Is Optimus too violent in the movies?

Discussion in 'Transformers Movie Discussion' started by Cranckasional, Jun 29, 2014.

  1. Decepticons

    Decepticons B∆K. Bug-a-Boo Ghost.

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    At least this Optimus is realistic and has an actual character arc. If I had sworn to protect a race for several years and then they start trying to kill me and my friends in cold blood, then hell yeah, I'd be pissed.
     
  2. deathzero23

    deathzero23 Well-Known Member

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    ^THIS!!! End Of Debate! lol

    Seriously, people wanted a "John Cena" Optimus Prime? HELL NO.
     
  3. iceburn9

    iceburn9 Constructicon

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    As someone who loves heroes that don't blindly conform to moral codes (i.e. Jack Bauer), and will do whatever it takes to achieve an objective, I liked Optimus Prime's more ruthless streak this time around.
     
  4. Stevejr

    Stevejr Air commander TFW2005 Supporter

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    Give me your face......truly what Optimus prime is all about. He's been somewhat out of the usual Optimus character for awhile.
     
  5. ARCTrooperAlpha

    ARCTrooperAlpha Well-Known Member

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    clap clap. Good points.
     
  6. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    That's because he's not the usual Optimus.
    He aint G1, or Armada or Animated.

    All "usual" Optimii are for cartoons for small children.

    Movie Op is PG-13.
     
  7. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    And I'm glad Superman snapped Zod's neck!
     
  8. ARCTrooperAlpha

    ARCTrooperAlpha Well-Known Member

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    GASP !!!! You've just opened Pandora's Box !!!! I'm getting out of here !!!
     
  9. Batman

    Batman The Dark Knight TFW2005 Supporter

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    Except it wasn't the entire human race. It was a secret Government organization that manipulated even the President of the United States into believing that the Autobots were helping them take out the Decepticons.

    Instead of hiding in a movie theater and threatening to kill everyone, maybe Prime should have taken 5 minutes to call Lennox or General Morshower to see if they could figure something out.

    So am I, but that was a totally different situation. Zod was never going to stop, Zod was there because of Clark, Zod and Superman were on equal footing. I'm also pretty sure Superman was smart enough to dispose of Zod's corpse himself rather than leaving it for the army to experiment on.

    Prime killing Megatron is fine, Prime killing humans is wrong. It would be like Superman killing Lex Luthor or the Joker.

    Was Attinger a bad guy? Sure, but a sociopath wanting to commit mass genocide he was not. All dude wanted was some money, even if he had to kill a couple people and a few aliens he perceived as "machines with no souls" along the way.

    For me it just isn't so black and white. It was inevitable that Prime was going to kill a human at some point in these movie, but I was hoping more would be at stake when he finally did than "waaaahhh he's pointing a gun at my friend"
     
  10. MelficeCyrum

    MelficeCyrum Well-Known Member

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    You do remember that NEST was disbanded almost immediately after Chicago, right? The end of the Battle of Chicago marked the end of all joint Human/Autobot military activity. Even if Prime had contacted Lennox or Morshower, there's no guarantee they'd have any answers (and that's assuming Cemetery Wind didn't kill Lennox). There's a whole scene of the CIA blinding the President's chief-of-staff person to show they're covering their tracks.

    Also Attinger was sort of a sociopath. He wanted the Transformers dead because he had this paranoid belief that as long as they were on Earth that humanity would never be safe. The KSI drones were just icing on the cake. Attinger's death was utterly justified in every way.
     
  11. Brooklynwolf

    Brooklynwolf Well-Known Member

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    Firstly, I'm glad you mentioned primes behavior in AoE as I think it's wholly justified. His ruthless nature in the 1st 3 are an unfortunate byproduct due to bay wanting to make prime more edgy...

    But I don't agree with most of your post. As I mentioned in mine, the perfect prime that we strive to be had his time in the 80s. Where, once again, the enemies of that era posed NO immediate threat to anyone or anything. The usual convenient plot devices where the enemy escapes due to some stupid decisions made by prime and crew have been repeated time and again in every animated iteration of transformers. The most recent series TFP does the same shit with an OP that for all intents and purposes, is the same exact prime from G1...and people considered him boring until...guess what? He became more aggressive. And through that change, there was a new dynamic with the beloved character. He now has conflict outside of the battlefield. Therefore he is interesting to watch, because we can see him develop as *gasp*...a character!

    I don't mind change or reimagining of beloved characters, as long as they don't stray too far from the source material of course.

    Take batman for example. He's awesome in the comics. Cold, paranoid, calculating...basically due to (I forget, Morrison or Moore?) a writer, he became batgod...where a contingency plan has a contingency plan for plan b should plan z fail. Does that sound awesome? Sure, but it can get to be a bit much at times. Then we have Nolan's take on the character. Still kicks ass, but not as cold or calculating as the comic version. He is more human than batgod. And it's a refreshing take on the character. He isn't a prick to everyone he meets and close friends. But does that make him any less of batman?? Fuck no.

    Movie Prime is still a great leader. fearless, compassionate to humans (pre AoE) and his friends. His methods of sweeping the floor do not make him any less of a hero and certainly deserves the name of Optimus Prime.

    Many heroic leaders throughout real life history have also been brutal and showed the enemy no quarter. They are still viewed as heroes. And only because they were willing to put their hands in the mud are we able to live...well, relatively peacefully. The same goes for prime. Prime puts his life and his friends lives on the line to protect humans from tyranny. But oh let's just pick on his actions to keep that peace.
     
  12. Batman

    Batman The Dark Knight TFW2005 Supporter

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    I said if, if they could figure something out. There were a lot of people in NEST and I find it extremely unlikely Cemetary Wind had all of these people killed. With all of the work Prime did with the Government I'm sure he could have gotten in contact with someone. Hell they are Transformers, Prime could have disguised himself as a presidential limo and talked to the man himself.

    It's not paranoia, the Transformers are bad news for Earth. As long as either side inhabits our planet, they will continue to fight their war here and we will continue to be collateral damage. The entire point of building the KSI robots was to be able to have protection that we could control. The problem was that they underestimated Megatron, even in death, which again is why Prime should have disposed of his corpse along with all of the other dead robots after DOTM.
     
  13. Powersa

    Powersa Car Robots

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    Great analysis. Just wanted to say that Optimus started in TFTM as a "classic zen commander from G1 who was defined by his compassion for everything and everyone". Unfortunately a lot has changed. It's what humans can do to you. Evolution maybe, middle finger no.
     
  14. Silk Spectre

    Silk Spectre The Evil Queen

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    It's what the writers can/choose to do with a character. That's all.
     
  15. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    So Prime would have been more Optimus-like to allow Attinger kill Cade?
     
  16. Matty

    Matty @StayingInTheBox Veteran

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    I enjoyed reading your post. Good stuff.


    For me personally, I love Murder Prime. I've detached this persona from his Generation 1 character so I can enjoy both. Even with that said there is an element of blasphemy when Optimus Prime is written so far from the source material, I can't even deny that.

    I can't recall the exact context of the question, but I do remember at BotCon (either 2009? 2010? Idk) when Peter Cullen was asked for his thoughts on the personality of the live action Optimus Prime. His response wasn't exactly clear cut, but you definitely got the impression that Cullen thought/thinks Optimus Prime would never kill the way he's been shown. Does that mean anything? To me it does.

    Still, I want to emphasize that I love Prime in these movies, even in AOE. I don't feel the need to defend his personality or actions. I did that back for ROTF and realize now how futile that was. Maybe it's you either love or hate him; I'm fine with that. These movies are so polarizing that you really need to separate things from what you know to enjoy them to their fullest.
     
  17. TheSoundwave

    TheSoundwave Bounty Hunter

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    I really dislike Movie Optimus, AKA Murder Prime now. In the first 2 films he wasn't too bad, but then he killed Sentinel, and Megatron in cold blood. Besides the fact that his fighting style is too violent for a hero. Now, he kills humans, shoots up a KSI base in revenge, hits a guy on the head with his gun, and screams "I'll kill you" multiple times. I really don't even sympathize with him anymore, all I know is that he's definitely not the Optimus Prime that I used to know.
     
  18. MasterZero

    MasterZero Taking a Break

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    So killing evil Cons...Good? Killing evil humans? Bad.

    That's kind of messed up.

    He broke inanimate objects and KSI-bots that have no intellect and that were made from the body parts of his friends.

    Cause he was terrified. Have you ever met someone traumatized by violence? They have a tendency to be scared. While Prime wasn't traumatized, he was not exactly 'all there' due to the last thing he remembered is being attacked and badly injured.

    Either when he's terrified or incredibly angry. Both are justified.
     
  19. Powersa

    Powersa Car Robots

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    I've seen that before. Too generic.
     
  20. FeelingLuckyPnk

    FeelingLuckyPnk Decepticon Punks!

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    Buncha cry babies wah-wah Optimus said he will kill....