Yup.

Honestly a lot of this can be retconned and cleaned up in a sequel

 

Wasn't talking to you?

 

I don't see a problem with a *pregnant pause* Hasbro Cinematic Universe, as it were.

Reality is I don't see G.I. Joe ever existing in a format targeted toward children again. So making it a PG-13/PG action movie, or TV series might work. There's a ton of material to mine from the Marvel comic series.

Realistically though, these are all trash movies designed to sell toys - despite any nostalgia I may have for the toys of my youth, the only people that lap these movies up are the ones that are already drinking the Kool-Aid and indoctrinating a new generation via their consumer addictions.

It's not about "deserves" it's simply business. The concept has existed multiple times in comics. Opposition to this either means people don't read comics anymore, or just lends fuel to my theory Transformers fans are the evolution of train enjoyers.

 

Hmm, I do have to nitpick that we didn't get a scene showing us how Prime escaped Cybertron. Like he seemed to be in a jam in his appearances in BBM, surrounded by goddamn Starscream, Shockwave, Soundwave and a ton of Seekers. But mostly just got him upset that he got stranded on Planet Dirt after congratulating Bee on his successful defense of Earth.

 

I enjoyed it, and felt it provided a ton of fan service to G1 fans, Beast fans, Bay fans, TFP fans, and yes even Knight fans. As you can tell from reading these boards, we all have a lot of different ideas about what makes Transformers great, and many of us are here for different reasons. This film did its best to embrace the diversities within the fandom, and for that I think it was pretty successful.

That being said, I couldn't help shake the feeling that this was one version of something they shot, and left a lot on the cutting room floor. It feels like there was going to be more story regarding Unicron, the Maximals, time and/or dimensional travel, etc. Imagine if it was actually Prime's face behind Scourge's mask??

 

Going to be a lot of falling going on once the people with money to waste are spent. It's really sad to read the reviews and see no progress made in 15 years and 7 films, with apparently more to come. In fact they're really lucky the standards are so low, because again if you read the reviews (and look at the score of 5 out of 10 yikes), you realize this isn't some franchise changing great film. And it never was going to be a good TF film, but we can't get either. You might be willing to accept a bunch of random careless changes if they were knocking the film quality out of the park, but they are inept at both.

I can't wait to see the next movie with the new character Shockwave, who turns into a blue tape deck. He'll be voiced by Kevin Hart and have a nice smiling face with two eyes and a mouth, and a wavy hair effect because he's a metrosexual robot Terrorcon which is deep. He's going to form a bond with Priscilla, an 18 year old down on her luck youth looking for friendship anywhere she can find it, since Shockwave's personality is very humorous and affable for a Terrorcon. I also can't wait to ignore Shockwave was already in the films and pretend he never existed otherwise either, and also that this version is immensely better and created by people who took more than the 2 seconds it took me to randomly spit out this low quality post.

God I've been DYING to see that for 40 years and finally we have an opportunity because of all the success we're enjoying!

It seems to sink in for more people every film, but I really hope its sinking in for enough this time that despite the blinders put up by those that benefit, these films aren't bringing us something worth our time, effort, or money.

 

Sorry you feel that way.

 

I just saw the scene where Battletrap is killed. Its a character assassination on both Prime and Primal lmao.

 

He literally asked for it.

 

When the movies score was first revealed a few weeks back I remember a bunch of people said the Unicron Medley would be on it, but I never heard it used in the film. Did I miss it or was it just not there? (It was genuinely what I was most excited for haha)

 

Leaving my review and thoughts for the records, read if you like to. (Spoilers Obviously)

Got to see ROTB on Wednesday for the early fan event (Costly lmao) but well worth it, was a hella good time. It really did impress me, I kinda wasn't all too keen because I'm still hardcore bay (Yeah). But I really enjoyed it! Bro, Optimus Primal is now one of my favorite characters, one of the best parts of ROTB. Airrazor too, I enjoyed the film putting focus on her and Primal. I would kill to see a solo Primal and Airrazor movie.

Rise of the Beast is an easy 8 or 9 out of 10. Right now, I'm still coming off the hype so it could change. I highly recommend for any Transformers fan (Not that there are any on here lmao) and those looking for more after Bumblebee. I went it with okay exceptions, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I do right now. It's definitely a film I can rewatch over and over again much like the OG Bay films (Not TLK). It's a massive step-up from Bumblemid. Story, action, music, characters, all there and its awesome. The opening scene is what quite me invested into the movie, one of the best parts. The action is noice. It's not eye-candy as Bay but there's some good fights in it. I think my favorite has to go to the museum battle.

It's strange to see another Transformers film after so long, I didn't get the chance to see Bumblebee in theatres so last film I watched was TLK. It's strange for me personally as the Bay films are so deeply rooted in nostalgia it feels weird to see something new and fresh. I don't know how to put it, but I think it's a bit of awe and sadness, knowing that they're still popular and seeing how long it's been since the movies first hit the screen back in 2007. Now approaching 16 years ago. Damn.

I can't say right now where this will lie in my rankings in a couple months or years. My love for the Bay films takes up waaaay too much of my life right now, lol. But I think my next rewatch of the first 07 film will be differnt now after seeing how much has been done and changed in the 16 years I've first saw the movie.

Thanks for reading this if you did. Leaving my mark here and maybe I can come back and see how I've change too.

There's a lot to unpack, so if yall care, I will have my more in-depth thoughts (Characters) in the spoiler tag to not take up too much space.

Spoiler

Optimus Primal was the star of the movie, imo. I didn't expect to love him as much I as do. It was such a joy watching him on screen, being such a badass leader. Also was so fucking cool he did the opening narration. I love Ron Perlman, his voice is unmatched. Yeah, not getting Garry Chalk was cringe, but Ron provides an excellent booming voice for Primal's movie counterpart. There's a small part when Primal and Prime meet, Primal states he looks up to Prime and takes pride being named after the Autobot leader. But later, he tells Airrazor he's disappointed Prime is not the hero he had envisioned. Primal had everyone's interest at heart, and that made Optimus Prime seem a little bad, which I think is a good way to bring to some inner conflict with Optimus Prime. Show that even leaders may not make the right calls. Monkey Man is top-tier character.

Airazor was another stand-out character for me. I felt she was a good bridge between the Autobots and Maximals. I had zero knowledge of her character beforehand, so I enjoyed ROTB putting a good focus on her and Primal. Which of course, made Primal having to kill her depressing. One of his few close friends, gone to Unicron. Was very disappointing to see her offed like that. Scourge is a little bitch.

I would comment on Cheetor and Rhinox, but they were hardly even in the movie. Cheetor got like, three lines and Rhinox got zero (Could be remembering wrong, but still, almost nothing). They were only there to pad out the Maximal team and for the final battle. Least during the final battle, they had some cool fight scenes. Bashing out terrocons with his spear and hammer was awesome. But their minimal screen time and being filler will no doubt disappoint Beast Wars fans.

Unicron is....there. The opening of the movie was the best part about him. After that, he became mostly a prop for the Autobots to namedrop him. Comparing it to the 86 film, Unicron falls a little flat here. Not enough screen time with him and his interactions with Scourge and the terrocons are minimal. 86 did much better with Galvatron and Unicron playing a bigger role.

Scourge is cool. Imo, was not a fan of the "Bay Prime is Scourge" so glad that wasn't anything. Crazy seeing him beating the shit out of everyone and not even flinching. The museum battle had me on the edge just watching him kick everyone's asses. Bro was pure evil and nothing more. Even Galvatron in the 86 film had his own thoughts and will (mostly) but Scourge is 100% with Unicron. Which kinda brings him down a bit, cause that's all he was. A minion of Unicron. Doesn't really compare to someone like Sentinel Prime, who I think is the best villain in the whole franchise. The biggest thing with Scourge is that we don't really know much about him other than being a herald of Unicron. Not too much to him, just pure evil. Made it all the more satisfying watching Optimus Prime completely annihilate him at the end.

The other Terrocons, Battletrap and Nightbird, were decent enough. No surprise they don't get much interactions or lines, especially Battletrap. The fight scenes however, are different story. Battletrap's wrecking ball was so cool, watching him tear up the field and Nightbird with her flying gave her something to stand out with. She had a little more lines than Battletrap. Kind of have the same issue with Scourge, their personality is evil. Had it not been for their unique designs, they would have ended up more as generic terrocon troopers. The extra color made them stand out. I know it's a little hypocritical for me to talk about the terrocons like this and not bring up that none of the Bay Decepticons had any semblance of personality or color either. I get that. Blackout, no matter how much I love him in 07, taking off the nostalgia goggles, there's nothing to more to him beside that. But I think it's a little worse in ROTB as there isn't any other media to maybe give them more background. No games, comics or lengthy toy bios. What you see, is what you get.

Optimus Prime is a strange case. He's really more in line with AOE Optimus, avoiding humans and wanting nothing to do with them, which I find a little jarring. He's still a good character, but he's got the design G1 Prime and the "imma rip your spine out" bits of Bay Prime. Odd for me, cause I literally thought "Man, TFW ain't gonna like this, lol." Speaking of that, man, he was really out for Scourge after the museum fight. Understandable doe. Bro shat on Scourge every time they met. Made it better watching him get his revenge later. But he's still Optimus Prime, and I enjoyed the struggle of him choosing not to side with humans until meeting Primal. There's a lot to him in this film, seeing how much he blames himself for losing the war on Cybertron. A good personal conflict.

Mirage surprised me. Watching the trailers, I got the impression he was the whole "unfunny guy trying to be cool and hip" and I wouldn't like him. Turns out, he's pretty cool with a little bitty mix of cringe, lol. He was a fun part of the movie and could be one of my favorites had it not been for Primal. He's just a chill guy who wants to protect his friends and get home. "The brothers to the end" relationship with Noah and his little bro and him caught me a bit off-guard. I didn't expect it to be as moving as it was. Mirage sacrificing himself to protect Noah was heartbreaking and the scene right after it with Noah getting trapped under the bridge and forced to stare at Mirage's corpse didn't help much. I hope we can see more of him and Noah in future installments.

The other autobots were alright. Wheeljack doesn't have enough screen time. I don't even know why he's there honestly. Shows up for a small scene for a racism joke, then becomes a background character. Yeah, its nothing like any other Wheeljack I know, which is perfectly okay. Just really needed more screentime. Also, I thought his design was pretty good. The whole "nerd" thing didn't really bother me and look fine in the film. Imo, I think I would have brushed him off as nobody had TFW not seethe and shat themselves over the design. No face fins? Lmao get fukked.

Acree is okay too. It's Acree. She was aight, wish we had more scenes with her bike, could have been cool to see some stunts. Otherwise, aight

Stratosphere, despite his minimal screentime, was a treat to see for me. Fav TF movie as a kid was ROTF (Can't decided which one now between 07 and DOTM) and I still have his toy, missing the tiny Optimus. It was nice to see an obscure charter like him get a moment on the big screen. I love now that he could be the go-to character for the autobot's ship.

Bumblebee is Bumblebee, you either love him or hate him. (I love him). It was like seeing an old friend when he first drove in the warehouse in his camaro mode. Radio talking is always funny, and the comment of drive in movies got a loud laugh out of everyone. Getting yeeted by Scourge was painful to see, but I think it was obvious people knew he was gonna come back. No way they were gonna kill off the billion-dollar movie star of the Transformers franchise, right? Regardless, it was quite painful to see his eyes go dark. What stood out to me is how they handle him afterwards. Prime knew he could bring him back, but not on earth. Placing him in on the energon was a nice move, was like an open grave, to watch him rest. But oh man, when the explosive went off and the blast lit up the energon, shit got real. Never will get this kind of reaction at home. When Stratosphere came flying above and Bumblebee stood ready to jump, the theatre exploded. Never will forget that (I cheered too).



Noah is a great protagonist. Big step up from Charlie in Bumblebee, imo. Noah has quite a lot going on. I enjoyed the movie's focus on him and trying to be good older brother for his little bro. His problems with money and family reminded me a lot of Cade from AOE/TLK, but done a whooooole lot better. Not a whole lot of fun knowing Noah had to resort to stealing cars to help her bro, but it showed how far he was willing to go to help his brother, and hell, save the world. He and Mirage are also fun, it was funny seeing how awkward he was to Mirage at first than fixing him at the end to get him back. Noah is inspiring and his relationship with his brother and Mirage feel really close to me.

Elena was another surprised character for me. I didn't think she would play as big of a role as she did. Felt good having both protagonists get their own set of skills and knowledge and having it play big roles in the film. It was a interesting angle with her and Noah being unrelated to anything until she activated the transwarp key, something I think is kinda overlooked a bit. She almost cause the end of the world without even knowing it. Glad she played a huge role in the movie, her and Noah were quite good as a team. Also really like at the end, she got the credit for the underground peru city and is famous while Noah was still looking for a job, the juxtaposition is well done.

 

They were both completely psychotic.

 

Good for them. It was funny.

 

I went in knowing what I was getting into. But hey, I was a Beast Wars kid so of course nostalgia hit me hardest here. There were a lot of things I liked (Most of the robots actually felt more like actual characters to me, like bumblebee (the movie, not ROTB bee), things that I didn't (Lack of any kind of characterization for Cheetor and Rhinox, and the overall lack of a single good shot of any one of them in robot mode outside of a few fast action shots, aswell as the common "giant hidden cavern system like, just below a city thats never been discovered" thing, but that's fairly excusable to me because its just a common action/adventure trope). But idk, I still found myself enjoying it more than any other live action TF movie in my first viewing. I loved the corny dialogue. I loved that Apelinq of all Beast Wars characters was a thing. (Also, just thinking of that scene, a lady in my theater laughed incredibly obnoxiously when he called Primal by name and i'm like "really? you're gonna laugh at the name Optimus Primal and not the alien razorblade monkey named Apelinq?" And then when primal explained his name later, she audibly went OOOOOOOH.) I loved the Terrorcons. Scourge surprised me in how much I wound up liking him, though I do really wish they went the "corrupted Optimus" route, especially when the mask came off. Not Bayverse Prime, that would be lame, but just some original alternate or future version or something. I felt like Battletrap, who didn't havealot of lines, wasstill pretty entertaining to watch with his chains gimmick. Pete Davidson was PERFECT for mirage, and really surprised me at how much i enjoyed him and felt invested in him, and im not the biggest Pete Davidson fan. Ron Perlman just WAS Primal to me. I love Garry Chalk as Primal, but for this version, I think it needed someone like Perlman. I felt like he actually cared about this version, as opposed to his POTP Performance.

All that said, Bumblebee is the best live action movie. Technically it just really is. its very straightforward, good characters, good villains, some great but not terribly intrusive fanservice in the cybertron scenes, and is just pretty much all around generally agreed to be the best of them, which i am in the camp of.

My favorite one, though, is now Rise of the Beasts. It used to be Dark of the Moon cause i loved the whole Sentinel prime thing, and the fact that they were adapting two classic G1 episodes, Megatron's Mad Max design, if not his characterization (same for shockwave), and I felt like it was the best story of the first trilogy. And even now I think its one of the best non-bumblebee story. But after seeing Rise of the Beasts- Seeing the Maximals onscreen in somewhat prominent roles, seeing my favorite concept of scourge (a combined evil optimus prime, whether in actuality or in concept, merged with the concept of him being a herald of Unicron), which might somewhat be because I dont know if its done officially tbh but it was something i was proud of for thinking of when i was writing my homebrew DND campaign a year ago. Unicron. A Real, giant planet Unicron, who is most certainly coming back at some point. I just had the best time of any of them during this one, so its just gotta take the top spot in that regard.

Although I did find myself wondering- How was Noah's brother having trouble beating Bowser on Game Boy? Off the top of my head, Super Mario Land's main boss was Tatanga, and I can't remember if 6 Golden Coins was out by then, but that main boss was Wario. Unless there's a game thats completely escaping me where bowser is a boss in a Game Boy game from 1994 or prior, though- worst movie ever, 0/10.

 

I liked it a lot. Had less heart than Bumblebee, but wasn't as devoid of...emotion as the latter Bayformer movies. I'd give it a 7/10 on a good day and a 6/10 on a bad day.

Spoiler

Airrazor dying was upsetting, especially given how she was the first Maximal the audience meets and doesn't even transform...Kinda wish she had at least fought Primal in her bot form before he hugged her to death. Then again, the valley they're in is now full of active energon, so maybe they can rebuild her, Mirage and Bumblebee both got banged up incredibly badly (well Mirage more than Bee, who apparently only got put into shutdown mode given how a simple energon diffusion was enough to get him going).

Point is, unless spines are getting ripped out, heads getting blown off, and general Bayformer gore, I have no reason to believe Airrazor is dead other than the for emotional impact it gives to Prime. Maybe I just really want to see her bot mode.

Anyway, I'm excited for the GI joe crossover mostly because they'd totally lean into the mech suits design to fight Cybertronians, which I really, really, enjoy.

I'd say as a sequel to Bumblebee, this is decent. And worth the money to see in a movie, if only because big explosions work better in surround sound.

 

I feel the exact same way. Both are fine starting points to a strong franchise. We'll see what comes of it. Though I did expect more from ROTB since, while it does show a lot of promise, it is the 7th entry and could have done more than simply show us that it understands the basics of a film with Transformers in it.

That bit confused me, and it also had the worse CG of the film, with landscape being constructed out of nowhere like an early 2000s screensaver. Was all that created by the key or by Scourge's magi unicron powers?

What differs the most between the toy we got and his final design?

Apelinq did say that without the key, Unicron would be trapped in that galaxy. What I don't get is how his minion has been given powers that exceed this god's movement. And it's really odd how the bad guys just dropped to earth in a flash after sensing the warp signature. Were they just hovering earth randomly? There's just lots of convenience and using the old addage of "this is a film where you just have to turn your brain off" means we are not that far from the Bay stuff people previously complained about.

This too I don't understand too well. If the idea was to leave Cybertron and regroup on Earth (which they reiterate was the plan), then why is there no way to get back to Cybertron? Wouldn't they have the same technology that allowed them interspace travel to get to earth in the first place? Optimus' plan was not to be stranded, so why are they stranded now?

It's not there as you'd expect it. There are some cues within the score, but the actual music from the 86 film is not in the film. The spotify playlist was just that, a playlist to get you in the mood.

 

This track seems to have the main motif of Unicron's theme from '86 at the 0:08 mark.

 

Couldn't have possibly been playing Super Mario Bros Deluxe, because that came out on the Game Boy Color. In 1998.

 

Wow, such a fucking dumb meme    

 

I got the…
Trans warp key lets you travel through time and space. They were from the future and traveled to earths past… maybe I’m reaching