TF1 was initially intended to get no sequel because the filmmakers weren't confident it would do well enough, or something along those lines. So what if Michael Bay, producers, actors/actresses and actors of TF1 refused to return for a sequel in the Bayverse? How much would the Bayverse's reputation change if TF1 was the only film set in that verse? If this in the wrong forum, please kindly move it, thank you.
Would probably be remembered as a neat one-off. Probably wouldn't be so hated being lumped in with the four movies that followed it
Thankfully, we didn't get a sequel to that awful Last Airbender film. Nobody wanted a sequel to THAT mess.
Transformers: Animated might have had a better shot at life. It was released in the shadow of the first live-action movie, and the show's cancellation was followed up very rapidly by the release of Revenge of the Fallen. This is excluding factors such as Hasbro wanting to start The Hub, and Cartoon Network screwing over general-audience action cartoons around the same time.
Personally speaking, I wouldn't have gotten back into Transformers after a long hiatus without the sequels. The 2007 movie was a cool thing seeing live actions TFs for the first time, but the sequels were what really hooked me back in. That said, the first film, far from being this universally loved thing among the fandom, was very divisive. Many positive critical reviews were basically, "It's dumb blockbuster entertainment, but we've never seen live action Transformers before, so we'll give it a pass." I don't think the first movie was better overall than what followed. It wasn't smarter. It wasn't deeper; if anything, I thought some of the sequels had some better executed concepts and characters: Lockdown, Sentinel Prime, etc. It just had the benefit of being TF's first foray into live action. If it's what got you into Transformers, and it's your favorite thing Transformers ever, that's great. I just don't think it's on a pedestal of quality next to the other Bay TF films once you remove the rose-tinted nostalgia goggles.
To be fair, I would say TF1 did better than TF2 and TF3 in the involvement of human characters; Sam's connection with the TFs was more organic and natural in TF1 than it's sequels, and I'd say that the... Humour was arguably less extreme than in the sequels. TF1 also has the benefit of making the Decepticons seem more of a threat because we Starscream blow Bumblebee's legs off and took out Ironhide and Ratchet, Megatron ripped Jazz in half and got the upper hand against Optimus in a fight, whereas in TF2 and TF3 he got fodderized like nothing. And to be honest I thought the Allspark was a better concept than the Matrix/Sun Harvester, Pillars, Seed and Staff.
And I didn't think they were more of a threat in the first film. The first two sequels were merely escalations of the Autobot-Decepticon war on Earth, so you had more combatants, period, with the fourth film an exploration of the fallout of that escalation. Plus, humans learned how to fight Decepticons better as the series went on. Blackout takes out a military base in Qatar, but he ends up getting killed entirely by humans. It's no different than the Fallen and his Decepticons destroying an aircraft carrier, a Pyramid, and the Eiffel Tower, only to get taken out by the Autobots and the military. It's no different than the Decepticons in Dark of the Moon conquering and massacring and controlling an entire city, which the military was helpless against by the way until the Autobots show up. The latter examples are just escalations on a larger scale. Megatron also kills Optimus in RotF by the way, and Megatron declining in power over the course of the first trilogy is kind of the point. It's fine if people like it more, but it wasn't any more fleshed out than those examples you listed, nor was it any more logical or realistic. In fact, of all of the examples you mentioned, it's the only one whose origins were unknown, which is fine, but it wasn't more fleshed out by any stretch. It's also the only one in which it's never even made clear how it made it to Earth or whether it was intentionally jettisoned or accidentally lost and forgotten. We know the Sun Harvester was built by the Primes to harvest suns. We know the Pillars were built by Sentinel Prime to form a Space Bridge together. We know the Seeds were used by the Creators on thousands of worlds to produce Transformium to make Transformers, and Lockdown was in possession of one as payment for Prime. We know the Guardian Knights stole the Staff from Quintessa and were in hiding on Earth. But the Allspark? It's never even shown departing Cybertron or anything. It's just a big mystery. Which is, once again, fine. Now we do see what it does on-screen at Hoover Dam and in Mission City, which is good...but we also see the Pillars form a Space Bridge and transport Cybertron...and we also see the Seeds turning dinosaurs into metal. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with liking the Allspark over the other McGuffins or thingamajigs. That's down to personal preferences, and there's no right or wrong answer.
To be fair it did take a missile barrage from multiple F-22s to take him out, so that's pretty impressive.
Yeah, it did, but many of the other slain Cybertronians in the sequels also took plenty of damage. Also, truth be told what kills and doesn't kill Transformers has always been inconsistent since the days of G1.
Yeah, I agree with you on that part, it's just that a lot of people seem to think Lennox did all the work. True. Like the insecticons in Transformers Prime.
Well, no one at Toho accepted that version as Godzilla and marked it as Zilla instead. Can't say the same with Bayformers when Hasbro still goes, 'It's Transformers'.
I think fans would have a more favorable opinion of Michael Bay. He never would have gotten the chance to ruin it.
- We’d still have 13 original Transformers, with only Prima being a Prime. - The Fallen would be an obscure character with no relation to Megatron.
