Ever since 1986, there has always been chatter of another Transformers movie coming. As far fetched as it seemed, there was this spark of excitement of what it would look like, how it would be different, what would the story be, would it be CGI? Live action? Regardless of what it was, it would be awesome, because it was Transformers!

Little did we know that now we would have SIX Transformers movies! The only problem is...they're um, not really about Transformers.

Like many others, I was tentatively thrilled about the first Michael Bay film, The Rock and Bay Boys being some of my favorite movie at the time, but also the robot designs and choices not being appealing to me. Ultimately, it was good. While I didn't agree with every choice made, I at least understood why those decisions were made.

Unlike most, Revenge of the Fallen is actually my favorite.

From there, they just started to steadily decline and so did my interest. I still went and saw them, more out of obligation of being a Transformers fan than actually thinking I was going to see a movie I would enjoy. I used to watch Alex Yu's Ragin Nation Youtube channel to try and conjure up some excitement for each one - and to be fair - he did a pretty good job hyping them up and his excitement was contagious. He looked so depressed and defeated during his out of the theatre reaction that I truly felt bad for him. I actually had to leave the theatre to take a call in the middle of the movie - I don't think I've ever bothered to re-watch it to see if I missed anything.

I did get a bit more excited for Bumblebee. I had an idea early on that since it was set in the 80s that it would be so cool to feature characters with alt modes strongly tied to the 80s like Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bluestreak, Soundwave and the tapes, the Stunticons, etc. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, but overall I kind of enjoyed it. At least, initially. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it still wasn't what I wanted. It was just slightly better than the absolute trash that had come before it.

I've known Rise of the Beast has been coming for a while, but I've barely been following it. Beast Wars is something special to me. A complete reimagination of the brand that was AWESOME. Actually, it did exactly what the movies *should* have done. The little tid bits I've heard have actually all pushed me even further away from being excited. Wheeljack is a VW bus? The Predacons are trucks? Mirage is a Porsche voiced by Pete Davidson? Blah. Same old tropes I haven't liked since day one still front and center.

The trailer came out the other day, along with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and the new Indiana Jones. Rise of the Beasts was dead last in level of excitement. I even watched it again to give it a fair shot and I think I was even more disappointed.

Will I still go to the theatres to see it? Sigh...probably. I've been a Transformers fan for 38 years through the good and the bad, have to continue to do my part. Will it make hundreds of millions of dollars? Maybe. I don't exactly understand how, but these movies do - keeping Transformers relevant and thus producing toys that I adore that should *never* have happened. So is it worth it? Yeah...probably....I just wish I didn't have to be embarrassed by crude toilet humor and immature sex jokes every 2-3 years to keep all the other aspects of my favorite thing alive.

I don't care for the shift toward robot modes with comic book superhero physiques. I liked the direction they were going with the Bumblebee movie but now it looks like they've reverted to Last Knight character design.

That scene in the trailer where Primal splashes the people twice but they don't get wet is a great analogy for how this movie fails to excite me.

On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:08:34 PM UTC-5, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
> Ever since 1986, there has always been chatter of another Transformers movie coming. As far fetched as it seemed, there was this spark of excitement of what it would look like, how it would be different, what would the story be, would it be CGI? Live action? Regardless of what it was, it would be awesome, because it was Transformers!
>
> Little did we know that now we would have SIX Transformers movies! The only problem is...they're um, not really about Transformers.

I came for the Shia LeBoeuf character arc. Will he get an internship? How does he attract all these beautiful women? Did Bumblebee finally step on him, and all the Autobots resolve never to speak of him again?

> Unlike most, Revenge of the Fallen is actually my favorite.

It's more of a tone poem than an actual coherent film, which might not be the worst thing ever. The Forest battle certainly ranks as one of the iconic fight scenes of the franchise.

>
> From there, they just started to steadily decline and so did my interest. I still went and saw them, more out of obligation of being a Transformers fan than actually thinking I was going to see a movie I would enjoy.

I feel that way about a lot of the fiction.

>
> I did get a bit more excited for Bumblebee. I had an idea early on that since it was set in the 80s that it would be so cool to feature characters with alt modes strongly tied to the 80s like Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bluestreak, Soundwave and the tapes, the Stunticons, etc. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, but overall I kind of enjoyed it. At least, initially. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it still wasn't what I wanted. It was just slightly better than the absolute trash that had come before it.

Bumblebee the film felt very low stakes and derivative. The characters felt like they were cosplaying the 80s, unlike Stranger Things, which felt more rooted in the era. "A girl and her car" was essentially a replay of "a boy and his car" from the 2007 film, but significantly less interesting. If it had come out first, the entire franchise may have died right then and there, despite the improved designs, the nod to Stan Bush, and that actor/wrestler who I couldn't see in the film.
>
> The trailer came out the other day, along with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and the new Indiana Jones. Rise of the Beasts was dead last in level of excitement. I even watched it again to give it a fair shot and I think I was even more disappointed.

It seems as incoherent as any of the others in the series, only this time, we're older and less inclined to keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. I had no idea what was going on in the Mirage transformation chase scene until I saw an explanation online.

A better take on the trailer with the original voices dubbed in. Polishing a turd, but at least it's a nice coat of polish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Td3Di7hd3U

>
> Will I still go to the theatres to see it? Sigh...probably.

Sigh, robot.

On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 7:37:03 PM UTC-7, Codigo Postal wrote:

> A better take on the trailer with the original voices dubbed in. Polishing a turd, but at least it's a nice coat of polish.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Td3Di7hd3U

That literally gave me chills. Twice.

I wish THAT was the movie we were getting. I'd be so excited about it.

Zob (sigh)

On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 10:08:34 AM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> I've known Rise of the Beast has been coming for a while, but I've barely been following it. Beast Wars is something special to me.

It's not being made for people like you and me. It's made for the children who grew up on Beast Wars, and are now young adults, and have incredibly vague memories that there was an Optimus monkey guy, and maybe a leopard, and some dinosaurs or something, idk? People who remember approximately that Beast Wars existed, but that's about it.

As I've said before, I'll probably watch it when it hits Redbox or Netflix or something. But I'm not paying movie theater ticket prices.

Zob (they should pay *me* to watch it, honestly)

Codigo Postal <codigopostal959@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:08:34 PM UTC-5, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>> Ever since 1986, there has always been chatter of another Transformers
>> movie coming. As far fetched as it seemed, there was this spark of
>> excitement of what it would look like, how it would be different, what
>> would the story be, would it be CGI? Live action? Regardless of what it
>> was, it would be awesome, because it was Transformers!
>>
>> Little did we know that now we would have SIX Transformers movies! The
>> only problem is...they're um, not really about Transformers.
>
> I came for the Shia LeBoeuf character arc. Will he get an internship? How
> does he attract all these beautiful women? Did Bumblebee finally step on
> him, and all the Autobots resolve never to speak of him again?

Ron and Judy will always have my heart. The Bay movies tried too hard to be
shocking, with every character being a fundamentally terrible person, and
then you had the bickering lovebirds.

>> Unlike most, Revenge of the Fallen is actually my favorite.
>
> It's more of a tone poem than an actual coherent film, which might not be
> the worst thing ever. The Forest battle certainly ranks as one of the
> iconic fight scenes of the franchise.
>
>>
>> From there, they just started to steadily decline and so did my
>> interest. I still went and saw them, more out of obligation of being a
>> Transformers fan than actually thinking I was going to see a movie I would enjoy.
>
> I feel that way about a lot of the fiction.
>
>>
>> I did get a bit more excited for Bumblebee. I had an idea early on that
>> since it was set in the 80s that it would be so cool to feature
>> characters with alt modes strongly tied to the 80s like Sunstreaker,
>> Sideswipe, Bluestreak, Soundwave and the tapes, the Stunticons, etc. So
>> that was a bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, but overall I kind of
>> enjoyed it. At least, initially. The more I thought about it, the more I
>> realized that it still wasn't what I wanted. It was just slightly better
>> than the absolute trash that had come before it.
>
> Bumblebee the film felt very low stakes and derivative. The characters
> felt like they were cosplaying the 80s, unlike Stranger Things, which
> felt more rooted in the era. "A girl and her car" was essentially a
> replay of "a boy and his car" from the 2007 film, but significantly less
> interesting. If it had come out first, the entire franchise may have died
> right then and there, despite the improved designs, the nod to Stan Bush,
> and that actor/wrestler who I couldn't see in the film.
>>

I never got “a boy and his car” from the first movie, because there was so
much else going on.

“Bumblebee” was smaller stakes, and spent more time getting to know
characters, and had humor that was mostly good natured rather than
insulting. It was more optimistic than attempting to be edgy. I liked it
more than the others. A solid C.

It felt like everyone was comfortable with making a movie about toys rather
than being embarrassed and trying to add masturbation jokes and pissing
robots and wacky government agents and trying so hard to not be “just” a
toy movie.

>> The trailer came out the other day, along with Guardians of the Galaxy 3
>> and the new Indiana Jones. Rise of the Beasts was dead last in level of
>> excitement. I even watched it again to give it a fair shot and I think I
>> was even more disappointed.

60 seconds of unfinished cgi doesn’t tell me much about the movie’s tone,
intent or anything other than the cgi isn’t finished and the character
models are what they are. Giant mechanical animals, rather than disguise?
Might work. It’s not like a cheetah is a great disguise anyway.

If they keep the optimism of “Bumblebee” and try for a bigger scope… might
be ok.

> It seems as incoherent as any of the others in the series, only this
> time, we're older and less inclined to keep giving them the benefit of
> the doubt. I had no idea what was going on in the Mirage transformation
> chase scene until I saw an explanation online.
>
> A better take on the trailer with the original voices dubbed in.
> Polishing a turd, but at least it's a nice coat of polish.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Td3Di7hd3U
>
>>
>> Will I still go to the theatres to see it? Sigh...probably.
>
> Sigh, robot.
>
>

If it doesn't look good to you, don't go. At least wait for reviews from
reviewers you trust. I found a few small-time YouTubers with similar
tastes as me. All the big-time YouTubers and entertainment "journalists"
are paid off by the studios and cannot be trusted.

Don't support bad product. It only generates more of the same.

On Monday, December 5, 2022 at 5:51:45 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> It's not being made for people like you and me.

"...it’s our time. For us to be in this position where we can tell a story about our culture, our people, and see ourselves portrayed on the big screen..."

"...the new characters, especially with Black and Brown people in leading roles, will play a factor. “We have new elements and characters, with Black and Brown people in the lead roles,” he said."

https://www.bet.com/article/7vzeq8/transformers-steven-caples-anthony-ramos-biggie-smalls-trailer

"Joining the Terrorcons is Nightbird, who holds the distinction of being the first transformer to be voiced by a Transgender Woman in Michaela Jae Rodriguez."

https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2022/12/04/transformers-beast-wars-guide/

> Ron and Judy will always have my heart. The Bay movies tried too hard to be
> shocking, with every character being a fundamentally terrible person, and
> then you had the bickering lovebirds.

In the wasteland of characterization that was the Bayverse, these two were a breath of fresh air. Unlike some of the other big name talent (Malkovich, Hopkins, McDormand) whose talents were muted in service to the inanity of the proceedings, the amazing Kevin Dunn and the incomparable Julie White (Tony Award winner and additional three time nominee) elevated the material with sheer presence alone. They need to be folded back into the franchise.

>
> It felt like everyone was comfortable with making a movie about toys rather
> than being embarrassed and trying to add masturbation jokes and pissing
> robots and wacky government agents and trying so hard to not be “just” a
> toy movie.

This. Bay seemed to include the bots and cons out of contractual obligation when it's clear his true passion lay with hot babes, childish jokes, and never-ending sunsets.

On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:08:34 PM UTC-5, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I did get a bit more excited for Bumblebee. I had an idea early on that since it was set in the 80s that it would be so cool to feature characters with alt modes strongly tied to the 80s like Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bluestreak, Soundwave and the tapes, the Stunticons, etc. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, but overall I kind of enjoyed it. At least, initially. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it still wasn't what I wanted. It was just slightly better than the absolute trash that had come before it.

Bumblebee is/was loved for the first scene. The best that can be said for the rest of the movie is, it didn't ruin that.