Michael Bay Says Transformers 4 Will be His Last

[starburst]

Hmmm de ja vu much... Anyway I liked the other 3 movies and I will give another by hiim a watch.

While I agree they could focus on the Transformers more I wouldnt take the human element away, that said I would focus on a story which involves the Transformers and NEST working together and not on a character like Sam.

 

[Kegg]

Ah, but human/humanoid superheroes are made interesting not merely because they're played by actual actors and look human (though that obviously helps a great deal), but because of their backgrounds and histories, and how those relate to ours.

Take Thor. He's a god from another world, who, I've been told, has to fight Loki, another god from his world, while on Earth. I don't see what in concept is different here - Thor may look human, but he is not human, and he does not have a human reference point prior to becoming a protagonist.

If you really think that a CG'd Optimus Prime can be anywhere near as interesting as McAvoy was in FC,

I didn't see X-Men: First Class. But what I was asserting was nothing more or nothing less that giant CGI robots can serve perfectly well as summer blockbuster protagonists, and Transformers - although the original cartoon was not exactly good - is something that could have been made into a genuinely solid and entertaining blockbuster.

 

[stonester1]

Good. I guess. Should have stopped with two. One was surprisingly good. Two I like better than most. After that, it was just his usual quick cut bag of tricks with no real sense of story or character.

Tag out.

 

[Gaith]

Take Thor. He's a god from another world, who, I've been told, has to fight Loki, another god from his world, while on Earth. I don't see what in concept is different here

Really?

So, it'd be reasonably plausible, within the movie's fantasy logic, for 30-foot tall Optimus Prime to have drinks in a bar and pass for human, or have sex with Natalie Portman?

Seems like a pretty big conceptual difference to moi.

 

[DWF]

I enjoyed teh Transformers movies, I knew they weren't meant to be anything more than simple popcorn movies so I never expected or treated them any differently.

 

[Dream]

While I agree they could focus on the Transformers more I wouldnt take the human element away, that said I would focus on a story which involves the Transformers and NEST working together and not on a character like Sam.

Humans are needed in the movie since it would cost too much to focuse entirely on the Transformers, but I wish Bay would do a better job on the scripts.

His Transformers movies are also too racist and sexist considering they are supposed to be made for kids.

 

[Kegg]

So, it'd be reasonably plausible, within the movie's fantasy logic, for 30-foot tall Optimus Prime to have drinks in a bar and pass for human,

Passing for human isn't the same as being human, so no, not a big difference in concept. If we can expect an audience to relate with a nonhuman protagonist (and another, more notably nonhuman example would come from the best summer film of last year, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) then Optimus will do fine.

 

[hyzmarca]

One could, theoretically, invent similarly elaborate Cybertron-based backstories for big-ass robots, but they'd never have the same emotional impact most of us get from seeing a teenage Magneto losing his mother in the Holocaust, because that was a real thing that we can all relate to, without having to filter it through a bunch of fighting-robot backstory.

I don't know, the number of people who were actually alive during the Holocaust is rather low at the moment and only continues to drop. For most people it's a purely hypothetical act of ultimate evil that might as well have happened to giant robots on a television show.

Optimus Prime has a number of different back-stories, all mutually exclusive, from the different incarnations of the franchise. Some suck, but most work out quite well.

If we go with the original cartoon, he was essentially a blue collar kid with a girlfriend and a job at a warehouse who idolised the deceptions (and Megatron in particular) up until the point where he was shot in the chest by his hero and dragged into a war that he had no desire to fight.

It's essentially an equivalent to Captain America of Captain America a Nazi sympathizer who reevaluated his political position after being wounded in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

[Dream]

If we go with the original cartoon, he was essentially a blue collar kid with a girlfriend and a job at a warehouse who idolised the deceptions (and Megatron in particular) up until the point where he was shot in the chest by his hero and dragged into a war that he had no desire to fight.

Wow, I have a hard time seeing Optimus as a blue collar kid. How did he become such a badass that he could take on Megatron in a one on one fight?

 

[hyzmarca]

If we go with the original cartoon, he was essentially a blue collar kid with a girlfriend and a job at a warehouse who idolised the deceptions (and Megatron in particular) up until the point where he was shot in the chest by his hero and dragged into a war that he had no desire to fight.

Wow, I have a hard time seeing Optimus as a blue collar kid. How did he become such a badass that he could take on Megatron in a one on one fight?

After Megatron shot Orion Pax, Alpha Trion had to build a new body for him from the ground up and A3 designed it for warfare. The rest is just a matter of experience. Optimus had been leading the Autobots for millions of years by the time of the series and had spend millions more serving under Alpha Trion.

 

[Dream]

After Megatron shot Orion Pax, Alpha Trion had to build a new body for him from the ground up and A3 designed it for warfare. The rest is just a matter of experience. Optimus had been leading the Autobots for millions of years by the time of the series and had spend millions more serving under Alpha Trion.

Thanks.

I don't know that much about Transformers lore. I'm a huge Beast Wars fanboy though.

I wish Bay had put more Optimus Prime background into his Transformers movies.

 

[captcalhoun]

that was the shitty cartoon. the comics are much better.

in the comics, Prime was a scientist who ended up having to join the army after the Decepticons started trouble and wound up being a damn good soldier and leader and eventually became the Autobot Commander and an all-round badass.

Cartoon inferior, comics superior.

 

[Gaith]

So, it'd be reasonably plausible, within the movie's fantasy logic, for 30-foot tall Optimus Prime to have drinks in a bar and pass for human,

Passing for human isn't the same as being human, so no, not a big difference in concept.

So, you really are saying that there wouldn't be a "big difference in concept" between Thor and Optimus Prime shagging Jane Foster?

A character's size, weight, and appearance is integral to its concept. Yoda would be a totally different character if he were nine feet tall.

If we can expect an audience to relate with a nonhuman protagonist (and another, more notably nonhuman example would come from the best summer film of last year, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) then Optimus will do fine.

Another mammalian, humanoid example, closely based on a human actor's filmed performance. Another very weak analogy to thirty-foot robots with comparatively frozen faces.

 

[hyzmarca]

So, it'd be reasonably plausible, within the movie's fantasy logic, for 30-foot tall Optimus Prime to have drinks in a bar and pass for human,

Passing for human isn't the same as being human, so no, not a big difference in concept.

So, you really are saying that there wouldn't be a "big difference in concept" between Thor and Optimus Prime shagging Jane Foster?

Well,

 

[captcalhoun]

OH PRIMUS, NO! NOT KISS PLAYERS!!!!!!!!!

MY OPTICS!!!!

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!

 

[Dream]

Ah, Kiss Players.

What will those PEVERTED Japanese think of next?

 

[Trekker4747]

Ah, Kiss Players.

What will those PEVERTED Japanese think of next?

Optimus Prime giving a young Anime girl tentacle sex?

 

[Dream]

That poor anime girl is going to get CRUSHED to death if Optimus even tries anything.

 

[Trekker4747]

The bukakee shot is going to involve motor oil.

 

[Kegg]

So, you really are saying that there wouldn't be a "big difference in concept" between Thor and Optimus Prime shagging Jane Foster?

Actually?

I was saying Thor having sex with Natalie Portman is not part of the Thor concept. It's an example of a story which has Thor in it.

Just as Optimus Prime may, for example, be killed by Megatron, but this does not mean it is a part of the Optimus Prime concept that you're gonna see in every movie with Optimus Prime in it.

Another very weak analogy to thirty-foot robots with comparatively frozen faces.

Not really. If you can accept Gollum, Wall-E, Thor, Caesar then Optimus Prime logically follows. What one covers as far as sympathy goes, the others follow. I did not use just once example.