This is not about the designs, this is not about the past movies being good or bad, this is not even about Bay being good for the TF brand or not- I'll leave that up to the rest of the fandom to decide. But Micheal Bay is leaving the movie series now, and the story he has been telling has to go with him. The movie series has written itself into as corner, and cannot go on as it is written already. Chicago is destroyed, humans have hunted and murdered autobots over the course of two films, most of the iconic and recognizable TF cast is dead, and the stakes have pushed about as high as they can go. This story line has to go, to be cleared away for new stories, told by new people.

"B-but what about quintessa and unicron?" What about them? This movie is nowhere near the success past transformer films have been. And the TF prime idea that unicron is really earth? To see him in his full glory would destroy our world, and that's not happening in a series like this. And do you really see a movie in this series, continuing from TLK, actually being able to win audiences back? And why should future directors and creators be saddled with the limitations of the universe bay has built? A director wants to use Starscream- nope, can't- he's dead. Soundwave? dead. Ironhide? Wheeljack? Ratchet? dead dead dead, all dead. Humanity and autobots will never totally trust each other again- too many atrocities and betrayals on both sides. And why should new creative talent, with new ideas, be saddled with the questionable decisions of a previous creator?

Look, the previous five movies were fine for what they were- bombastic war films with explosions and lots of military. but we need to allow the creative people coming in room for their creativity. No matter what you change, or how you hype it up, the moviegoing audience will not come back for this world, it's over. You don't need a reboot, or change the designs, or totally trash bay's version- but you do need a refresh. Does anyone else really want to see this go on? The stakes getting higher and higher, a more and more obscure cast of bots with bumblebee and prime tossed in over and over again? With a new director, a lot of the Bay-isims will be gone. Should the messy, contradictory continuity Bay built really stick around for the new era? I say it's time to start the post-bay era with a fresh canvas- even if we are using the same old paint, tools, and easel.

 

I'm gonna stop you right there. You can't make that kind of statement in a thread like this one as it's subjective. Even more so, any character can be iconic and recognisable and there are so many to chose from that can be added to the films.

 

While true, the films haven't really DONE that because the only three Transformers who have had major roles in every film since the first are Megatron, Bumblebee, and Prime.

Every single other character was either killed off and replaced, or so inconsistent and minor (I.E. Barricade) that only their visual appeal really matters.

 

isnt that what already happened in tlk?  

cause, you know, gotta shoehorn in that cinematic universe & all  

 

I disagree with this entirely. Statecream, ratchet, Jazz and Soundwave, at least, are mostly known and loved even outside of the tf fandom, from constant use in other media. Also, many of the directors coming in most likely were g1 fans growing up, and I think they should have the freedom to use these characters, who were underdeveloped and killed off to heighten the drama and action, should be available for reuse once more. They are icons of the franchise, is that argument is subjective, so be it.

Except in the last knight, Chicago is still destroyed, starscream is clearly dead, tf' s are still being hunted, and characters from previous film's are still popping up. But like you said, they retconned the film series' s own history to make this latest movie work, Bay's entire universe is now self-contradictory.

But you know, maybe a reboot Isn't needed. Just have the characters show up alive again, show Chicago as a whole city, and never mention any of the events from Bay's film's again, it'd fit right in alongside the weird history and character changes between movies.

 

(gif of Orson Welles clapping)

 

Bay's "continuity"?

 

My point exactly. Heck, Soundwave and Shockwave might already be back, if one character's dialogue in The Last Knight is to be believed.

 

I still think that in the offchance that the 'Bee Movie manages to keep this continuity afloat, Hasbromount should hiatus the main franchise, let 'Bee carry the movie branch of the brand with a sequel or two of his own, THEN come back in about five or six years (since if there's any warmth to the iron on the 'Bee Movie, they probably won't want to wait long to sh** out a sequel before it goes cold) with a TF6 that ties more directly to the events of the 'Bee Movie(s) than to those of TLK with a completely new set of brains behind the camera and the keyboard.

And with regards to freshening up the canvas and mopping up the mess left by the previous films...instead of letting the usual suspects continue to toss more Mystical Space Whatsits of the Week and Ancient Aliens episodes onto the pile, I think a new director, writer and producer should be allowed to take advantage of the fact that the world as these movies have portrayed it is a mess...meaning, take things to their logically-unpleasant conclusion: go full dystopic, less "Fast & The Furious" and more "Fury Road", with a humankind that has been brought to the point of not giving a **** about anything other than protecting their own individual skins from ANYTHING that so much as possesses wheels and an engine.

 

Yea if people were not interested enough to bother watching the Last Knight then it's hard to think they will suddenly rush out to the theaters next film for more of story they don't know. How much run time would have to be wasted recapping the things you'd need to know if you skipped The Last Knight?

Having villain names other than just Megatron seems important as well. If name recognition wasn't important in selling a movie then Spider Man could be fighting Stilt Man or Hypno Hustler but people don't know those villains so he's fighting the Vulture because every Spider Man fan has heard of The Vulture, even people who just watched some of the cartoons know him as a Spider Man villain.

Ten years, five movies, it's time for these robots to change.

 

Having a transformer that is as big as a planet is ridiculous enough to have it in the cartoons.
I want good intense battles between autobots and decepticons and i want to feel sad when a character dies. In the movies, the only moment i was a bit sad was when optimus got killed by Megatron in ROTF.
Because Bay and his writers fail to tell a story properly to make the characters likeable enough to care for them.
Most of the transformers who got killed, I felt not more when a storm trooper died in a Star Wars movie.

 

Yeah not to mention we've yet to see characters like Ultra Magnus,Prowl,Cyclonus,Scourge,Kup,Wreck Gar,Perceptor,Straxus,Overlord,Star Saber,Springer,Impactor,Sunstreaker,Skywarp,Thundercracker,the Stunticons,Trypticon,Deathsaurus,just to name a few so if anything we still have plenty of iconic characters that aren't used yet so there's no major worries in that regard.

 

Inferring that Bay has any continuity with these movies to begin with - that's cute.

 

To do what? Show up, spout a few lines, stand in the background, then get blown up? We can still get those characters in, while bringing the dead ones back. As the poster above said; I have know problem with characters dying, I just want to care abotu thecharacters when they die.

That's the point; I was inferring the continuity is so much of a train wreck it might as well not matter anyway. Technically, Shockwave and Soundwave are already back off-screen, Barricade Miraculously survived when hew should've died at Chicago, and most of the major events from AoE have been oturight ignored.

 

The point I was trying to make is that when you say that the movies killed off almost all of the iconic characters that's not fully true. The characters you've mentioned are only part of the many line up of iconic characters over the years like Prowl and Ultra Magnus for example.

 

I think after TF6, we should have a new fresh universe.

 

I wouldn't mind if they did a refresh.

Perhaps an altered timeline route? Someone went back to the past, changed something, and everything that played out in TF1-AoE was changed.

 

I'd be fine of TF6 is the last one. This Cinematic Universe stuff is too much too late. Just kill off Unicron and give us a better origins story than Quintessa. Bay can come back too for all i care if that's the case.

But keep Lorenzo out. That's all i ask.

 

There's continuity?

 

I didn't really pay attention to that line, but now that you mention it, it is very weird that she would know their names and know that they are famous but not know that they're dead. This might be a subtle way to reintroduce them to viewers before having them make an appearance.

You're right that these movies have backed themselves into a corner though. So many main characters have been killed for no reason that if they try to start bringing them back there are going to be confusing explanations for why they returned. Just more unneeded complexity.