It took me a while to see the film mainly because I knew of how most of the scenes/plot unfolded by spoiling myself. And I also heard of its good points as well as the bad. I've enjoyed the previous films for the most part, while accepting the issues with each film and dealing with all the "why the hell's" that run through my mind with each installment.

While watching AOE, there were two main parts that really stood out to me and left me thinking, really? REALLY?

Example 1: towards the end of the first chase scene Cade and co are running towards rusty optimus while Lockdown throws his grenade at them. We see that one member of said party isn't so lucky to escape the blast. The scene drags on forever, to the point that I'm wondering, Lockdown wasn't too far away from them....is he just standing there scratching his ass watching them freak out about Lucas, all taking place inside optimus, just parked there for the taking? WHAT THE HELL!

Example 2: Galvatron (and maybe stinger, can't remember) is deployed to pursue optimus and crew. All of the autobots are together, but for some reason optimus ends up conveniently all alone once Lockdown enters the mix. Where the hell were they to help optimus???? They had enough time to catch up between him fighting Galvatron, lockdown arriving and doing his slow "I'm a badass" walk, and the whole net around Prime and the car Tessa was hiding in. Where the fuck were the other autobots during this time?

These were major issues to me, and the likely answer to both questions is "to serve the plot." Forgive me if these scenes have been discussed with said problems, but after finally watching the film I have to know if other ppl have the same issues cuz I can't recall discussion on either on the boards as far as I've seen.

 

The "just parked there while things occur around them" is a curse on most of the Autobots in the Movieverse. Oh but look, Ratchet twinkled his lights at Sam as he walked past.

 

For number one, honestly, it's hard to care about that after DOTM. In that film, standing around, scratching their asses is pretty much all every bad guy, other than Sentinel did. I'm just glad it rarely happened in AOE.

For number two, everyone assumes Stinger somehow kept all four of the other Autobots occupied. There is one scene where a KSI screen show Galvatron, Stinger and a SUV, making some people speculate that there was originally meant to be at least one more drone in that fight.

 

Anybody noticing a theme here?

TF1: Fights Bonecrusher; took his sweet-ass time getting to Mission City. Jazz was killed by Megatron by this time.
TF2: Autobots take their sweet-ass time getting to Optimus during the forest fight. He's killed by Megatron.
TF3: Optimus was ten minutes behind for some strange reason. Sentinel murders Ironhide and steals the pillars.
TF4: Autobots just...decide to leave the action. Optimus gets captured by Lockdown.

So judging by this pattern, Optimus Prime will show up fashionably late to a fight in TF5. An Autobot will be killed by then.

 

Welcome to Bayverse! I hope you enjoy your stay!

In all seriousness, the movies are basically a few major action set pieces, tied together with the minimum amount of bubblegum, sorry, I meant plot, necessary to get from one action set piece to the next.

The forest scene set up was the most egregious of these, in my opinion.

 

Welcome to the bayverse I will be your guide

 

1: Lockdown doesn't scare, they're just bugs, why should he care if some get away.
2: They may have gone after Stinger and Galvatron.

 

For the first scene, presumably if Lockdown jumped down to do something about the humans and Optimus after setting off his grenade, he'd get hit and busted up into Transformium too, or at least partially. The explosions were probably too big for him to get a clear shot through, which allowed Optimus to safely transform and the humans to get to him.

Lockdown's grenade in that scene is a pretty double edged sword, and a sort of last ditch effort in that fight.


The second scene, its assumed the Autobots are fighting Stinger. During filming, they had a bunch of weather problems in that area, which probably meant the entire chase scene got cut short and we lost the Stinger v. Autobots battle, which Galvatron probably joined after Lockdown showed up.

 

There was still quite a bit of time after the smoke cleared for lockdown to jump optimus again, all the explosions had been well over when they piled up into optimus, and sat there like ******s, more concerned with what happened to Lucas than the giant ass robot that was trying to kill them all. It's one of those moments where you go...."wait a second, wasn't a bad ass robot just chasing after them?" Instead, it's trying to be this big emotional moment which TOTALLY takes away from the pursuit they were part of. Then, after they get over the fact that Lucas is dead, Optimus just drives off like they arent in a hurry at all, with Lockdown magically disappearing. Were we supposed to just forget he was chasing them, just so the scene could end??

Me and my wife looked at each other (she neither loves or hates these movies) wondering what the hell just happened. I over analyze things at times, but for her to also wonder what the fuck happened to the bad guy chasing them tells me that they don't think shit through when jumbling their action sequences together.

 

The first one would've made a little more sense if Lockdown was still caught up in the hook when he threw his grenade, kind of like that was his only option, and once Optimus and the humans left, that's when he freed himself.

The second one, well Hound, Crosshairs and Drift had already gone off pursued by Stinger and could have taken a different exit, but there needed to be something to show why Bumblebee didn't continue to follow Galvatron, like Galvatron blasting him as he went by or something.

But it is what it is, and there's not much that can be done about it now. I must admit, watching it at the cinema for the first time, these things didn't really occur to me cos I was so caught up in the action, so I guess to a vast majority of viewers, for exactly the same reason, it will probably all go unnoticed.

 

Personally, I forgot the Autobots hadn't noticed they were supposed to be in the Primenapping scene, but Lockdown sodding off after the grenade bugged me like hell, so semi caught up in the action and all that.

 

Oh look, Starscream fired a shot and Bumblebee lost his legs! Quick, Jazz, pull back a few feet to give Sam some room, but don't do anything until Bonecrusher arrives!

 

Haha yep! I can't help but notice that every time too. Their cover has already been blown. No reason to stay in car mode while your buddy is half dying in the middle of the street.

 

I wish that weren't an error.

I like extra limbs...

 

Is this intentional?

 

 

I caught that part too, but that SUV conveniently disappeared. Poor editing perhaps?
Another sore point is that, during the chase scene you clearly see cars behind the bots, and next thing you know, they're on the road all alone.
And there were several instances that you could CLEARLY see they were on a track of some sort (even though we know now it's a test drive course for GM).
Someone REALLY fell asleep at the editing console. LOL

 

The editing in these films are pretty damn bad.

 

^Yep. People have died because Prime was bird watching when Sentinel decided to kill everyone.

 

One of the many examples of why the novel is better. It explains that Optimus was meeting the president of the USA when he heard what was happening.

 

The 2nd issue has plagued Transformers movies since 2007.

It happens in 07 - Bumblebee's capture
ROTF - Prime alone in the forest despite entering the building with Bee to rescue Sam
DOTM - Ugh
AOE - Optimus bizarrely getting isolated from all the Autobots who were with him seconds earlier.