They will be in the movie for less than 40 seconds and won't transform so of course they didn't put any kibble on them.

Hell look at Slug, he has virtually no dino-parts on him outside of vaguely spike-y shoulders if you didn't tell me he could transform into a triceratops I would've never guessed.

 

Well that's sort of the point; these designs no longer look like robots that can/do transform into anything - now a few of them just look like humans wearing metal armor suits, and their transformations look more like unbelievable CGI morphing than anything that could actually change from one form to the other.

 

My gripe with the increasingly humanoid robot designs in the last two movies, DoTM and AoE.

In my view, they are sacrificing what makes Transformers stand out and believable (as an advanced mechanical alien race capable of transforming into a variety of things), just to make them more relateable to the audience.

With all these humanoid designs, they might as well put Iron Man and Ultron in it, and it wouldn't look out of place. Heck, the Dinobots in AoE might just have well have been giants wearing metal suits.

I never knew that such a large percentage of humanity could not relate to any lifeform that isn't bipedal with two legs and arms.

 

Ah, so it's TF:TM then.

That's assuming these old knight guys can transform. The Fallen couldn't and he was super old. Maybe like in other series transformation is a "new" thing, or just something Dragonstorm can do at this point in time? Especially since it's only the knight-based characters who look that way, the other new designs like Barricade and Hot Rod are about a kibbly as your average movie TF. (Even Bumblebee has changed back to his more kibble-covered robot mode, and the tank guy and old timey car both had more "traditional" robot modes)

I don't know if it's "relating" so much as "being able to make heads or tails of." I've never heard the lack of relatability mentioned in regards to the designs, that's always been a strictly "too busy and complex to make out and distinguish."

 

Yeah but that's been the path this franchise has been going for a good long while now. WFC/FOC, Prime, RID2015, movies all of them have the same design mentality of "design a human in amour and put a wheel somewhere and maybe some headlight, then design a car and colour them the same and boom Transformer"

Outside of the earth based IDW comics Transfrormers the days of characters having instantly recognizable transformation, or even having a possible transformation at all are gone.

 

You have a point there, it's actually one of my mine gripes with Prime's aesthetic, which was a particularly milquetoast in regards to actually making the designs interesting or giving them any sort of motif. The fact that so many characters had basically the same head design principles really bugged me. But yeah, the last series to actually give a shit about transformation schemes and making the two modes actually feel properly entwined was TFA.

Even though I still prefer the OT movie designs/aesthetic, at least the lack of kibble is in service of more interesting takes like knights and warriors and stuff. Though I feel like a middle ground could easily be reached.

Though I'm all but certain these Steelbane-knights are just generics ala the ROTF/DOTM Decepticons.

 

That all may be, but does that necessarily make it good? I don't think there's anything wrong with people wanting Transformers to look like robots that actually transform into something, especially in the same movie series where they DID look like that. I mean, looking at Prime in particular from the first movie to this one - other than the colors and head sculpt, it's not even comparable anymore.

 

Never said it makes it good, just stating the fact that that was the path the franchise decided to take. I don't personally like it, I want to be able to tell immediately what the bot transoms into when I see it or at least be able to go "ooh so that's how it works" when I see the vehicle mode.

I also feel like it's bad for toys because they are so G1 cartoon levels of untransformable that you simply cannot make a toy without resorting to shellforming.

I think that Sentinel was a nice middle ground. He looked very knightly and humanoid, had a very human and expressive face but was still full of robot kibble. AOE Prime and crew honestly felt like a step back from him.

 

Am I the only one who thinks sticking TFs in our history (\"hidden in the background of major events!\") is a little stupid?

Don\'t get me wrong - the concept is intriguing, of course. But the execution? I feel it will all sound very hokey when we see it on the big screen. Like horrible revisionist history. Or maybe I\'m just afraid of what Bay\'s touch will do to a proper historical event (i.e. go re-watch \"Pearl Harbor\").

 

I agree...and this isn't the first movie to go this route. Every one of them, actually. The first one said modern technology was derived from Megatron. The Fallen in RoTF interacted with Neanderthals and the Pyramids covered up his sun killer machine. The entire moon landing was said to be a coverup for intel on the Ark crash in DotM. The Creators were insinuated to be the cause of the mass extinction of Dinosaurs in AoE. And this concept isn't even exclusive to the movies. Transformers being intertwined with Earth history and evolution is a huge plot in the IDW comics (thankfully not a focal point of the GOOD comic).

I'm getting REALLY bored with Earth history and Transformers going hand in hand. It's mindblowing how none of the writers can come up with something more interesting.

 

Iron giant?

 

Reading this thread post of ppl gripe and complain like...

 

This is the closest we will ever get to a live action adaptation of Man of Iron and A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur\'s Court.

 

I'm just happy they are finally breaking away from the scrapmetal designs of the previous movies, and setting on a more pleasing aesthetic.

 

Forever!

 

It's a Transformers poster in disguise....

Any thoughts on Pain & Gain or 13 Hours?

 

Do you even praise the sun?

 

NO, I think it's unbelievably stupid. Especially how in that hidden secrets trailer, Hot Rod is clearly a Lamborghini in WWI??? WTF.

 

Given the fact that the movies are, well, live action and are filmed and written in regards to real human actors, the humanity/Transformer intertwined history is probably out of necessity. If humans aren't going to be a central aspect of the storyline, there's really no point in making it live action.

 

Having it take place on Earth and interact with humans is all there needs to be. I mean, it's Earth, we're kinda here so we need to be involved somehow. But it's going take-it-to-11-Spinal-Tap levels of 'Transformer history illuminati' that just completely wrecks everything.

Like, as of AoE, we're supposed to believe that Earth has been more important than Cybertron since before Cybertron was even created because the Quintators apparently fired a laser at Earth to make dinometal and promptly abandoned a good portion of it. So much focus is put on hyping up this bullshit in the past that they forget the stuff in the future. A simple plot about the Decepticons doing a bunch of small shit around the world to distract the Autobots/NEST from the fact the Cons are trying to basically do something like recreate the Chernobyl Meltdown from the remains of Reactor 4 to force the Autobots into surrendering. Like, everything apparently cool by the movie's own standards existed and was created in the past to the point the modern day version of the war is kind of lame in comparison.

Give me a film that, among many other things preferably (like designs that aren't complete garbage that completely miss the entire point of making cars transform into unique characters), completely just ignores having to shove alien robots into human history where they don't belong and actually focus entirely on the present. No exposition shit, no mcguffins that just so happen to be hiding ten feet under the dirt, just a new phase of the war that isn't reliant on the humans being more effective at killing Autobots than Decepticons have been in the past decade.