For all we know, Terrorcons may be a subgroup of the Decepticons in this movie. And I hope there's a good chunk of time to flesh out the story and characters too 'cause so far this sounds a bit overstuffed.

 

And then...... and then he falls through the ice, all his dino flesh is stripped away and he's just a grody metal man, until somehow Archibald Witwicky finds him and then he ends up inside the- wait, that doesn't work.

Oh well, hasn't stopped them before.

 

‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Plot, 1990s Setting Revealed – The Hollywood Reporter

I kind of do like how the director is putting the focus on Optimus Prime.

 

I'm not done yet, but man i have never been more disappointed with a Transformers announcement. Just logistics this sounds exhausting from a story telling and budget stand point.

I mean 5 factions?
How many characters can you possibly show per faction?

How many models can you afford to make?

Will the guys from the opening of Bumblebee be there?

We are still limited by the Bay movies?
Any word on the 07 movie/G1 cast who are THE MAIN Autobots or are we just going to play this game of Bumblebee and Optimus forever, but everyone else is background color?

where is Megatron? Is there room for him?

What happen to all that talk about character driven and heart, was it all bullshit?

I can go on. Its just not filling me, a pretty positive fan, with hope.

 

I think it's pretty clear to see what they're doing, they want to have their cake and eat it too so they set the movie in a timeframe where they can avoid headbutting with those films while gauging what to do in the future.

 

Yeah, I think this pretty much sums it up.

 

Schrodinger's continuity, its either a reboot or still in the old universe until it's out and we can see how incompatible or compatible the movies are. Then again... The old movies does have some contradictions because of lack of explanation.

 

Really it's only four. I don't think Decepticons are going to be in this?

Plenty when one is so well-established it needs no introduction, and the Maximals and Predacons sound more like sub-factions of an overall "beast race." Functionally I predict it will be more like three factions. (Autobots+Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons)

A lot, apparently. I mean think of it like this: the TF movies have always had a shitload of CGI models, they've just always been utterly wasted.

Probably not? Arcee is there, but Mirage is new, and the BB opening guys were never anything more than quick cameos. Even the number of pods from the end was incongruous with the number of Autobots in the beginning, so it's not like they were placed there to be established for future films.

We're clearly not. The story is already eschewing any semblance of Bay continuity. Optimus and Bumblebee are bumming around in the 90's, acquainting themselves with human culture. I said it before, but DiBonaventura's insistence on continuity seems more like the desperate cries of a man clinging to relevancy as the brand moves on without him. How he's not fired I still genuinely do not understand, but this joker was attached to the BB movie as well and that turned out fine.

I mean, they rather boldly introduced two new Autobots. I find it funny that you complain about potential baggage form the Bay movies but then insist on the 07 cast? If it's a reboot, why would they need to redo those characters? Wouldn't it be beneficial to establish a new core cast, like they're seemingly doing with Arcee, Mirage, etc?

Probably not in this film, and probably not much room. It seems clear the main antagonist force is the Terrorcons. I can only speculate, along with everyone else, but I wouldn't be surprised if they "save" Megatron and the Decepticons to be a larger scale, more tangible threat later on. The TF movies constantly forced the 'Cons as we knew them into secondary villain roles to make way for some other main villain when it ought to have been reversed. Perhaps that's the intention with this new continuity, to have incidental villains as the lesser threat? If the Terrorcons end up wiped out by the end of this movie, we're not down key recurring characters. (my biggest problem with BB is that Shatter did not survive, when she could've been a great recurring villain IMO)

I mean, it seems pretty character driven based solely on the fact that it seems to be all about characters. Optimus' motivations are spelled out, but we're getting the same level of introduction for the TFs in this info reveal as we normally got for human characters in the Bay films, with the robots sometimes not even conclusively named until the film release. In fact the focus between bots and humans in this reveal was the exact inverse as what we normally got from Bay, with the humans as little more than footnotes at the end.

I mean, that's fine, it definitely sounds at risk of being overstuffed. But it also sounds like the Transformers are the forefront attraction. Their different factions, personalities, and purpose in the plot being given more prominence in this early promotional stage of production than they arguably received in some of the Bay films themselves. Simple things like Optimus Primal being protective of his group, or Nightbird being a turncoat, are qualities we hardly ever see until the films are out... and they're usually quite shallow anyway. It's hard to say, obviously, if it'll be successful or not until we learn more, (and assuming this will all remain exactly the same till the end of production) but the production crew definitely seem eager to please, and eager to take advantage of the appeal of Transformers. Unlike Bay who seemed ambivalent to the whole concept, and wanted to break away from the core tenants of the franchise rather than adhere to it, this sounds like an actual Transformers movie about Transformers. I'm willing to stay open-minded until we start seeing things crystalize closer to release.

My biggest personal beef is the Incan culture connection. I am so tired of "Transformers are tied to some historical thing" and it really feels like a vestige of the Bay films. Even Bumblebee had the really dumb "Decepticons invented the Internet... about ten or so years after it was already conceived" bit that admittedly was such a minor thing. Though descriptions make it sound like, to me, the Maximals observed Incan culture and adopted it, but did not influence or engage in it, so hopefully we can avoid too much "ancient aliens" buffoonery.

 

I'm going to be straight with you. I was hoping you (@SPLIT LIP) wpuld walk me off the figurative ledge. Big thank you!

 

Glad I could help.  

I do remain cautiously optimistic, simply because without seeing this stuff for ourselves you never know, but honestly I wish we had gotten reveals like this back during the Bay era where all they seemed to care about is which kinda-sorta big name actor they convinced to play a bit part.

I'll take Rhinox over John Malkovich in a TF movie any day of the week.  

 

Nothing out of Lorenzo's mouth can be trusted. He is a two-faced liar through and through.

 

Glad to hear that Primal's design won't look quite so much like a gorilla with Optimus Prime's head stitched onto it.

 

  I was thinking that while reading that description as well. I don't dislike the TLK design, but I think they can do better.

 

For all these robot characters and faction, Director Cable Jr maybe need longer screentime for storytelling and able to develope all characters well...at least 140 minutes to 160 minutes will be fine...and since Terrorcons and Predacons are in it, please bring in Combiner Predaking and Abominus!

 

I'm still confused as to whether this film is TF6 or TF7. Did Paramount consider Bumblebee to be TF6?

 

To make things even more confusing Bay is producing so there's that to consider when talking about what cinematic universe its in.

 

Lol that's true. Remember when he said we were getting a sequel to The Last Knight?

 

Its Bumblebee 2, don't worry about those numbers. It doesnt mean anything in the long run

 

That all sounds real nice! Now if they can be on screen for more than 10 seconds behind people talking, we could be onto a winner. Hoping his character descriptions are unveiled in screen and not just box bios.

 

Didn't we used to be able to downvote posts?!