Obviously its convoluted plot and dumb comic relief wasn't going to please people who didn't like the previous ones but it seems like they were going out of their way to alienate people who actually did like all or at least some of the previous ones. A plot that contradicts numerous events in the previous movies, Optimus Prime being absent for most of the movie, hardly any action until the end, the climax basically being just people and Transformers floating around compared to the epic city battles of TF1, 3 and 4, probably the most human focus of any of the movies. I just don't get it.

 

I lost count on how many times I raised my eyebrows while watching that.I waited 3 years for this trainwreck? That was the first time I came out of the theater disappointed. It's really,really bad.

 

Their financiers.

 

Bay is trying to confuse himself. If you don't know what that means, allow me to demonstrate below.

                                                                      

 

People who hate consistent aspect ratios.

 

I've been saying this since AoE but....TLK pleased me. It pleased me as someone who really didn't like the previous 3 movies. 1st movie was pretty adequate, not much more than that but ROTF killed what respect I had for it. I continued to soldier on as a sort of personal punishment, and DOTM wasn't...nearly as bad but wasn't nearly as good as 2007 was. But I felt AoE and TLK did what I wanted the movies to do...to embrace the silly and just go off the rails with it. I don't think ANY of the Transformers movies are worth anything more than just stupid, cheesy action flicks, but I felt AoE and TLK were entertaining in ways the other three just weren't.

I know I seem to be in the minority here but AoE and TLK is what the franchise should've been at the start, or at least, should've been the story after ROTF. There's no way the average movie goer will ever respect Transformers more than a silly explosion metal junk-fest, so I don't get why they try to do one more movie that tried to be super serious all the time.

 

It tripped itself up in the attempt to please on multiple fronts. Fans, cooperate, Bay's ego, and the list goes on. Honestly and I know this will be hugely unpopular but this is the film that should have been put in place of ROTF. Then go forward from there, instead, they held back and got tangled up in an eleventh-hour salvage attempt. That aside I enjoyed it, whilst being salty over the huge plot holes

 

I've said this before, but no movie has ever broken me the way TLK did. As a life-long Transformers fan who has loved literally everything that I've seen up until that point, it honestly made me question myself.

 

I never missed TF movies in theater since the first came out (I was about 9) and all of them were fun movies but this.Did bay try to kill the movieverse by directing TLK? iirc he gradually lost interest in directing TF live action any further,so maybe that's why TLK was a trainwreck?

 

This is where I'm at...I still do not understand the hate this movie gets. It may have not been any better than the other installments, but it certainly wasn't any worse. I enjoyed it quite a bit, just as I had Age of Extinction. Yeah, there are some things that don't line-up perfectly between these two films, but I don't feel like it's anything I can't explain-away in my own imagination...

I think maybe if there's anything wrong with it, it's maybe that it became too unwieldly...the stories had to constantly be bigger and more epic with each new installment, yet it had to tie-in with everything that had come before...I'd imagine that's nearly impossible to do as a writer. Maybe they wrote themselves into a proverbial corner, so to speak. But again, I liked it, I truly did, and I liked how they alluded to a secret history of Transformers underlying everything else everyone thought they knew. If Prime knew, and I assume he did since he was one of the knights, then he wasn't letting-on like he did, as if it were a need-to-know basis, and that he didn't share that info with anyone for obvious reasons...I don't know. My biggest question is how the Allspark is connected with the Creators or Creator, like there's a history of Cybertron that everyone thinks they know, then there's the true secret history of it all. This reminds me of Redlettermedia making fun of "Emperor Palpatine's" fan-like defense of Star Wars: Episode I, where he says, "It's like two people playing an intricate game of chess, but neither one of them knows how to play or what's going on...", or something like that. (lol) It just became too big and too layered...but I'll admit, I like it when I can't completely wrap my mind around a story completely, and I'm forced to fill-in my own blanks.

 

E-X-A-C-T-L-Y!!! I felt exactly the same.

Maybe. I think Hasbro and Paramount just broke the blanket in a half with their numerous claims. They have too much commerce interest, trying to milk the money from every group of viewers and forgot about creativity. Remember Bonaventura saying about more human-concentrated plot and returning to the Earth events RIGHT AFTER AOE release?! It was so strange to hear his words after AOE cliffhanger! Also Goldner said numerous times, that Hasbro took more control. I think even reusing of previously used Decepticons bodies was just to simplify the process of making toys.

I think people listed enough arguments already. Briefly this Movie does not try to continue the previous ones in terms of plot, style, atmosphere, battles, dialogs, everything. It tryes just to exploit the success of previous ones, does not paying decent efforts. Also creating the plot, connected nicely with previous Movies is not dufficult even for people here, not saying about professional screenwriter. They just didn't try.

 

As someone who did watch all the previous movies and didn't mind their existence much save for an occasional cringe over a movie scene or two...

...I'm still recovering from the brain damage inflicted by watching The Last Fail.

Yes, it was THAT worse than the previous movies.

 

Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Because it's all he has left.

 

TLK felt like a hate letter to me. The reason I say that is because of these examples
Fans we want more bot and con screentime.
TLK writers ok we give them more screentime in the beginning but the whole middle half will have no major bots or cons.
Fans we want stronger cons.
TLK writers how about we make the cons weaker than stormtroopers
Fans no more tying transformer and human history together.
TLK writers good idea but instead let's have every human event tied to transformers from WW2 to ending racism.
Fans no more continuity errors.
TLk writers continuity what is this unknown word you speak of.

 

Michael Bay's wallet duh

 

I'm pretty much in agreement. There are a lot of things I enjoyed in the first two sequels, but AOE and TLK are really the reason I consider myself a fan of the movie series. Without them, I have a feeling I'd still be sour towards the movieverse.

I do think the first film is enjoyable, and probably technically the best. ROTF and DOTM feel kind of repetitive to me. Very similar story beats and overall storylines. In a way they feel less like sequels and more like extensions of the first film, whereas AOE and TLK feel like distinct stories. I can very clearly distinguish the events of AOE and TLK in my mind, but I kind of have trouble remembering where stuff happened in ROTF and DOTM. Honestly, DOTM is probably a better movie technically than AOE or TLK. On a personal level, I just enjoy the latter two more.

Aside from that, there are just more elements I like in the latest two. I like the casts better. Sam worked in the first movie, but I thought he got old quickly. I just enjoy the Cade character more. I liked the connection with his daughter more than Sam's family dynamic. I like Joshua Joyce, Jimmy, Burton, and even Lucas, I think they're fun characters. Overall I also like the robot cast and the design aesthetic of AOE and TLK better.

 

Great post!

The thing about the first three movies is, while enjoyable, they're like the first 1 and a half seasons of the original cartoon in both formula and fictional status quo. Both the early movies and first half of the cartoon are much more formulaic than their successors. AoE and TLK, like the 1986 movie and Season 3, are much less formulaic. It's not just the Witwickies and Autobots fighting Decepticons in some desert; there still are Autobots fighting Decepticons, but there's also bounty hunters and other alien creatures and what not. In Season 3 one episode could be about the Quintessons, another about Galvatron and Cyclonus, another about Metroplex and Trypticon, and another about Unicron's head.

Plus, both AoE and TLK are heavily influenced by the 1986 movie and Season 3 episodes. AoE has much of the old cast gone and introduces new characters, and it introduces Galvatron, just like the animated movie. It also has alien bounty hunters hunting Autobots for their alien creators, just like Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1. TLK is actually a lot like Madman's Paradise; I'm surprised so few people have noted that. Quintessa is a lot like the Quintesson sorceress Mara Al-Utha; the enemy of both even happens to be a powerful, somewhat benevolent dragon. Many things in both are very medieval or fanciful.

Heck, I don't even think the first film is really better than the other films anyway for the most part. If anything DotM and AoE have better stories and characterization in my book, minus Sam becoming more grating as the first trilogy went on. The action is clearer in some of the sequels. I think the voice acting from the Fallen, Sentinel, TLK Megatron, Cogman, and indeed all of the AoE cast is better than what we get in the first movie.

 

It’s an artists arrogance, I believe bay finalised the movies by making sure that nobody else can pick up where he left off. Kind of like a signature on a painting. In a message to other creatives, he’s said “If you’re gonna try doing this, then you’re starting from scratch I’m leaving you nothing” kind of mentality. Wether that was him alone or the whole production team either way the movie seems to imply that it was strong arming paramount into starting from scratch or doing one more movie as the movies at the last knight point only had one or two more movies to go...both unicron based.

 

AOE broke me long before this piece of shit came out. They should've just shut up and ended it with DOTM while it was on a good note but instead they chose to squeeze $1.7 billion out of two more movies only to STILL end up suffering financially.

 

Let's see..

Stranger Things fans, game of thrones fans, star wars fans, Wal E fans, King Arthur fans, Anthony Hopkins fans and Suicide Squad fans.
Maybe there's more if you count transformers fans.