First Look at Transformers Movie Megatron Full Body CGI Image

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by Super_Megatron, Jan 9, 2007.

  1. Lycanthropic Tendencies

    Lycanthropic Tendencies Well-Known Member

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    Everything came from the concept for the toys.
    The toys were not like any toy around at that time.
    If you look at it's closest rival, Gobots, the two were similar concepts, but one had to go the extra mile to explain the huge imbalance between Autobots and Decepticons and so on.
    The essence came from their way of explaining the toy line and it's oddities in origin.

    The cartoon just ran with it.

    Secondly, the cartoon had very limited exposure in some areas and only ran from '84 -'87.
    Yet the toy line ran until 1991 or 1992.
    The essence, and what made so many fans hold on to it came then from the toy bios and the comic.

    Like the cartoon, the comic developed things beyond the toy line, but it was still based on the same unique concept that came from the year one toyline.

    Everything starts somewhere and Transformers started with an attempt to make an irregular toy line make sense.
    Without it we would have had Gobots.

    Read my comments again. I am talking about the design STYLE.
    Many Alternators are not limited to the toy tech of the '80's, yet they retain the same emphasis and stylings.
    You can say the same of some of the movie designs to some degree too.

    It's about a design style.

    The question is whether you consider this new life.

    As some have said, the changes make them more "generic", more like an amalgamtion of other design styles.
    To them it's not new life, it's removal of the unique design aspects and replacing them with something cliche and unremarkable.

    There are people who just want the same thing over and over again, but not all who dislike the movie dislike change.
    Just the direction this change has gone.

    I actually think most DO look like Transfrormers, but I think the designs have lost much of the personality they have and that they look like giant war machines, not varied sentient lifeforms.
    That to me is not new life.
     
  2. starkiller80

    starkiller80 I'm a Ghostbuster

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    Thank you!:thumb 
     
  3. Cory Bauer

    Cory Bauer Well-Known Member

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    Lycanthropic Tendencies, if the majority of fans are fans because of the toy designs, then the best thing they could have done was ditch the mythos and retell it as the Diaclone story: manmade, piloted mechs who disguise as vehicles. That would justify the simplistic, clunky-moving designs, as well as the faces and hands. Then, the robots could just be robots, and the human pilots would be the characters. That would have made for a strong, consistent story that retains the original design aesthetics entirely. How do you think Transformers fans would take to that, as opposed to the new designs?

    Personally, I'm glad they stuck to the mythos and ditched much of the old aesthetics, especially considering Transformers get redesigned every 2-3 years anyhow.
     
  4. hordeprime

    hordeprime In Spite of the System

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    Right.

    As a concept designer, let me put forth the "alternate" analysis that perhaps the artists wanted to do something different from what we've seen, something that might change our perceptions of something we thought we knew, a new take on an established property that says to us "What if the TF had looked and moved and felt like this?" What if the designers, at the end of the day, decided not to improve on existing material and rather to breathe something totally new into the mix? What if the designers actually had good intentions, whether it ends up working or not? It's called Risk. Risk is how new things come about. Not taking risks? That's how we'd stay in the 80's.

    It's a new Transformers for a new millenia -- and that's what they wanted.

    I'm not about to consider their artistic creativity and attempt at innovation and chalk it all up to "ego."


    Come on.
     
  5. Brodimus Prime

    Brodimus Prime Matrix Templar

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    Haven't read all 65 pages, so I don't know if this has been brought up. But if this is the same body that Megs has when Archibald discovers him in the ice, then where the hell is the Decepticon symbol that Archie aparantly activates, triggering the beam that shoots into his glasses? So far the only bot mode that I've seen with a visable allegiance insignia is Bumblebee (on his forehead). My guess is that this is Megs' Cybertronian/protoform body, and that he keeps it throughout the duration of the film, seeing as how he is so disgusted with humans and Earth in general. I hope he ultimately does scan an Earth mode, like the other Decepticons, seeing its advantages. Remember the old G1 Megs hated humans too, but over time he realized that, in order to try and gain the upper hand, he needed their help (cue Shawn Berger and Dr. Archeville, among others).

    But like most have said, these designs just don't scream Transformers. They are cool alien robot machines of death, but the thing that made TFs so memorable and fun was, as Flint Dille said in the commentary on the DVD, "the nobility in their appearance." These things look like something out of Eva, Guyver, or Mech Warrior. Not very noble. But hopefully they'll be nice in full motion. I'm very excited about the movie, but I just think they missed the mark on the designs.
     
  6. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Subjectivity be damned, as well as this individualistic "there is no right or wrong" stance. Sure, we all have opinions, and some of us think our opinions are more valid than others. That's kind of the point of debate and having opinions right? If we're not here debating these things to sway people to our POV, then let's all go home, eh? Let's not go so far into politically correct bunk that we can't simply state our opinions emphatically, and in opposition to others. Don't be insulted so easily, yeesh.

    For the record, I said that judging the appropriateness of this Megatron based on how "totally evil" he looks is preposterous... and it is. If one judges Megatron's "evilness" factor by how spikey, inhuman, disturbing and monstrous he looks, then from that same point of view, one would have to admit that previous incarnations of Megatron are considerably un-evil by the omission of these aspects. The very criteria for declaring the Dreamworks Megatron "evil" is the same criteria that when applied to most previous Megatrons, makes them look "neutral" or in some senses, even "friendly". It's a fairly logical equation... so I don't think I'm not out of line on that one.

    Furthermore, it becomes pointless to argue that every individual gets to decide what looks "evil". I could say that puppies look evil to me. That may be my personal opinion, but I wouldn't expect it to hold up to scrutiny by others. Therefore, my personal assertion that puppies look evil would be fair game once ventured into the public domain. Most people would tell me I'm being absurd, or that I must have issues or a phobia or something. They might be right. There are limits to the validating power of personal opinions... usually right up to the point that they clash with the tyranny of the majority.

    Now, I'm ready to have someone challenge my assertion that previous Megatrons don't look evil. I'm willing to put forth my potentially dischordant point of view, plus I realize that it may not be shared by everyone. Bring it on. :) 

    I've always found it interesting that, aside from how artists might stylize him, and aside from simply "turning into a gun", Megatron does not possess a lot of obvious indicators of "evil" that are common to children's toys. The obvious answer in this case is that the original Megatron Microman toy wasn't meant to be good or evil... but still, it's intriguing to see how he has endured all this time as a villain WITHOUT being cartooned into a horrific monster...

    Er... until now, that is. Thanks Dreamworks! :) 

    Let's look at the original Megs... he's no Skeletor or Venom or Darth Vader. He has a humanoid face, he is gleaming silver, he is not deformed, bestial, or monstrous. Later versions added features such as horns and such, but compared to autobot characters with similar features, this doesn't necessarily make him that "evil" looking .

    Even in animated form, the style in which Megatron's face is drawn, in RID, Armada, Energon, Cybertron... even BeastWars, he has the basic humanoid face capable of displaying a range of emotions and instilling sympathy. It's not significantly different than faces found on Voltron or Dancougar or any other "heroic" anime robot, and in fact looks decidedly LESS menacing or fierce than Mazinger, Getter Robo, various Gundams, etc...

    Interesting also to place this in context with Japanese pop culture, which often tends to use fierce, angry, bestial or simply depersonalized features for it's heroes. Does it come from the cultural image of the samurai battle mask? Is it the frightening countenance found in depictions of various shinto and buddhist gods and protective spirits?

    This isn't just a japanese thing of course... Batman and Spiderman are iconic examples of this kind of thing from American culture... though it could be argued that both characters in their original appearance were meant to appear menacing or disturbing (particularly Batman where it's an acknowledged part of his concept).

    Anyway, all this to make a point... evil is as evil does. That is why we love Megatron. I find it a bit weak that Dreamworks has to resort to such obvious "scare tactics" in their designs to convey the menace of Megatron. Clearly, they are relying on this shorthand to take the place of solid characterization to establish his "evil-ness". Such is my prediction.

    I mean just look at him! All that's missing is the word bubble that says "Bleaargh! Blorg! Ack! GnarrrrrrrGHH! I'm going to EAT YOUR BRAIN!!", and gobs of slavering drool spilling from his jaws. :) 

    zmog
     
  7. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Well, I'm not saying it's DEFINITELY a question of ego... but what you're describing... this self-important Promethean artist's quest... that IS sort of about ego. Challenging views that have already sat in stead for 20+ years? That's ego. When an artist who is adapting something decides "Screw this... I want to push this beyond! I will shake this to it's foundations, and give it a new face into the next millenium!"... that's ego.

    Art is a lot about Ego. Sometimes it's a good thing, because you NEED that ego to challenge stuff. Most visionaries are HUGE egotists.

    Now that we've established the presence of Ego, is it Good or Bad in this instance? That's a trickier question. I say Bad, but that's just me. ;) 

    zmog
     
  8. Akumaxv

    Akumaxv Well-Known Member

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    Oh lord. I know you like coming in here and typing up novels by breaking down people's problems with this movie line by line. Good for you. I get it you love everything about the movie. Even better for you. You'll really enjoy it. I'm sure if it was as stick with an Autobot symbol on it, you'd enjoy that too. Your perogative. I wouldn't though and I don't like these designs.

    I meant to put quotes around traditional. I can agree with that the TF's change.

    There is no one set of designs that really defines them. However,I believe most people were expecting Alt/BT/MP type designs, because really, they sport realistic alt modes, and decent robot modes. To an extent, a culmination of 20 years of designs, where we finally get posable robots, that actually aren't bricks, and super realistic alt modes that aren't some sort of futuristic cartoon car/tank/plane/etc. For a movie, refinement was needed. For the movie, certian things, like the bendy metal they are using now, unbreakable glass, exploding metal and components, and aliens that look a heck of lot like humans with skeletal structures, could have been easily applied to the Alt/BT/MP designs for the movie. Again, half the work was done for them. I think i've stated this quite a few times, so I won't say it again.

    What we got was crumpled suits of metal, shaped to look like robots. So, no, not being G1 is not the problem, it's looking like tin foil that is.

    Oh well, there's not point in even going back and forth, because this is what we got. Here's hoping Habsro ditches Murphy/Bay and goes with other people for the next one. This movie will not bomb, and it will not fail. So a sequel is gauranteed.
     
  9. Akumaxv

    Akumaxv Well-Known Member

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    Baiting is your ticket out of the thread - TFW2005 Staff
     
  10. Epyon10oz

    Epyon10oz Member

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    :Reads to page 20 and then skips ahead:

    A few things that come to mind:

    1) BW Megatron went through 3 episodes of BM as a medical drone, and still managed to be scary. Ditto on his form as Savage, and his ship mode. Clearly Megatron can be portrayed in any form, so long as he is consistent to his nature. This Megatron will be fine so long as he Acts like Megatron. Just cause he Looks like Barney, doesn't mean he IS Barney.

    2) Tweezer hands. Anyone remember how Doc Ock in the spiderman Movie had the same implements? I assume they're for fine manipulation....like say interorgating humans, or ripping out sparks. Giant robots would be hard pressed to deal with human scale technology.
     
  11. Tfgraveyard

    Tfgraveyard Not a Fan of the Fans

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    You've clearly missed my point. And by this paragraph it's also clear that it's pointless to explain it. I see no need to read further.
     
  12. Clockmaster

    Clockmaster Banned

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    ***EDIT***

    That's a nice long post you got there. Too bad it's all namecalling and flamebaiting which is NOT tolerated. Posting privileges have been removed and warning has been issued.

    And this goes to everyone. No more of this bullshit. Plain and simple. You cross the line you get dealt with. Read the Rules/Info page.

    -TFW2005 Staff
     
  13. GibsonUSA

    GibsonUSA Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  14. Ops_was_a_truck

    Ops_was_a_truck JOOOLIE ANDREWWWWWS!!!!!!

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    :lol  Poor indian...
     
  15. Clockmaster

    Clockmaster Banned

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    It's hard to believe they could come up with a less appropriate bad guy representation than King Koopa in the Mario Bros. movie... at least he was kind of cool in his own weird way.
     
  16. hordeprime

    hordeprime In Spite of the System

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    Wait ... so ... only the FANS have the right to change the direction of TF??? It's "our" thing?

    "Sorry, George Lucas, from now you'll have to run any further ideas by the FANS, because, well, by now it's more OUR thing since there have been several StarWars creators and quite frankly, we're the only reason you're still in business..."

    !!!

    Quite the "slippery slope," if you ask me.

    There's this thing called "company ownership." Hasbro owns TF, and they've chosen to go along with this "TF movie blunder." Honestly, go attack Hasbro if you have an issue, and try to convince them that they don't have a "right" to make these kind of changes.
     
  17. Cory Bauer

    Cory Bauer Well-Known Member

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    Clockmaster, first of all welcome to the boards. Secondly, I'm not going to get into too much debate with what you said because I'd largely just be reiterating exactly what I said in my posts you were referring to, but i do want to touch on a few items.

    First if all, The Citroen. Compared to what ILM did with Bay's Transformers, the Citroen bots look like a small gust of wind would blow them away like a kite. They don't in any way convey mass or weight, and it's not just because they're skinny either. I attribute a large part of that to the fact that, for a robot to move as freely and quickly as they do with big chunks of car body strapped to their body, those car body parts would have to be paper-thin. Now, if you slowed him down and made all his movments take longer, he'd appear to look "heavy". But If we want to see the bots have action scenes equal to or better than the G1 cartoon, they need to be able to move fast. If they move fast while wearing a suit of car parts, they're going to look small and light again, like the Citroen bots.

    Second, I want to touch on "making it a comic book" to sell general audiences on Transformers as adult-orientated entertainment. At least in the States, Transformers has always been regarded largely as a kids show, kids toys, or both. I can't imagine anyone in the States would say "comic book" if you asked them what Transformers source material is. I know that's not the case in many other countries, but this film is of course being made in America, and has to appeal to American audiences as well as the rest of the world. So, I don't believe putting, "based on the Marvel Comic Books" on the front end of the movie trailers, is going to convince many adults that this is something that will appeal to them, especially if your follow-up trailer imagery is of robots that have more in common with car commercials and toys than any previous Hollywood film they may have enjoyed.

    Regarding Megatron, to me Bay's Megatron looks like a blank canvas for an Earth-based alt mode, much like protoform Ironhide crawling out of the pool in the teaser trailer. After all, Bay's Megatron already has G1 Megatron's basic proportions...
     
  18. Lycanthropic Tendencies

    Lycanthropic Tendencies Well-Known Member

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    You missed my point.

    The year one Transformers line was a potential disaster.
    Like everything in the 1980's it was nice and simple in the way they had it. The good guys were cars and The bad guys were military, weapons or small "spy" like things. Remember at that time dictaphones were used in many shows as spying tools.

    But the toys themselves brought more problems.
    The good guys outnumbered the bad guys tremendously.
    They even bulked up the bad guys by releasing the same mold three times.
    But still, even if the good guys didn't kill, they'd be able to capture them through strength of numbers in about 5 minutes flat.
    And the minibots themselves had no weapons at all.
    And of course, most regular Autobots were three times the price of regular figures from other toylines.

    That's a much harder sell than other lines like He-Man or other lines which had a much closer ratio of evenly matched warriors at a lower price point.
    So they created a universe to explain why the Decepticons were a match for the far more numerous Autobots, why the minibots were smaller and had no weapons and so on.

    Do you honestly think the same people who wrote a bible that urged them to make a bot Frenzy's colours with Rumble's name to sell both bots would have created a more complex (at the time) mythos that lasted 20 years when most others fell by the wayside if they didn't have to, if the toys hadn't forced them to?

    Gobots says no. As does MOTU, MASK and almost every other line which started with purpose built toys.

    Without the toys, there's no way we'd have had the mythos we do.
    Like every other toy line it would have been just good soldiers versus evil soldiers and like every other line, it would have faded into comparative obscurity.
     
  19. airfox

    airfox TF: Cybertronian Wars!

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    Thundercats message board? He-Man?

    I wouldn't call another group of an 80's toy property fans unbiased.

    Go check The Offspring board or something like that.

    Comics, toys and cartoon's boards are gonna be filled with the same type of reactions as this board.

    -airfox
     
  20. Vangelus

    Vangelus Long Live the New Flesh Moderator Content Contributor

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    I asked an elderly lady on the bus what she thought of the newly-leaked Transformers 2007 movie robot designs, but all she did was shriek and bludgeon me with her purse. :(