Movie Soundwave is quite an interesting case, isn’t he? He’s neither one of the best nor one of the worst. He isn’t collectively hated by fans like some of the other movie characters, but he isn’t praised either. He is just contently sitting in the middle ground.

Personally, I really liked his design and portrayal. His voice lacking the vocoded effect made him even more emotionless and calculated than his other counterparts. I thought that was really nice. His satellite design in RotF is perfectly in line with Soundwave as a character. He’s the eye in the sky watching everything. He just should have actually done something in the films! His robot mode is one of the few designs that actually looks like an iteration of the character rather than a complete departure.


As for the DotM design, while the Mercedes may not be super fitting, it does make sense for someone like Soundwave to become a vehicle that you wouldn’t expect him to be, just like you wouldn’t expect him to be a streetlight or a cassette player. The whole point of Transformers hinges on the fact that they can turn into anything to disguise themselves. However, he probably should have shed the disguise after he had revealed himself. His blue speaker disks were a very neat callback to his boombox era self.

Unfortunately, the downside is the fact that Soundwave is given almost nothing to do in the films. In RotF, he got completely shafted in favor of stupid stuff like Sam’s college shenanigans, or Sam’s parents’ trip to France. Why couldn’t he have been at Megatron’s revival instead of Ravage? Many consider him to be Megatron’s most loyal follower, yet all he does is float around in space doing some hacking and information relaying. He also dies, and that SUCKS.

I think in DotM, it would have been really amazing if they had made it so Soundwave has many different alt-modes throughout the film. Laserbeak turns into Bumblebee to trick that little girl, so what stops Soundwave from doing so and tricking Carly? There’s limitless potential for Soundwave to transform into different things similarly to Laserbeak. It could add an air of mystery as to who is actually a Decepticon? Like, what if they revealed Que or one of the other Autobots to actually be Soundwave in this twisted transformation a la John Carpenter’s The Thing?

P.S. Laserbeak was going to transform into a penguin at one point.

 

I love that Laserbeak concept art.

 

The satellite mode was a rare moment of unqualified genius in these movies and I'm surprised it hasn't been used since.

 

Soundwave gets a few nice moments to shine in the DOTM game if you ever played that too. The ROTF game / Toy design I think stands pretty well for a modern incarnation, it had an interesting dilemma of it's design being tossed around for a while until we got what we got. I think the studio series line screwed up that design bad though.

 

The satellite mode is an ideal upgrade on what he could transform into for modern iterations post G1.

His minions are shining stars. Whether it's Ravage or Laserbeak.

Frank Welker comes back to voice this character. Fun fact, he also supposedly voiced him in French, Spanish and Italian dubs during ROTF.

During TF2007, it's cool that they considered him to be in the movie only for him to replaced with Barricade; Blackout and eventually Frenzy.

 

Thought he was pretty cool as a satelite and the concept art design was cool
Lost me in DOTM, though. His design and even lacking the Soundwave voice made him Soundwave in role only (Although mostly only in ROTF). Even then he had the generic shit most Decepticons do like drooling as if they're animals or something and then dying 5 seconds into a fight.
He's far from the worst things out of these movies, but compared to other major incarnations of Soundwave, yeah no.

 

All I'll say about Soundwave's DOTM design is that if they used the blue variation of his car he would have looked so much better.

 

He was one of the few characters that the bayverse didn’t screw up

 

This is the only thing that I necessarily disagree with. Soundwave had the same voice in the films as he did in G1 and Prime. The only thing that is different is the vocoded filter. The voice itself can be heard clearly in this video:

Everything else you said is perfectly valid. I wished he had been given some more time to do some actually cool shit. But nah, we need to see Sam's mom get high at college.

In response to that, I bring you images of Gladky's custom.  

 

The filter is pretty much half of the voice. I mean you can hear the impact on it in the video you sent

Cool custom btw

 

RotF Soundwave is one of my favorite interpretations of the character and I really like his design. DotM Soundwave felt like a step down, trading a cool and unique satellite alternate form for yet another car mode (in relation to all the other cars featured in the movie). The RotF Deluxe figure is still a personal favorite of mine as Soundwave was my favorite character as a kid.

 

To me, the stone-cold, emotionless, and growling delivery has always been one of the most important aspects of Soundwave's voice. Jon Bailey's performance in Bumblebee and many impressions of the G1 character don't really have the oomph that Frank Welker's voice does because they overlook that aspect of growl and harshness in the voice. It feels empty without it.

Bringing it to the forefront in the films was a cool direction, as it brings Soundwave's snakish and devious characteristics to the forefront along with it. I mean, the delivery of, "Laserbeak. Kill them all." was absolutely spine-chilling.

 

This. Without the effect it just sounds like Dr. Claw, who isn't Soundwave. It was clearly a mistake in the episode(s) he lacked it, and it wouldn't have been much of an issue to add it and yet they still didn't.

 

Love Movie Soundwave. Both of his designs are great, Frank Walker is awesome and I love this one being the sort of bare bones voice, and his minions were great. While he unfortunately didn’t have a whole lot to do, I think this iteration is more than acceptable as an adaptation of the character while also being its own thing.

 

I love movie Soundwave despite the little scenes he is in, even though he didn't get into the action a lot he still affected the plot in the movies.

Didn't really mind the lack of vocoder effects to his voice because it manage to give Soundwave this sinister feeling that differentiate him from his other versions.
In my opinion, "No prisoners only trophies" & "Lasebeak kill them all" are better than "Soundwave superior..." since those phrases aren't overly used and delivered better.

I defend his Mercedes mode in DOTM because he had a purpose in that form, sure he is another car former but Soundwaves pulled the look very well having his own identity like the speakers around him and wide chest. Sure he can be blue like he was in G1 but then it wouldn't be much of a disguise to the fans if the Mercedes was blue, maybe he could change colors after revealing himself like ANIMATED Shockwave but that is really a minor nitpick. Ironhide, Ratchet and Sideswipe didn't have their G1 colours and it didn't really bothered....most people.

The only con I have with him is he went down like nothing and didn't took down anybody in the prisoner scene.

 

that penguin laserbeak is one of the cutest murder death things I have seen.

 

So... pretty much Soundwave, then? Appearance aside, Bayverse Soundwave has the same position and rank, the same role as a spymaster, the same telecommunication-based abilities, the same sidekicks, and the same loyalty to Megatron as he did in G1. All that's different is his colouration (and I think Soundwave's been silver before) and his voice, which is actually a justified change.

If you want a more verbose Soundwave, the vocoder voice is the first thing to go, because it gets in the way of any extended dialogue from the character. And to be honest, possibly because of a slight attachment to the IDW 2005 Soundwave, I would prefer a more eloquent Soundwave than a Decepti-Siri.

And, to be honest, personality and role are just as important as voice or appearance in establishing a character.

Take the 1998 Godzilla for example. When that movie first came a lot of people hated the interpretation and still hate it to this day. Why? Because Roland Emmerich did not commit to anthropomorphising Godzilla, instead, attempting to make him an animal trying to survive. Plenty of fans would have accepted a horizontal Godzilla - I know I would have done - but the way he was portrayed was the reason why the film was so hated.

Conversely, Godzilla: the Series was fondly received, despite the fact that the titular character was using the G98 design. Why? Because, despite still having the Emmerich design, he had some of the Japanese Godzilla’s traits and acted more like him overall - he had the atomic breath and was portrayed as a heroic character, fighting the more antagonistic mutations, much like his Showa counterpart.

Having said that, though, I've always thought the ROTF Mindwipe toy would make for a pretty good Soundwave.

 

You seriously wanna do this shit again? His roles are secondary stuff, Soundwaves whole character is his design (mainly color) and voice, they are the two things that nearly every ideration of him share.

 

Well, no. A character's identity does not lie entirely in their voice or appearance - sometimes, it's how the character acts or what role they play that is just as important in establishing who they are.

G1 Soundwave is a Decepticon lieutenant with telecommunication abilities, who acts as a spymaster, has Ravage and Laserbeak for sidekicks and is loyal to Megatron. Bayverse Soundwave is a Decepticon lieutenant with telecommunication abilities, who acts as a spymaster, has Ravage and Laserbeak for sidekicks and is loyal to Megatron.

And, again, you can't blame them for wanting to change the voice - if you want a more eloquent Soundwave, the vocoder voice is the first thing to go, because it gets in the way of any extended dialogue from the character. Changing the voice isn't bad at all.

To be honest, I'd like a portrayal of Soundwave who is quiet, but eloquent, who uses his spies to keep an eye on everyone and serves the Decepticon cause above all - sort of think Varys from Game of Thrones. That would be a great way of reconciling a more eloquent Soundwave with his consistent role.

 

You keep saying this over and over again and I got zero clue what you're trying to get at.
What makes Soundwave Soundwave are usually his voice and design, not his role. Just look at Animated and Cybertron. When people think Soundwave, do they think of the voice and design first or his role as the Decepticon in the G1 cartoon?

The whole voice changing point doesn't make sense either because in the ROTF game Soundwave is constantly speaking with a vocoded voice and I've never heard anyone complain about it