Mods feel free to move this, as I was unsure what this would be classed as. Anyway, I am currently planning an extensive edit of the first three Transformers movies, with ROTF being combined with DOTM (since, even with the humour removed, I thought ROTF didn't have much substance to it). The idea is for these two films to be the "definitive cuts", with any major flaws removed. This is where you come in... I want to know what you would cut from 07 and DOTM - I want to see if there are any general opinions or tidbits that I didn't think about. Thus far, the changes are as follows (hold onto your butts): TF07 "The Lagoon" at the SOCCENT base cut Possibly trying to make Col. Sharp the same character as General Morshower (and thus cutting references to the SOCCENT attack having no survivors) Cutting bits of Sam's show and tell (namely the cheesy flashback and the "seamen" and "sextant" lines) Some of Bobby Bolivia's stuff (the clown and Mammy) Mojo's bling Editing the lake scene (still need to figure this out thoroughly) Removing Mikaela's leaning-over-the-car shot and her "weakness to hot guys" Frenzy's stupid walk across the airfield Correct Sam's phone recording The police officer "on drugs" (or maybe the whole scene) Glen's cousin "excuse me are you the tooth fairy..." Altering Jazz's line from "little bitches" to "players" (from the special features) Cutting Ratchet's introduction so that he mentions Bumblebee's voice before Optimus introduces him (no theromone levels) The masturbation joke Mojo apprehended by Sector 7 Bumblebee lubricating Several bits of the Mission City battle (no slo-mo Sam and Mikaela, no screaming lady below Ironhide, no girls in AllSpark affected car) ROTF Starscream lines added ("Cowards do survive" in post-credits, potentially others as well) ROTF Reduced to around 10 minutes at the start of DOTM, merely adds Sideswipe introduction in Shanghai, Ravage stealing the shard and Megatron being revived DOTM Lunar Module error cut Whole intro of Sam and Carly will be edited to be less pervy Fewer Sam interviews References to Egypt to be cut (except Egypt photographs in Simmons' home) Mearing assistant humour cut Embarrassing Buzz Aldrin cameo cut (unless you guys actually liked that?) Dylan's comments about the perfect woman and "duchess" Igor cut Mailroom scene cut Less Wang humour, and he is killed by Laserbeak before he pulls the guns, no humour made from his death Mercedes website shortened Sam screaming in his car cut Cut the Matrix being "the only thing that can repower a Transformer's spark" Scene in Mearing's office shortened Bruce visiting Sam, Simmons and Dutch cut Reference to Carly's brother cut Scene with parents in the bus cut Scene with Dylan and Soundwave recut to remove some of Dylan's friends and "Soundwave, please" Mearing and Simmons love plot cut Cut to black when Chicago invasion begins removed Optimus' violent dialogue - "we will kill them all" and "you die" Lennox's speech to soldiers shortened Train error in Starscream's death cut Additional troops in the water and hanging out on the street cut "The needs of the many..." cut! Carly and Megatron scene recut (no "Sentinel's bitch") "We need a truce" cut so that Megatron's death is less controversial No spraying robo-blood in Megatron's death Cut Sentinel saying "No Optimus!" and perhaps make Optimus shoot only once, solemn music afterwards And here are changes I particularly want your opinion on: Should the Lennox family subplot be cut from Part I? Should the hackers be totally removed? Should the AllSpark demo be cut? Should I attempt to remove Brains and Wheelie from Part II, and somehow have Optimus shoot down the mothership? Should the Sam spy plot, or at least Watch-Bot, be cut from Part II? Should the clip of Sentinel attacking Megatron over leadership be removed? The skyscraper scene - should it be shortened or removed? I was thinking of running a vocoder effect on Soundwave's voice and performing new lines for Shockwave (in his classic voice), do you support these ideas? At long last, please tell me if I've cut too much humour out!
I don't know if I like the classic voice idea on DOTM Soundwave, I like his Movie voice. The skyscraper scene should just be shortened.
Carve the entire hacking subplot of the first film out if you can, it seemed pretty superfluous. Off the top of my head, the scenes with Sam's parents at college, as well as the tazering scene from ROTF didn't do anything for the story, characters, or pacing in that film either.
The Lennox family subplot can easily be cut. It's not bad, it just doesn't add anything to the movie because he's a likeable character you don't want to see killed without having to add in oh yea he's got a wife and a kid. The computer experts are pretty much a side trip to nowhere. Nothing against the actors playing the parts but their parts seem like filler rather than being important to the plot of the film. I'm not sure if cutting any sort of robot time is a good idea because it seems like there isn't enough robot time in the first place. Perhaps with the films shortened down I'd feel different but even with the robots I didn't like at least it's robots instead of I'm so tired of Sam and his problems. The skyscraper scene would be better shortened. Parts of it are a great action film and add to the dynamic action these films are known for, but it drags on too long. All over the idea of vocoder for Soundwave. Soundwave without the vocoder is like trying to have the Daleks without a modification to the voice. Love the voice actor but Soundwave doesn't sound right without the modification. As to the humor I don't think you have cut too much. The films have good moments of humor but the bad humor is rather distracting so getting rid of the bad or questionable humor can't hurt.
I don't think the first movie was that well paced. The hacker stuff grinds the film to a halt a couple times.
My only concern with cutting the hackers is that they are the ones who call in the F22s at the end of the film.
As long as there is some way to get Glen Whitmann to the dam then that's all he's really needed for. With Defense Secretary John Keller it's not foreshadowed he would have a skill they would need to get the message out. Sometimes films can get away with the right person with the right skill in the right place at the right time.
To be honest, I don't think it's out of the realm of audience understanding for air support to come in as the military gets involved. It might get tricky, especially with the scenes in the Hoover Dam, but I think a lot of the "hacking" scenes can be removed. At the very least, the arrest and interrogation scenes serve no real purpose and aren't really effective as catharsis.
Thanks for the comments so far guys. I was thinking about Megatron's portrayal in DOTM today - I think if I were to remove Sentinel attacking him and at least some of Carly's interaction with him, he might seem to have more control over Sentinel. That, and if I remove "we need a truce", his following words feel more like he's taunting Sentinel and especially Optimus. Thoughts?
Great idea, OP! Good job! However, I have another suggestion. Why don't you start out by cutting only the worst and most offensive parts of the movies, you know, try to make a less extensive cut and keep the three movies seperate. I don't know about the others, but I have accepted the first three movies just the way they are, so I think that removing the worst of Bay's humour and some of the many plot inaccuracies, would make the trilogy much better without changing too much. Other than that, about your original idea: I don't think you should cut any action from the first and third movies, it's the only good part about them (I also really enjoyed the whole skyscraper scene from DOTM..). The Allspark intro should be kept, in my opinion, it's a good start to the first movie. Keep Lennox's family too, it's some character development (which doesn't really exist in these movies) for him and makes us care. Ratchet's joke about Sam and Mikaela was also very funny [to me], so keep that too.
