Transformers: Age of Extinction producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke to the press recently, regarding the negative critical reception for the movie and also to hint what we might get to see in the upcoming Transformers Live Action Movie Sequels.
“There’s a combination of factors” said Mr. Bonaventura. “Number one, critics do not understand this kind of movie. They just don’t understand, they don’t get why people like this kind of movie. They’re evaluating a movie like this, that is meant for mass entertainment on a really epic scale, as though it’s a 1970’s Martin Scorsese movie.” “I kind of figure enough critics don’t see these movies with the audience, is my suspicion. Because if they’re with the audience, they cant help but be affected by what they’re hearing and reacting to.”The producer also talked about the plot elements from the 4th Michael Bay Transformers Movie, how they came to be and how they will affect the future movies. Considering the nature of the content, we are keeping them away from the front page due to the spoilers they contain.
Chaos Muffin
Its a fun soulless movie, Lockdown was pretty rad.
People parts skippable on blu ray yay
Awesomus Prime
I think Cybertronium actually would have been a bit better. But, I agree. It made total sense. It's the element that humans discovered that Transformers were made of. Of course they would just call it 'Transformium', for simplicity's sake. That's how most new elements are named.
It's one of the dumber criticisms I've seen used against this movie. It definitely makes a helluva lot more sense than 'Unobtainium'…
Sentinel Prime
Transformium made sense to me. What else would humans have called it? Cybertonium?
SP4H
TrailbreakerADK
It's as if Age of Extinction was so long, they decided put literal commercial breaks throughout its length.
LordGigaIce
That was true at one point, but it's jumped the shark. It's now become an exercise in hating Michael Bay for the sake of hating Michael Bay. And when people (not you, but there are those out there) start insinuating that Bay's an idiot or this evil sociopath hack because he dared to make a movie they personally didn't care for? Then the idea of objective criticism has just become a farce.
And the Bay haters start up once again with the "if you like the movies you're not a true fan" nonsense. I'd rather be derided for liking bits of RotF then be part of this elitist circle jerk.
After his human allies nearly killed him, have killed his friends, and are melting down his medical officer for scrap? I'd say Prime's allowed to flip out a bit.
All Hail Megatron. The G1 Marvel comics. Hell, even the G1 cartoon showed inter-Autobot disagreements.
I rather take that over the adolecent humour they replaced it with. See why I say Bay can't win?
It was just as gratuitous as the pandering to the US military in the first three.
Guess what. Every Hollywood movie has product placement. And if the product placement here helped pay for the scenes where the Autobots were fleshed out as characters? I'm fine with that.
There was more robot character development in this film then there was in any of the previous three films. What do you want? A movie without humans at all? 'Cause that's gonna bomb at the box office.
There was an explanation. Lockdown explained they were a band of ancient Cybertronian knights he had captured. It's not the film's fault you weren't paying attention.
The name is supposed to sound cheesy. Joshua Joyce mentions that it was chosen via a focus group and trademarked in preparation for the rollout of their man-made Transformers. The whole point was to sound like a bad marketing gimmick.
Awesomus Prime
They have a fight inside the IHOP!
Trenner Dios
See, I saw that movie twice, and if I noticed the product placement at the time, I immediately forgot about it. The Bud and Beats in AOE was just…something else. They took it to a whole new level of shameful in my opinion, but maybe that's just me.
Of course the next time I watch Man of Steel I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out.
Awesomus Prime
All Hail Megatron….?
Moy
I don't have any issues with product placements in movies, actually Mark drinking that bud light made perfect sense. Who wouldn't want beer In a time of possible human extinction? That and it's good to be a dick sometimes.
I agree on your views on Drift, he could have been executed a lot better than an obvious asian humanoid robot.The fact that he is a triple changer saddens me because it looked so nice but on the wrong character.
I want the transformers to be treated like actual characters also, the little times there's a small sign of it sure looks great.
And the Dinobots were amazing, It's too bad it left the audiences wondering who they are.
Transformers 4 was filled with so many plots that it was hard at times to keep up.
I recently learned that the Waste Management garbage truck was composed of three robots!
Now that was a waste, unless they were in the movie somewhere but I didn't notice it.
Despite so much downfalls the movie kept me interested though.
Awesomus Prime
That's a very interesting point, and it brings to mind a question that I often ask myself a lot: Why is Cold War era-inspired fiction so archaic and unsellable, in this day and age, but World War II era-fiction isn't? I mean, I get it, WWII was mankind's biggest war, and the Nazis are the most evil dudes of all time. But, how does that keep selling…? It's so played out.
Also, hasn't G.I. Joe greatly distanced itself from the "Real American Hero" image? I don't recall either of the movies really pushing that. In fact, weren't they an "international black-ops task force" in them?
I dunno. It'd be nice to see G.I. Joe take it's "Real American Hero" roots and deconstruct them. Something along the lines of Metal Gear Solid would be amazing, if G.I. Joe was given that kind of treatment, I think.
MV95
So lower than Grown Ups 2, Last Airbender, Scary Movie 5 and I, Frankenstein?
Hanzkaz
Dear Mr Bonaventura, the story matters.
TrailbreakerADK
Where you driving a Ram 1500 on your way to Sears by any chance?
MV95
Idk, I felt like grabbing some stuff at Sears and having some waffles and bacon at IHOP after watching Man O' Steel
Trenner Dios
Sounds like you're just like me. I went to the movie knowing it was probably going to be dumb and awful, but I want to see Transformers bust each other up. And even if I got what I expected, that doesn't mean I can't lament the fact that the series has been so unnecessarily terrible.
I have never, ever seen such gratuitous product placement in a movie before, unless it was being presented ironically. Product placement is something that though I often find obnoxious, I understand it's a necessity, but the way they went about it in TF4 was just so unabashedly in your face that it made me slightly uncomfortable.
We all wanted more bot screen time and characterization, and sure, we got it. But as others have already pointed out, their "characterization" was just one-dimensional bullshit and unfunny one liners. Just because it's more than the previous movies doesn't make it good. The filmmakers have refused to treat them like real characters for the most part, which is frustrating. You don't have to remove the human element to make the bot characters more endearing and have some depth. Just treat them like they matter instead of making them all into stereotypes, bumbling idiots, or one-dimensional "comic" relief. I mean, holy shit I can't believe what they did to Drift…wait yes I can.
And the fact that they set up an interesting explanation for the Dinobots, then completely fucking abandoned it was beyond irritating. Though of course it was entirely expected considering they've done that in all the previous films, editing out or forgoing scenes that would add to the story or answer questions. I think it's insulting how little regard they have for their audience that they will willfully create additional plot holes through lousy editing, but who cares because money.
The one thing I'm really interested in is if there will be actual, real continuity between TF4 and TF5. I'm sick of them pretending that elements from the previous films don't exist. Both ROTF and DOTM pretty much just retconned Megatron's reason for going to Earth, and I imagine the whole "creators" idea will likely end up contradicting one or more of the backstory elements established in the first three films, because the writers just don't care.
At least AOE basically gave a reason for old characters not reappearing. That's right, you can just assume that all your old favorites like "4 total lines in the film series" Sideswipe were brutally murdered by humans and Lockdown, just like Ratchet. Lovely.
But of course, I'm just bitching and whining because my ego allows me to understand that just because I enjoyed watching a movie doesn't mean it was actually a good film by any stretch of the imagination.
Ash from Carolina
I agree that the big problem for GI Joe is that A Real American Hero was a product of the Cold War era. Like other iconic fiction of the Cold War it's not easy to translate popular fiction of the Cold War era into the modern era, even the James Bond series has struggled to find it's way when the Soviets aren't around to be the film bad guys.
Although I'll have to disagree about dead. The same thing was said about GI Joe after Vietnam when reinventing into Adventure Team wasn't enough to save GI Joe as a strong brand. But then GI Joe got reinvented as A Real American Hero. Not sure when the brand will find new life but I'm not holding any GI Joe funeral any time soon.
And we are getting GI Joe 3 because Paramount also needs the midsized films not just the huge films so as a midsized film it brings in enough money.
Scrapper6
Nope, sorry, have to chime in here. You can't take what happened to G.I.Joe and compare it to Transformers.
Yes they are both IPs owned by Hasbro, yes they both tell similar stories in a way and feature colourful, memorable characters, however. And I can't stress this enough. G.I.Joe hasn't aged well due to the very nature of our ever evolving world.
Back in the 80's an American Terrorist Task Force was fine to tell stories about because they didn't need to worry about the many different cultures of the world, it was a slightly simpler time.
In today's modern world the basic plot of G.I.Joe is frowned upon mostly because of how everybody views America as a whole, and how other cultures have become an even greater focus as immigration and cultural changes have occurred.
Marketing A Real American Hero outside of America, especially as a live action film franchise where live-action films need the global chops to have other countries drop boatloads of cash to see it, is a hell of a lot trickier.
In all probability G.I.Joe is more than likely a dead IP considering how terrible it's performed both at Retail and at the boxoffice for the better part of 10 years now.
While I'll always be a fan of the basic characters of G.I.Joe I'm not going to kid myself in thinking that it's something that has the staying power of Transformers. A lot of military fiction is a hard sell these days due to the political climate of the world.
jessecuster
These robots were the least like their alt modes, of any movie yet.