful at characterization and pacing.
But at least we could have just kept looking at pretty robots.

If a competent film maker and team were behind the wheel, I'd be fine with a focus on the humans, because they would know how to make them interesting and less offensive to my intelligence. So who knows, these new movies may rock.

By the third movie, people know exactly what they're getting in to. You could figure out after the first movie that it isn't 100% robots. Expecting the human plot to be dropped in favor of giant robot battles is moronic. That's not how sequels work(good ones, any way). When you go see a Transformers movie, you know you're getting a human romance/fight for survival plot, as well as the robots. And if you don't agree with that, don't go see it.

And we both know that if there was no human plot, people would be complaining that Transformers is three movies of two teams of robots fighting the same battles over and over. How many times can people watch the same robot turn into the same vehicle, and vice versa?

Transformers gets slammed because it's popular. Michael Bay gets slammed because he made something popular, and is successful. The general public isn't stupid. If the movies were half as bad as the band wagon haters say, there never would have been a second one made.

 

[Omechron]

Wait, Shia Labeouf made Indiana Jones seem uncool? is this what people think?

Making a new Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford looking older than most of the artifact made Indiana Jones seem uncool. That wasn't really Shwarza The Beef's fault but you know... he was there.