Paramount Says Transformers is in the Same League as Star Wars and Star Trek

As stated by Paramount. Check out this BBC Article involving the date being pushed back for Star Trek:

Source Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7246641.stm

Sweet deal. I love Simon Pegg.

When you're talking about a franchise that's been making money for decades now, and the movies end up making hundreds of millions of dollars, yes, TF is in the same league as star trek and star wars.

Impressive. I like Star Wars, but I'm not a Star Trek fan though.

These films should go well together. There is a lot of hype about what going to happen in both films.

Also, many folks question whether a sequel could be better than what has come before.

It will be an interesting summer.

That is a huge insult to Star Wars.

Yeah it is.

Optimus shot first.

I don't Transformers is big enough yet to be considered among the likes of Star Wars and to a lesser extent Star Trek.

Are they trying to that Transformers the movie is on the same playing field as Star Wars and Star Trek?!
Wow! That's......really......special.......

I totally agree.

I didn't want to be the first to say it.

Eat That SW Fans!!!
(I aim that at the Rebblescum forum people who hate on TF!)

I think Paramount's jumping the gun comparing TF to the two Sci-Fi cornerstones, but Bayformers is arguably better than some of the recent adventures Trek and Lucas have given us. :/

The only Way Transformers will truly meet that claim is if they start focusing on some kind of soul to the mythos. Star Wars, love it or hate it, has so many characters that people love, because they are just that, characters, with distinct personalities and spirit to them.

The closest we ever got to seeing anything remotely close to expression on Transformers was Jazz's concern for Bumblebee and Optimus expressing sadness toward's Megatron's death.

I loved TF, but for it to be something more than a flashy summer movie, the next one has to invite some new elements and philosophies. Megatron did throw in the "Human's have no rights," "They have a right to choose for themselves" (paraphrasing obviously). But that conversation should have gone on longer and not while trading blows. Not that TF should be a hippy touchy feely movie, but for those characters to ever match the type of love that Star Wars characters have, we need a lot more than Bumble Bee pissing on a guy.

Take that Kevin Smith!!!

I've been saying for years the Transformers is in the same league as Star Trek and Star Wars. I believe now it's in a class above them.

I'm a big Star Trek fan, so I can say Star Trek's major successes come from it's venerability (it's the oldest of the three franchises) and the long-running tv series, less so for it's movies which have had mixed success - the last one was a box-office disaster.

JJ Abram's new Star Trek movie will probably revamp and revitalise the franchise, and hopefully make Star Trek 'cool' again.

Star Wars is a huge insult to Star Wars.


What did Smith say? I heard he and his friends mocked Transformers because the TFs spoke.

it's an insult to both star wars AND star trek if we're just talking about the movies (the artistic merit, history, etc.).

but despite not stating it explicitly, they have to be talking about the franchise as a whole. TFs certainly make tons of money; i'd have to guess just as much, if not more, than star wars. maybe i'm wrong, but it's gotta be up there after all these years of selling toys. the movie made tons DESPITE itself.

regardless, it's comparing apples to oranges. SW/ST are movie/show franchises first, sell product second. TF is a product (toy) franchise first, use shows/movies/etc. to help sell them second. granted, hasbro has been talking about TFs like it's now an entertainment property, but i shudder at the thought.

TF the same as ST or SW? Give me a break. Starwars is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, you can go to a villiage in the Congo, show them a poster to Star Wars, and they'll know what it is. Show them Transformers, and they'll look at you weird.

Starwars and Star Trek have managed to survive 30+ years without having to re-imagine the complete franchise each time. Sure there are a few ret-cons and plot errors, but the Bible has more errors.

I love TF, but lets be honest, StarWars CREATED the world of science fiction as it exists today. Sure, there were smaller Sci-Fi movies before it, but nothing existed in the scope of StarWars.

Transformers has not had anywhere near that kind of influence, The TF movie was no where NEAR as good as even the worst of the SW prequels or the crappiest ST movies.

Paramount is laughable and their resistance of switching over to Blu-Ray is proof of that.

Transformers did really well, but I think they're over-estimating things there a bit.

I'm pretty sure they just mean that they both have potential for summer blockbusterism and merchandise, and certainly aren't saying they are all equal as complete franchises. Still, I never would think Star Trek had the immediate merchandising prophitability as either Star Wars or Transformers.

Star Trek is for baby boomers. Star Wars is for Generation X. Transformers are for the future.

Kevin Smith would have preferred the TF movie to be about 30 minutes of silent killer robots fighting each other.

Why do a lot of Transfans have such low self-esteem? Why contribute time to a franchise you don't personally believe is all that great? In my lifetime Star Wars and Star Trek really didn't hit me like Transformers did. Sure I watch SW and ST from time to time. But the only merch I have in my home from those three franchises is Transformers. And that doesn't make me more of a geek than a guy who has a giant Darth Vader action figure or a model of the Enterprise. I also have Batman stuff too, which to me is better than SW and ST. It's all a matter of opinion anyway, but I figured at least people who post on a Transformers message board would hold Transformers in high regard.

Not after the Godawful prequels it isn't. I used to be a massive SW fan until I saw how unbelievably terrible all 3 of those movies were.

Well, i'm actually just going by the character he used in "Clerks 2".
The TF geek, that was so uncool compared to Star Wars fans.

Completely agree. As for any implied insult to Star Wars, I think the only insult has been the Star Wars Transformers to both Stars Wars and Transformers.

Oh please.

Exactly. I swear, between this and all the Michael Bay articles, does anyone on this site have at least high-school level reasoning skills?

Of course Transformers isn't as historic, timeless, or successful as those two franchises, but it was always their plan from the start to try and BUILD A NEW big sci-fi movie and merchandise franchise similar to Star Wars or Star Trek.

Transformers already has a long lineage of merchandise, and the first movie made $700 million, so its on its way.

You guys...

The slightly slanted news post titles don't help either. Such as "Michael Bay wrote transformers" or "Transformers is of Star Trek and Star Wars caliber," when thats not even what they said. Its more like, they are all big, expensive, profitable sci-fi summer blockbusters. Which is true. They didn't say "Transformers is a better franchise than Star Wars." In fact they didn't even compare them at all.

By saying "this is when the Star Wars and Transformers come out" they just used that as a euphemism for "big summer blockbuster." They are saying that the new Star Trek, and Star Trek as a whole, which has been off of the radar for soooo long and has fallen from grace, is going to be awesome, and it deserves to be in league with other super-franchises.

I do hold the franchise in high regard. But it's not The Be All End All thing I once made it out to be. I'm being level headed about it.

In your opinion, am I not level-headed because I hold Transformers in higher regard than Star Wars and Star Trek?

Yeah, keep believing that lonely argument.

It's abit too kind on Star Wars to say that perhaps the merchandising isn't as important as the story, given the fact merchandising and licensing was evidently never far from George Lucas' mind when he made Star Wars.

i second that, lowsy pieces od crap!

BTW isn't there a site that shows what's the franchise with the biggest fan base in the world?

i remember seeing it once long long long time ago, in a far away galaxy something like:
1. Star Wars
2. Star Trek
3. X-files (now you see how long ago i saw it )
4. Transformers

it's not as though a few of us hadn't already said the same thing


i have no problem believing it. i'm the most objective person i know. regardless, it made tons of money because people wanted to see mindless action and it sold tons of toys. mission accomplished. sequel on the way. i hope there's 10 more. i've never complained once. doesn't mean i don't know what a good movie is.

didn't really know that, but not a surprise. i never really got into SW at all; just watched the movies, that's about it. i knew everything spawned from the movie, though.

Got that right. Ep 1 and 2 were complete steamers compared to Transformers. Ep 3 was only mildly better than 1 and 2. THAT was an insult to Star Wars.

And the numerous comic, television, and video game properties (and now the movie) don't make it an entertainment property? Who cares what was released first. Star Wars is even moreso about selling stuff to kids.

i do. maybe i shouldn't. but i do. because once upon a time all of those things you mentioned only existed to sell the toys. there is no chicken and egg debate with TFs. the toys came first and everything else came later and revolved around the toys. i have no problem with the franchise evolving into primarily an entertainment one, as long as the toys always exist. i couldn't care less about cartoons, movies, comics, characters, games or anything else of the sort.

Yeah but, from the start the TF cartoon was there as a vehicle for the toys. And then there were the Marvel comics. It was always designed as a multi-pronged entertainment franchise, the way I see it.

I get the feeling that a lot people compare Star Wars to Shakespeare or the works of Edgar Allen Poe. You are delusional. Star Wars is popcorn entertainment, even Lucas himself would say so and I believe he has.

Whatever. It's promotion-speak from a studio guy who may or may not remember what he said ten seconds after he said it.

Studio guy? He's the friggin' creator of Star Wars. i would think he'd know better than anyone.

This article made me laugh. The movie wasn't THAT good.

So hilarious it's almost sig worthy.

as far as bring in money and box office draw, yes transformers is in the same league. but as far as it's impact on the industry and popular culture, the movie is far from the level of star trek and star wars. people don't attend bot con because of this movie, this movie exists because of things like bot con. the movie itself is pop corn entertainment. anyways, the films will be a huge success as the first was, but megatron will never be darth vadar and optimus will never be han solo.

Yeah, George Lucas waived his upfront fee as a director and negotiated to own the licensing rights for Star Wars, which is why there are SO MANY Star Wars products, because it directly made him his millions.

That's why I'm rather cynical when documentaries and such say he's a visionary storyteller.

Feralstorm was referring to the press release.

Because it's like Phazer's prediction that the movie would tank?

Wow, guess they don't have drug testing policy and someone was bored enough to spark a fan war.

You can't even really compare Star Wars and Star Trek much less they to somehow throw Transformers into the mix. All three have scenes in space and alien planets but that's about it. Star Wars has the iconic villians that Star Trek just doesn't replicate while Star Trek is about the crew bonds that Star Wars doesn't really replicate. Borg and Empire, Klingons and Bounty Hunters, Rebel Alliance and Star Fleet all really different critters.

On the bright side as easy as movie Transformers are to kill no debate over how wins in a fight between Star Wars, Star Trek, and Transformers.

Even with the fans, just go to one of the great geek gatherings and Star Wars fans are far different than Star Trek fans. One is base mostly around two sets of movies while the other fandom is based mostly around various TV series.

Right now it might be better to compare Transformers to Spiderman since they are both really monster sized summer films where both made insane amounts of money in spite sparking fan wars about disapointments in the film.

Still way too early in Transformers franchise to know for sure what it's going to grow into. Even with a widely popular following though it's still got to share Transformers with toy, comic book, and cartoon fans. First film seemed sort of the soul-less get something out to prove we can make money film, but perhaps the later films will have the big mythology that goes into a series like a Star Wars or Star Trek.

I grew up with Transformers not Star Wars or Star Trek but even I will admit there is no way Transformers is in the same league as Star Wars ESPECIALLY if we are comparing movies. I own the 2007 Transformer movie because I love Transformers inspired by the G1 show not because it is an amazing movie. It isn't. There is a lot of great action but there really isn't any great character building or dialogue like in Star Wars. The Star Wars characters are loved because of how well they are developed (I also agree with others that the first two prequels were godawful). There was no real character development in Transformers. You can't say I love that Starscream in the 2007 movie because of his interesting character (God I wish I could) because there was no character development for him. Great action? Yep. Great characters? No way.

Well, despite Transformers being a toy line and cartoon pretty much made to sell the latter, from the very begining I've been a bigger fan of Transformers over anything else. It's mostly the concept and potential for (internal) universe/mythos growth. Giant transforming alien robots is a much more creative then say aliens that are pretty much humans in suits, or space ships and Lightsabers. So when it comes to this type of story telling, if only in ideas or potential, Transformers is the bees-knees of Sci-fi action adventure (live action or animated).

That isn't to say that I think Transformers is king of the hill from an objective point of view, just that it still has the potential to be so. TFs still doesn't even come close to being as compelling or lovable as the orignal Star Wars trilogy. To this day I keep going back and forth on which one holds a bigger place in my heart. I would say that both have very compeling architypes (or should I say similar?) that stand well opposed to each other. Yeah, Megatron doesn't really measure up to the likes of Darth Vader. But, Optimus Prime (IMO) beats the likes of Yoda and Luke Skywalker hands down. I guess that comes down to, characters like Vader and Prime are very black and white architypes at the top of thier respective games. While Luke is growing and has potential, or Yoda who is weakend from age.

The new Transformers movie has also opened the door to other 80's and 90's properties, much in the same way Star Wars broght about (inspired) a slew of epic Sci Fi films. It's almost like a dream to even think that in '09 we will have live action films for Transformers and GI Joe. That's a little bit like going back in the day when you could watch the TF and Joe cartoons one right after the other. Except now it's more mature and taken to an epic level.

By this point, Transformers has earned the right to stand next to the likes of Star Wars or the icons of Super Hero's.