What would you need to know in order to see DotM? The only MAJOR plot points I could think of were:

Why is Megatron alive? and

When did Optimus get the Matrix of Leadership?

Anything else? I really couldn't think of any other major plot point that would require explaining should someone skip RotF and go straight to DotM from TF1. And considering that the overall movieverse plot gets confusing if you consider what happened in RotF and DotM, if you knew these couple of things then you could theoretically skip it.

 

Who is the little monster truck autobot, and why are his eyes red if he's an autobot?
Who the hell is the stingray autobot?
What are those "hachling" things?
probably many more coming up!

 

RotF doesn't even explain why Optimus has the Matrix. Heck, I think Lennox, Sentinel, and OP did enough exposition for general audience, and many long-time TF fans would've just assumed he "always" had it like his G1 counterpart.

Megatron being alive and injured would need some explaining, and you need to know of ze Doctor Scalpel to get those little drones were medics.

There isn't too much continuity between the three movies, is there? Same characters/universe, but no overreaching plot points or character development. I personally don't see much point in calling the series a 'trilogy.'

EDIT: I guess the Hatchling could be confusing, though again RotF really doesn't explain the situation (they needed Energon, but now they're OK?).
DotM implied Sideswipe arrived with Dino, Que, possibly Brains, and the Wreckers. No one makes any reference to Wheelie's Decepticon past, and him being buddies with Brains (who's dialogue suggests he's been with Sam for quite some time) would likely make people think they came to Earth together. RotF, again, gives no reason for Wheelie to hang with Sam.


I'm finding RotF doesn't at all set up anything for DotM...

 

But even the hatchlings are only in DotM for a few seconds. And you could assume that they are just injured/barely alive bots like Igor/Longhaulhead.

I see your point about the Matrix maybe always being with Optimus. That only really leaves the fact that Megatron is alive. Even the fact that he seems to be injured could be explained by his "death" in TF1, and not his injuries in RotF. As for ze doctor, it's pretty obvious what they're doing on Meg's head in DotM, so I don't think that would necessarily need to be explained, although it's obviously clearer if you've seen RotF.

 

Yep.....

(sorry for double post)

 

But those little insects in Megatron's head are not like Scalpel...

I thought them to be something like those bugs that feed on carrion. Kinda stupid in the case of Transformers, but I thought that was the idea...I dont think theyre meant to be repairing Megatron, or do they? He even squishes one.

 

Other than Megatron being alive when he was dead at the end of the first movie I can't really think of much else you'd need to know.

Some things actually fit better with skipping over Revenge of the Fallen because people should have known about the robots after they ripped a major American city a new one at the end of the first film.

 

To me it's quite obvious they're repairing him. First off, they're shaped exactly like scalpel, or at least very very similar. Secondly, you can see them welding and doing other various repairing-type actions in his head. He squishes/flicks them away because he finds the repairs to be annoying and he knows there are plenty more "scalpels" where that came from.

 

>Wheelie meeting Sam/Mikaela
>Megatron getting revived
>Megatron getting half his face blown up
>Optimus Prime getting the matrix (which wasn't even explained that well in ROTF to begin with...I thought the Matrix was destroyed before I watched DOTM)
>Sam "saving" the world twice

I'm pretty sure that's it. There's barely any connection to ROTF. Sideswipe you could just treat a character that was just there like Dino and Que.

 

There's really not that much that you would need to know except for Optimus getting the Matrix and Megatron coming back. Everything else isn't too important.

 

As has been said, not really much at all. Anything that someone who missed RotF would "need to know" could be summed up and explained very quickly and easily.

Which reveals a weak point of the movies.

As someone above said, it wasn't really a "trilogy," as just three separate movies barely linked to each other.

A true trilogy would've been better, I think, for the movies and the franchise. That would've required they went into it with the trilogy mapped out. But then we would've/could've had a more cohesive story, and something that actually went somewhere.

For such a trilogy, I think the quest/need for energy would suffice. Survival/food is a basic compelling motivation, and echoes back to the original. Megatron should've been the villain all along. You could still have Sentinel show up, but no Fallen.

Keep the intro movie, have things look dark for the second, victory in the third. Well worked formula.

 

This is one of the main reasons why I prefer the Marvel movies over the Bayformers movies.
If Bayformers had Marvel movie directing and writing staff quality, the three movies would have been AMAZING.
This is why to me, Bayformers is a perfect example of wasted opportunity, and lowered standards.

 

I think the question would be, why are you skipping ROTF?

Despite some major plot fails, its still good to watch. G1 classics making their debut which you miss out on in DOTM (ie Devastator and Ravage?).

 

They are exactly like Scalpel. They function like scar tissue, repairing the damaged "flesh."

 

I think the only main ones would be:

1. Megatron being alive and now missing half his face
2. The Matrix being found in Egypt

#1 is obvious, but I say #2 because the Matrix is a new thing and somewhere in DOTM it's mentioned that someone saw Sam in pictures from Egypt.

I don't think Wheelie showing up ROTF needs to be addressed since Brains showing up in DOTM wasn't addressed at all. He was just there - and talked like he's been there a while since he apparently knew (and hated) Mikeala. Same with Sideswipe showing up in ROTF vs Dino, Que & the Wreckers showing up in DOTM - they're all just there now and we're supposed to assume they popped in somewhere between movies. No reference needs to be given to Scalpel or the hatchling things in DOTM since they really made no more sense in ROTF either - they're just gross little things that suddenly showed up like Igor... who was also never explained.

That's how I paraphrased it to friends who either couldn't remember or didn't see ROTF. I gave them a heads-up that Megatron got revived, had half his face ripped off by Prime, some shit happened in Egypt and this thing called the Matrix was found. Sadly, that was more than enough for them to be entirely caught up going into DOTM.

 

Honestly if it was for the minor little things or Megatron's revival....well actually you could just assume Megatron was revived by his crew offscreen.

Sideswipe and Wheelie are the only ROTF Autobots in it so they could have came with the Wreckers, Dino, Brains and Wheeljack/Que.

 

A lot.

 

I don't really have a vibe those are the same creature Scalpel is intended to be. Obviously, if they were repairing him, you think that several of them could partially repair his face in the time span between ROTF and DOTM. Also, I'm sure Megatron would treat them well if they were repairing his face. Why would he destroy one because he found it's repair annoying. It's always gonna be annoying. You don't kill a surgeon who is working on your disfigured, mutilated face cause it's annoying. It's mandatory. I don't see them as welding, but more rather picking at the circuitry, which might be the equivelent to a misquito picking at your wounds, which is why he's swatting them away and crushing them. The reason the design is so similar, is because it would take to much time to design and create several small creatures that appear for a few seconds. That's why they recycled the Scalpel model, not unlike how they reused the previous decepticon models for several of the fight scenes (I.E. Long Haul, Brawl, Sideways).

 

I hope more thought is put into the construction of the new trilogy, continuity-wise. I do like DOTM, but it doesn’t really feel like a proper sequel to ROTF. Like others have said, I have a hard time calling the Transformers films a trilogy, because they’re not. Each new film doesn’t really "fit" with the one that preceded it. I hope they rectify that with a new trilogy.

Making a trilogy of stand-alone films is fine, like the Indiana Jones films. The reason why I don’t have an issue with the Indiana Jones films is because none of them really acknowledge the others. They're fully independent of each other. The Transformers films were obviously trying to be a proper trilogy, but Bay et all clearly didn’t put enough thought into what came before.

 

I kind of like how the Marvel films give me that extra bit of incentive to make sure that I see them all. Events in Captain America tie into Thor and both those films seem like they will tie in with The Avengers movie.