I interpreted it as Peter not being a fan of all the roaring and yelling he has to do for fight scenes. Which to be fair, they really do rip his throats out for stuff like Prime and the movies. I remember him talking about actually hurting his throat playing the 70's King Kong.

However, I know what he's actually talking about. As far as the actual portrayal of the character, I've definitely heard this before from Peter and I absolutely sympathize with him. I just feel bad because he gives his best, most human performances in the Bay movies and he doesn't like having to say "I'll kill you" and stuff.

I remember cringing in TLK when he says "I will kill you" to Quintessa before brainwashing. Poor guy. To be honest you could take away him saying "I'll kill you" from all of AOE, for example, and the effect would still be the same. Like change "he's going to die" to "he will pay for what he has done to my friends" or something. In DOTM, change "we will kill them all" to "this war will end today" with the same tone of disgust and anger.

I don't disagree with the portrayal of Bay Optimus at all, but I'd be more than happy to appease Peter and remove all the "I'll kill you" lines for him. Peter loves this character with all his big heart and I have nothing but love and appreciation for him.

 

Someone should have him voice a few lines from the IDW comics at some point that would be interesting to hear.

 

Transformers Prime is calling you.

Soldier through the establishment of the human characters in the first season and enjoy Cullen and Welker giving fantastic performances in great stories. The supporting actors and characters are all excellent as well, with many of them being fresh takes on old favorites.

I grew up with G1 so I've been listening to these two guys duke it out for almost 40 years now. It'll be a sad day when they can't do it anymore, but I don't think there's a finer performance from either, nor better interpretations of their characters, than what we got in TFP.

 

I like TF: Prime. But I don't think it utilized Prime as much as I'd like. Definitely one of the best things in the last 15 years of the franchise. I think we shouldn't accept anything less than TF: Prime from such a huge and world beloved franchise.

 

Peter Cullen has given Optimus Prime the noble soul,and Mr.Cullen knows Prime the best.

I think those death and yelling scenes are always the scenes that Optimus must sacrifice himself once again or he is undergoing something painful and heartbroken,that's why Peter Cullen don't like them.

 

He seems like a really nice man.   It makes me kinda emotional tbh.

 

I'm not a captain america fan per se I just decided to read the story.

I'm more a spiderman fan

 

Here's how I see movie Optimus Prime: He's broken. Millions of year of war have taken it's toll. Any sympathy movie Prime could have for the Decepticons has evaporated.

I don't see a problem with mixing it up from time to time. It's one time. We still get Idealistic Prime in every other piece of Transformers media. I don't see why we can't at least let the movies have a broken Prime. I think Ideal Prime really downplays how awful war can be, but it's fiction and it has every right to explore Optimus still managing through it all. Just as the movies can have a broken Prime.

 

I wonder how he feels about Aoe? He had more emotional and passionate scenes in that movie than any of the other live action films, but he also had more yelling and "kill" lines than in any of the others.

 

you can stop right now that is not captain america....

 

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I actually think Peter Cullen delivers some of the best performances in his career in the Michael Bay movies. Mind you, I'm just talking about acting performance, not the writing itself.

You have to wade through a lot of bad lines to see the rare gems, but in my opinion, Cullen's acting is a gem in these movies. The movies put Optimus Prime into situations you normally don't see, and Peter Cullen's acting rises to the challenge.

For example: Optimus Prime gets upset quite a lot in these movies. We do see Optimus get upset in other fiction (see: his many "MEGATRONNNNNNNNNNN!" yells from G1), but it's usually quite brief and he still keeps some semblance of composure. Think of Cullen's delivery when he says things like, "THEY KILLED RATCHET! THEY SLAUGHTERED HIM!" Think of Optimus Prime's many shouting matches with Sentinel Prime. Heck, a Peter Cullen vs Leonard Nimoy shouting match was worth the price of the ticket alone. Some might like these moments, some might hate them, but I believe Cullen's acting absolutely NAILS it, and we rarely see Optimus this upset.

Optimus Prime gets emotional--as in vulnerable, contemplative, expressive--quite often in these movies. He seems on the verge of tears in his first scene with the humans in Age of Extinction. He's huffing and puffing. He seems to be dying. "My Autobots, where are they?" "I need to reach my Autobots." Another rare moment of Optimus being vulnerable is near the end of DoTM, as he's crawling away from Sentinel Prime and begs for his life. "Stop. Please!" Have we ever seen Optimus Prime beg for his life? Personally, I don't like the line, but it showed us a side of Optimus we almost never see, and Cullen's acting NAILED it.

The voice director seems to give Optimus Prime more fiery emotion in battle. Whereas TF: G1 had Optimus more friendly and the TF: Prime version seems downright emotionless, the movie version seems to portray Optimus as if he has a very fast heart rate in combat. Think of DoTM when he flies towards the Driller and shouts, "I'm coming for you!" or when the Autobots are being bombed and he says something like, "We're being pinned down! We have to spread out!" He still sounds like a soldier, he still sounds like he's in command, he's not panicking, but he's talking with an excited tone. We don't see this too often with Optimus, and Cullen (you guessed it), in my opinion, NAILED it.

Of course, it's also crystal-clear when Peter Cullen has no interest in his dialogue, such as when Optimus is overly aggressive (the many, many "I'LL KILL YOU!") statements, and his many, many Arnold Schwarzenegger-like one-liners ("Give me your face," "Pull over," "I rise, you fall," "Useless waste of tin!" etc).

In conclusion, I'm not saying the Michael Bay movies give Peter Cullen Shakespearean material. Quite honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the movies, and I fast-forward through all the human-only scenes. Many of the robot-only scenes don't really contain dialogue, per se, but a series of macho one-liners that don't really form a coherent conversation. But, if you manage to look past what you don't like about the way Michael Bay's Optimus is written, my opinion is that you end up with many scenes that are hidden gems for some of the most diverse and interesting material Peter Cullen has been given.

 

he's gone on record saying that he really hated having to do the "We will kill them all line" line in dotm. he was also really bummed when he thought optimus was gonna die in season 2 of prime because he didn't want kids to go through what kids in the 80's did.

this video is similar to the interview in the op but it's always worth reposting:

 

Not to forget his interpretation of Optimus in both War and Fall of Cybertron games. Way better storytelling than the stupid bayformers movies we\'ve been getting. Those games should have been movies. 

 

I agree whole-heartedly. Shouting, intense Prime is fine, but without the soft, compassionate Prime to off-set it you don't get the whole scope of the character or what that intensity signifies.

I mean, the games were marginally better than the movies, but still pretty damn awful story-wise. They'd offer little more in terms of story and narrative.

 

You know, it's always a treat to hear voice actors talk without putting on a character. I'm always AMAZED at how much Peter Cullen DOES NOT sound like any of his characters when he talks normally.

Damn good voice actor.

 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that quite a few people were impressed by this juvenile assessment... "My Prime is more realistic than yours". Damn useless things matter more in this fandom, instead of actual creativity, storytelling, consistent character development, etc. Competing on irrelevant grounds. Slow clap.

 

I totally get where you’re coming from, and I like the idea, but I still think the movies miss his character. It’s reasonable to think that over time Optimus has lost all faith in the decepticons, but in AoE he orders the autobots to kill humans and no matter how you slice it, that’s not him. Let’s look at TFP shall we? (SPOILERS)

In that show Optimus is more violent than normal, but he still has his morals. Late in season 2, megatron captures the kids, and holds them until he gets the omega keys from the bots. In this instant Optimus surrenders, saying “My choice may doom the autobot cause on cybertron, but I will not endanger our human friends.” Optimus believes that humans are good, but sometimes do bad things. Even G1 did this. In the episode where megs makes a clone of prime, near the end, when it comes to a choice of spike over the cons, Optimus goes to save spike. I just feel like the movies didn’t really understand this.

 

I'm sorry, but when did that happen? I remember Prime killing Attinger, but that was the only human death by an Autobot.

Besides, Optimus's arc in AOE is about restoring his faith in humanity. As far as he was concerned, now, humanity is the enemy. This is not the same situation as when Bumblebee was captured in the first movie. Most humans are fully aware of what they are doing, and are hunting all Transformers. Autobots and Decepticons alike to kill them. If the Autobots die, so does the Cybertronian race. Cade reminded him that not all humans were out there to kill him and his people. There were still some diamonds in the rough, and they are worth saving.

Humanity should not get a free pass simply because they're humans. They're smaller and significantly more fragile, but thanks to the tactics in DOTM, know how to incapacitate and kill Transformers.

Transformers had constantly rebooted itself that "being in character" is a very difficult thing to gauge. We've got Ironhide "The Texan", Ironhide "The young punk", and Ironhide "Autobot Proud Warrior". We've got Red Alert "The paranoid", Red Alert "The paramedic", and Red Alert "The Paramedic...who is a girl". Heck, even Windblade, who's only a few years old, has "Shy, yet still a diplomat", "Demented, racist psychopath", and "Holy Harbinger of Primus" as different interpretations. Or how about Inferno? Going from a fire truck to a pyromaniac.

Nameslaps CAN be annoying, but I don't think Armada Red Alert should be any less valid a character than G1 Red Alert. Same thing with Inferno. Why not try mixing it up with Optimus?

But as for Prime... What about MECH? I don't recall Bulkhead pulling his punches when they were rescuing Breakdown. I don't remember Optimus getting onto him for that. And he shouldn't, because MECH was, as Optimus put it himself "Decepticons in human skin".

 

I love how TFP intentionally made fun of the humorless Prime, by showing Ratchet's funny side instead.

Oh did that show have some of the most epically written scenes for Cullen's Optimus! I love that show.

 

Yet made no attempt to solve it.

It's not really "making fun of" if it's also part of the problem.