A reboot to the Transformers movie series is bound to happen probably not anytime soon, but it will happen eventually. I've decided to take a few complaints from various users, and also suggestions from these users to compile a list of things that would make a reboot series perfect for fans. And make no mistake, I love the TF movie series. It's easily one of my favorites. But it CAN be better, we all know that. Anyways, let's get started shall we? *Cracks knuckles* -More Robot Screen Time This one may be hard to pull off due to money issues, but if it is done, I think it would help the movies a lot. I don't think a humanless TF movie is necessary, but if the TF had more screen time than the humans, I think we'd all be pretty happy. In other words take the amounts of screen time for the humans and TFs in the Bay films and make them switch places -More Powerful Decepticons As the TF movies have gone on, the Cons have gotten pretty weak. "Killed by humans" weak. This is unacceptable especially for us Con fans out there . Think Blackout from the 2007 movie. Now have all the Cons be that strong, except small ones like Frenzy of course, that'd be a little silly. Then they'd actually be a real threat, and there would be a sense of urgency. -Less Complex Robots And A Smaller Cast of Robots (Both Sides) Now hear me out here. I like complex robots, BUT sometimes they can be a little bit too complex, and if a lot of them are the same color, like the Cons in the Bay films, it can be difficult at times to tell who is who, especially to the public who doesn't follow the production as closely as us. It also lowers the cost to create the robots and therefore, the robots can have more screentime. Having a smaller cast also allows a greater amount of characterization than ever before in a TF movie. So, as much as we like the Bots and Cons to have large numbers so that the battles can be more epic, its better to have a small tight knit group of characters, than a large loosely connected army of soulless robots. -More Characterization For Robots I think this one speaks for itself. We as fans know that the characters that are shown in the movies have the potential to be great characters, yet it never quite happens. We get close every once in a while with characters like Optimus, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Sentinel, and apparently the whole Autobot cast of AOE. They should ALL be great characters, not just a few -Better Human Characters Again this one speaks for itself. Even if the robots DO get more screen time, a fair portion of the film would still be spent with the fleshlings, so they might as well be enjoyable -Aerial Battles (No Drone Ships, TF vs TF Aerial Battles) Superion/Aerialbots vs Seekers. Think about it. You know you want it. -Having Robot Deaths Mean Something (Both Sides) I hear this a lot, "Why do none of the robots react when somebody dies?". Well they should. Jazz? Should've been sad. Ironhide? Should've been sad. Major Decepticons? Need I go on? A least Ratchet is getting a meaningful death, really sad to see him go. -Flying Autobots (Aerialbots?) While not really necessary, it would definitely take the action to another level. Besides, why should the Cons get to have all the high-flying fun, right? -Car Decepticons (Stunticons?) The Cons could really use more cars. It'd really help the whole "I can't tell the robots apart" thing. Cars, trucks and the like can come in a variety of colors, unlike military, government, and alien vehicles, which have a "limited palette" so to speak. -More Military Vehicle Robots (Both Sides) This kinda contradicts my last point but there need to be more military vehicles. Especially on the Autobot side. Warpath anyone? Also the Combaticons could totally be the Main Villains by themselves, with Onslaught being the mental opponent, and Bruticus the physical threat. -Better Humor There's really no explanation needed here. No ROTF style silliness, no "Deep Wang", no Twins, so on and so forth -More Engaging Plot We as fans know that the rich mythology of the many universes of Transformers are ripe with many fresh, intelligent, and exciting stories, twists, cliffhangers, and betrayals. Many of these haven't been explored yet, but totally should -Let Other Robot's Get The Spotlight, Not Just Optimus, Bumblebee, And The Main Villain Let the other robots have their day in the sun. A scene in DOTM with Dino tearing shit up by himself would have been a very welcome addition to the movie as a whole. This point also ties in with the earlier point of the robots needing more screen time and development. They desperately need to have character moments in these movies. Like, they could have had a scene in DOTM where Ratchet cried, that's right CRIED, over the death of his lifelong friend Ironhide; missed opportunity in my opinion -Space Battles Same reasoning as aerial battles and flying autobots, but should be left alone until later in the series -Open Up The World Of Transformers What was Pre-War Cybertron like? Who made the Transformers? What other worlds have they visited? What other kinds of aliens are there? Are the humanoid TFs the only lifeforms on Cybertron? All good questions to be explored, but none of them have......yet -Less Plot Holes I'm looking at you ROTF -Have Larger Transformers Make More Of An Impact I'm looking at you Devastator. Robot's like Combiners, Cityformers, Dinobots, etc. SHOULD be massive almost unkillable threats that require our heroes, and villains, to give it their all just to defeat them, let alone kill them. Make it happen. -Female Transformers A know we already had three fembots in ROTF, but let me ask you this. If they were never named, didn't talk, and were different colors, would you be able to tell they even were female? Odds are, probably not. We need real fembots in these movies, not a head and a pair of arms on a unicycle. -Better Human Female Characters Less supermodels, more super acting capability. Capiche? -Make Megatron Not A Bitch ROTF and DOTM Megs does NOT deserve the title Decepticon Overlord. TF 2007 Megs kicked Primes ASS. Like big time. Bring back more of that -Have The Decepticons Be Characters Too There are a lot of incredibly interesting Decepticons like Overlord, Lockdown, Jhiaxus, Starscream, Shockwave, etc. Too many to name IMO. Almost none of the Cons in the Bay Films have any characterization. It's unacceptable, really So that's my list of things a reboot series needs. Hopefully somebody at Paramount sees this, but probably not. Anyways if there's something you feel should be in this list, but I didn't cover for whatever reason, please tell me and I'll add it. Well, if it's reasonable anyway Again I'm not hating the Bay Films at all here. Just pointing out some places where there can and should be improvements
So in another words, this is another list of the "things wrong with the Michael Bay films" I think we should watch the new film and see what this new direction Michael Bay is taking the franchise is in before we even talk about another reboot. From what I can tell, he's already dwelling into the realm of the deeper Transformers lore and mythos. In the last 3 films, it was about Bad robots vs Good robots, crash bam boom, fight. Age of Extinction sounds like that but with an introduction into a new world of "Transformers possibilities". Meaning that he is opening the doors for if the next director wants to take the story into the further realms of outer space and make it an even more science-fiction story if they want to.
Judging from interviews with Bay and countless TV spots, AOE with the addition of 'capable actors' seems to be the film that will tick pretty much everything off your list. Characterization. Better Human characters. More robot screen time Military vehicles, Hound I suspect Galvatron may have a shining moment
Here's my wish list for TF5 if another director takes over: Soundwave, Starscream, Cyclonus, Thundercracker, Skywarp and Galvatron as the main villains faction. The plot should be in another planet. Maybe in Cybertron or in Quintessa. Developed the Dinobots character.
I agree with the last two points. The Decepticons aren't mindless monsters as they appear in the films, they are an organized fighting force. Yet it seems that if you weren't aware of the characters, you wouldn't know their characteristics. Like, if you never heard of Starscream before, would you really guess that he was not to be trusted, or would you just guess he was a coward? Granted, Starscream is a coward at times, but that isn't his only trait.
I'm not exactly comparing this to the current films, cause apparently they have improved things in AoE (specifically 'Bot personalities and the plot not being vanilla). But this is my list of what a franchise reboot needs regardless: -Strong Transformer personalities, 'Bot and 'Con. Make the Cons more than just growling monsters. Supposedly AoE gives all the Bots distinguishable personalities. It's not just Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, then robot A and robot B. Good. In the reboot, do this for the Decepticons too. -Make the Cons more of a threat. Heck, even let them win a movie. One of the things that made The Empire Strikes Back so great is that the bad guys won. You know there's going to be a sequel, so do this for Transformers. Hasbro, its okay if the bad guys win once. You don't have to make it like TFA where it takes a lot of 'Bots to kill one 'Con, but you also don't have to make it worse than G1 where the 'Cons not only retreat every episode, but even worse they are completely slaughtered. -Of course, an interesting edge-of-your-seat plot with twists and turns. Less McGuffin. -Simplified designs and more color (particularly for the Decepticons). I'm not saying they have to be completely blocky, but they should look like they can transform into something without any kind of cheating whatsoever. And you should easily be able to tell who is fighting who without being a Transformers nerd, etc. In short, less spaghettiformers.
