This is hilarious. I love it when fans take a very critical measuring stick to determine the quality of the movies and then toss that stick out the window when they praise their favorite flavor of Transformers. Give me a break. All TF fiction is one big toy commercial. The only series with a consistent level of depth and quality was Beast Wars. Beating up the movies because they are a "laughing stock" makes you look like a Pokemon collector who mocks people who collect Digimon.

 

Uh, yeah, I've got More Than Meets the Eye here on the line? It wants to talk to you. Something about "The Low Road"?

 

I think it depends on when you were born and where you lived. Wear a G1 tee-shirt around a certain age demographic of Americans and everyone recognizes it. Wear that same shirt around much younger people in other parts of the world and they would have to ask who the heck is that?

If you didn't live in the 80's then there just isn't anyway to understand just how massively huge Transformers was in the 80's. The movie industry was different back then and TV was the force ruling pop culture. It wasn't like these days where you get a massive pop culture movie almost every month, back in ye old days you might have to wait years between massive pop culture movie events. TV was king back then and a show like Transformers could catch on like wild fire because TV had not been like that before the rules on kids cartoons changed. Everyone didn't go to the movie theater, but everyone watched TV.

I'm also not sure saying out of nowhere and nothing works for Transformers. That's kind of like saying well gee X-Men came out of nothing. Cartoons, comic books, there was Transformers material out there just like there was material before any of the superhero films. Even with Pirates the movie might have been based off of a ride at Disney but that ride had been influenced by the age of swashbuckling films and the popularity of books like Treasure Island. Almost impossible to find a film that wasn't influenced by some sort of other material.

I think people are also being short sighted if they don't see that fan fight is an old battle. Different age groups have battled over what Star Trek should be like, what Superman should be like, what Spider Man should be like, what James Bond should be like. Any franchise that runs long enough will hit the day when a group of fans is going to feel stabbed in the back. Never delight in the misery of an older generation of fans because one day a younger group of fans will be in the position to dump on you. Because if you think Transformers will stay like the movies forever then let's talk about the amazing deal I can offer you on the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

My bad. I was only thinking of film and animated fiction. I'm a big fan of the comics and consider MTMTE a great book in general.

 

Indeed. I have no problem with people hating the movies, but calling us movie fans "mindless drones" with no taste really crosses from crapping on the movies into crapping on fellow fans.

 

Same for me but this thread has also convinced me to go see TLK a few times just for shits and giggles.

 

- The live action Transformer films are becoming the face of the franchise.

"That's bullshit! Hahahaha, no they're not!"

- The live action Transformer films are becoming the face of the franchise.

"The Bayformer films have ruined our franchise! Our fandom has become the laughing stock!"

"But they aren't the face of the franchise!"

 

And that's the pathetic angst I was referring to.

 

The transformers movies have been undeniably successful. Financially, and in the mainstream too. They are THE Transformers as far as everyone I meet day to day is concerned. I'm just kind of sad that these movies weren't used to "bridge" what old, long time fans love with the mainstream audience appeal like other movie adaptations. They're their own take on transformers entirely, and are in many cases, glorified commercials with cg monsters.

 

Yes, the Transformers films have demonstrated how with the bar minimum amount of references you can loosely adapt a popular children's franchise into a barely recognize pile of generic action shlock.

Better example of successful Hollywood adaptations: Marvel. The MCU is both financially *and* critically successful.

 

Except they haven't. Beast Wars stuff shows up all the time with homages and the media tie-ins.

 

At least in DotM it was a facade. In the G1 cartoon version they really did seriously leave Earth in the hands of the Decepticons.

 

But is not a priority since they are cashing out on the movies and rebooting a G1 cartoon every 5 years or so.

 

Lets be real, you didn't need a this thread to go see it a 'few' times....    

 

Yeah G1 is pretty daft outside of the animated Movie, but it had to start somewhere.

 

This thread is a big fight over click-bait.

 

Imagine being an Animated fan or Unicron trilogy fan or a Prime fan or an RiD2k fan.

How often do they get thrown a bone?

 

I think for some the point kind of flew over their heads or they curved the point over them. The current movies tend to be the most recognizable aspect of the brand with most average people, excluding transformers fans. Obviously, fans of this brand are bound to be more rounded in the brand with the multiple cartoon iterations, games and toys.

For anyone outside the TF brand if you ask what colors does optimus prime sport they'll tell you red and blue with flames, or more accruately, "the red and blue truck with the flames, right?"

Doesn't mean it's the right kind of recognition the brand might endure as you'd want them to be able to tell you what exactly prime has done in the movies. Most people forget because, well, they simply hadn't tried hard enough to make the transformers actual memorable characters the first 3 movies. Then you have ROTF being this series's shit stain that kind of smears across the others almost automatically and definitely unfairly.

Aside from that though, No one was downing the content that came before the movies yet here in this thread we have people feeling so threatened they have to lump the movies, and it's fans, together into some junk pile that should be forgotten forever. And then the whole "respect where it came from" speech. Jesus Christ people.

Quick back story on how I myself became a fan of this brand:

I am one of the people these movies brought in. I did. Not. Care for transformers period until I saw the first movie on Tv. Then ROTF came out and it got me interested enough to look up who devastator, the fallen and arcee was in previous lore which lead me to G1. Saw the whole first season online then anytime it came on Tv. Then saw the movie. My next tf series was armada because the movie games were so amazing to me I branched out to other tf games and discovered the armada based game and thought it was a true work of art of a game. Here comes DOTM some time after, getting me interested in who shockwave was in the comics in particular. Then we have TF Prime which I thought was amazing, though not so well received by others and I tend to leave RiD alone, despite it being a sequel show to Prime.

My point is that the movies can get a person with enough curiosity to actually search out the source material and beyond. I think derogitoy "G1'er" terms exist because some people go above and beyond to defend G1 or their favorite/childhood iterations of the brand. Which is all fine and dandy until fellow fans are insulted. However this goes for "movie-ers" as well. I've seen the sins of both sides since I've joined in 2011, but in THIS thread specifically I have yet to see movie fans crapping on g1 the way the g1 fans have been crapping on the movies.

 

As someone who branched out from the movies to Beast Wars, Animated, High Moon, IDW, and the rest, I can soundly say that the movies are one of the two best things to happen to the franchise (the other being Beast Wars). The movies were/are the Beast Wars of their time, revitalizing the franchise and funding other stuff along the way like Generations. And they're the face of the franchise to modern audiences who didn't grow up with G1, no ifs or buts about it. The movies are the G1 to a generation of kids and fans.

I think yes, we got off very well compared to other franchise adaptations. 10 years and 5 movies proves that to me.