I never said Bayverse wasn’t catered to so I’m not sure why you brought that up. My point still stands. Hasbro has largely catered to G1 fans for years. Saying that those fans have been ignored because they haven’t gotten a live action movie is hyperbolic and an over exaggeration. Armada fans haven’t been catered to theatrically. Nor have the Beast Wars fans. Nor have the Cybertron fans. That worlds smallest violin is getting louder.

 

Ok... I have a genuine question here. I'm tagging @TFXProtector because he gives pretty rational and well thought out responses but anyone else feel free to answer this.

When you say you want a "live action G1 movie", what does that mean? What are you looking for from a movie that satisfies this term for you? Does it need to include certain characters, follow a certain setup, look a certain way? I am genuinely curious what the answer is.

 

Feels like they're giving out the IP like lollipops, I wish I were in the film industry, I've been writing TF Fan Fiction for years, got a few movie ideas myself!

 

Fully aware you didn't ask me, but I figured I'd answer since you said anyone could:

Personally I just want a good movie that gives us more faithful adaptions of characters like Prime, Starscream, Megatron, Jazz, I wouldn't even mind if they included characters like Sideburn, Strongarm or Bulkhead, that'd make it even BETTER. Like if we already had characters like Prime, Bee, Wheeljack and Arcee, I wouldn't have any issue if there were new characters (as long as they were truly new and not just repurposing / almost carbon copies of existing characters) or from sources other than G1 as long as they served a purpose and such.

Honestly, other than that... I'd be interested in seeing whatever plot they came up with. In regards to look, as long as you can at least recognize the characters, definitely make them less noisy / overly-complex.. you'd also be able to have more characters if their designs weren't so ridiculously noisy (in regards to how messy / chaotic the Bay Transformers often looked). Rather than slap random names on random (often interchangeable) robots, give us CHARACTERS that aren't just one-liners or oversized props.

It doesn't need to be solely G1 elements, but it wouldn't be a bad thing if they borrowed many characters or elements from it because that's what many film adaptions do, and there's plenty of characters to utilize.

Honestly at this point they could make a movie solely based on Machine Wars or those dinky Go-Bot playschool toys and I'd be all the fuck over it as long as it was well made, I just don't want Transformers to be like "Fast & the Furious" anymore. We deserve better than what the Bay movies offered, and I truly think we can DO better.

 

I don't want the G1 show remake or a remake of TFTM. Honestly, that's a complete waste of resources when the same content is still out there watchable. However, I want to look at the designs that I can recognize. It's frustrating as a Transformers fan that with a design as iconic as Starscream, I simply can't recognize him. You don't have these kinds of problems with other brands. It's okay to take creative liberty, however, making designs out of thin air without actually using the material they're trying to adapt is just lazy to me. It's more creative and harder to take something that exists and modernize it for today's audience. The movies are mass-market products. Their goal is supposed to translate the material into something everyone, including both the fans and the general audience, can enjoy. Taking on radically different ideas and challenging the audience's perception should not be the goal when most of the audience hasn't even been exposed to the content before. You start with something that's been tried and tested to ease the audience in (aka using G1 designs as the basis and no, they don't have to be 1:1 copies). From there, sure, if you want to get bold, it's a little more appropriate as long there is some kind of resemblance to what they're adapting.

As for the story, as long it has the same beats as what you expect from Transformers, it doesn't matter too much as long as it's executed well. This includes having a coherent plotline, a fun adventurous feel, Transformers themselves expressing their characterizations, and battle sequences that are interesting and easy to follow.

 

This does a better job saying what I was trying to say in my own post.  

 

You know what. Let's make absolutely no one happy.

Live Action Kiss Players it is.

 

Ok so two questions here:

1) is "Bumblebee" a movie that delivered this for you and (knowing that Prime and company were mostly cameos here) would continuing on that path satisfy this?

2) What you're describing - isn't this just about every iteration of the Transformers franchise? Every iteration takes the building blocks of G1 - the Autobot vs. Decepticon conflict - noble Optimus and tyrannical Megatron as their leaders - often bringing their war to Earth - and then adds its own twists, its own new characters, and its own storyline and setups. Certainly different iterations borrow more or less from G1 but it's always present in some form. And then it is up to you whether you like that iteration or not. The first Bay film (and I am specifically referring to the first here) seemed to lean more on G1 than any previous iteration did, in fact (except maybe Beast Wars since it sets itself in the same continuity). So if you don't like the designs and didn't end up liking the story and direction of that film and then its sequels, that's for you to decide, though of course it was the biggest iteration by its very nature. So you are essentially just asking for good content - which is great - and you felt that Bay films were not that. So we'll see where things go from here but it definitely seems like a different direction, which I think is made clear to the producers from the poor reception of the general public, which did largely embrace the first few films, to The Last Knight. Good content will be good to both the hard-core fans and the general public, so let's hope that's what we get, but I don't think it necessarily has to be "G1" to be good.

With all due respect to G1, I don't necessarily feel like it ought to have been considered "tried and tested" in 2007, 20 years after the fact. Keep in mind this was before the current nostalgic bender media is currently on where everything and anything from the 80s and 90s is being rebooted. I think there was a genuine desire to modernize the brand. Transformers never went away but the first movie really made it a fixture in popular culture for the first time since G1. And I do think it is fair to say that audiences were positively engaged with the brand through the movies - the general reception to the first film was objectively pretty positive - even if it tapered off over time, which is why we're in the situation we are in now.

 

Nothing I have said has indicated that I want this film. I'm not asking for this film or to be catered to. I'm not even against a g1 film. The problem lies in Star himself, as all he preaches is g1 this and g1 that and has actually stated that creative liberties not be taken. I'd rather the films find some common ground between g1 and the bayverse like they did in Bumblebee. Asking for a strictly g1 film is just pointless. G1 may be the foundation and the backbone of the franchise but it isn't the star, it's the characters. As long as these characters get their time to shine as actual characters then I couldn't give a shit what they look like.

 

My man, if he bugs you that much with his posts (that don't break the rules) just ignore him. :/

 

They are trying to do too many things at the same time. Hope they don\'t mess it up.
 

 

Gonna start from the bottom up on this one. Redundant was probably the wrong word to use. I just feel that in market so saturated with g1, especially in the way of toys, more of the same isn't going to help. Bumblebee was a step in the right direction. As for those who white knight the bayverse films, their idiots blinded by nostalgia just like Star is. The movies arent very good and some of the designs fall short, but reverting back to just g1 isnt the answer. There has to be a way to meet in the middle designwise. Again, Bumblebee was a step in the right direction, Hell so is cyberverse. We have seen live action g1 designs done right. If you want to find this person who things G1 is the only part of the franchise look no further than Star Maverick, who has gone so far as to state that the people making these designs should just stop taking creative liberties. It seems that Transformers fans as a whole don't know how to step outside their comfort zone and try out new ideas and designs. I'm sure I'm guilty of hypocrisy in some fashion and I'm not trying to pull a "holier than thou" thing. The concept of a "proper" Transformers film is quite vague too. What does a "proper" Transfomers film mean? Does it mean strictly G1 designs with no innovation or acknowledgment of other parts of the franchise? Does it mean trying to capture the core values of the franchise and working around that? I wont defend the Bayfilms as despite growing up with them I can recognize that they are DEEPLY flawed. Something just has to give and there has to be a way to meet in the middle.

 

On the topic of whether or not we should get a G1 movie, I personally would like to see at least one G1-style movie if not a trilogy. But I don't think I'd want every future Transformers movie to be in the style of G1. At some point I think we need new takes and approaches, otherwise things will start to get stale and the G1 charm will lose its magic. And if we're going to get multiple movies in production at the same time, I don't see why they couldn't make some G1 focused, and others more risky.

 

This does sound like overkill with TF movies.  I know Hasbro is hard up to sell toys, but why not just do one movie first and then see how well that goes.  Three in a short amount of time, especially if they are done badly would just anger fans and leave a bad taste in the mouths of the general public.  

 

I appreciate you responding to my post either way.

For 1. I'd say... it tried, and I give it points for that. But clearly the movie was hamstringing itself to be in continuity with a film series the studio decided to move on from. I think Bumblebee was an improvement over what came before, but they need to keep going. If that makes sense. So, I guess.. yeah. If they continued on that path I'd be satisfied? I want the next movie to be a step up from Bumblebee.

2. It's true that that formula often exists with other iterations but I'm specifically talking about movies here. The first movie's flaws extend far beyond the subpar utilization of the source materials, I mean with such a large cast of interesting Decepticon characters to pick from there really isn't any good excuse for all of the bad guys in the movie to be colorless, voiceless CGI monsters to pummel and shoot at.

While it's definitely true that it needs to click with both general audiences and fans, I think it's reasonable to say that general audiences are fairly easy to please. Even if the general audiences liked the first few movies, that doesn't mean they're good films or good adaptions.

But ultimately? You're totally right with that last sentence. That would be the ideal scenario.

 

This is pretty solid ngl. But because I'm a Transformers fan I'm going to be asked to be catered to a little bit, can I get a live action skybyte?

 

I wish they were trying to modernize the brand, but they weren't. It was Bay taking select parts he liked and making everything else from nothing. Hell, there was even a time where they considered making all of the characters mute. That's not modernizing as much as them trying to make a generic robot film. Though, yes, the end result wasn't too bad in regards to keeping some of the Transformers beats. Where they did fail was the designs. While the film had a positive reception, the critical argument surrounding it was that the audience could not tell the characters apart—something that could have been avoided by using G1 designs as the basis. Now you may say, so you can add any random primary color to the designs and it would fix the problem? Well, in the short term, sure, but considering the brand as a whole, using completely unrecognizable designs makes it much harder for the audience to assimilate to the rest of the brand. It's harder for a person who watched Starscream as he looked in the film to open up an IDW comic and get into the character when he looks completely different. Sure, there will be some that do eventually get interested in venturing out, but I'd say it's more difficult than if you did the same thing with Batman. It's probably one of the reasons we have such a large divide in the community. I truly believe this fandom would be even bigger if one, the films were good, and if two, the designs retained some kind of resemblance to its source. I'd say designs like Bayverse Prime and Jazz did a decent job at this. I just wish characters like Starscream, Sideswipe, and Devastator got the same kind of treatment. I think Hasbro has recognized this problem and has been on overdrive trying to fix it with a unified design language. It's an honest effort, though, I do think they take it to the extreme at times. Having some creative liberty isn't that bad as long they still convey the character they represent. I think Transformers Prime, regardless of what you think of the show, did a pretty good job at being creative but keeping character resemblance. Also, by making recognizable designs, you have the fans rooting on your side. General audience members naturally get excited when they see others doing the same.

 

I dunno, do we even have a main franchise films anymore? Bumblebee is kind of carrying the main narrative and rebooting it back to basics but it's not really a "Transformers" film since it's Bumblebee. Beast Wars is obviously it's own thing.

Whatever happened to that Cybertron film?

 

is this the 7th one in development or am i wrong?

 

The 2022 film seems to be the next big film. It seems to be building on Bumblebee, but raising the scale closer to the ensemble films. Supposedly the Cybertron animated film is still happening. I don't know what this movie is, I'm guessing some kind of smaller scale spinoff since the director doesn't seem to have done any genre/sci-fi/action type stuff.