Would have been better if LeBeouf had suggested it then. He doesn't have to care about humans.
He was taken at the same time as Bumblebee. In that scene there were nothing but Autobots. It is one of the very, very, very few scenes where we witness any of the Cybertronian characters interact without a human present.
Edit: And that's what pisses me off about so many screenplays. It just takes a second to sit and think about the problems to come up with a workaround - rather than compromise the story for expediency. But I believe that what you wrote is probably the justification, and I think that sort of thing happens a lot.
It is one thing when an original script, like this one, does it. What is worse is when it is adapted from an already told story from books and they do it when the better or more interesting explanation was already provided. Sahara comes to mind.
I think part of the problem is that we're all extremely protective of these pieces of our childhood. I'm willing to let some of it go because Transformers was not the show for me as a kid (I recall spending a lot of time watching TMNT and GI Joe), but for others, obviously there is a lot of sentimentality built-in. But even then, I'm sure that there are varying levels of fandom that will determine how angry you are over it.
From what I have seen around the Internet I am actually one of the calmer G1 fans. I don't care what cars they use or if Frank Welker isn't the voice of Megatron. Honestly, I though having Peter Cullen do Optimus was great, but I had prepared to accept he wouldn't do it. It isn't like he needs a job. He has been voicing Eeyore for years.
My issue is that, as usual, Michael Bay missed the point of the story. It wasn't Pearl Harbor bad, but he definitely did "get" why early Transformers fans hung on to it so much even into adulthood. He doesn't fully understand the characters and all that goes into it.
And I think that may be the big issue. Something with the cultural impact on my generation that Transformers had got the Michael Bay treatment, guaranteeing that it would be crap.
Me? No so much. I'm looking to have a good time with Transformers, nothing else.
I would love to do that, but even when I just tell myself to see it as alien robots fighting, and forget it is supposed to be Transformers I get caught up going, "What was that? Where did he come from? Where was he up until now? Why is he talking? What's going on? Why did he say that? I can't see anything because the camera is shaking so much. Is that Bonecrusher, or Brawl...uh Devastator. AGGGHHH!!!! I can't see a gorram thing!!! It's called a steady cam."
The only way I can enjoy it is if I fully check my brain at the door and say, "Stuff went boom. Yay!"
I think the Riff Trax guys summed it up best when Optimus Prime showed up and one of them said, "A whole new truckload of confusion just arrived on set," or when the credits started to roll and one of them said, "Michael Bay can bite me!"
But if you screw around with Batman or Spider-Man, you can bet your ass I'll be upset!
Really? I don't remember you having near the fit I did after Spiderman 3.
And if you think I am bad with Transformers you should see what I say about X-Men 3. And the Wolverine movie is already causing me dread. After Marvel has taken over their movies and made them true I doubt I will ever be able rationalize why other Marvel franchise movies have been done the way they have been.
I grew up with G1 being one of my favorite shows. To tell you the truth, when I first walked out of the cinema after watching Transformers, I was pretty impressed with it all at first and I probably let myself over look a lot of the continuality issues, but with the second watching of it, I was less taken by the high gloss finish and that’s when it started to leave a bit of a bad after taste in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I will probably watch it again (when I feel like parking my brain at the door), but it certainly lacks the depth and story of the old cartoons.
I think it is important that I point out: I own this on DVD. Had it been available on Blu-Ray at release I would have bought it on that. Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD is the one thing Michael Bay and I agree on.
It is a fun movie to watch but I have to not think about what is going on outside the explosions. I can't wonder about sassy British women working for the CIA, or how some fat kid from the block is smarter than every analyst in the CIA.
I seem to remember the original Jazz from the cartoon acting fairly similar. Granted, it was 80's street style. But the premise was the same.
Since when was a jazz style attitude 80's street style? He was voiced by Scatman Crothers and given the attitude to match.
From the wiki page:
Jazz is the "very cool, very stylish, very competent" member of the Autobots in the Transformers television and comic series based on the popular toy line produced by Takara and Hasbro. His original vehicle mode is a Martini Porsche 935 Turbo racing car. Self-possessed, calm, and utterly collected, Jazz is head of Special Operations, with his own dedicated roster of agents. He often gives the most dangerous assignments to himself. It's not a matter of ego—he just really is the coolest head for the toughest missions. Jazz's ease extends to whatever environment he finds himself in, no matter how weird or wonderful. He effortlessly tunes in to the local culture, assimilating and improvising, and making creative command decisions, making him an indispensable right-hand bot to Optimus Prime.
Now, how does any of that match with "What's Crackin' Little Bitches?" or "You want a piece of me?" or "WE ROLLIN!"
And then I can also bring up Ironhide's "I just wanted to show him my cannons."
I mean, this is a military unit acting as ambassadors to a newly discovered alien species, right?
Actually Cykill joined into the Transformers ranks some time after The Go Bots fell into oblivion. Unfortunately things didn't quite work out for him there either.
That's Megatron taking out Cy-Kill.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cy-Kill_(G1)
Go Bots didn't fall into oblivion. Hasbro bought the rights from Tonka and then used them in cameos as red shirt fodder. The image you posted is a scene where Megatron fights in a gladiator arena. An unnamed bot, which is obviously intended to be Cy-kill, is his opponent. Go Bots have also appeared randomly in the background and crowded scenes, including one in the audience of the above gladiator battle.
I would not call unnamed brief victim of Megatron's wrath joining the ranks.
At any rate FoolKiller, you are right on a lot of your points. It was interesting how "oh well" Jazz's death was to Prime. And it did seem that they tried to cram to much transformers lore with out fully explaining it in any detail.
Remove one British chick and plot hole laden backstory and then you have plenty of time to explain what is going on and why, other than they want the Cube. It can't be that important as it had been missing for millenia and they are all still going along just fine. If they had just chosen to screw the cube and fight it out their war would have been over with long ago.
I think that the problem is trying to write a story that will appeal to not only the older fans, but have something to pull in newer fans too.
Iron Man managed to bring in new fans without making such huge sweeping changes that old fans were ticked off. I mean, it broke away from a lot of lore, but stuck close enough to the Ultimate storyline to not have people completely trashing everything it did. In fact, between that and Incredible Hulk they managed to create this interconnected feeling that is found in the comics. Old school fans saw and new fans never noticed.
The problem with this new vs old fans debate is that Hollywood always assumes new fans are dumb. I am waiting to see how this goes with Watchmen. Right now the only major change I know of is the ending catalyst, which was even far fetched for comics. So far it appears that Zack Snyder has assumed new fans can be just as intelligent as the old fans.
But again, as you mentioned, they did leave quite a few holes in the story.
Honestly, if it weren't Transformers I think it would be trashed by the mainstream for being so poorly told.
I'm just happy it wasn't as phony feeling as Star Wars I, II, III.
I have to agree with that.
EDIT: OK, who edited the TFwiki page for Cy-Kill?
Cy-Kill is a repeated easter egg appearance by the Tonka GoBots character of the same name. But, like, GoBots were totally lame, so wouldn't it be hilarious if he was repeatedly killed over and over again because he was lame? Yeah!
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You are just as much as a nerd being here
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) forces capturing Bumblebee you can have their humans openly working with Autobots, like every version before now.
