I am worried too.

But I think that Mr.Bay [judging by the 2007 movie] knows how to deal with many characters.

Well, not that much in my opinion:

Bonecrusher: we know he was brutal, merciless and was really fucking pissed when he fought Optimus [just TRY to count the ammount of "RWAARRRGH" he screamed at Optimus in that fight].

Blackout: cold, scheming, efficient and loyal Decepticon.

Frenzy: was...well...FRENZY.

Barricade: Ruthless, efficient and violent thug, a bit of a psycho too.

All 'Cons managed have some [even if small] personality in the first movie, I say the one with less personality was Brawl, who pretty much did nothing until the end of the movie.

All 'Bots as well [Jazz the naive "badass wannabe" dude, Ratchet the experienced doctor, Ironhide the loyal and violent neckbreaker, Optimus the OPTIMUS, 'Bee the arrogant Kung fu Guy].

Of course, the second movie sent all to hell and only Megs, Starscream and The Fallen had personality [same to 'Bots].

But this movie worries me, honestly, let's take a look:

Autobots, confirmed:
- Optimus.
- Ratchet.
- Bumblebee.
- Sideswipe.
- Ironhide.
- Sentinel Prime.
- Leadfoot.
- the blue wrecker whose name I forgot.
- Roadmotherfuckin'Buster.

Decepticons, confirmed:
- Soundwave.
- Megatron.
- Starscream.
- Shockwave.
- Crackcase.
- Crowbar.
- The-other-dread-whose-name-I-forgot.

The 'Cons don't worry me, they are easier to characterise [just show them blowing up something, HOW they blow up will show their personalities].

But there are FAR TOO MANY 'Bots, and I'm severly worried.

 

The more characters there are the better. But I agree the should all have a good amount of screen time. Mostly the new bots should get the attention though.

 

I just cant wait to see the Dreads (Crankcase, Crowbar and Hatchet) take on the Wreckers!!!! Epiccccccc. Dreads definitely do some damage in the movie i think. And honestly we will see a auto bot die(important one). Think it might be Ironhide.

 

But what I dont get is, the plot seems weird that the decepticons seem mysteriously in the moon all these years, if that is what does happen. How come this new info about a transformer crash landed on the moon, was not shown in films 1 and 2. You would think they would have helped the fallen and megatron in ROTF.

 

thats what optimus meant in the trailer "everything the humans knew of our planet was shared. YOU LIED TO US" meaning we kept info from them, we knew they existed and pretended we didnt know when optimus came.

 

Not the Decepticons, even though the bit about the Seekers, but the fact they kept secret about the Ark.

Now I can see from their point of view. Autobots wont share their tech. Fine we have another source and we won't tell them.

It all backfires, likely thanks to Soundwave, that the Decepticons find out about the Ark.



I suspect the Ark's long range equipment allows the Decepticons to Spacebridge from Cybertron homing on the Moon and our planet.

Much like Soundwave tapping into Texas radio telescope array in TF: Prime.

 

Other than Optimus, none of the other bots have gotten any worth-while charactorization so far, so it doesn't bother me that there's a large robot cast. If anything, I'm glad there's going to be a lot of bots in this movie, as that means there will be tons of action sequences. I've got TFP to watch for character development, story, and the occasional bit of raw action, so the movies being nothing but Baysposions doesn't bother me....anymore.

 

When in doubt, lower your standards! It's the nerdculture way!  

 

Yeah, it didn't play out too well when they considered highly detailed robots with moving parts, the charactarization that is.

Now with Bay redeeming himself and what not, a big budget for filming and a longer time to work out a script, you would think an improvement is on it's way.

On the autobots side there are about 11 characters; prime, bb, ratched, Q, Brains, wheelie, Twins?, Wheeljack, Mirage, ironhide, sideswipe and maybe some autobot protoforms and possibly omega supreme. EDIT: oops... and the WRECKERS.

Cons; Megatron, SW, Shockwave, Starscream, a dog looking minion, hopefully Frenzy and Ravage, Lazerbeak, the 2 dreads, and more of therm, background characters like Brawl and Longhaul, (hopefully I get to see Scrapper) and I hope more show up soon.

 

The Wreckers seem like the type who would not talk as much, though. As long as they get enough ACTION time, dialogue from them doesn't really matter

 

Actually, on the whole, I think the first film did a fairly good job of getting across who each and every character was, particularly for the Autobots. As someone pointed out earlier, you knew that Jazz was the cool one, Ironhide was the war veteran, Ratchet was the medic, Bumblebee was the young one and Prime was the leader. It came across very well. The second film managed to lose all the robots (apart from a select few) in favour of explosions, although I do feel the Decepticons actually shined more in ROTF.

I think the second film gave us more robot screen time, but the first film definitely gave the robots more character. I’m hoping that DOTM can give us a healthy balance between the two. I think that will make a lot of people happy.

 

Only the most major Cons ever get any characterization. I have a feeling the only ones with actual voice actors in this one will be Megs, Screamer, Soundwave, and Shockwave. Which I'm fine with. The Decepticons that needed dialogue in ROTF got it.

For the Bots, ROTF blundered in that only Prime, Bee, and Jetfire did anything of use, and the Twins were overused while not doing much worthwhile. The rest of the Bots honestly felt like they just had cameos.

It seems like DOTM is taking steps to amend this. Ironhide, with two new toys and an appearance in multiple trailers, seems to get back some of his TF1 glory. Even in that hangar scene, the Autobots are all in robot mode surrounding Prime, and not parked lifelessly in vehicle mode off to the side. Things like that go a long way. I'm sure Sentinel Prime will be a MAJOR player, and we've seen Mirage and Sideswipe accompanying Bumblebee in several set pieces, meaning they must do something at least. Ratchet also seems poised to do a bit more, and as Bay is a fan of comedic potential in robots, I think "Wheeljack" will at least get a little spotlight. We'll see what happens, but I'm optimistic about the situation thus far.

 

You don't need a lot of screen time to convey character. Heck, a little subtle body movement can go a long way (and, no, the designs are NOT so overly detailed you can't see subtle body movements).
Take a look at the Constructicons dive. Mixmaster wants to get on with business and simply jumps in, Rampage is all fancy and does a backflip, and Long Haul actually hesitates for a moment before joining his comrades. Sure, nothing deep or profound there, but we get a sense of distinct characters. And as a bonus, the same hints of characterization are played out again during the desert fight: Mixmaster dives straight into the fray, Rampage is being all showing and acrobatic again, and Long Haul looks like he'd rather be someplace else.

 

This sounds like imposing patterns onto chaos to me.

 

I must agree. The characters have to move somehow, and humans are geared to interpret meaning, even if there is none. Here's a favourite example of mine:

YouTube - The Dancing Venom

The arms are pretty much unhinged and not directed at all, save by the engine's physics, yet we apply meaning to the movement.

Rampage sort of had to appear springy and agile, that's the only way he could move, with his design.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, Aliens and Predator are textbook examples of how to give characterization to a group of characters quickly during an action movie.

I don't think Bay is capable of that.

- Coeloptera

 

Coeloptera.

What the hell was that LMAO

 

Bout sums it up.

 

I've been expecting there to be too many characters in DOTM since I saw ROTF on its opening night.

 

Well lets see

We have

Prime
ironhide
ratchet
wheeljack
twins ( dead or not)
brains
wheelie
bumblebee
sideswipe
mirage
top spin
roadbuster
leadfoot

megatron
shockwave
drill bot
drones
soundwave
lazerbeak
starscream

They you go we official have tons

 

This post is amazing. Yes it's true. The human brain is an engine that is designed to detect agency and patterns where there is none. We are geared to sift through the chaos and try to make sense of it, even when there is no sense. It's a survival mechanism that helped our ancient ancestors live to see another day.

With that in mind, you have to see it takes a deeper look into characters to see what their characters are all based on. As in the example...Rampage seemed agile because there was no other way for him to move. We don't know what he REALLY is like other than he's a robot pogo stick. Rampage being agile tells me nothing about his personality or character because he has no choice other than to be agile.

When we look at the characters in Aliens and Predator, we see that our silent characters really were well done without having any real speech. Xenomorphs were shown to be patient and efficient, and they watched and watched and watched, and waited when you were most vulnerable. Predators were sown to be effective single hunters. They were skilled in using their technology to the fullest, and they understood their prey in a way a hunter would try to think like how a fox would act and then act accordingly. THIS is good characterization. It tells us all we need to know about the Predator character and the Alien character.