Two things many Transformers fans and haters alike say is that the first was by far the best film, and that the main reason they're so bad is lack of TF screen time. But honestly, that can't be the case, since out of the four films, the first had by far the most human screen time, followed by number 3, 2, and 4th last. Don't get me wrong, Cybertronians is what we all came to see, but giving them more screen time won't fix the problem with these films. TBH, the Michael Bays plots aren't half bad, he just has a pathetic writer.

Here's probably the majority (NOT MY OWN OPINION) consensus for the best TF films and in parentheses, how they rank in how much screen time the cybertronians got.

1. TF (4)
2. DOTM (3)
3. AOE (1)
4. ROTF (2)

If this pattern is true, it seems the more screen time they get, the worse the movie.

 

I hate the first movie, the first movie is so shit I don't give a fuck what people say that film is the worst in the series it is really really bad and the most unwatchable.

 

First of all Bay is not the scriptwriters. The first movie was Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, they did ROTF along with Ehren Krueger and then from that point on its Krueger.

The problem is that nobody actually gives a fuck if the movie is good or makes sense.

 

I do care if the movies are well or bad written.. Every movie should have at least a decent story line, so... when a nonsense is spotted in TF films I always feel embarrassed and want to hang the responsible persons without mercy.

But then I remember myself why im watching the movies and Its all for my beloved Autobots so in the end I just calm down and enjoy the show..what else I can do?


Is there someone who actually didnt like the first movie? what!

 

I thought that the first movie was just about tollerable if you could blot the whole "hacker" subplot out of your mind along with much of Sam & Family.

The Second movie I preferred because you saw more transformers and it only REALLY god bad with the terribly bogged down mess of an ending.

Dark of the moon I thought was better still with far better characterizations of the decepticons.

AOE when I saw it I regarded as the best of the series, as you had scenes where you felt emotions about the transformers, they had real conversations. It was just too damn long and should have been two movies.


You make an awful lot of assumptions about what everyone thinks.

The transformers screentime isn't the biggest problem it's that the film isn't made from the transformers perspective. They aren't treated as real characters, just threats or defenders.

 

The first movie was probably the worst at being a Transformer movie.

 

I'll be a bit more serious, Human Screen time isn't the problem the problem is the human characters are mostly uninteresting.

 

This is what I was thinking.

 

One of the problems with the films are that they are just too long for something that should be a popcorn roller coaster summer action film. The easiest place to trim some of that fat from the run time would be the human scenes.

But I agree on the principle that humans having more time than the main attraction isn't an issue. The human to shark time in Jaws is heavily in favor of the humans but it feels like the shark is the most important thing about the film even we can't see the shark.

Transformers really should have played up the paranoia factor of what if the evil robots really could be any machine any time any place. Instead it feels telegraphed about which machines will be Transformers and which machines aren't. Then you toss in the absolutely horrible idea that Transformers can detect each other and humans can detect each other and the only reasons for transforming are to provide a digital effects shot and rolling there beats walking there. Alt modes should have been the ultimate disguise.

 

The human screentime definitely isn't as big a problem as some make it out to be. I care less about how much screentime the TFs get, and more about what's done in it. TF1 had the most powerful Decepticons, and most likeable Autobots.

 

You have to take other factors in to effect. Your list from worse-to-best.

4. ROTF (2) (writer's strike)
3. AOE (1) (fourth movie, just milking franchise at this point)
2. DOTM (3)
1. TF (4) (introduction, origin, no pre-built universe)

Here's the question from another point of view. How much worse would ROTF, AOE and DOTM be if they had as much uninteresting human screen time as the first movie.

 

Yeah the problem isn't a matter of screen time it's a matter of MEANINGFUL screen time. First movie had a decent amount of characterization and things that kept the plot rolling along despite not having a lot of robot screen time. The problem with the sequels is that they turned the humans into nothing but jokes and while they added more robots more robots wasn't the issue what we needed was more robot characterization yes we had armies of transformers in these films but they were all just a bunch of set pieces and filler. We need our characters to be actual characters that goes for both transformers AND humans. the percentage of humans vs robots in this movie shouldn't matter you're right about that.

 

They usually act like a bunch of weird cartoon characters and not like actual people.

Exactly. We never really get to fully realize the idea behind this paranoia.

 

The problem isn't robot screen time or human screen time, it is that the movies in general just aren't that good.

They're ALL 30-45 minutes too long for starters. The movies feel very stretched by the end.

Also the people who are responsible for executing the move failed to create a compelling movie villain until Lockdown but even then they killed the momentum by inserting an unnecessary 30 minute segment on Galvatron and the Dinobots.

Hasbro, Dreamworks et al have a chance to create a 'universe' like Marvel have done but just don't have the quality and passion to do that.

 

I disagree. While it is important to establish relate-able human characters to introduce us to these robots, the trouble is, that most of them are wild cartoon characters, flat and boring, complete jerks, or stereotypes. The three things most wrong with the movies are: the Transformers don't get much character development until they become psychopaths threatening to kill each other; the movies are waaay too long; and the humans take up too much screen time in movies that are supposed to be about robots.

 

I like some humans

Cade
Military guys
Simmons
Dutch
Josh

 

Depends on your definition of "good".

If you tell Michael Bay to make a movie about giant f-ing robots and explosions it doesn't have to have a lot of depth but can be good.

If you tell Michael Bay to make a movie about giant f-ing robots but to prioritize the human element, well, we saw what we got.

I do agree that the movies were probably a little too long. That's probably a result of Bay wanting to get his action sequences in AND the human requirement.

I also wouldn't give Marvel too much credit. They gave us Fantastic Four 1 & 2 and a bunch of other crap-tacular movies early on. They more lucked into Whedon then were driven by quality and passion. In an alternate world DC would have given Whedon the Wonder Woman he was campaigning for years to do and we would be talking about Justice League and DC's quality and passion instead of Marvel's Avengers.

 

My problem with the movies is that the action is so fast sometimes, you can't recognize the robots on screen during the battles (it doesn't help that the Movie Transformers are all spindly and alien looking) and that only one or two robots get any real characterization like Optimus and Bumblebee, the rest of the robots are so interchangeable, it had no impact when they killed some off in DOTM or AOE (Ironhide, Ratchet, other robots implied to have been killed off camera). Also, the movies made Megatron look increasingly weak for 3 movies (killed by a human in the first one, taking orders from the Fallen and getting part of his face blasted by Optimus in the second and be a lackey to the Real Main Villain, then beheaded trying to propose a truce in the third). Yes, I know Galvatron was more effective (and survived the end battle). Don't get me started with how some supposedly Major Decepticons (Shockwave, Soundwave, . Bonecrusher, the Constructicons/ Devastator, Blackout, Brawl) where treated worse than Darth Maul or Boba Fett, being bit players and killed rather unceremoniously