New Video from Paramount Gives insight on ROTB Chronology, and Characters Noah, Elena, and Mirage

"In chronological order, this is the second of the Transformers movies. It takes place in the '90s, shortly after Bumblebee."

Well, yeah. We knew that.

Sabrblade wrote:"In chronological order, this is the second of the Transformers movies. It takes place in the '90s, shortly after Bumblebee."

Well, yeah. We knew that.

Some people need clarification, plus it further highlights how Paramount sees all these live action films as one set of Transformers movies. They are staying far away from the R word here.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:"In chronological order, this is the second of the Transformers movies. It takes place in the '90s, shortly after Bumblebee."

Well, yeah. We knew that.

Some people need clarification, plus it further highlights how Paramount sees all these live action films as one set of Transformers movies. They are staying far away from the R word here.

Considering how common "R" words are these days, their proclivity towards keeping all the movies under one banner raises a few eyebrows. Makes me wonder if Transformers: One will "suffer" the same fate?

I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Stormshot_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:"In chronological order, this is the second of the Transformers movies. It takes place in the '90s, shortly after Bumblebee."

Well, yeah. We knew that.

Some people need clarification, plus it further highlights how Paramount sees all these live action films as one set of Transformers movies. They are staying far away from the R word here.

Considering how common "R" words are these days, their proclivity towards keeping all the movies under one banner raises a few eyebrows. Makes me wonder if Transformers: One will "suffer" the same fate?

I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

I've wondered about that myself. A prequel that sets up a sequel to TLK? Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron? Mirage would explain that, or perhaps surviving Maximals (being on the seashore could set up Depth Charge). The Transwarp keys could imprison Unicron's spark in the Earth somehow. That would be a "logical" setup. That would set up a two movie fight to keep Unicron from ripping the Earth apart.

Another possibility is that Scourge and the Terrorcons were called to Earth as Unicron is ALREADY the planet and the view we saw of Unicron from space and eating a planet was a flashback during an explanation of what he is.

First-Aid wrote:Another possibility is that Scourge and the Terrorcons were called to Earth as Unicron is ALREADY the planet and the view we saw of Unicron from space and eating a planet was a flashback during an explanation of what he is.

I really hope this isn't the case.

Stormshot_Prime wrote:I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Optimus in this movie mustn't find out about Unicron being Earth since that revelation comes as a shock to him later in TLK.

Unless he gets some kind of amnesia between movies, which would be bleh.

First-Aid wrote:Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron?

Yeah, that was Quintessa.

Sabrblade wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Optimus in this movie mustn't find out about Unicron being Earth since that revelation comes as a shock to him later in TLK.

Unless he gets some kind of amnesia between movies, which would be bleh.

First-Aid wrote:Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron?

Yeah, that was Quintessa.

This is a good point, that revelation seems to be news to all the Bots. That, and we see ancient texts depicting Earth's true nature as Unicron that were written waaay before the modern day.

Quintessa herself as a character brings up another good point; Are we going with the Quintesson "builder" creation story, or rolling it back to the Allspark? A mix? Unicron's presence also typically brings with it Primus and/or the Matrix (which Optimus shouldn't technically have...)

I think from a purely practical, non-fan perspective, that the studios simply don't care about the continuity of Unicron being whatever. Whatever happens in ROTB will probably be forgotten by the next one anyways; Maximals who?

There's only so much in-universe time between the current setting of "the 90's" and 2007 for the OG film.

Stormshot_Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Optimus in this movie mustn't find out about Unicron being Earth since that revelation comes as a shock to him later in TLK.

Unless he gets some kind of amnesia between movies, which would be bleh.

First-Aid wrote:Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron?

Yeah, that was Quintessa.

This is a good point, that revelation seems to be news to all the Bots. That, and we see ancient texts depicting Earth's true nature as Unicron that were written waaay before the modern day.

Quintessa herself as a character brings up another good point; Are we going with the Quintesson "builder" creation story, or rolling it back to the Allspark? A mix? Unicron's presence also typically brings with it Primus and/or the Matrix (which Optimus shouldn't technically have...)

I think from a purely practical, non-fan perspective, that the studios simply don't care about the continuity of Unicron being whatever. Whatever happens in ROTB will probably be forgotten by the next one anyways; Maximals who?

There's only so much in-universe time between the current setting of "the 90's" and 2007 for the OG film.

You bring up a good point regarding the Matrix. If Optimus is ever revealed to already have it in this movie, then these movies will have officially proven to have a worse grasp on continuity than Power Rangers Super Megaforce, and that's BAD.

It's not that these films have a bad grasp on continuity, it's that they don't care.
These movies make no sense continuity wise but are still part of the same chronology, as far as what Paramount is saying.

Stormshot_Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Optimus in this movie mustn't find out about Unicron being Earth since that revelation comes as a shock to him later in TLK.

Unless he gets some kind of amnesia between movies, which would be bleh.

First-Aid wrote:Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron?

Yeah, that was Quintessa.

This is a good point, that revelation seems to be news to all the Bots. That, and we see ancient texts depicting Earth's true nature as Unicron that were written waaay before the modern day.

Quintessa herself as a character brings up another good point; Are we going with the Quintesson "builder" creation story, or rolling it back to the Allspark? A mix? Unicron's presence also typically brings with it Primus and/or the Matrix (which Optimus shouldn't technically have...)

I think from a purely practical, non-fan perspective, that the studios simply don't care about the continuity of Unicron being whatever. Whatever happens in ROTB will probably be forgotten by the next one anyways; Maximals who?

There's only so much in-universe time between the current setting of "the 90's" and 2007 for the OG film.

The Primus aspect is interesting especially as Cybertron was in Earth Orbit at the end of TLK. If Unicron is Earth and he is awakening, then Primus would be there to "fight" him- likely on an "astral" scale and not in the physical aspect. Suddenly, restoration of the Allspark could become a MAJOR plot point as Primus's restoration would ALSO become paramount. An entire movie could center around that and the race to restore Primus to prevent Unicron from fully awakening and tearing the Earth to shreds.

The new clips and stuff have me interested, I have enjoyed them. I also like how Mirage and Wheeljack do appear to be young guys, it's a cool touch.

Also, so glad to see how hard they are ramping up the marketing at last. The amount of posters and stuff has been crazy.

The way they've marketed these, I think they're only setting these up as prequels to the first three films and ignoring AoE and TLK entirely. Kind of like how the Halloween movies basically ignored the films everyone hated and made sequels that were essentially reboots of the continuity.

And honestly? I can't blame them. I doubt the greater movie going public liked or even remembered those last two Bay films.

So with that in mind, I wouldn't count on anything we learned about Unicron in TLK to matter. Could still be Earth, could be a whole other thing, but I doubt anything we learned in later movies will be referenced here.

Realistically, Bumblebee was a reboot that barely holds up to scrutiny when compared to the other films (most of the character designs don't match, it's HEAVILY implied that Optimus and the others didn't arrive on Earth until Bumblebee found Sam, S7 should have already existed to warn the government about Shatter and Dropkick, etc), but whatever.

Sabrblade wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:I have a tingling feeling that perhaps Earth is indeed still Unicron? And the flashbacks we see are prior to his time as our homeworld? And perhaps Optimus must travel within the Earth to confront him (Hence why we see him literally eye-to-eye with the Cron man himself)?

Optimus in this movie mustn't find out about Unicron being Earth since that revelation comes as a shock to him later in TLK.

Unless he gets some kind of amnesia between movies, which would be bleh.

First-Aid wrote:Remember the post credit scene where there is a holographic human who is asking if we wanted to know how to beat Unicron?

Yeah, that was Quintessa.

This is a good point, that revelation seems to be news to all the Bots. That, and we see ancient texts depicting Earth's true nature as Unicron that were written waaay before the modern day.

Quintessa herself as a character brings up another good point; Are we going with the Quintesson "builder" creation story, or rolling it back to the Allspark? A mix? Unicron's presence also typically brings with it Primus and/or the Matrix (which Optimus shouldn't technically have...)

I think from a purely practical, non-fan perspective, that the studios simply don't care about the continuity of Unicron being whatever. Whatever happens in ROTB will probably be forgotten by the next one anyways; Maximals who?

There's only so much in-universe time between the current setting of "the 90's" and 2007 for the OG film.

You bring up a good point regarding the Matrix. If Optimus is ever revealed to already have it in this movie, then these movies will have officially proven to have a worse grasp on continuity than Power Rangers Super Megaforce, and that's BAD.

There is no series in the history of cinema with a worse sense of continuity than the Highlander franchise.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:There is no series in the history of cinema with a worse sense of continuity than the Highlander franchise.

Ha, so true. That's kind of necessary though, there's basically no sequels unless you ignore the ending of the first movie. Never mind whatever the hell Highlander 2 was.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:There is no series in the history of cinema with a worse sense of continuity than the Highlander franchise.

I legit think this one has it beat.

Spider5800 wrote:The way they've marketed these, I think they're only setting these up as prequels to the first three films and ignoring AoE and TLK entirely. Kind of like how the Halloween movies basically ignored the films everyone hated and made sequels that were essentially reboots of the continuity.

And honestly? I can't blame them. I doubt the greater movie going public liked or even remembered those last two Bay films.

So with that in mind, I wouldn't count on anything we learned about Unicron in TLK to matter. Could still be Earth, could be a whole other thing, but I doubt anything we learned in later movies will be referenced here.

This is what I think as well and how I am seeing this film.

We have our most comprehensive interview yet with Transformers Rise of the Beasts' director Steven Caple Jr. While it reinforces many elements which fans have expressed disliking, like the push for diversity, rap culture, Michael Bay helping with the film and ensuring the preservation of the Bayverse, it does give us something very refreshing compared to all other Transformers films: a focus on the robots as characters the audience can truly care about. While we did have that with Bumblebee, that film was centered around the nostalgic concept of a human befriending an alien creature (who could not talk), learning about our world. This film instead is about teams of robots, each made up of distinct characters, with their own personalities and reasons for acting as they do.

Here is the blurb concerning what the director hopes to accomplish with this film and you can read the entire interview from the Hollywood Reporter here.

I hope it’s not a cheesy answer, but I want people to be able to connect with the new Transformers that we’re creating. Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film. But, if anything, I just really want people to be able to emotionally connect with the Transformers that you know and the new [Transformers] that we’re bringing to the table. I’m not here to just create robots for you to say, “Yeah, that was cool. That was fun.” I want you to be like, “I really truly care about [Optimus] Primal. I really truly care about Airazor and these other characters,” because this is the foundation for what I would love the franchise to be going forward. And a lot of the stuff in this film is a huge setup for where the franchise can go, so I’m excited for people to check that out.

william-james88 wrote:We have our most comprehensive interview yet with Transformers Rise of the Beasts' director Steven Caple Jr. While it reinforces many elements which fans have expressed disliking, like the push for diversity, rap culture, Michael Bay helping with the film and ensuring the preservation of the Bayverse, it does give us something very refreshing compared to all other Transformers films: a focus on the robots as characters the audience can truly care about. While we did have that with Bumblebee, that film was centered around the nostalgic concept of a human befriending an alien creature (who could not talk), learning about our world. This film instead is about teams of robots, each made up of distinct characters, with their own personalities and reasons for acting as they do.

Here is the blurb concerning what the director hopes to accomplish with this film and you can read the entire interview from the Hollywood Reporter here.

I hope it’s not a cheesy answer, but I want people to be able to connect with the new Transformers that we’re creating. Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film. But, if anything, I just really want people to be able to emotionally connect with the Transformers that you know and the new [Transformers] that we’re bringing to the table. I’m not here to just create robots for you to say, “Yeah, that was cool. That was fun.” I want you to be like, “I really truly care about [Optimus] Primal. I really truly care about Airazor and these other characters,” because this is the foundation for what I would love the franchise to be going forward. And a lot of the stuff in this film is a huge setup for where the franchise can go, so I’m excited for people to check that out.

Wait what? Transformer character development? Want the connection? Holy crap!

By the way, while I really want this film to succeed, and I think it's doing everything right with the marketing, I truly think the Flash will wipe the floor with TF ROTB.

I think the Flash will be a juggernaut, an event type movie, and suck up all the hype or good word of mouth ROTB may have.

We'll see what happens but this is my prediction. ROTB will have a strong opening week and then a massive drop (like over 60%) for the following week and then just keep dropping and having little stay factor in cinemas, being pushed to digital quickly to recoup costs there.

william-james88 wrote:By the way, while I really want this film to succeed, and I think it's doing everything right with the marketing, I truly think the Flash will wipe the floor with TF ROTB.

I think the Flash will be a juggernaut, an event type movie, and suck up all the hype or good word of mouth ROTB may have.

We'll see what happens but this is my prediction. ROTB will have a strong opening week and then a massive drop (like over 60%) for the following week and then just keep dropping and having little stay factor in cinemas, being pushed to digital quickly to recoup costs there.

Sadly, you're probably right. Though at least this (and GotG3) would be the only movies I'd probably see currently.

ZeroWolf wrote:

william-james88 wrote:By the way, while I really want this film to succeed, and I think it's doing everything right with the marketing, I truly think the Flash will wipe the floor with TF ROTB.

I think the Flash will be a juggernaut, an event type movie, and suck up all the hype or good word of mouth ROTB may have.

We'll see what happens but this is my prediction. ROTB will have a strong opening week and then a massive drop (like over 60%) for the following week and then just keep dropping and having little stay factor in cinemas, being pushed to digital quickly to recoup costs there.

Sadly, you're probably right. Though at least this (and GotG3) would be the only movies I'd probably see currently.

With a 7 year old girl and a 5 year old boy, I'll probably be at the movies all through the coming weeks. We've got Little Mermaid, ROTB, The Flash, Elemental and Indiana Jones. All films I'm planning on watching. It's really packed, the films sudios should have left room for these movies to breathe.

They won't get us to 'care' about the Transformers if they give them the usual Bayverse grossly exaggerated stereotype treatments. We shall see.

DeathReviews wrote:They won't get me to 'care' about the Transformers if they give me the usual Bayverse grossly exaggerated stereotype treatments. We shall see.

Fixed your post for you.

I doubt we'll see those stereotypes with the new director. We didn't with the last movie.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

william-james88 wrote:By the way, while I really want this film to succeed, and I think it's doing everything right with the marketing, I truly think the Flash will wipe the floor with TF ROTB.

I think the Flash will be a juggernaut, an event type movie, and suck up all the hype or good word of mouth ROTB may have.

We'll see what happens but this is my prediction. ROTB will have a strong opening week and then a massive drop (like over 60%) for the following week and then just keep dropping and having little stay factor in cinemas, being pushed to digital quickly to recoup costs there.

Sadly, you're probably right. Though at least this (and GotG3) would be the only movies I'd probably see currently.

With a 7 year old girl and a 5 year old boy, I'll probably be at the movies all through the coming weeks. We've got Little Mermaid, ROTB, The Flash, Elemental and Indiana Jones. All films I'm planning on watching. It's really packed, the films sudios should have left room for these movies to breathe.

Forgot about half those movies to be fair, but yeah I've got no desire to see them (despite Keaton being my favourite movie batman, if the film had been only him or him in a batman beyond esque flick, I'd seen it in a heart beat). Only film my kids wanted to see recently was super mario. Oh and the oldest wants to see RotB

First-Aid wrote:

DeathReviews wrote:They won't get me to 'care' about the Transformers if they give me the usual Bayverse grossly exaggerated stereotype treatments. We shall see.

Fixed your post for you.

I doubt we'll see those stereotypes with the new director. We didn't with the last movie.

Many has expressed disdain for Wheeljack's design being an Urkel-derived stereotype.

I think RotB may have a chance just because the DC movies have been...lets say polarizing, for a while. Michael Keaton's Batman is a big draw, absolutely, but this is still really a Snyder universe movie, and those have been a mixed bag, at best, at the box office. Doesn't help that Ezra Miller has single handedly done everything he can to generate bad press for Flash, despite playing the title character.

It may still be successful, but I doubt it's going to be event movie successful.

That said, I'm more worried that this is going to end up like Bumblebee, where everyone who actually watches it agrees it was a pretty good film, but it also ends up kind of bombing because most people associate "Transformers movie" with "garbage" and avoid it.

Sabrblade wrote:

First-Aid wrote:

DeathReviews wrote:They won't get me to 'care' about the Transformers if they give me the usual Bayverse grossly exaggerated stereotype treatments. We shall see.

Fixed your post for you.

I doubt we'll see those stereotypes with the new director. We didn't with the last movie.

Many has expressed disdain for Wheeljack's design being an Urkel-derived stereotype.

True. My thought is this: these bots can change their form at will. Why not the ability to change their appearances too? People get plastic surgery, tattoos/piercings, change hair colors, get new glasses, new clothing, etc. WHy not artificial life forms too? DO they have to have a reason? Maybe Wheeljack arrived to Earth, saw Urkel and enjoyed the show and decided to change his look up. We're so used to these guys looking the same over and over (which is part of my current complaints with the Generations line as they continue to recycle the same characters over and over but don't vary the designs) that when something gets changed up, it's startling. It's kind of like cosplaying but with the ability to physically alter the structure of your body.

First-Aid wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

First-Aid wrote:

DeathReviews wrote:They won't get me to 'care' about the Transformers if they give me the usual Bayverse grossly exaggerated stereotype treatments. We shall see.

Fixed your post for you.

I doubt we'll see those stereotypes with the new director. We didn't with the last movie.

Many has expressed disdain for Wheeljack's design being an Urkel-derived stereotype.

True. My thought is this: these bots can change their form at will. Why not the ability to change their appearances too? People get plastic surgery, tattoos/piercings, change hair colors, get new glasses, new clothing, etc. WHy not artificial life forms too? DO they have to have a reason? Maybe Wheeljack arrived to Earth, saw Urkel and enjoyed the show and decided to change his look up. We're so used to these guys looking the same over and over (which is part of my current complaints with the Generations line as they continue to recycle the same characters over and over but don't vary the designs) that when something gets changed up, it's startling. It's kind of like cosplaying but with the ability to physically alter the structure of your body.

Can he also change his age? 'Cause he's gone from being a grownup in Bumblebee to a youngster in this movie.

Unless we're supposed to take that as a sign that this is a different Wheeljack and there are actually two 'bots with that name in the movies.

This sucks. I want to be excited for this movie. Who in charge is saying that they can't say reboot? This is a reboot whether you like it or not. And for how so many people trash on the "Scourge is Bay Prime" theory, wouldn't you rather that than them try to shoehorn this into being the same universe? It seems like an incredibly stupid route to go if they wanna say this is a prequel.

Didn't Starscream and Megatron change their bodies during the first IDW comics run? Starscream had a whole room full of possible bodies, as I recall.

i thought the most important thing was making it clear to people that this movie is a black and latino story?

Well if there's no continuity it's not the same universe is it?
Not that hard to manage.

I'm suprised to see many people arguing about continuity.
The aproach could be seens to be reference what people liked(the 2007 movie for example) and ignoring some of the parts that are more specific to a individual film(like The Last Knight retcons).

It's like how the original Marvel comics, the cartoon and the toy bios didn't always match, but are still considered the same franchise.

griftimus prime wrote:i thought the most important thing was making it clear to people that this movie is a black and latino story?

To the director and writers it is. Transformers are secondary. Hence my disappointment but not surprise.

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

[/quote]

The fuck is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

84everfan wrote:

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

The **** is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

This is just corporate word-salad from someone who clearly either don't pay attention nor care about what they're making.

Any Transformers fans, either hardcore or casual, can see that the Transformers were very "human" if not, completely "human" since Day One.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

84everfan wrote:

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

The **** is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

This is just corporate word-salad from someone who clearly either don't pay attention nor care about what they're making.

Any Transformers fans, either hardcore or casual, can see that the Transformers were very "human" if not, completely "human" since Day One.

Read the quote again. It's not talking about the movie's robot characters.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

84everfan wrote:

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

The **** is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

This is just corporate word-salad from someone who clearly either don't pay attention nor care about what they're making.

Any Transformers fans, either hardcore or casual, can see that the Transformers were very "human" if not, completely "human" since Day One.

Read the quote again. It's not talking about the movie's robot characters.

Oh dear...
I should stop assuming people are generally logical and intelligent. My brain tuned out the WTF part.

So he wants the humains to be more... humain? What?
Is he admitting that he's written mindless NPCs this whole time?

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

84everfan wrote:

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

The **** is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

This is just corporate word-salad from someone who clearly either don't pay attention nor care about what they're making.

Any Transformers fans, either hardcore or casual, can see that the Transformers were very "human" if not, completely "human" since Day One.

Read the quote again. It's not talking about the movie's robot characters.

Oh dear...
I should stop assuming people are generally logical and intelligent. My brain tuned out the WTF part.

So he wants the humains to be more... humain? What?
Is he admitting that he's written mindless NPCs this whole time?

No, he's saying the main human characters are black and latino, unlike before when they were always white. He's a black guy and says that the human characters look like him more than ever.

william-james88 wrote:No, he's saying the main human characters are black and latino, unlike before when they were always white. He's a black guy and says that the human characters look like him more than ever.

Holy shiiiiiiiit.
That director is not even aware of his own disgusting racism and narcissism.
Seriously, he straight up admit that he doesn't see white characters as human. That's pretty fukked-up.

Anyone who can't relate to a main character just because of their race or gender is seriously bigoted. If one wants to see "themselves" as the main character in a story, then they should just play a video game that allows you to create your own Character.

Jesus.

84everfan wrote:

Yes, I definitely want people to connect with the humans, too, because they now look like us more than ever in this film.

The **** is that supposed to mean? Dumbass.

Look like "us" rather than "them." Pretty damn racist statement had it come out of the mouth of a white dude, but stunning and brave from a POC. I guess everyone who shares the same skin color look the same to this guy? If you can't relate to a character unless he or she is your doppelganger, then that's your problem, not anyone else's. I don't recall anyone that looked anything like me in any of the Bayverse mess except maybe that fatass throwaway Hound, but since I'm not green, I guess I should be totally triggered.

Someone needs to tell this knucklehead to stop talking into microphones.

What in the world? Man’s just tryna say that it’s easier to relate to a character that looks like you, because race/ethnicity tends to run a little more than skin-deep. That shouldn’t be controversial.

Marketing for the Transformers Rise of the Beasts movie is ramping up with just a month to go before its release. While we got a lot of content for the maximals in their beast modes, and the autobots, we didn't see much of the terrorcons or the maximals in robot mode. Well, this new TV Spot rectifies that by starting with a shot of Scourge transforming while he rams into Optimus Prime. We then get a shot of Rhinox in bot mode charging with Cheetor transforming in the foreground.

There's bot a lot of excitement and doubt when it comes to this film. The excitement comes from the simple fact that this films appears to have the robots be the main characters in their movie for once, with only a couple of humans tagging along. At the same time, doubt comes from June being a stacked month for movie releases. Rise of the Beasts is being released right between The Little Mermaid's release week-end and the week-end that has both The Flash and Elemental, all family films. We'll see which of these films gets the bigger impact.

Hydrargyrus wrote:What in the world? Man’s just tryna say that it’s easier to relate to a character that looks like you, because race/ethnicity tends to run a little more than skin-deep. That shouldn’t be controversial.

THAT is the main problem. If you can only relate to a character that "look like you", you have a serious problem.

I've seem movies since ever.

I was Ripley fighting Aliens.
I was Axel Foley solving crimes in Miami.
I was Rambo, mowing down enemies.
I was a German Shepherd trying to find his way home.
I was a freaking TOASTER having a trippy journey.

If you want to "look at you", you narcissist, just get a mirror.

Frankly, I think this film is going to flop. I'm stoked for it myself, but no one I've talked to IRL even knows this movie exists. The thing has been barely marketed even though it was announced like two years ago. Hell, we got that first "teaser" back in December and then nothing until, what, like a few weeks ago until we finally got a "full" trailer? Furthermore, these trailers tells us absolutely nothing about the Maximals. Why are there suddenly animal Transformers? Chances are if you're under 30, you'll have no clue about what Beast Wars is and who these characters are. I used to work with a lot of teenagers who were self-professed big fans of Transformers, and none of them had any idea what Beast Wars was, and thought the idea was stupid when I explained it to them. There's also the notion that G1 fans (most of whom don't like these movies, anyway) are aging out of being regular theatre moviegoers, so I have to wonder who this film is even for. Hopefully kids will see this and immediately become fans of Ronnie Primal and Cheetor, but who knows?

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:G1 fans (most of whom don't like these movies, anyway) are aging out of being regular theatre moviegoers . . .

We're not ageing out. We just aren't impressed by CGI explosion porn and shallow, ham-fisted identity politics, which is what this is shaping up to be.

We grew up watching movies that redefined genres. Star Wars. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Alien. John Carpenter's The Thing. The Terminator. Not the Disney-fied stripmined versions or "reimagined for modern audiences" nonsense they're trying to sell us now. We're not too old to go to the theater for a good movie. We're smart enough to spot a shit-show when we see it and not waste our money on it. Nursing homes are expensive.

Brokebot wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:G1 fans (most of whom don't like these movies, anyway) are aging out of being regular theatre moviegoers . . .

We're not ageing out. We just aren't impressed by CGI explosion porn and shallow, ham-fisted identity politics, which is what this is shaping up to be.

Just like the Bay movies.

Brokebot wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:G1 fans (most of whom don't like these movies, anyway) are aging out of being regular theatre moviegoers . . .

We're not ageing out. We just aren't impressed by CGI explosion porn and shallow, ham-fisted identity politics, which is what this is shaping up to be.

We grew up watching movies that redefined genres. Star Wars. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Alien. John Carpenter's The Thing. The Terminator. Not the Disney-fied stripmined versions or "reimagined for modern audiences" nonsense they're trying to sell us now. We're not too old to go to the theater for a good movie. We're smart enough to spot a shit-show when we see it and not waste our money on it. Nursing homes are expensive.

You can take that stance if you like, but statistically people DO age-out of the movie theatre experience by and large. How many movies does you grandmother and great-grandmother go to see per year? Way less than when she was 20. I love all those movies you mentioned (I'm pushing 40 myself), and completely agree with you about being unimpressed by CGI spectacle. One of my favourite moviegoing experiences of the past several years was walking into a movie theatre in the middle of the day and watching The Peanut Butter Falcon.

EDIT: Representation in media is not a bad thing. White people are not the only race on earth. Get used to it.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:Representation in media is not a bad thing. White people are not the only race on earth. Get used to it.

I never said it was, so stop trying to paint me as a racist. But when the skin color, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the cast is more important than the quality of the story, your movie will fail and deservedly so.

Brokebot wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:Representation in media is not a bad thing. White people are not the only race on earth. Get used to it.

I never said it was, so stop trying to paint me as a racist. But when the skin color, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the cast is more important than the quality of the story, your movie will fail and deservedly so.

Amen.

Brokebot wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:Representation in media is not a bad thing. White people are not the only race on earth. Get used to it.

I never said it was, so stop trying to paint me as a racist. But when the skin color, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the cast is more important than the quality of the story, your movie will fail and deservedly so.

I don't recall the director saying it's "more" important than all else. Just that it's one aspect of the movie that's important to him.