I find it revealing that the general consensus (so far) is that the first movie was the best overall. I agree with this and personally feel that Bay & Co. lost direction (no pun), going the way of "more complex CGI models, more explosions, more sexual innuendo" and forgot "better story and plot" (way too common with the industry in general for that matter). Although I appreciate the attention this movie series brings to Transformers, my expectations are very low (Summer Teen Flick) and I am much more likely to buy quality toys than put my money into the box office.


Regarding the poll, I voted the "some changes" category since I suspect it would have taken only a few small changes to substantially improve the second and third films. One example: in DOTM, Shockwave could have been smart (as he has always been) and Driller could have been left out (as the waste of computer time that he was) without changing the plot at all.

 

I have been an avid bay basher. But he and Hasbro hit their target as for kids and new transformer fans. Some of the toys were really good as well. But I kind of hated them. I felt like bay was getting away with murder. Bay turned the greatest decepticon leader ever into a panzy. And optimus, sigh....he couldn't go toe to toe with megs in the first movie. He got tossed around like a rag doll begging Sam to push the cub in his chest because megs was whoopin that ass till the air force came. Now he's murderous prime! Taking out anceint primes with God-like powers, killing megs with 1 arm. Kind of makes you wonder how they lost the war on cybertron in the first place. And this, this is the kicker for me; the cube crashed landed thousands of years ago on earth. Megs crashed about a hundred years ago. If S7 built the Hoover dam around the cube why was megs looking for it in the arctic circle when he already knew where it was because he put the cube's coordinates on the old man's glasses. HUH!

 

%90 of your complaints are on writers by the way.

 

The first was alright, but i don't think I can ever watch it again. After that though.... uch. I simply cannot accept the purile fratboy sub-Farrelly level of humour either. I mean come on, Dickbot the blender guy? Lubricating? Carly being INTRODUCED via an upskirt shot? Wheelie humping? I genuinely think you have to be medically moronic to find any of those (and numerous other examples) acceptable. This is a kids toy franchise but that sort of stuff is amied and horny teen meatheads that got lower grades than Beavis and Butthead. Horrible horrible horrible.

So my vote goes to 'too much bad outweighing the good'. SO much bad. And its a damn shame. I just wish Bay wasn't involved with the fourth one.


(I liked the choice of accent for Jetfire though)

 

Your absolutely right Tuna. As usual. Even with all my complaints it still was entertaining. What's your take on the whole trilogy Tuna? I think you, tonyformer and a couple other top notch members on here could Wright and make a kick ass film.

 

I love them. I love and respect the designs, and I love the human element. I think I'm one of the few people who understands why humans must have a bigger role. But I absolutely HATE Bay's humor. It just needs to go. If he wants do it, he should've stick with Pain&Gain type of movies. And after he cast T.J.Miller, I accepted the fact that he won't stop. So I'll try extra hard to avoid that and enjoy rest of the movie.

And we're lucky that these movies don't suffer from bad acting, all of the cast are top notch except female leads. And I trust Ehren Kruger about robot screen time and interaction. Action is fantastic of course, same with visual effects. Bay's one of the few that didn't go full Lucas/Jackson. He uses practical effects. Stories are interesting too, If only they were handled well.

 

If only there were more posts like this.I totally agree with you.I love the movies.The movies are my favourite version of Transformers.I like some characters from another versions but in the movies I like all of them and I like the plots of every movie. I understand that there must be some humans in the movie and I don't mind them .I can stand almost every type of comedy except the one that insults some people,cultures or implies racist jokes

 

My opinion

The first movie was pretty decent. I thought the only character that was nothing like the one we know was Jazz. Jazz in the comics and cartoon was a likeable dude. In the movies he was a tough punk who cursed. Aside from that minor detail, the only other thing that bothered me about the first movie was how Optimus just got tossed around by Megatron in a pretty one-sided affair. He didn't seem all that mighty, but at least they more or less got his character right. Sam was decent enough, but he should have had a nickname like Buster or Spike. Again, just a minor complaint.

Revenge of the Fallen was terrible. The Fallen was a terrible bad guy, who had magnetic powers but he was just a generic bad guy when it came right down to it. I also hated how Megatron patronized and sucked up to him. Megatron bows to nobody! The Twins... oh gosh they were awful. I thought Jazz was bad for racial stereotyping, but these two moron characters pretty much ruined an already weak movie. Devastator was also poorly done. I wanted to see the Contructicons merge and form a ROBOT not some dog-looking moron beast. Jetfire... ack... wasn't the same character. It seemed like the script was written by a 12-year-old.

Dark Side of the Moon was about as bad as the previous installment, but not for the same reasons. The biggest let down for me was the introduction of Shockwave. Instead of giving screen time to dumb robots like Wheelie, they give ONE LINE to one of the most famous Decepticons there is. The special effects in this one were fantastic, but the story really lacked soul.

I really wanted to like these movies, but the scripts were weak and only the first one was at least in the ballpark. The action was great, but I don't want to hear cursing Transformers and see ones that clearly are racial stereotypes. Stuff like that I feel is really distracting, as was the horrible toilet humor, and forgettable human characters.

Michael Bay does things his way, doesn't really listen to criticism, and that's why the first three movies were not as good as they could have been.

While Age of Extinction sounds decent... this is still a Bay movie. So unless he changes, I'd expect more of the same.

 

Maybe he got it right this time, 4th strike is the charm lol.

 

I was just thinking; It's not just about who likes the movieverse, and who doesn't. I'd also like to know what that age group is of everyone.

I have a feeling that most of the people who love the movies are younger, and those who dislike them are older.
When I was younger I liked some pretty dumb cartoons, and tv shows, and now that I'm older my tastes have evolved, so when I came back to watch some of these shows I used to like (on Netflicks, or whatever), I didn't like them, for various reasons.

For example, I'm 33, and I'm not a fan of the movies.

 

You know Tuna, I have to agree on almost everything you said While the past 3 movies did not have the best in the way of female acting, I can honestly say I felt the main male role of Sam would have been better if someone else besides Shia did the part.

Shia is a decent actor but hes not great. He was good in movie 1 as the 'Boy' and his car role. But after that, I really think Bay should have moved on past Sam. Shia just seemed like he was forcing himself to act most of the time. He didnt capture emotion well. And his constant spitting when he forced himself into what was supposed to be excited emotional states just sucked lol.

I loved everything and everyone that was part of NEST. I even liked Simmons in the first movie but again, like Sam, I felt his character should have just been a one movie character. Its bad when I actually enjoyed Dutch in DOTM over Simmons. Im glad that it looks like T.J Miller will only be in the movie much like Miles was in the first movie.

Im not Director and will never pretend to be but I can write fan fiction and I can write some really good Script treatments. If I could find a Director/Producer and have a few great artists such as yourself, I bet you we could do a much better job with a movie like this.

I know that sounds like bragging but im confident in it.

 

I used to think they were amazing, but then I discovered the rest of Transformers...

The movies got me into Transformers, and I still like the aesthetic (though it could be cleaned up a bit), the concepts (even if they don't use them to their full extent), and action/CGI-heavy sequences, and I do actually watch them... but they could be soooooooo much better. So, so much better.

 

It's just too bad they shoehorned in too many iconic transformers who as a result of that barely did anything interesting.

 

The bad outweighs the good. I think you could take all the good and interesting parts of all three movies and make one out of them. And of course the robot designs are not so cool.

 

I seem to be in the majority, "Didn't really like them, too much bad outweighing the good."

I guess this surprises me a little.

 

I agree with everything you said. If only more people would understand.

 

I like things about the movies, but I can never disagree with anyone who tears them apart.

My biggest problem with the movies can be summed up with the death of Ironhide. He died, and nobody in the movie cared. That's pretty much how all of the Transformers are treated. If they have characterization, its bare minimum and only in service of human dialogue/characterization. Optimus fares better than most at least, and his scenes are among the things I like about the movies.

 

They're great, but they could be better. The first movie IMO was perfect. Rotf was...fun but some scenes really didn't need to be in there, but they make the movie, so to speak. Dotm was the best hands down, but the first hour or so feels really dragged on. Like, there was absolutely zero point in highlighting Sam getting a job more than it should've. And the whole "deep Wang" scene was just completely tasteless and anyone who finds that scene even remotely funny just love toilet humor. At least the humor in rotf made me laugh somewhat. Dotm had piss poor humor, even for a "dark" movie like itself.

Now the acting. The first movie felt relatable and legit. Rotf felt like they took the craziness too far. Dotm tried to be serious but you just don't put shia and a random supermodel in a doomsday situation and expect us to take that seriously. I still can't get over how Carly made it through the whole fight, not only in heels, but in a white jacket and shirt seemingly unscathed. The human element in dotm was just unreal on more levels than 3.

There's also robot screentime. I respect that it costs a ton to animate just one tf so I think that the robot screentime was fine. I just hated that the Autobots were like the government's "pets with weapons" for two movies straight. This is something I hope is truly dealt with in AOE.

 

First movie: 2/10

The human aspect is handled terribly while the Transformers aspect is done reasonably well. Characters like Barricade and Blackout even came off as threatening throughout to the point where they actually have become fan favourites.

The main plot is disappointing though and features the main villain having little screentime in a movie that should really focus on establishing Megatron and Optimus and the history of the Transformers. The music however was pretty good with themes such as 'Arrival To Earth' and 'Sam On The Roof' which actually made me question if they would kill off the human lead character.

Its reasonable enough that I might watch the better scenes if I saw it on TV - though walk out the room when they ended.

Second Film: 1/10
The Transformers became a lot more comedy based and not in a good way - gaining penis's and testicles along with being subject to stereotypical characteristics of most humans. It was boring to watch with the good moments very few and far between - I ended up in a blind rage at the end of the movie because it was completely filler with Megatron and Starscream escaping cowardly.

Though their are some good destruction moments - but they are overhyped with the forest fight being the most dull and badly shot fight I have seen in the Transformers movies with the extended version being even worse.

The music however is alright - with a few good themes such as 'Prime' and 'N.E.S.T' The toyline saved this movie from being a complete waste of time.

If I saw it on TV - I'd turn the TV off.

Third Film: 2.5/10
Obviously better than the second film though only slightly better than the first due to the reduction of stereotypical character - but the human element is still the weakest part. Dylan's motivations are barely expanded upon. Carly remains a whiney character through the movie while the script tries to make her important. Sam is manageable but his involvement in the battles weakens the enjoyment considerably.

Bumblebee's near death was emotional - but failing to kill him off just felt like it was only added to annoy the fans. The Decepticons look scary but do nothing through the entire movie noting here that human deaths carry no weight as none of the characters who die are likeable or even character we get to know - a similar situation happening with the death of Que which is forgettable almost instantly.

It tries way too hard to make up for ROTF with guest stars and voice actors such as Leonard Nemoy - but its insanely boring which is its main flaw. When watching the Driller destroy a skyscraper I just kept thinking - why the heck is this massive worm doing this to kill about 5 humans when you have spaceships EVERWHERE  

If I saw it on TV - I'd just switch over to the inevitable 'Star Trek: Wrath Of Khan' showing on another channel. A reasonable film - but not worth watching any of it again - though some of the music is good such as 'Sentinel's theme'

Overall: 1.5/10
The series itself has a long way to go before I consider accepting it. I purchase the DVD's when they are on sale mostly for the design of the robots in the special features and out of commitment to a franchise (Transformers) that I easily see dying when the movies end - as proven by the constant cancellation of Transformers related shows: Transformers Animated, Transformers Prime, etc...

Agree completely half the movies don't even feel like Transformers.
- The first movie was a love story, Sam try's to win Mikaela via buying a car and it ends with them together
- The second movie was a college story, Sam essentially cheats on Mikaela and it ends with her forgiving him.
- The third movie was an 'evil ex-boyfriend' story, Sam is moving on from Mikaela via dating Dylan's sloppy seconds - forcing the two into conflict, ending with him cementing their relationship.

 

Really liked the first one. Had flaws, but the good outweigh the bad for me and I was able to enjoy myself greatly.

Initially hated the second one, as it seemed to be building on all the things I disliked from the first - and the third was a bit better but was still very long and had similar flaws to the second.


As time goes by you just enter some state of apathy. I can't really get bothered with it, and I'll go see TF4 in cinemas anyway. I'll pick up the toys I like, and (hopefully   ) leave the ones I dislike on the shelves. I don't think this movie will really do anything different from the previous two, no matter how much Bay or anyone else wants to claim it's totally fresh - but I'll be happily surprised when it is.

I do think it's time for a new take on the franchise. I feel three Hollywood movies is enough.