I'm in agreement with these statements.

I've always been a defender of the movie-verse aesthetic for the first three movies, because they at least seemed plausible for a species that evolved around being able to transform (I mean, you know, as plausible as alien robots go). But for AoE, they took the human-looking robot modes too far for me. When there's barely anything recognizable from their vehicle mode on the design, what's the point of them even being "Transformers?"

At least with the first trilogy, most of the time, you could make out what kind of vehicle they became, but in this movie, take away the Lambo logo on Lockdown, and good f*cking luck.

 

Lockdown has tons of lambo car junk hanging off of him. It is just darkened so you cannot see it very well. In fact, Lockdown is one of the only transformers in the movie with visible car parts. Optimus does have very few, these include the exhaust pipes on his back and also his back wheels hidden in his knee caps. Also the trax and garbage truck ksi drones (which ironically have the weird transformation) have tons of car parts hanging off them. But besides those few, yea, the rest are to human.

 

Was among the most vocal critics of the AoE designs before the movie came out, and I still dislike them.

Absolutely loved the complex aesthetic of the first three movies, because like another poster above says, it makes them very believable as an advanced, mechanical alien race with the ability to change themselves into various things. It may look very 'busy' to the eye, but I felt that's what made Transformers unique. They were simply unlike any other movie character.

I hated AoE's characters because they felt too humanised. From Drift's samurai face to Crosshairs' cape, you felt that you seen those somewhere before. The robots no longer exuded that exotic aura.

If anything, only the Dinobots looked decent, though they might have been better without the knights' helmets. I know they're Cybertronian knights, but what are the chances that these four robots, from millions of years ago, would happen to have the same helmet designs that mankind created eons later? Surely they could have created their own knightly aesthetic, without being a human rip off.

Character design creativity wise, RoTF was perhaps the best. You had designs evoking an elderly hunchback (Jetfire), a pogo stick (Rampage), a brute (Long Haul), a sorta ladybug (Mixmaster), a double unicycle (Demolishor), an ape (Devastator), and a pharoah (the Fallen), among others. Some were really out there.

Sadly, they've ditched that ingenuity and creativity for AoE, which also impacted the toylines. I bought every character from TF1 to DoTM, but totally passed on AoE for nothing excited me.

 

Where?

 

Well, I wouldn't say he has "tons" of visible car parts when he's not in his alt. mode (then again, I'm hardly a car buff), but the Lamborghini logo on his chest, the car lights on his chest and calves, and the brake pads in his bicep areas all still leap to mind.

 

Where do you think all your new robot scenes came from the more simplistic designs and the decreasing of the transformations both of which have jack to do with the characterizations forget about the transformations they've also been a gimmick they do not define the character.

 

^ Heartily agreed! Although I too wish more time, effort, and budgetary investment were given to the titular transformations of the film. That said, I understand the criticism the filmmakers were responding to by forsaking said transformation scenes to a more manageable degree for the sake of further interaction and screentime with respect to fully CGI characters, not to mention their hesitancy to vastly increase the budget for BOTH elements in the face of a softly-rebooted human cast with uncertain box office returns.

And, considering the fact that the whole franchise in ALL its iterations has ALWAYS been a glorified toy commercial, I honestly can't decry the synergistic marketing of the newfound Lego-esque Kree-O line in TF:AoE, with its Transformium, "particle cloud" transformations, given what an EXCEPTIONALLY canny financial decision it was on MULTIPLE levels.

So the movie pretty much gets a free pass from me on THAT point, at least.

 

OK:

1. Punctuation

2. Maybe it's just me, but when I go see a Transformers movie, watching something actually transform is pretty great. Seeing the first movie for the and watching Barricade's police car burst into a robot never gets old.

3. The transformations actually are as much of the character as the designs (which were crap in AoE). The Constructicons forming Devastator, slamming around in the least graceful manner possible was indicative of Devastator being a big lumbering mother fucker. Not mention that almost each character is pretty much identifiable by the sounds they make when they change between modes.

 

Same here. The Blackout scene in the beginning also left me in awe. Before that moment, I could never imagine how it would be possible to depict a vehicle changing into a robot in a live-action film.

Ditto. If anything could top a Transformer transforming, it's a combiner combining.

 

When hasn'tthere been a cheat?

 

How on earth can you people call yourself fans if you think a transformation defines a character does tony's iron man transformation define the character no so if getting rid of them means I get more character stuff do it. You all talk about how you want the transformers to be treated like characters than you completely counteract yourselves with stupid statements like this a transformation is more important than a dialog scene how can the movies possibly improve when the fandom themselves aren't consistent with what they want.

A transformation is mindless visual effect an awesome one but in the end it is irrelevant just a unique feature but it doesn't further anything for example if they took out Ironhides transformation from Revenge the one or two he had maybe he would've gotten more screentime. Age took that into consideration and the result was well we got Hound who had as much screen time and lines as Kup from the animated movie we also got Prime's arc which resulted him having about as much characterization as Cade and being pretty much the main character we got Lockdown who by far had the most presence of any villain. And we lost a few transformations yeah I think I'm going to support that decision. If you define these movies by how good the transformations are if that really is a deciding factor than your looking at these movies completely wrong more wrong than I ever thought.

 

Transformers Cybertron, but even think I think they cheated a little.

Transformation is the point of this entire brands existence.

Plus im actually pretty sure, AOE had more transformation sequences then any of the other movies, they were just shittier.

 

It's a gimmick meant to look cool but it's not as frequent in the comics, let me put this in a simple perspective you have a choice between a dialog scene for a robot like the scene at their camp during the night or a transformation sequence what are you going to choose?

 

Are you really bothered by this?

I mean really.

 

I've never really bought the idea that AOE CGI cheated more than the other movies; it had more Transformers screen time than any previous film and a complex and gigantic CGI model in the Knightship. We got plenty of scenes showing both the inside and outside of the ship. The charm of Transformers isn't just that they are alien robots that transform, it's that they are transforming robots that think and feel like we do, so if we get a few less full transformations and some more time with the robots as characters then I'm happy. Moreover, we see Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Drift, Lockdown, Galvatron, Stinger, Junkheap, other KSI robots, and the Dinobots all transform at one point or another, and some of those characters get multiple transformations, so I didn't feel cheated by any stretch. I wouldn't have minded seeing Crosshairs and Hound transform, but those guys were so awesome as is that I don't hold it against them.

Also, I actually really like the concept of Transformium and the KSI Decepticons' unique transformations. When you saw those transformations you knew that they were KSI Transformers/Galvatron's troops and not just random Decepticons that came out of hiding to fight in Hong Kong. It was something new to the brand, and I appreciate that they tried something new.

 

Well they guy is entirely grey so everything blends together.

The first film did transformations the best and ILM did well in AOE as well when you consider what thwy had to work with. You can tell that they prefer working with the designs from the first 3 films (which I believe are the best) since they could show Evasion Optimus transform into alt mode and yet Knight Optimus' transformation is obscured so that they could cheat.

It look a long time for Optimus and Bumblebee to grow on me. That said, I still prefer their original looks since the style allowed them to look abstract but they seemed to realistically be made from vehicles. Despite this I love Lockdown's design.

 

shitty dialog or a cool transformation sequence?? that's a hard choice haha

 

This film (AoE) definitely doesn't have the same level of CGI quality as the prior movies, not only do the characters "cheat" their transformations, but the designs themselves (bright and colorful, smooth) stand out from the surrounding environments like old school cel + live action movies. (think Looney tunes: back in action) The only one that really meshed with his surroundings was Optimus in his old form.

 

Yes I am bothered by this you say you want characterization then say stupid crap like this how can you think so lowly of our franchise the only thing important about this franchise is the transformations into vehicles or robots all you care about is spectacle you don't care if the story is actually good you don't care if the robots are actually interesting all you care about is seeing them and going cool. Yes I care because if the writers actually listen to you people going wah wah we want more transformation sequences it could cost me actual transformer scenes why wouldn't I care. Also first it's I can't tell the robots apart even though they're all different colors they're too dark and not colored enough now it's the robots are too shiny and colorful. First it was we want more robot scenes they waste too much money on useless CG that serves no purpose now it's we want less boring dialog scenes more pointless transformations for the love of hell make up your mind what the effing hell is it you people actually want do you even know what you actually want!?

 

Right now I imagine there's this whole weight balance scenario going on. If there's a lot of this then there is a lack of that....