I just got done watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It was a very good movie and I would encourage everyone to go see it. I have also watched Transformers AOE, 2 times I might add, really liked this movie as well. While it was not perfect it did give us the Dinobots and my favorite bad ass character of all the movies in Lockdown.

The thing that Bay could take from Planet of the Apes was how each of the main apes had so much character development. You really got to know each one of the main apes. Ceasar reminded me of Prime. I understood why Koba did what he did because of the way the humans had treated him. I felt sorry for the apes. They had so much emotion and they got the screen time that they deserved.

The movie is called Transformers not Humanformers. I don't care about the humans. I don't want to see a love story. I want more character development for the Autobots and especially for the Cons. The fact that Drift was once a Deception was never even mentioned in the movie. Galvatron barely had any screen time at all. The Dinobots were not seen until the very end of the movie. You have all these awesome characters, so let them shine. The Transformers are the stars of the movie so let them be the stars. I cant wait for the next movie. Maybe Bay will give them more screen time.

 

Most likely Bay would look at the film and go, "it may float some people's boats, but you're making a film rely largely on the personalities of special effects, and that's a big risk right here, because the apes aren't people, even though they are played by people. You need human grounding, or else you're going to lose your audience. After awhile, the audience is going to ask why they care so much about an animal that can't even talk properly."

 

Because of a multitude of reasons.

One day, dude. One day.

 

Probably because it didn't spend an ungodly amount of time on needless crap for the first act.

 

You have Optimus Primal. He's an ape.

 

I'd wager to guess that animating a complex transforming robot is more expensive than animating an ape. Therefore, the TFs will never be the central characters in a live-action Transformers movie. Humans will always be the focus with the robots supporting them.

 

Also Apeface.

 

Because Trukk not Munkee

 

Keep in mind, that all of these blockbuster movies, borrow ideas from each other - whether it is the Avengers doing their own city invasion, or Transformers borrowing the terraforming idea from Man of Steel, etc.

Most of these big budget studio films have focus groups and marketing strategists who gauge audience's reaction to certain things in other movies to incorporate into their own movies. In other words, commerce and marketing drives the art.

 

we would get 2 hours and 45 minutes of really crappy cgi

 

Optimus Minor from Beast Wars was a monkey, I think.

 

*Munky

 

I doubt that Bay cares. Only one of the two films mentioned in the original post will gross over one-billion dollars and it isn't Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Explosions, dinosaurs and giant robots killing each other sells. People can say that they hate the Transformers franchise yet it rakes in cash like no tomorrow. Four films and the franchise is still going strong. I don't like the movie franchise for the reasons you've mentioned but it's very evident that I'm in the minority. The Transformers have never been real characters; they're simply a device to set in motion some highly kinetic action sequences.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is great but it's not nearly as action driven as Transformers.

 

I think at this point it's clear that if the movies are not your cup of tea, you're just going to have to wait it out until it inevitably reboots. People who dislike certain comics have to wait it out, and people who dislike certain shows have to wait it out. Same with toylines. Eventually the movies will get another chance.

So why can't it be like Apes? Simply because that's not the direction the movie franchise is taking at this moment. Sit tight, be patient, and eventually Movieverse will have something new for you to check out.

 

I don't think there isn't a reason why other than the production team just doesn't want to go that way. Just look at all the ways the Transformers have been handled in the cartoons and the comic books and there isn't one direction a Transformers story has to go. Transformers can be serious, it can be silly, or it can be a load of explosions and occasionally getting to see a robot.

I think it's going to take a reboot to get something seriously different, how many films it will take to get to a reboot is anyone's guess because the market outside of the US is used to make up for the films making less in the US.

Just like we could move from G1 to Beast Wars there are a lot of ways to go if Paramount decides to go another way.

 

EE for emphasis.  

Verne Troyer (Mini Me) Signature Austin Powers EEEEEEEEEE - YouTube

 

Too often we ask "Why can't Transformers be this?" instead of "Why can't Transformers be good?"

And the answer is fairly simple; you've got filmmakers that are totally inept storytellers. From the writer to the director to the cinematographer to the editor to the caterer, they're just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

 

Transformers can't be like apes because they're too different.

Transformers is about two factions of robots fighting with humans involved because the war has been brought to earthy . Apes is about Apes fighting humans.
This leads to the transformer movies having too many characters. You have to deal with 5-9 Autobot's, 4-5 Decepticons and about 5-6 humans. That's a lot of characters.
Apes however only has to focus on about 3 apes and maybe 4 humans.

The apes also have a simpler story. Apes become smart now they fight humans to survive
Transformers usually have complicated stories. Something happened in the past on earth. No one knew but now we do so we have to find some relic. The bad guys want it and the good guys have to stop them but they need this humans help for some reason. And that's not half the story.

So the only way I see Transformers being like Apes is if they keep the cast small and stop adding new characters. But that isn't happening ever because hasbro has to sell new toys. But we can hope the story doesn't get too complicated next time. AOE left off in a way that allows TF5 to continue it's story so we may not have to deal with such a complicated story next time

 

But you did care enough about the humans in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. These are 2 movies that are in some ways very similar in concept. Apes = Transformers. Humans = Humans. The issue is, can they co-exist? Why is it that we care about the relationship between the Apes and the Humans more than we do with the Humans and Transformers? The answer is that the humans in Apes are more well-written and have heart and emotion. Sure, there is some "human" story in Transformers but is the emotional connection there? Nope.

This all comes down to writing and direction. Matt Reeves is true story teller using nothing but characters and story to drive the movie forward. On the other hand, Michael Bay uses visuals to drive the movie forward. Unfortunately, visuals is not enough when telling a good story involves well written characters and a developing story.

 

When Bay isn't directing a Transformers movie is when we will get something more decent.... So for now... Stick to the TV shows, stop motion series on youtube, and comics.