The last BayFormers movie killed my buzz about the next one.

 

Nah, as much as I loved the first movie and I know I'll love the second one, it is JUST a movie. I don't mind there not being much info at the moment, plus there is so much other TF stuff around at the moment, there's plenty to keep occupied with.

 

Ok, you hated the movie, we get it.

The only thing that's killing my buzz is Bay coming out after about 2 weeks of news and going "EVERYTHING YOU JUST HEARD WAS A LIE!"

 

The first movie was more than enough for me to go on, so I'm fine without having more leaked concept art and subsequent 30-page threads about each image to wade through. I already know that no matter what new characters they bring into the sequel, they won't remotely resemble how I remember them anyway. Plus I know that it's another Bay movie, which in itself says everything it needs to: lots of explosions, not so clever military & corprate sponser placement, a list of actors I've either never heard of or don't care about, and a story that my 10 year old niece could have come up with.

All I hope for this time is that all the money shots aren't given away in the trailers the way they were with the first movie. I'd like to be at least moderately surprised by the time I see it in a theater.

 

I dont mind no info, but we're getting the opposite. Hurt actors, delayed schedules. But I don't mind not knowing anything.

 

I think saying "its just a movie" is a horrible understatement. To many times people have said that to make it easy for saying get over it or this is not G1. I can understand the rational, really I can, but movies can be really emotional experiences and a hell of lot more than just special effects and cheap marketing ploys. I mean otherwise why do we go see movies if they do not evoke these kind of responses.

When I heard Primes voice in the first minutes of the first movie I had a real emotional experience honestly. It was great to hear Prime/Cullen fully realized in a serious manner. Like any other movie if a true artisitc intention is applied it can be thought provoking and emotional.

This movie although kinda loses its focus towards the end and they unfortunately screwed the pooch when they thought it would be better if SAM killed megs instead of prime.

ANYWAY

I think the big part of the Buzz for the first movie was coming from transformers message boards like these and then us in all our nerdiness insisting friends and family go see the movie. The leaked info was the hook used to capture our intentions regardless of the final product.

 

Well, I got the buzz back. Just took watching the first movie again toget the gears grinding.

 

You say that like I'm here every day kicking BayFormers with every single post I make. Which I'm not.
So let me give my opinion on the thread topic at hand without having the Bay Love Squad come to arrest me, eh?

 

Any time Bay makes a statement it tends to kill my buzz. While he's good with effects he's not so good at saying the sort of things that would get me excited about the film. The writers and actors seem to have a better grasp of how to talk to fans than the director does.

 

the thing that kills my buzz is we know what the transformers look like now. before we had no idea what direction they were going with, but now that I know, you can pretty much imagine what the future transformers will look like, so there's not much to be excited about. the other thing is that I felt like the first movie was very underwhelming.

 

It actually gets me a bit more excited to see it.

 

"Killing my TF Movie buzz" is an oxymoron.

 

Not the point I was making at all. I don't know where you decided to pull that stuff from.

The point is to me, it is just a movie, I don't care how "emotional" it may end up being it is still just a movie, I don't really care if there is or isnt buzz or info leaks or anything like that, I'll still look forward to it as much and I'll still go see it, I just have more important things to occupy my mind with than a movie's pre release information.
That is why I said "It's just a movie."

 

The less I hear about the movie, the less I think about it. The less I think about the movie, the less it hurts to wait for it to release.

 

Honestly, I don't really care that I'm not getting as much leaked info as the last movie. I remember accidentally reading how the last movie ended before I had even seen it, so I think I prefer it this way.
Plus at least this time I'm not getting as riled up at leaked images of butt ugly Transformers.
So I'm good.

 

The only thing that is killing my movie buzz is what a douche Shia is!

 

I'm not trying to sound negative or offend someone, but I'll try to explain things objectively, the way a producer might see it.

Last time, for better or worse, designs got leaked. Whether on purpose or not, we don't know for sure. But designs were leaked. People didn't like them. People involved with the film, such as Spielberg, Bay, and especially Don Murphy, displayed immense displeasure with the leaks. Many of us whined. We whined, we whined, we whined, and we said that these designs sucked. Well, a million fans saying a design sucks didn't change their minds one bit. Starscream looked spot-on to the leaked drawings, Optimus still lacked his mouth and had flames, Brawl looked exactly like his cardboard cutout, etc. Blackout looked identical to the leaked CGI artwork. Sure, Don Murphy said those designs weren't final. He was right: they changed Blackout's elbows a bit...took away Ironhide's face plate...the only real difference was Megatron's head. In other words, they were "works in progress" in the same sense that your hamburger is a "work in progress" right up to the moment you change the recipe at the last second and put in some extra pickles.

They were going to make the movie anyway. With or without our approval. Those designs were near finished. Well, it turns out that they made the movie without our approval first time around, and the movie seemed to do AMAZING. Mind-blowingly amazing money came from TF1. Now, more than ever, all people involved believe they were onto something good the first time around.

The second time around, Spielberg, Bay, Murphy, etc, are buoyed from the success of the first movie, and, well, they're going to make the movie anyway. Just like last time, they were going to make the movie with or without our approval, exactly the way they want to. And why not? It made so much money the first time.

Except this time, why bother dealing with months and months of fans saying your designs suck?

If TF1 designs were leaked on purpose, then maybe they decided it would be less aggravation simply not to leak them this time. If they were not leaked purposefully, then it makes even more sense to put a tighter clamp on concept art, robot VA's, cast list, etc.

I guess my point is, whether we like it or not, the movie will be made the way Michael Bay wants. We can complain if we want to, but Michael Bay's insistence will not change. For better or worse, he knows his formula makes money. He could either hear our complaints or not, and if I were him, I'd also prefer to spare myself the headache and just not leak anything.

 

^^^I tried to stay objective with my post up there, but I don't really make a secret that I disliked TF1. I saw the movie anyway, saw an exciting popcorn movie that didn't really give me the TF story I wanted, and appreciated what I got. Doesn't change the fact that I wasn't sold on the designs.

That being said, I really did appreciate seeing the robot designs before the movie. It actually helped me understand the plot better.

Thanks to the leaked concept art, I was able to see the the movie and know that "big armed, chicken-legged F-22" was Starscream, "shiny metal chrome broken-glass guy" was Megatron, "the weird guy with the scorpion-like shovel on his back" was Bonecrusher, etc. The designs actually gave me a few months to know what character was who.

I showed TF to my dad, and he couldn't (visually) tell the difference between the robot modes of Starscream and Megatron, and Brawl and Bonecrusher. I could tell the difference, because I had been following the movie like the rest of us. Everyone here could tell the difference. But to someone whose first exposure to TF was the movie...hell, the characters are hard to tell apart, especially with so many moving parts, quick cuts, and fast action. Even to someone who had been following TF since 1984, it was kind of hard to look at, say, movie Frenzy and say, "Hey, that's Frenzy!"

With TF1, I could probably see Bumblebee, Jazz, and Prime and say, "Hey! It's an updated Bumblebee, Jazz, and Prime!" With the others...I'd have no clue who I was looking at. Mind you, I'm not complaining about this anymore. I actually think Ironhide and Brawl look a hell of a lot cooler than any other Ironhide or Brawl ever. I just think that some of these movie designs don't really make me think of any kind of namesake that came before, and it was a real relief to know that Ironhide was Ironhide, Brawl was Brawl, etc.

For better or worse, I don't really expect TF2's robot design will stray too far from the TF1 aesthetic. Some like it, some don't. I don't. But what I find difficult to argue is that the characters will be very hard to identify if we didn't already see the designs in advance. If I saw TF1 Ironhide's design, I'd say it was a Trailbreaker. If I saw TF1 Brawl's toy, I'd say it was the movie franchise's version of Megatron because of its strong resemblance to G2 Megs. If I saw Bonecrusher or Starscream without knowing well ahead of time who they were...well...I'd be very confused as what I'd be looking at.

I honestly do think that TF1 Ironhide is, spiritually, in-line with previous Ironhides. I can say that, spiritually, Ratchet also has a lot in common with 80s Ratchet and perhaps Rhinox. But if I just flat-out saw those designs without knowing names, I really doubt I'd be able to tell what I'm looking at. If we want to take the movie at face value, then "Megatron-like tank guy" was actually Devastator!

I suppose we really don't have any control in what the next movie's designs look like, and I don't have a problem with that anymore. I just hope that we can see the designs and robot cast sooner rather than later, so the first time I see (for example) Tracks, I'll know it's Tracks. I don't want to look at (I'm just making this up) "Bumblebee-resembling robot mode of concept silver Corvette-bot" and not know it's Tracks. I don't want to look at "Decepticon-aligned SR-71 Blackbird-robot with Starscream-esque robot mode" and not know it's Jetfire.