It's not any kind of surprise. It would have been like that for pretty much anyone. Megatron barely had any lines throughout all 3 movies.
Nothing really new here. I didn't really expect him to return myself. That's actually how it is with a lot of voice acting gigs, especially VA parts in live-action movies.
Yep. Megatron was essentially phoned in. What a joke... Not necessarily. Given the chance, who knows what a talent like Welker, who has an affinity and connection to the character, might have pulled off? It didn't have to be the G1 voice, necessarily.
As posted above, hardly surprising in any way, but it is both darkly hilarious and (for the fandom, to a degree) a little disheartening to read this each time he talks about Megs/Transformers in an interview. All that said, I'd be interested in him doing Megs again in some fashion, be it in flashback sequences during future films or in other Transformers media. I do enjoy Frank Welker and have loved his voice acting on Prime, but I did like what Hugo Weaving did and am welcome to his returning in some fashion as Megs or another character somehow.
He did it in the games. And he has his Megatron-falling-asleep voice in Prime. Maybe in the first movie where they deepened it to the extreme, but not in 2 and 3. Unless by generic you mean "finally a good Megatron voice that wasn't David Kaye" then yes. The thing is, while we the fandom may be hinging on every dicision and whatnot, we're always the ones who care the most. For the majority of people in the business it's just a job, plain and simple. Skyped in, actually. Who gives a shit? All is said and done and we already got a great voice for the movie. Just because it's reveaed after the fact that his VA didn't give a damn doesn't change the fact that it was good. Then why bother with him anyway?
Even if Weaving didn't give two shits about the role, I still think his voice was one of the best Megatron's we've ever gotten.
Agreed. He could've been recording his lines while taking a shit and it's still rank at the top of the list. Hahano. But nice try. Well, not really. Weaving's Megatron had more life in his line about the Allspark being destroyed in ROTF than Welker has in all of Prime. (though to be fair, that's in no way Welker's fault. Even Cullen sounds bored in that show) Frank's voice doesn't fit Movie Megatron at all. It's too raspy, too high-pitched. It'd honestly make a pretty good Starscream I think. Weaving fit the character to a tee. Deep, growly, yet at times almost smooth.
Corey Burton's Megs was awesome. Welker's can't even touch that. Burton's Megatron was like every Megatron combined. Way better than any of Welker's angry old-man impressions. Again, Weaving's voice was excellent. Just because Weaving himself didn't care doesn't mean it wasn't. Nothing is changed. Hell, if anything it makes me imagine what he'd sound like giving it his all. Probably would've been amazing.
Funny how you instantly assume that, because it was a rush job, Hugo Weaving wasn't being a professional doing his job. News flash: not every actor working on a franchise you love cares about it as much as you do. It's a job for them. Weaving admits he knows nothing about whatever it was that he worked on, but that doesn't mean he went into the booth and phoned it in. I mean, did you guys ever see the man? Haven't met him, but judging from his movies, Weaving delivers quality work. You may not like the movie Megatron voice, but the man was explicitly asked for the role because the people making this movie wanted his voice. He did it, he got paid. End of story. As for the whole Welker vs Weaving debate...I don't get the big deal. Welker was great fun for the G1 Megatron voice. I'm definitely on the side of people who thought using that voice for movie Megatron was an ill fit - something the movie games (that DID use that voice) proved a hundred times over. Thankfully, Welker has been able to change up the voice for Transformers Prime, and I think it fits that version of Megatron. But apparently nobody had that idea when he was asked to voice the games.