How would you make a Transformers movie good?

[Aldo]

Use the theme maybe? I know it's a small thing, and it wouldn't change the quality of the films themselves. But at least it would make whatever was happening onscreen a little cooler.

Is there any real reason Bay won't use the theme? I heard he hates it and thinks it's cheesy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Oh!

The theme song!

I thought you were talking about story themes.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I've always like this vesion of the theme. It's from a group called Mutemath.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MfcXtSvWEo[/yt]

 

[Trekker4747]

They made one mistake.

No empire building.

Almost the whole thing was about being locked in a building with a horde of psychopaths.

Which is why I liked it, it was almost like it was "Dredd Hardd."

 

[Jono]

I'd put more Shia in it. You can never have enough LaBeouf.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Release it in 1986, follow on from the G1 cartoon, and put some rocking tunes in it... oh wait.

Beat me to it.

In all seriousness, that movie remains the finest Transformers to grace the silver screen thus far.

Yeah, becuase they should totally do a movie where most of the hero cast is slaughtered in like the first 5 minutes, to be replaced by a bunch of newbies to sell new toys (seriously the movie's intro credits character list thing is a big "who the f@#k are these people!?" moment) and where the main hero dies and is replaced by the idiot who got him killed becuase Ultra Magnus has fumble fingers.

I have Bay's movies on Blu-ray, as well as the animated. I am not a super-fan of the franchise in any way, I only (infrequently) watch the films. I reviewed them all again last week in advance of the latest cinematic release.

Of the four films, I enjoyed the animated the most by some margin. Certainly, it's constructed far better as an actual movie - free of the unnecessary bloat that plague Bay's entries.

Sorry.

 

[DigificWriter]

As someone who grew up with the Transformers, my biggest problem with the TF film franchise is that the writers ruined what had been a promising beginning in Transformers 1 by trying to force Revenge of the Fallen to be 'bigger' rather than letting things organically get 'bigger and badder'.

For that reason, anything I did to the TF movie franchise would be focused on improving RotF, which had a pretty good story that ended up being ruined by the writers 'trying too hard'.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I think that my biggest problem is that Megatron and the Decepticons seem to be given little motivation; and as a result, they just meander around and go through the motions of hating Autobots.

Decepticons are supposed to be a massive threat by themselves; they are the world conquerors who strip planets of natural resources (a great metaphor for corporate business that all the "go green" people could latch onto).

With the movies, we get Decepticons who are either lost, defeated and presumed dead or Decepticons who are completely subservient to any other bot that lands on the planet with an agenda. Transformers should be about the underdog Autobots versus the crushing might of Megatron; these other robots from space that keep showing up are unnecessary.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

The "Cybertron" video games (Which take place in the same continuity as "Prime" but IMO owe more to "G1") did well with their prequel setting, and the IDW comics are also mostly human free, although I'm not sure how that will work with audiences.

 

[Saul]

The "Cybertron" video games (Which take place in the same continuity as "Prime" but IMO owe more to "G1") did well with their prequel setting, and the IDW comics are also mostly human free, although I'm not sure how that will work with audiences.

I haven't watched the 4th movie yet so I can't speak for that but each movie seemed to feature the Transformers more and more. The problem is that Bay doesn't really make them into characters. The decepticons at best are a bunch of groaning one word transformers. If there was more character development then I think they could hold a movie. Seriously, who goes to watch these films for Shia Labeouf and Mark Wahlberg anyway?

 

[Agent Richard07]

I want to see an entertaining movie in whatever form that takes and right now I can't imagine a live action film with just robots. That seems like something that would work better in a kids cartoon. Are the transformers poorly developed and would an all-robot movie work if they were more complex? I don't know.

 

[Silvercrest]

Is there any real reason Bay won't use the theme? I heard he hates it and thinks it's cheesy.

The irony here is just ... ironic.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Believe it or not, I'd like to see a well-cast child actor in the lead (human) role. Pre-adolescent. The kind the toys are ACTUALLY marketed to. Show the wonders of transforming cars, and the horrors or war, through a 12 year-old's eyes. Bounce the Autobot's aphorisms off of his innocence, instead of an older male's libido or cynicism. In short, do "The Iron Giant" with Transformers.

The 1986 Transformers movie is still gold. And who's the lead human? Daniel freakin' Witwicky. And while there have been many jokes about grinding him into jelly underfoot over the years, he is FAR from the kind of detraction in film as Sam, his hormones, and his family were. Plus, he had a mission to save his absentee dad and a dynamite 1980s transforming powersuit to do it with.

Mark

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ I've never been too keen on the romantic ideal of childhood innocence. I'll take "adult" themes and humor any day, which is what you'd see in the behavior of real kids anyway. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing The Iron Giant. A lot of people rave about it.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Arguably, they did kids and bots "right" with Transformers Prime. Heck, the lead human was a high schooler and he was yonks more relatable in any given episode than Sam ever was. He was backed up by even younger teens who were decidedly less popular, but still more interesting to watch. Even in a two-hour movie I'd rather watch kids interacting with robots and developing a relationship with them, than chasing tail and screaming nonstop.

And yes, you should watch "The Iron Giant". EVERYONE should watch "The Iron Giant". The robot in that movie has barely more dialogue than Bumblebee in the first film (and is voiced by Vin Diesel, no less) and ranks near the top of best portrayal of anything non-human ever, IMO.

Mark