It's always pleasant to be reminded that Mr. Weaving shares Mr. Bay's profound respect for the craft of voice acting.
Just saying that Hugo Weaving is a better actor than anybody that ever worked in Transformers and that no critic opinion of Bayformers or Youtube link of shitty Dinobot death will change that. And yes this is just my opinion you don't have to point it out. No I don't think you're stupid for disagreeing with me.
Yes, the movie Decepticons are depicted more as monsters than as equals to the Autobots. So at what point in your logic does that disqualify Weaving's voice from being professional? Even through all the growling, he did have lines and all that. And I'm pretty sure I've never heard another character ever with a voice similar to what Weaving delivered, unless it was delivered by..well, Weaving. Again, you may not like the voice for movie Megatron, but that doesn't mean he didn't do a good job at what he gets paid for. In fact, if you think it's a monster voice, he did his work RIGHT, because that's exactly what they were going for with movie Megatron. Frank Welker can do monster/animal sounds. In fact, that's his forte, but that's not how he voices Megatron. Both G1 Megatron AND Prime Megatron's voices are bad choices for the monster that's movie Megatron. Fans getting what they want can be a bad thing. Sure, I love how they got Peter Cullen for the movies, and I will not deny that the man is a great voice actor (one of my favorites too), but if we're going to compare his movie voice to the G1 voice while we're at it: they're different. The way Cullen delivers Prime is different from back in the day. Maybe because he's gotten older and there's more bass in his voice. Maybe he was instructed to deliver a more regal voice - I do not know. What I do know that not every line he delivered in the movies, Prime and the High Moon video games are voice acting gold. In fact, for every line that's just magical, there's another that just sound plain forced and awful. As a fan it's disheartening when people that have absolute no affiliation to the product you love come in and mess it up, yes (it actually happens alot less than you'd think - most of the time it's a matter of the 'wrong' person being in the 'right' spot with too much control). But there's one thing worse: when fans get everything they want. Because that's the point where a product no longer evolves and moves forward, it just degenerates into rehash after rehash after rehash, because fans just want to have what they had when they fell in love with said product, nothing more. In Transformers, that means: I'd rather not like Transformers Prime and sit this generation out, eager for what they will come up with after it, than being stuck in 1984forever with no iteration every trying to do something fresh. What, you say? Perceptor is no longer a telescope but is now a RESEARCH TRUCK?!! HERESY!
Strange relation to own work, though. In Russian dubbing, I proud for it, Megatron is quite interesting and have really evil appearance and voice (though, quite similar to Frank Welker, I heard his voice in TF: the Ride). I respect him for famous phrase in TF1: "Как неразумно..." ("How foolish..." when Sam talk with him from behind the statue on the roof of skyscraper).
That's right. They got his voice. It might be the only one he has. Anyway, it's the only one they wanted. Hooray for stunt voice acting, because it makes perfect sense for a feral girl, raised by wolves, to sound like Claire Danes.
As an actor who hasn't done alot of voicework, there's no denying there's clearly a 'Weaving' in Megatron's voice. He's not as versatile as voice actors who can go from stuffed animals to evil warlords within seconds. But comparing his performance in V for Vendetta, the Matrix, the Lord of the Rings and Transformers: no, he's not just doing the same thing. But yes, Megatron definitely has Weaving's voice. The reason they hired him. It happens.
Not really surprised about the Megatron thing. However, I am shocked that he apparently hated playing Red Skull and wouldn't come back unless he was contractully forced to. Just...wow.
I can't tell you because it's a secret. It might have turned the whole thing into Springtime for Megatron... (Time paradox alert)
Glassy eyed movie fanboys who love whatever they were spoon fed and then subsequently state it was the be all end all 'best choice' never fail to amuse. Given the knee jerk defense so many of these fans have when talking about Weaving's shockingly boring "could be ANY Joe Nobody trying to sound evil" take on Megatron, clearly Michael Bay could have hired a Jonas brother to voice him and everyone would think it was the absolute best thing ever... and of course, drop the obligatory claim it was better than anything Welker could ever do. That said, seeing Weaving say all of this (which, btw, wow) is beyond hilarious.
You know what also never fails to amuse? Transformers fans who can only think in black and white. 'Oh, this guy is defending the movie Megatron voice, he must be a movie fanboy!' Errr...no. For the record: I liked the first movie - had alot of flaws but was a decent enough setup for a franchise. I hated the second one, because they pretty much made a movie out of all the things I didn't like from the first one (terrible humor, hard to follow action, too much focus on the military, no emotion to the Transformers' side of the story). By the time the third one was released I didn't really care anymore, knew exactly what to expect. And no matter what Bay&co said about the third movie being better, it was pretty much the wreckage of ROTF, dinged out and given a new paint job, presented as 'new'. This is not a kneejerk reaction. But like any product, the live action movies are not 100% good or 100% terrible. There's actually some things they did right, you know. I never said Weaving was the 'end all' choice. I am saying that Frank Welker's Megatron voice would have been a horrible choice for that depiction of Megatron. Are there other voices that would have fitted the character? Probably: yes. But we don't know. What we do know now, though, thanks to TF Prime, is that no matter what way you twist G1 Megatron's voice, it just will not match the monster Megatron from the movies. I'm actually way more annoyed with the people that want to bash Weaving simply because they don't like the movies OR don't like movie Megatron's voice. Here is a man who is honest in not caring as much about a petty little franchise, and is just here to do a job - the perfect opportunity for snarky fans who have a score to settle! That's what this is about. We're not even talking about the quality of the work he delivered, and if it fits the character he portrays. No, we're perfectly happy making claims Hugo 'phoned it in' simply because I don't like what they were going for with the character. I'm not the biggest fan of movie Megatron as a character. Alot of wasted potential. Alot. But my opinion on that, or any of ours, has nothing to do with Hugo Weaving doing a voice. If only people here knew how many of their favorite actors didn't give two shits about characters they portrayed/voiced. Amazing how people always forget actors are people. People with jobs, just like you and I. If I worked in a convenience store, and let's pretend I liked it there, but I didn't really care for stocking food items, would rabid fans of Chicken Tonight accuse me of doing a poor job and not respecting their product? That sounds crazy, but that's kinda what's happening in this very thread. I'm all for the Jonas brothers doing Transformers voices! Maybe they can voice Reflector in TF4, and they could make them sing!
Why would he be particularly thrilled to play Red Skull? Anyways, good for you Weaving, tell it like it is. What he had to say doesn't change the fact that Megatron's movie voice was awesome (albeit underused) and that Weaving, as seen in his other movies, does great work, even if he isn't fully into it or whatever. Wish there were more scenes with Megatron throughout the trilogy just to hear him some more. I won't ever forget going into theatres and hearing him and Cullen go back and forth with their philospohy/battle banter as they slug on one another
Meh. Growl a lot, use rehashed G1 references now and then... and there's Movie Megatron. But then again, not like the movies had much substance at all.. Not surprised that neither Weaving, nor the casting/directing folks, gave a damn for Megatron. ^ Pretty much all there is to the movies anyway. Turn off your brain, enjoy mindless explosions and one reaaaaaally angry rendition of Prime going around ripping faces and decapitating 'Cons.