The Transformers movies definitely need a reboot, especially if Paramount wants to establish that 'greater universe' that's rumored, like the MCU or DC universe that's currently being established

I enjoy the Transformers movies, but as they are, with multiple plot holes and continuity errors, as well as things like poor character development, it would be very difficult to start expanding out into a larger universe at this stage. Something like that requires years of planning and development. Marvel has films planned for what, the next six year? Meanwhile, on the Transformers front, Age of Extinction was originally not going to exist, and was only went into development a year and a half, two years before its release

If Paramount wants this universe to work, they need to plan everything. Reboot the franchise, then give us lots of different stories that don't revolve around Optimus and Bumblebee and co. And we all know there's plenty to choose from - Give us Rescue Bots, Last Stand of the Wreckers, , MTMTE, a war origin story. Hell, give us Combiner Wars. Transformers is easily one of the biggest fictional universes currently established, right up there with the likes of Marvel and DC. There's a massive number of characters and potential story lines to choose from - But it needs to be done right, and, I can't stress this enough, it needs to be thoroughly planned

The movies as they are have the potential to expand the universe in some fashion, but a reboot would make things a lot easier, and potentially better for the franchise

EDIT: Apologies for any typos/grammatical errors. It's 3am when I'm typing this, so I'm really tired

 

They could if they made a prequel. I've said this to death but I really think it would work.

 

That would be kinda interesting,... it would explain Bumblee's presence and maybe Soundwave's. They could have the Autobots originally being on Earth during the 80s and then leaving except for Bumblebee.

 

Same here. I've enjoyed the current series, but if they seriously want a credible and coherent cinematic universe then it ideally needs a reboot and some forward planning rather than retconning from stuff that was made up on the fly. Plus four films in, in an 'traditional' linear format and it feels a bit of an afterthought now, whereas wrapping up the current movie series with the next film and starting things afresh might renew interest a lot more.

 

I love the idea of a cinematic universe with spin-offs and the like. However, I just don’t believe it can be achieved with the current film “canon”. We all know there is no canon to speak of. Each subsequent film has almost completely overridden the film that’s preceded it. It’s been this way since ROTF and will no doubt continue with TF5. If they really want to create a “Transformers Cinematic Universe” (which is a great idea on paper), then I think they need to press the reset button first.

 

I'm just not sure if there is that much prequel material for a film that is going to have be set on Earth to fit within the budget constraints.

Megatron is on ice as soon as he gets to Earth so just watching him in a block of ice for over two hours wouldn't be exciting film making.

Bumblebee didn't seem to be on Earth long enough for lots of adventures before teaming up with Sam.

Jetfire didn't have any exciting stories about anything on Earth going on with the Seekers before Prime and company showed up.

The Fallen's first trip to Earth wasn't the sort of material to build an entire film around.

Sure they keep changing around when any Transformers first encountered our planet and things get more convoluted with the continuity to work in a visit no one on Cybertron remembers but it seems all the big action is the first film or mostly just on Cybertron.

 

I'd be in favour of a reboot movie, but only if there was a looooooong gap between the last movie in the current series and the first one in the rebooted series, I'm talking eight years at the very least (such as the gap between Batman and Robin and Batman Begins) and maybe fifteen or sixteen years at the most (such as the gap between Roland Emmerich's Godzilla and Gareth Edwards' Godzilla). Give the general public time to forget and/or stop giving a damn about Transformers, so the rebooted continuity feels fresher and can appeal to a completely new generation of children. Hasbro can just focus on Transformers TV shows, video games and comic books in the mean time.

In my opinion, any gap less than eight years between old and new continuities is too short. I wasn't comfortable with The Amazing Spider-Man coming out only five years after Spider-Man 3, and I'm not overly pleased with Marvel Studios' Spider-Man coming out a mere three years after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, or Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice coming out four years after The Dark Knight Rises. So if a Transformers reboot came out only three or four years after the last film in the current series it just wouldn't feel right to me.

 

I agree. Everyone here thinks that 5-6 years and a reboot will do the trick but honestly we'd have to wait at least a decade before that'd ever happen.

But come to think of it, I can see why they won't just reboot. The transformers as a franchise brought in lots of people when the movies started kicking in so it's reasonable Hasbro wants to keep all possible ways of bringing in new fans, be it toys, tv shows, movies, games, etc. (though they REALLY need to just stop with all the phone video games and come out with another freaking console game already, and a GOOD one at that...but that's another topic).

 

well I want a reboot, for a couple important reasons,, first off since they are doing an Expanded Universe, they would need a reboot since the movies we already have are contradictory but not only that but Stupid things like "Bumble bee could not talk but then he NOW he can, he just chooses not too." and "They came to earth shaped as asteroids and not on a ship." need to go away as if they never happened (which are some of the lamest things I have ever seen when they did that in a TF's universe) also they need to change their look and make them less "alien" and more robotic , the way they have looked in the movieverse doesn't just jive with me in a lot of ways. They look like 'Alien shape shifters' more than Transformers. They need to be less "Bug like" and more Robotic.. to me they look to much the same and it's had to tell who's who is a lot of cases...so a reboot to bring them back to the simplicity of the Gen1/RID/AEC "Robots in Disguise" days when they looked like Robots and not some "serpent like creature from Mars" and a simple story line of them crashing in a spaceship on earth is what needs to be done..that way unanswered questions from the movies can be pushed aside..

 

You're so right about this.

We need time to actually pass. If Hasbro stopped with the movies every few years and focused on its cartoons and comics. It could do well for the time being and the reboot could finally shine.

 

This is a reboot discussion that has merit, since the possibility actually exists (and it's not based on trolls or fanboy anger). I don't believe there is way a TCFU can proceed with the quality needed to build and maintain an audience without rebooting.

Seeing giant robots beat the crap out of each other will only go so far, and I think they've expended the fuel on that one. We're four movies in and the audience knows very little about the Cybertronians as a people. That should not be the case. But it's fully due to the wrong turn the franchise made at ROTF, in which spectacle became primary, and all characterization and story had to be filtered through it. While that makes a fun movie-going experience, it's a losing strategy from both an artistic and audience retention perspective. Apparently, TPTB think this as well, so copying the Marvel approach is their ticket out of the story-telling corner in which they find themselves.

For the TFCU to prosper, it will need to focus on the Cybertronians as characters in a story-arc that includes stakes for the other robots, not just Optimus and Bumblebee. Let the audience see the other robots struggle with something, or laugh, or sing, or reminisce. Have the Cybertronians not only be central to their own story, but peripheral, let the humans be tertiary. And for crying out loud, don't kill any of the robots or make them disappear off-screen. While Hasbro may want that for toy sales, it's not a good way to engender and maintain an audience.

 

Well i wasn't really talking about a movie on earth. Like you said i would like for it to be mostly on Cybertron if possible. Ya know it would be like in the comics, where the war broke out on Cybertron during the early days. Have them show Megatron turning evil and what not, Bee losing his voice and even better would be seeing the Allspark being shot into space or something. These arre just cool concepts of what a prequel transformers qould be be like.

 

I think a film set on just Cybertron would have to be a cartoon movie since the budget and rendering time would be such a massive problem.

If they decided to do like DC and do animated films for movies that can't be swung in live action then it could be pulled off. But so far we don't know if the big film universe plan involves anything that isn't live action.

 

A cinematic universe would work much better with a reboot, but I guess I could see one working around what we have now... I'd just like to see some more development for Starscream, Ratchet, and Shockwave in the movies, if we're going to be having flashbacks to past adventures or things of that nature.

 

I'd be completely fine with a reboot. I love the Bayformers films but they need to flesh out and focus more on the actual robots themselves.

 

I think a reboot would refresh things and undo a lot of the stuff that's going to hamper future TF movies. But while these movies are still making money it's not likely to happen. It's just going to get messier and messier, even moreso if they try to bring other Hasbro properties into the same universe.

Possibly. Unless they just do different stories around the world here. But then that's not really going to differentiate any spin-offs from the current run.

The problem with any Transformers movie spin-off (if it's Transformers-centric) is the general public are likely going to consider it just another Transformers movie rather than a Transformers movie set in the same universe. The advantage the Marvel universe movies have is they each centre around one or two clearly defined hero characters that makes them different enough from each other to be able to tell them apart and also to stand on their own. Then when you get something like Avengers it's even more fun seeing this group of characters come back and interact with each other.

With Transformers, at least in this current live-action universe, I don't feel like there's enough focus on the TF to be able to create that framework and build a structure on that. For it to even begin to happen these live-action movies need to move right away from having the Transformers be secondary, or even sometimes background, characters in their own movies. There's always going to be the temptation to put humans or cheaper characters (such as people in alien make-up) front and centre, and then any universe that comes out of that still won't be a Transformers universe.

Sure, you can bring in M.A.S.K. and GI Joe and whatever as separate-but-connected movies to vary things, but then imagine trying to bring that mish-mash together with Transformers to make an Avengers-style team movie. This current universe and the people making the movies of it can barely handle just Transformers on its own.

 

Pretty sure it is NOT Hasbro pushing Paramount to make a new Transformers movie every other year (though they certainly don't mind the increased sales and attention it brings   ).
Hasbro actually doesn't see much profit from the movies themselves, what they DO see is the increased exposure and sales those movies generate.


I agree with general consensus that for a "Transformers Cinematic Universe" to even be feasible with ANY sort of quality, they are going to have to "start over", and reboot. I STRONGLY suspect the performance of TF5 within the next couple years will impact how soon we see such a reboot (I'm fairly certain TF5 is going to at least wrap up the threads from TF4, it made too much money to leave it hanging).

Personally, I think the biggest thing that needs to be addressed with the movies is "tone". While glimpsed in the first, the subsequent films all screwed heavily to spectacle, action, and teen humor which continues to pull the film away from the the simple themes that made the first well as well liked as it was (and it WAS well liked, despite retroactive hate that as sprung up in the years and sequels since).

To me, the film needs to skew back towards a "family friendly"-ish adventure with normal people being caught up in events beyond their imagination. Up to me, I'd push for (at least the first rebooted film) as something closer to Super 8 with a strong emphasis on the initial Transformers characters we see, with less teen humor and relationship drama.

 

The problem with trying to invoke Super 8 is that it would still largely be focused exclusively on the humans. The alien isn't ever shown in any real capacity until the last ten-fifteen minutes of the film, which while is the whole idea of amplifying its big reval at the end, the movie is named after the film type the kids are using to record their own little production, not the alien. In fact, it could be argued the alien is more of a prop than a "character" for how much the movie even focuses on it.

For Transformers, the films need to focus more on the actual titular alien robots. The multi-lead PoV approach in the first film from the human standpoint worked well enough as it kept a tone of mystery - these are aliens who have the power to hide in plain sight as common vehicles or machinery, and the story is told from radically different angles.

ROTF and on? That mystery about the Transformers is gone, but somehow the view point now focuses exclusively on Sam and Mikela's relationship problems. Then it becomes his relationship with the hot piece of tail he landed at the White House after the previous girl - who he spent two films chasing - up and dumps him. And then the fourth film doesn't even have Sam anymore, so they have to cram in a bunch of new characters for the absolutely unnecessary teen romance crap.

Which is where I think the key problem with the human element in these films exist: the forced romance subplots overshadowing the main plot. Like, seriously, the only worthwhile human parts in ROTF pretty much involve all the dudes who aren't common civilians - Lennox, Epps, even Simmons (because no way is keeping a basement of conspiracy evidence that his own mother doesn't know exists considered 'common') - because they are far more appropriate and can handle active combat situations well.

No. We keep getting films throwing common civilians headlong into open warfare situations where they're running for their lives, and that is more the focus than the actual fighting robots.

 

Yeah.. not happening anytime soon. Not as long as Paramount goes forward with this "universe"

 

I haven't seen Super 8 but I'd be ok with that kind of feel. The movie should be more family friendly or bare minimum PG-13.