Transformation isn't really a problem here. Not if you realise how demanding is to make good looking models of hairy animals which can be terribly consuming on resources let alone to render realistic animal body models without hitting the audience with a sledgehammer-sized uncanny valley feel. Realistic organic bodies are much harder to get right than machines even if said machines reconfigure their entire bodies into vehicles.

The challenge would be in making robot mode designs that are emotive and relatable enough to carry the entire movie, also in making them not too expensive and resource-demanding to build and render.

 

Because Hasbro and Paramount holds a strong belief that only their A-list characters should get a movie, which in our case: optimus and bumblebee. Just goes to show the amount of contempt they still have for us.

 

That is exactly why A-list characters are A-list.

Shock of all shocks, the only characters with enough public appeal and knowledge are the ones to get movies. Wild, I know.

*tiny violin*

Simba loses his face and limbs and changes his entire shape when he grows up?

Wild.

 

Would it kill them to make a Megatron Movie instead!?!?!? He's just as A-list to the public as Optimus and bee and he's FAR more interesting than either of the two.

 

As interesting as it would be to see an Optimus Prime movie I would keep expectations moderate. But you got to give it to Lorenzo, he’s a consummate used car salesman through and through.

 

i mean, when you consider how many skin/hair cells you shed as you age... basically, yeah.

 

He's also, y'know, a villain.

Marvel's been going ten years and even they haven't done a villain movie yet.

I know you know that's bullshit but you wanted to say it anyway.  

 

Yeah, that was in the original edition, where he turns into a monster and reduces Scar to a pulp.

It was deemed un-Disney and replaced. The only known surviving copy of that ending was locked in a vault within Fort Knox alongside the secret uncensored Dexter's Lab episode.

 

The real transformation was the friends we made along the way

 

By this time in the Marvelverse Venom is as much an anti-hero as he's a villain.

There's no way Hasbro would allow a movie about an omnicidal powerhungry tyrant as a main protagonist and that's what Megatron's characterisation is for anyone outside of the TF fandom.

 

If it were done with a story similar to the original G1 “More Than Meets The Eye” mini-series it would totally work. It could even still begin from the human perspective and build from there.

Opening scene: subtitle reads "Earth: Four Million Years Ago". Pan across a prehistoric landscape - horses and camels graze near a lake with a mountain range in the background. Large glaciers can be seen among the distant mountains.

Suddenly, a faint rumble is heard. The animals look up to the sky and begin to stampede as the rumble grows louder. Camera pans up to what looks like a very large meteor hurling through the sky. As it continues its rapid decent, the outline of the large object becomes more distinguishable as some kind of spacecraft. The camera pans along with the craft's decent, following it downward as it violently impacts near the base of a lakeside mountain.

Time-lapse as the landscape changes. The glaciers melt, vegetation and wildlife changes, human-made structures appear. Subtitle reads "John Day Fossil Beds, Oregon - 1984". Cut to a group of college students at the fossil beds during a class field trip. We meet "Spike" Witwicky and some of his classmate friends and follow them through some establishing dialogue during the field trip. We have scenes with Spike at home with his single father, who is an auto shop and tow company owner. Several scenes further establish the two leading human characters and the town of Gresham, Oregon where they live. Through news reports on radio/TV or conversation between Spike and other minor characters, we learn of recent strange activity at nearby power plants involving unidentified fighter jets.

Spike and his dad are on a parts run one evening when they're dispatched to tow a VW Beetle that's been abandoned on the outskirts of town. It's too late to take it to the impound, so they bring it home and plan to take it in the next day. Spike is hoping he can keep it and use it as his own car, so he starts tinkering with it. We have an introduction scene with Spike and Bumblebee in a garage scene similar to what we've seen in the BB movie trailer. Bumblebee explains that he and his crew-mates were recently brought out of a long stasis following their crash-landing and he's on a scouting mission but was attacked and left incapacitated by a Decepticon null ray. While he's now recovered enough to transform, his guidance and communication systems are still offline. He needs to find his way back to his ship so he can be repaired properly and report his findings. Spike convinces Bumblebee that he can help and they begin their adventure, but not before Sparkplug meets the Autobot in a scene similar to the one in the old Marvel comic.

As they set out to find the Autobot crash site, Bumblebee tells Spike more about where he came from and how he got to Earth. Maybe there's a flashback sequence showing Cybertron, explaining the war and the Autobot's mission to find energy resources, the ship being ambushed by Decepticons, and the crash landing). The two encounter a small band of Decepticons who are taking over a power station. Bumblebee keeps Spike safe while spying on the activity and figuring out what he can do to stop them.

We have a scene that establishes the characters of Starscream, Soundwave, Rumble, and Laserbeak as they threaten and confine the humans running the power plant. The Decepticons exchange dialogue and we see they have personalities too, yet are more militaristic and threatening than the friendly Bumblebee. Starscream engages voice communication with Megatron, and we learn that this is one of several Decepticon missions to harvest energy and establish a base of operations. Bumblebee and Spike are discovered as the two attempt to leave without being seen, then Bumblebee tries to fight the Decepticons but is quickly overpowered and he and Spike are put with the other human captives. The Decepticons are setting up to convert the station's power into Energon when an Army Jeep, a black 4x4 pickup, a sliver Datsun 300ZX, and a Nissan Cherry Vanette arrive on the scene and transform. The new Autobots make a "this isn't your planet to plunder" kind of statement and engage the Decepticons in a fight. After the skirmish a thankful power station crew are freed and recover from the shocking experience, Bumblebee is rejoined with his team and Spike is introduced to Hound, Trailbreaker, Bluestreak, and Ironhide. Dialogue is exchanged between the Autobots as they tell Bumblebee that they've been searching for him for days and that the Decepticons have regained strength.

Eventually they head back to the Ark and meet Optimus Prime. Bumblebee reports his findings, including the information he gathered while spying on the Decepticons at the power station. Spike helps the Autobots learn about life on Earth, and the Autobots teach him more about who they are, why they Transform into Earth vehicles (the result of Teletraan-1's scan and repair after the ship awoke from stasis - not Transformers being able to scan and reformat at will). The Autobots realize they need to protect humans from the Decepticons and organize to find and intercept the Decepticon missions.

The rest of the movie would have the Autobots finding the Decepticons and defeating their plans to take over a power plant and make it their base. Once defeated, the Decepticons are captured by the Autobots and put into stasis. While there are some humans who are skeptical and afraid of all Transformers, most recognize that the Autobots are "good guys". Optimus Prime makes a formal introduction to the people of Earth and promises to keep them safe. He declares that they will repair their ship and take the Decepticons off the planet, and asks if humans would be willing to help with resources needed to repair and fuel the Ark. Earth's governments agree to help the Autobots in exchange for technology and information that can be used to help keep Earth safe now that it is known we are not alone in the universe. End on a shot overlooking the Autobots and humans beginning work to excavate the Ark, pull back to reveal Laserbeak perched atop a nearby cliff, setting up for a sequel in which the Decepticons will be broken out of Stasis and the battle continues on Earth.

This is obviously a very rough treatment and would need to be developed further to really make a well-scripted and engaging movie. There's no reason though that Transformers can't be treated like full characters from the beginning and given dialogue with each other that establishes who they are rather than having a mute Autobot make contact with the human lead while the military fights an alien invasion. Don't involve any search for the Allspark or any other MacGuffin artifact, don't have the Transformers as something that a secret society of humans have known about for ages, and keep it simple. If the Decepticons emerge as a sudden threat in a small town and the Autobots are the first to respond then the world is introduced to these aliens in a different way than in the 2007 movie. Focus on the Autobots as a team, keep human contact primarily through Spike, have the world around reacting later in the film as the presences of Transformers becomes known through Decepticon activity, and keep military involvement to a minimum rather than the primary focus.

Of course, there are many other ways a Transformers-focused live-action movie could be done. I've always been more intrigued by the accidental crash landing as how the Transformers arrive on Earth, rather than them having some long-time connection to our planet.

 

Look at pretty much every Earth-based Budiansky's story. Yes, they're written for kids and not very sophisticated and he's got a lot of recurring human characters like G.B.Blackrock. At the same time humans aren't the main focus of his story. They're just used as a framing device to give the human perspective of things. Sunbow cartoon did pretty much the same thing.

 

okay, good point

 

Don't confuse successful with good. Few of the transformers movies would be considered good. Sure they bring in money, but they will never be considered great movies. They could have been with better stories and actual character development.

 

One could argue that IW was Thanos' movie....

 

“So looking at the movie from that perspective, we thought, we don’t want to overwhelm one Autobot with too many Decepticons. So he has three primary antagonists.”

Two others, who take the form of automobiles, are also being kept secret for now.

Five deceptions? The fourth is Megatron stuck in ice. The fifth..?

 

Oh, I'm not, not by a long shot. But you said necessary, and it wasn't, clearly. It is now, but back then they could, and did, get away with it.

One can't argue that his name wasn't in the title.  

 

Oh c'mon just finish the story!
Give me Murder Prime killing Earth Unicron

 

And doesn't that movie just look so good, huh?

Also, ignoring that Venom has spent just as much time as an anti-hero, they've completely detached the character from a Spider-man.

So I suppose a Megatron movie could work if you, Yknow, make him nothing like Megatron.